Our True & Good Shepherd John 10

[Music] you know as we hit 2021 we end up making all these resolutions we have you know health resolutions that we want to lose weight or be healthier we maybe set some financial resolutions about hey i want to get out of debt or whatever it might be but do you make spiritual resolutions and one of the most simple easiest resolution that we could make is i just want to know jesus more and i think that's a healthy way to look at it resolutions are good in a sense that they can motivate you to do certain things uh to set some goals to move forward in life as long as they're within that parameter of doable you know what i'm saying is if your resolution is this year i want to make a gazillion dollars that's probably not going to happen and so pop that little bubble or maybe it's something that you you have to look at what is doable for who you are and and where what you're facing but knowing jesus is always a doable resolution and john tells us in his gospel here the reason why he wrote this was so that we may know that jesus is the son of god and in discovering who he is we find that he is sufficient and he is able to meet every need that i have and so to get to know him more is a good resolution spiritually for my walk with god we find in john that we find these different aspects of who jesus is for those that are walking in darkness he says i am the light of the world in john chapter 8 verse 12. for those who might be hungry for real life he says i'm the true bread in john chapter 6. for those who are facing situations and difficulties just needing direction jesus said i'm the way the truth and the life in john 14 6 and in those times when you are grieving over the loss of a loved one or facing the sting and pain of death jesus says i am the resurrection and the life in john 11. and so we find that he is sufficient for whatever i'm facing to get to know him even better and here we find in john chapter 10 two more descriptions of jesus he's called the door and he and he's called the the good shepherd what does that mean for us and so we want to discover this morning these these three things why jesus uses this illustration of sheep and shepherd number two what we can note about him is our good shepherd which is great for us in looking at 20 21 and then number three what it means for us as we face this next year and going forward with the lord the first thing we want to understand is the shepherd and sheep relationship let's start with the word of prayer first and then we'll dive into this lord i want to thank you for your word that it is sufficient for us it is able to feed us to point us to you to nourish our soul lord to allow us to commune with you and to walk with you and so take it this morning and feed us that we may know you jesus even better and what a great way to start off 2021 we're just saying lord i just want to know you i want to know your person and your care and your nurture and nature uh that we may just revel in who you are in jesus name we pray these things amen the shepherd the sheep that relationship there are four aspects of that relationship that we find that it's important number one jesus uses this because it's a relatable relationship these people lived in the context of his audience they lived in an agricultural society everybody knew somebody that was doing shepherding and knew sheep they were just all over the place it was in their history abraham isaac jacob moses david were shepherds at one time or another and so when jesus talks about a shepherd and sheep it's not a foreign concept to them like it would be somewhat for us today you know we can think about things like maybe a a grocery store clerk or a a uh a cell phone provider that we would go oh i understand these type of relationship a chuck neighbors uh writes about a parable of a lost cell phone you know the parable of the lost sheep and you think about okay shepherd loses his sheep he leaves the 99 and goes seeks out the one sometimes that's hard for us to grasp but listen how he describes the parable of the lost cell phone jesus would say suppose you had 100 tech gadgets and then lost your cell phone wouldn't you leave the 99 gadgets to go looking for your phone and once you found you can be sure you would put it in your palm rejoicing and when you got home you would text all your friends saying celebrate like and share my facebook status i found my cell phone there is more joy in the cloud over one rescued user profile than over 99 user profiles and no need of rescue we can relate with that right and so when they talk about the shepherd and the sheep his audience it was relatable because that's the context of it number two it's a responsible relationship a shepherd with sheep was responsible sheep are dumb animals they're helpless and dumb they need to be fed on a regular basis they don't feed themselves type of thing you know you have to lead them or they're starved to death they need daily care special seasons they need special care you got to be patient with them and and constantly protect them from predators they have no defense mechanism of themselves they get scared by water and all these things and jesus relates us to that like sheep as david writes in psalms 23 the lord is my shepherd right psalms 95 7 where the sheep of his pasture is the picture that's put forth so when jesus calls you his sheep he's not saying oh little lambie poo i just love you he's given a real and a raw picture for you and i to grasp that's how we are and yet how great his heart is for us he was love us that way number three it's a personal relationship in that the shepherd knew them by name knew their character knew their personality now some of you have pets at home many people have pets we actually lost our pet about a a month and a half ago after i don't know 12 or 14 years name was buddy buddy the dog at times i call him mr fuzzy face other times i called him ears as he petted his ears and uh when he was a little dog we he was buddy the wonder dog because he did all lots of tricks and when he got older we just called him buddy the wonder what you're doing dog you know how that goes um but he he passed away but you have these names for your pets it's probably the best picture i can think of my younger brother was telling me the other day that during christmas time he went into a dollar store and there was a guy walking into the store that had a lamb following him i said really his name wasn't marty was it marty had a little lamb his fleece was white of snow and everywhere that marty went is lamb was sure to go no i'm just kidding you know the song but but people have lambs as pets now which is i don't know how that works if you have one let me know but it's a very personal relationship between the shepherd and the sheep and shepherding could either be a job that you do or it was more of a calling when it became like just a job to do it was they called them hirelings you would hire somebody out to watch your sheep but the hireling really didn't have any care for the sheep uh didn't have any investment in it and so when a predator came the harlem would just go hey not my problem i'm out of here but when it was really your calling as a shepherding you find like david would say to saul you know when a bear or a lion came and took a sheep i went after them i clubbed him on the head can you imagine for a second a lion coming in and robbing your sheep that you're going to go chase him any of you ever had a confrontation with a lion before i have you haven't i have i was on a safari in south africa and there was a lion that came up and he was literally about i don't know about maybe 10 feet away and it was one of the most scariest times of my life i was on this side of the safari thing and i got up out of my seat moved on to the other side put somebody else between me and that lion i think it was my mom i put herpes with me and the lion way to go jason way to protect your family it's an intimidating fearful thing and to go and chase after a lion say you're not taking my lamb club thumb on the head and take them back that's what this what a shepherd does and so you do find this relationship is relatable it's responsible it's personable and number four it's a representation uh it's a picture for israel the shepherd in the sheep was often used in the scriptures to depict the kings or the leaders with the people themselves let me give you a couple of instances psalm 78 70-72 david is called from shepherding sheep to shepherding israel he chose david his servant and took him from the sheep pens from tending the sheep he brought him to the shepherd of his people jacob of israel his inheritance and david shepherded them with integrity of heart with skillful hands he led them another instance in ezekiel where god's grieved against irresponsible leaders of israel and calls them shepherds it says the lord of lord came to me son of man prophesy against the shepherds of israel prophesy and say to them this is what the sovereign lord says woe to you shepherds of israel who only take care of yourselves should not shepherds take care of the flock you eat the curds clothe yourself with wool and slaughter the choice animals but you do not take care of the flock you have not strengthened the weak and healed the sick or bound up the injured you have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost you have ruled them harshly and brutally so they were scattered because there was no shepherd and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals a little later in verse 10 god says i'm against you i'm going to require my flock at your hand in other words you're fired and i'm ticked off and then he goes on to say i'm going to seek out those who are scattered i'm going to bring them home and i'm going to feed them protect them i'm going to save my people those sheep and put them under a new shepherd pointing towards jesus and so these knowable aspects for his audience is important when jesus says i am the good shepherd the bible tells us he's not only the good shepherd he's also called the chief shepherd he's also called the the great shepherd in the word of god but let's look at these traits as we can see what our good shepherd is like chapter 10 verse 1 jesus says most assuredly i say to you he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up some other way the same as a thief and a robber but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice we'll stop right there for a moment jesus says there are robbers and there are owners how do you know who is who by their access quite simply is that and that's the first trait that we might note about our good shepherd the shepherd has access to the sheep speaking of ownership see a shepherd would gather his sheep with other shepherds in their sheep and they would put them into this fold kind of a walled off pin for the night and then he or another shepherd would sleep right at the entrance or the doorway to that fold there anyone who wanted to interact with the sheep had to go through the shepherd first he was kind of the gatekeeper but the robbers would come and they would actually in the middle of the night as the shepherd is sleeping the robbers would heave one guy over the wall maybe six foot tall wall and he one guy over and that one in silence and darkness that guy would start slitting throats of sheep and just tossing them over you know and and that's then of course no one would know but the shepherd on the other hand he owned the sheep he bought the sheep he cared for the sheep he had access to the sheep you know and so there was no jumping the back fence and going through the doggy door to try to break into the house he just had the key he owned the sheep and that's how it was he had the key any time and it reminds us of the simple fact is as we approach 20 21 does the lord have access and ownership of you have you given them the keys to your life to say lord it's all for you you have access anytime or have you simply reserved lord i will meet with you sundays between 10 and 11 and that's all i'm going to give you give him ownership of your whole life because he is the great shepherd the good shepherd and he loves you so much the shepherd has access to the sheep look at secondly the shepherd has an activity with the sheep which speaks of relationship verse three it says and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out and when he brings out his own sheep he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice yet they will by no means follow a stranger but will flee from him for they do not know the voice of the stranger it's interesting that shepherd has this relationship he didn't just buy you he wants to know you personally and you to know him and he gives us three aspects of this relationship that first there is an intimacy in this relationship that you have with your shepherd he calls his own sheep by name it says there in verse three with so many flocks or so many sheep in that one pen the shepherds would come by and start calling out their sheep uh by name through a distinct tone or a new a call or a whatever it might be and the sheep would would come some of you on your cell phones have unique rings for certain individuals right and i've heard some pretty crazy ones especially when it comes to like uh your exes or something like that those ringtones are not very good um but anyways you know that distinction and maybe it's it's it's your wife or it's it's someone you love or whatever and it has a certain ringtone you pick it up and it's like hey how you doing i understand and i connect the ringtone but you ever had those sales calls now if you're in sales i'm not bugging on you i'm just saying i've had this happen they call they're like hey jess bud how's it going and you're like who who's this oh this is so and so from so-and-so and you're like oh great not interested distinction in the tone in the voice helps to recognize whether the guard is let down and sheep run the same way see you're not just a case number to god he calls you by name you find in scriptures him calling people by name moses moses remember that in the burning bush in exodus 3 samuel samuel in the middle of the night he hears the voice of god he called mary by name at the resurrection mary and it opened her eyes to who he was he calls us by name called zacchaeus down from a tree as well by name what's interesting is philip keller he writes a book called a shepherd's look at the good shepherd in his sheep and he he notes this about this because he was a shepherd he says often in the middle east shepherding the name wasn't just a simple title like we think but a description of the life or events surrounding the sheep so in other words a shepherd might say one born in a dry riverbed come on out or he might say the beautiful lamb i traded two pots of honey for come on out i think that's kind of interesting because if that would be the case how would the lord call you out hey come over here lost and found that's kind of how we feel sometimes you who once were friend a foe now are a friend come over here but isn't it cool that when you get to heaven the bible tells us in the book of revelation you're going to receive a new name something special between you and your good shepherd he's going to call you by a new name what tenderness he has the intimacy he has with us is something special and the bible tells us in psalms 95 for 7 that we are the sheep of his hand and it says today if you will hear his voice don't harden your heart open your ears you think well what does the voice of our shepherd sound like it's often the case how does god speak to us how does you say you follow jesus what does that sound like is there some audible booming voice that tells you these things well here's the cool thing we're in john chapter 10. if you go back in the past nine chapters you begin to recognize and see how our good shepherd speaks number one it's very clear think about it jesus said in john 6 63 we studied it the words that i speak to you are spirit and they are life i can trust him even though i don't fully understand everything about him they're comforting he said to the disciples in the midst of that storm it's i do not be afraid and maybe that's what you need to hear this morning it's also very counseling he is a wonderful counselor remember what he said last week to the woman caught in adultery go and sin no more and maybe you need to hear that as well here's what i know when my good shepherd speaks it brings life it brings exactly what i need to me at that moment so this relationship is not only full of intimacy it's a trustworthy relationship it says there in verse 3 the shepherd leads them out the shepherd leads the sheep the sheep don't lead the shepherd hey god here's what i want to do here's where i want to go come on let's go the shepherd doesn't drive the sheep with a whip he leads them lovingly isaiah 40 verse 11 he will feed his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young stories told of a tour guide in israel that was telling his his group about the gentleness of a shepherd with sheep and his group looks over and sees a man chasing sheep throwing rocks and yelling at him and tour guide says wait a second stop hey hey you you're ruining my picture of a shepherd and a sheep what are you doing guys says i'm not a shepherd i'm a butcher this sheep got away from me hey listen the lord ain't looking to to mess you up that way he wants to love you he wants to love you and he's motivated by love and the shepherd will lead the sheep out to still waters he'll lead the sheep out to green pastures he'll lead the sheep to a place where hey it's shearing time or whatever it might be because of his great heart he knows what's best that relationship has intimacy it's trustworthy and there's a familiarity to it in verse 4 he says there the sheep follow him for they know his voice interesting during world war one some turkish soldiers tried to steal a flock of sheep uh from a hillside near jerusalem and the shepherd was asleep and when he awoke he began to see these forces were taking his sheep or of course he couldn't go and steal his sheep back he was outnumbered and outmanned and now gunned and so he just started calling to his sheep yo i don't know what it was but whatever the tone was the sheep then turned around and left them and started coming back to him the sheep know the shepherd's voice can you detect the voice of your shepherd his word is what speaks to our hearts be in it for 2021. lord i want to know your voice more better so maybe you need to restart and and john is a great place to start i want to keep reading your word on a daily basis and and grow in that relationship listen if you want to know jesus intimately you have to be in it biblically there's no other way it's not the book on the shelf that is a bestseller it's right here this is the bestseller the bible is going to tell you what the voice of god is like so be in it and you'll get to know him strangers may come barking at us temptation may come enticing us with flattery lips you may have uh enemies howling in the distance to strike fear there's all these voices you may even have other sheep that are screaming at you you can see it on youtube there are actually sheep that sound like people screaming look it up it's crazy it's really funny but the point is is that do you know his voice in the midst of all the other noise that's happening around us know him and walk with him it's a good point to make verse 6 jesus used this illustration but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them now why didn't they understand it right over the heads of the pharisees they were blind spiritually they weren't grasping things but jesus doesn't stop trying to reach them he goes on and jesus said in verse 7 again most assuredly i say to you i am the door of the sheep all whoever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them i am the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved will go in and out and find pastures not a door but the door the door of the sheep in the sense he says i'm the only way in that you're going to find security and rest in your soul and i'm the only way out that you're going to find blessings in the pastures of fresh waters as you follow my lead it's life but whatever happens to you he says i'm near i'm near i'm right there wherever you go i'm there he's a good shepherd that's always on duty look at what psalms 121 says behold he who keeps israel shall neither slumber nor sleep the lord is your keeper the lord is your shade at your right hand the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night the lord shall preserve you from all evil evil he shall preserve your soul the lord shall preserve your going out and you're coming in from this time forth even forevermore you see that in your life the hand of the lord there and maybe in 2021 your prayer is lord i just want to know that you are right there with me no matter what i'm going to face no matter what i'm going to go through you're not going to forsake me real freedom is found when we're in the care of our good shepherd so the shepherd has ownership number one he has a relationship number two number three we find in verse 10 there that the shepherd gives life to the sheep the thief does not come except to steal to kill and to destroy i have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly what a great verse to memorize to put in our heart he moves us to do his will to follow him to cultivate the life he's given us to follow in his footsteps listen to second peter 1 3 his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue that he is our sufficiency he is our life source the opposite is the thief there he doesn't come except to steal to kill and destroy he steals away the life through the bondage to rules and legalisms he kills off that is he murders and he destroys or he messes things up how does he do that well through temptations through fears through doubts through confusion and condemnation and we see it happen all the time people are lost and broken and frustrated in our world around us and we find the enemy is using all kinds of things even to divide believers even to disrupt god's flock and his sheep whether it's vaccinations or masks or whatever's going on there's always going to be something to try to divide the body of christ but jesus came to give us life and that becomes our focus the love of christ and the life that he gives us that's what we guard and protect most of all he is the one who takes burned out broken lives and brings new life he takes those who have been scarred and those who have been just heavy with life's issues and he changes things he's a good shepherd if you skip with me to verse 28 through 30 we begin to see how that eternal life looks he says jesus says and i give them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand i and my father are one we can note that that eternal life is everlasting they will never perish verse 28 it's secure that no one's able to snatch them out of my hand he says or my father's hands you realize you're like doubly secure in your phone you have like that password and your fingerprint thing and uh you know you can never remember passwords but can you imagine this you are doubly secure you are in christ who is in god and the father it's like having two fingerprints of different you know there's no way anybody's breaking that he holds us safe and secure you're never going to slip through his hands he's got a good grasp on us it's a good shepherd the fourth trait we find of our shepherd is found back in verse 11 where he says i am the good shepherd and the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep he gives his life for the sheep he not only gives life but he gives his life and what that invokes in me is a worship he's the good shepherd he's beautiful valuable virtuous this person is like no other and yet he's willing to give it all up for me it's an amazing thing to think about his beauty was overlooked by men and marred at the cross his value was only weighed at 30 pieces of silver by men which was the price of a slave his virtue was shamed and defamed by men the good one became the bad one in the world's eyes so that we could become the good one in god's eyes and amazing it says it this way in second corinthians 5 21 he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of god the shepherd became the lamb so that the sheep might come to know the shepherd it's a radical thing to think that there he sacrificed himself for me that i might have life and have it more abundantly to know him there is no one like our good shepherd no one who gives life to us and lays down his life for us verse 12 but a higher ling and we talked about that stranger he is not the shepherd he does not own the sheep he sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them verse 13 the hireling flees because he has a hireling and does not care about the sheep it's interesting when a shepherd had to do something and he had to hire someone out to watch the sheep that sometimes the the shepherd would make the hireling produce an ear or a leg of a lamb as proof that he did everything in his power to save his sheep when the enemy came to take over in other words the shepherd wanted to know that you didn't run you didn't jump to the other side of the bus and put your mama in the void of the lamb of the lion he wanted to know that you had some skin in the game i think that's a good thing which by the way how do you spot a wolf how do you spot a wolf you know it's been said the wolf in sheep's clothing is it by what he wears no maybe it's just a bad fashion sense he's got wool socks and a wool sweater i don't know what he's got on is it by what he says maybe but here's a simple way you can always tell a wolf from a sheep by what he eats what do sheep eat they don't eat each other they eat grass a wolf's chewing on leg of lamb and mutton chops so in the midst of the congregation in the midst of the fellowship how do we discern between those who are really sheep and those who are wolves look at what they're eating are they feeding on the goodness of the lord and who he is and the pastor of his word or are they going around chewing on each other something to note but we compare the hireling to the good shepherd and we say lord i want to be a good shepherd i want to be like that because see whether for in my case a pastor of a church or your case maybe just a parent of a child you have a shepherd aspect a leadership aspect in that life itself and you want to be follow the example and model that christ laid out verse 14 i am the good shepherd and i know my sheep and i'm known by my own as the father knows me even so i know the father and i lay down my life for the sheep so jesus is connected in a sense with the father's shepherd business you might say good shepherd good god shepherding services you know toll-free 1-800 i love you e-w-e you know bad dad joke but you know something like that it's like jesus and the father are connected dad jokes 20 21 coming at you but they're connected we don't have to fear that somehow i'm under indifferent he's losing it here under a different shepherd now it's the it's in the same business so to speak the same fold we leave our previous owner of sin and go right into the fold of our good shepherd verse 16 and other sheep he says i have which are not of this fold them i must bring and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd number five the shepherd seeks out more sheep there's a courtship there he longs to bring more into the fold it's an amazing fold because he realizes that men are lost he wants to bring them in he's talking about the gentiles because he's talking to jewish people i'm going to bring jew and gentile into one fold that there may be one body of christ because he realizes where people are at some of you have seen this picture before but i want to show it to you again this is shrek the sheep and shrek had over 84 pounds he was lost and he was found in a cave and they found 84 is sheared off 84 pounds of wool that was one cold night for this puppy this is sheep here but uh he was lost trying to live life on his own and looking like that ain't a pretty picture jesus comes along and finds us where we're at and he gently and tenderly courts us back to himself and cares for us verse 17 therefore my father loves me jesus says because i lay down my life that i may take it again no one takes it from me but i lay it down of myself i have power to lay it down and i have power to take it again this command i have received from my father so jesus is working in perfect alignment with the father he's pleasing the father given authority and power from the father you know it's fascinating to see there how many eyes are there because he says i lay my life down and i have power to raise it up wait a second jesus raised himself up from the dead well that's what he says i have power to take it again how does he do that because he's a very unique shepherd he is the messiah shepherd and that's number six the good shepherd is unique from all others there's a messiah ship he is able to raise himself up as god almighty and the question for us becomes how then do i respond to these claims that he makes as a good shepherd what does that mean for me in 2021 well look at how people responded in verse 19. therefore there was a division among the jews because of these sayings and many of them said he has a demon and is mad why do you listen to him others said these are not the words of one who has a demon can a demon open the eyes of the blind jesus gets a reaction from people you ever notice that you could talk about any other person or world figure or whatever and you don't get the same reaction but the moment you mentioned the j word whoo doggies people got all kinds of opinions and some people will adamantly say well why listen to him he's crazy they said he's got a demon he doesn't know what he's talking about he's mad he's crazy and they dismiss them as illegitimate and others would say inquisitively well he's he's done good things so how can he have a demon when you know he's done good things and he opened the eyes of the blind and they're still just questioning things but i would ask you where where do you stand what do you say about jesus can you say confidently even today and say you know what some may dismiss him flippantly and others may question him out of curiosity but i know with confidence that he is a good shepherd he has ownership of me he has relationship with me he has leadership over me he invokes a worship from me he has a wonderful courtship towards me as he came and pulled me out of sin and a glorious messiah shipped for me to see that he is unique above all other shepherds he is not only a good shepherd he is the god shepherd and he is my shepherd that needs to be what we say lord for 2021 i want to know you as you know me because you came and you laid your life down that i may have life more abundantly and i may be free from the bondage of sin and come into a relationship with you as my good shepherd you

Channel: Calvary Chapel North Phoenix

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Id: RyByyhpxhfY

Length: 35min 20sec (2120 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021