Jeffrey Heine: If you would open your bibles to John chapter 10. John chapter 10, we'll begin reading in verse 11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.
And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father. There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, He has a demon and is insane. Why listen to Him?
Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, how long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me. But you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. And no one will 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 the father are 1. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
Pray with me. Our father, we ask you would honor the reading of your word. And right now through your spirit, your sheep would hear your voice calling you, calling them to you. May we trust, and may we obey, and may we follow. Lord, we need to hear from you, not from me.
I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. This past Thursday morning, I, was preparing to to write my sermon.
And so I'd I'd got, you know, my computer, my bible, all of my my notes, And, got them all on the table, sat down, ready to go. And if you can remember back when when you were in school or perhaps you are a student now, you remember those times where you were planning to do that and just nothing could happen? You're just staring at a screen and then you start, you know, cleaning up your desktop a little bit. You start getting a lot of cup of coffee cups of coffee. That was me.
I spent 3 hours staring at a blank screen on Thursday, not not able not able to start. And it wasn't it wasn't because I didn't know the material. I've been studying John 10 for weeks now, and I thought I had at least a decent feel for the text. It's the magnitude of the text. I know y'all feel like we're just kind of, you know, slowly slowly going through John, but but we're actually doing like a 20,000 foot flyby.
And we're we're barely skimming across the surface. Somebody told me this morning, all we're really doing is we are just polishing the outside of the skin of an apple, but we have yet to actually really bite into the core. And that's kind of how I have felt as I've was going through this and trying to prepare. In John 10, you can pretty much preach on anything. You could preach on salvation, election, eternal security.
You could do an entire sermon on the trinity and Jesus's relationship with his father. You could talk about the mission of Jesus and his call for us to join him in that mission. You could go on and on. And so I found that task paralyzing. And so I've decided to start with these simple words.
This came to me at 2:45 this morning. These simple words, and that's that Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. It's really the theme of John 10. It's the heartbeat of it.
Jesus loves us with an incredible love as the good shepherd. He loves his sheep. JESUS, he goes out of his way here to say he's not like a hired hand who just gets paid to look over you. He's not, you know, one of those workers who just kinda punching in the clock doing a task, maybe that his father wants him to do, you know, but distracted, always looking at his phone, not really caring about what's going on with his sheep. This isn't Jesus.
He cares about his sheep. He loves his sheep. He is engaged with his sheep. His sheep are his treasured possession. We saw that last week when we looked at how the sheep are his joy, they are his wealth and how Jesus did not diversify his portfolio.
He put all of his wealth in sheep. And because He's put all of His wealth in sheep, He will hold on to us. He will keep us to the end because He has bound His joy, He has bound His glory to us. Jesus's love for the sheep is so great. He says that when danger comes, when wolves come, he lays down his life for us.
Four times in this chapter, Jesus says that he lays down his life for the sheep. 1st 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the and so we see here that our salvation is dearer to Jesus than his own life. And we see here also from this text, not just how much value we have to Jesus, but we see how much value we have to God the father, just how much God the father loves us. Look at verse 17.
Jesus says, for this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life. Jesus says that the father loves him because he is going to give his life for us. Now realize we have to be careful here because the father has an eternal love for his son that will not go away. And and he can't add to the love that he has to his son. But here, Jesus is making a point to tell us that a reason that the father loves him is because Jesus loves us so much, he will lay down his life for us.
He will lay down his life for us. In other words, when the father sees the sacrifice that his son is willing to make for us, it thrills his heart. Jesus's sacrifice for us endears him to his father. This isn't the right language to use. I'm gonna go ahead and say this is this is a heretical statement.
Alright? But I'm limited. I'm limited by English language. It's almost as if the father is saying, Jesus, I love you, but I love you even more because you love these sheep so much and will lay down your life for them. And what you see here is this incredible love by the father who looks at us and says, I love you so dearly.
And because my son is willing to lay down his life for you, I am thrilled with him. And Jesus looks at the father and he's saying, yes, he's doing this out of obedience to the father, but Jesus also loves his sheep. And so he had this mutual affection of the father loving his sheep, Jesus loving his sheep. And so that's why I say, I want you to know that God loves you. Jesus loves you.
This permeates all through John 10. Four times, Jesus tells us he is the good shepherd and that he will lay down his life for his sheep. It's important to realize that Jesus doesn't lay down his life like like we picture somebody laying down his life. Probably we have a a father rescuing his drowning child. But as he rescues his child, he dies in the process.
And so he gave his life for his child. And so he And so he gave his life for his child. That's not the image we should have of Jesus giving his life for us. Because death does not come so easily to the Son of God. Jesus.
We see that Jesus has to go to death. Jesus has to go and meet death. Look at verse 17 and 18 again. For this reason, the father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me.
But I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. Now people have a hard time talking about death. We have a hard time thinking about death, we have a hard time talking about it. Because death is is so painful.
It's it's so violent to our conscience. We don't even wanna go there. And when we do go there, we usually gloss it over and we we try to give it some some softer language. And we'll say that people, they passed away or when somebody dies that they are at peace, or we convince ourselves that this is natural. This is just the the beautiful circle of life.
But death is not natural. It's terrifying. It's horrifying. We feel this in our bones. We know that death is death is the unnatural ripping apart of body and spirit.
And it comes to us as a result of our own sin. And we know this. We can feel this that that death was not supposed to be here. Our lives were not supposed to end. We think back to when God created Adam and Eve.
God gave them a body. God gave them a spirit and he fused those things together. He created Adam and he blew his breath into them. He breathed his spirit into them. And those things, body and spirit, were to be united.
They were not meant to be ripped apart. Death was not part of the Garden of Eden. Death had no claim on Adam and Eve. And so they sinned. And so until they sinned.
And then when they sinned, death entered them, kind of like a foreign a foreign entity came and entered into them and had its way. And then a very unnatural process of decay began. Death is death is the brutal outcome of sin, but it is not natural. And it's important to understand this because it is for this reason that death could not come to Jesus. Death can only come to those who have sold their themselves to sin.
This is why death can make a claim on us. We have sold ourselves to sin, but death cannot make a claim to Jesus. Therefore, if Jesus was going to have to die, He couldn't wait because He would wait for all of eternity and death would never come to Him. Jesus was gonna have to take take the fight, take it to death's door. Jesus would have to engage death.
Jesus would have to voluntarily die. And this is what Jesus means when he says, I lay down my life. I have authority to lay it down. He's saying nobody has a claim on my life. It is my life.
Nobody else can say this because we have all sold our lives to sin. But Jesus sold his life to no one, which means he has complete control. No one took Jesus's life. Jesus gave it. This issue of the authority Jesus has over his life, it comes up again in John 19, when Jesus is standing before Pilate.
Pilate's already mocking him. He's had Jesus beaten. He had a crown of thorns beaten to his head. He had dropped him up with this purple robe, and he had Jesus stand before him. And he began asking Jesus all these questions.
And when you read John 19, it says Jesus was just silent before Pilate, as Pilate kept asking and asking these questions. It says, Jesus didn't say a word. He's just there, will not open his mouth. And finally, at one point, Pilate's like, like, Jesus, Jesus, do you know who's talking to you? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?
And Jesus opens his mouth at that point and says, no. You do not have any authority over my life, unless it has been given to you by my father. Nobody can take Jesus's life. Nobody can take Jesus's life. It's his life.
We we see this when he goes to the cross. When you look at the gospels of Matthew and the gospels of Mark, and it describes a crucifixion. You have to remember, when when one was crucified, they died from suffocation. Crucifixion literally just squeezed the air out of a person and they died from suffocation. But the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Mark both say that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and then he gave up his spirit.
And then he breathed his last. The gospel of John says that Jesus cried out and then he gave up his spirit. But in all of these, Jesus is the one who gave up his life. Nobody took it from him. And this is why we have at the end of Mark's gospel, that Centurion who has seen so many crucifixions says that after the centurion saw the way that Jesus breathe his last, he said, surely, this is the son of God.
No one has the authority to take Jesus's life. Death could not come to him, so he went to death. But Jesus doesn't just lay down His life. He doesn't just lay down His life. He's doing something in the laying down of His life.
For when he's voluntarily ripping his body apart, ripping body and spirit apart, being undone so that we might become whole. He's accomplishing that atonement and that that restoration there on the cross, but but you can't see the across apart from the resurrection. And I I know it's it's a little annoying that I keep having us read the same verses over and over again. I do that for a couple of reasons. 1, I could literally read those verses all day.
You're not gonna plunge the depths of them. And 2, I don't want you to walk away saying, well, this is what Joel said. I want you to walk away and be able to point and say, this is what God's word says about Jesus and his resurrection. Verse 17. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. Jesus lays down his life to take it up again. We should never see the cross apart from the resurrection. They're always wed together.
The thought never crossed Jesus's mind that he would stay in the grave. As a matter of fact, if you if you were to look at the the death and the resurrection of Jesus, the real miracle that happens there is that Jesus died, not that he rose again. The fact that the son of God, the author of life could somehow be killed, become killable. There's the miracle. But it's inevitable that the author of life would rise again from the dead.
You can't keep him down. Now, Jesus rose from the dead for a couple of reasons, And I want us to just look at 2 that are in this text. We're gonna look at more reasons next week, but there's 2 explicitly in this text. And the first reason is this, Jesus rose from the dead or He took back His life because He knew we still needed a shepherd. To attack us.
This wolf of sin, this wolf of guilt, this wolf of of shame has come. And Jesus has defended and he has given up his life. But but then what? What happens to the sheep after that? Are are they left without a shepherd?
Who's going to keep protecting them? Who is going to take them to the still waters? Who is going to take them to the green pastures? I know there's gonna come a day when my children, my girls no longer need me. It's gonna be a joyful and painful day.
But the fact is, right now, they would each one of them would be dead 10 times over if it wasn't for me. That's just my role as a parent. A matter of fact, that You could describe parenting this way is to simply keep your child alive every day. One of my children, I won't embarrass her, but one of my children one time, we caught her in the bathroom. She was sitting in the sink and she had taken off the the stop and the drain and she was reaching her hand and pulling out that black, like, hair goo that's just kinda decayed and she was just shoveling it in her mouth.
She's just she's just eating it. That's that's what a person does. That's what a baby does without a parent. That is what a sheep does without a shepherd. It's a great image.
They wouldn't last a day without a parent. Now and forever, you will always need Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead, so we would never be without a shepherd. Before he went to the cross, Jesus told his disciples in Mark chapter 14, he says, I will strike the shepherd or it says, you will fall away for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. And that's exactly what happened.
The shepherd was struck and all the sheep scattered, and they would have forever remained scattered unless the shepherd came and gathered them again. Although Peter think of Peter. Although Peter, what was at the cross when Jesus died, he died for Peter's sin. What did it take to restore Peter back into fellowship? Jesus even told Peter beforehand, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that when you're and when you're restored, restore your brothers.
And Jesus there, he was actually praying for his own resurrection because he's saying, when I'm struck down, you're gonna be sifted. You're going to scatter. Even though I died for your sin, even though I died for your shame, you're still scattered. What did it take to restore Peter? The resurrected Jesus.
Peter still needed a shepherd to restore him. We never outgrow our need for Jesus. But now that Jesus is alive, we will never ever be apart from Him. Jesus is never going to leave us. He is never going to stop interceding for us.
He is never going to stop giving us living water. He is never going to stop taking us to green pastures. Nothing can ever separate us from His love. This is what Paul talks about in Romans 8. Romans 8 is what I would call the apex.
It's the climax of all of scripture, if I can be so bold. Because here, Paul is pulling together all the threads of scripture, and he is putting them there in this one beautiful chapter as a summary of who we are as Christians and where we are going. And he says this, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger, or sword. As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In this beautiful text, Paul raises a very important question. He says, can anything separate us from the love of Jesus, from the love of Christ?
He says that it certainly seems like a lot of things are happening that that kind of indicate that we're separated from them. And he lists all these things these things. Persecutions, famines, dangers. And he says, we're like sheep without a shepherd being slaughtered. So he raises a question, is this the case?
Are we like sheep being slaughtered? We have no shepherd. And then Paul gives a resounding, no, no, we're not. Says for nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ. It says for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
The Heidelberg Catechism question 1 says it this way. What is the only comfort in life and death Answer. That I am both body and soul, faithful savior, Jesus Christ, who which by his precious blood has fully satisfied my sins and has delivered me from the power of the devil. And and has delivered me from the power of the devil. And he so preserves my life, that apart from the will of my father in heaven, not a single hair can fall from my head.
Indeed, all things must be subservient to my salvation. And And he gives me the holy spirit that assures me of eternal life. It makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth from now to eternity to live for him. Jesus says it this way in verse 28. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them from my hand.
Jesus says, I am alive. And because I am alive, I have grabbed a hold of my sheep, and nothing nothing, not even death can separate us. That's why Jesus took back his life. The second reason that Jesus took back his life is because he is not finished. He's not finished bringing in the sheep.
Verse 16. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be 1 flock, 1 shepherd. Now, if you're wondering who are these sheep that are not of his fold, This fold here, well, if if you're not Jewish, then you could just look in the mirror. Let's see what He's talking about.
He's talking about the Gentiles. He's talking about us here. We are the sheep. Jesus took back his life because he has a mission to bring about a worldwide flock. He didn't just give his life for a few Jewish men, but he gave his life to bring in people, sheep from all over the world.
Jesus, he has sheep in Antioch. He has got sheep in Athens. He has sheep in Rome. He's got sheep in Tokyo and Beijing. He's got sheep in Sydney.
He's got sheep in Kampala. He has sheep in New York City or here in Avondale or Woodlawn or East Lake or in Mountain Brook. Jesus has sheep everywhere and he is currently pulling them all together. Right now there are over 1,000,000,000 followers who claim allegiance to Jesus as his shepherd. The Roman Empire has come and gone, but Jesus is still building his kingdom.
He's pulling them together, 1 flock, 1 shepherd. He's not done. I want you to notice 2 words in verse 16. Once again, let's read it. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock, one shepherd. I want you to notice 2 words, the words have and must. Have and must. Jesus says, I have sheep.
Get that? He he already has them. The sheep are already out there. The and these are not hypothetical sheep. These are not potential sheep.
Some who might become sheep. They're actual sheep that he already has out there. Real sheep who are currently scattered all around the world just waiting to hear his voice and to respond. These are people whose hearts have already been prepared by God, ready to receive the gospel. For when we come and we say, will you come and follow Jesus?
And there is a yes. His sheep are there and they hear his voice and they follow him. Notice that there is no doubt in Jesus' mind about this. These aren't potential sheep. They're real sheep.
He already has them. The next word is must. Jesus says that I must bring them in. Now, must is a strong word. It's it's more than just I have this this desire, or I have this or I have this longing.
Must is a compulsion. Jesus is saying, this is something I have to do. I am compelled to do this, to bring in these sheep. And nothing is going to keep him from doing this. Nothing can stop Jesus from doing this.
Everybody has tried to keep Him from doing this. The Pharisees and the religious leaders have tried to keep Him from doing this. Pilates in Rome has tried to keep him from doing this. Laws have been passed to try to keep him from doing this. We've even thrown death in the grave at Jesus to keep him from doing this, but Jesus will not be stopped.
This is something He must do and He will do. Jesus cannot be defeated at this point. He will always be victorious. He will call His sheep, they will follow. In no uncertain terms, there will be 1 flock and there will be 1 shepherd.
So the question is this, are you one of his sheep? Are you part of this flock? Have you heard your shepherd's voice calling you to follow him? If not hear that call, once again, Jesus loves you. He lays down his life for you, and he is calling you to be part of this fold.
And if you are a Christian, I hope you feel that must. I hope you feel that compulsion that Jesus feels to go and to share the gospel and to bring in the sheep. It's your mission. There's actually another place where Jesus, he talks about authority and his authority. And it's the last words that he says to his disciples before he ascends.
Remember that he gathers them all together. He gathers his flock together, and he says, all authority, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always or nothing can separate you from my love. You will always be my sheep and you will always have the shepherd's presence there. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let me end with these words from Ezekiel 34. I hate that I didn't really get to unpack Ezekiel because all of John 10 is in context of Ezekiel 34.
But hear these words. For thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep and I will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my own sheep and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from all the peoples and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, And I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.
I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak. Pray with me.
Lord, you are our shepherd, bringing in to your flock all peoples from all countries. You are unstoppable. Satan and the world has thrown their best at you to keep you from doing this, but you have all authority. God, I pray that your sheep would recognize that and we would join you in this mission of declaring your gospel to the world. Jesus, we thank you that you laid down your life for the sheep, that you were torn in 2, that we might be made whole.
We thank you that you have not left us, but you have returned to always remain our shepherd. And from this day to all of eternity, you will lead us beside still waters. You will lead us to the green pastures. You will always restore our souls. What a joy that is for us.
Thank you, Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.