Preached in Markham Baptist Church, March 13, 2005

WHAT'S IN A NAME? - PART 3: "THE GOOD SHEPHERD"

Perhaps of all the names of Christ that we have studied none appeals to me more than the one we discover here in John 10. The name of the Good Shepherd. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (verse 14) I think what I like most about it is that it speaks volumes of the relationship that exists between our Lord and His people. 

Some names speak of His grandeur, The lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5) Lord of Glory (I Corinthians 2:8), King of the ages (Revelation 15:3). Some names speak of his power, Mighty One (Isaiah 60:16), and Arm of the Lord (Isaiah 51:9). Some names speak of His role and activity in the Christian life, Author and Perfecter of our Faith (Hebrews 12:2), Mediator (I Timothy 2:5), Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22). 

But this one name, the Good Shepherd speaks of relationship. And it is for this reason that I cherish it, for as much as I need to know about His grandeur, as much as we need to recognize His power and authority, as much as I need to realize that the Lord is active and responsible for my salvation – all that means little to me if I do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. He remains distant and cold, a subject for wonderful academic study but that’s all. 

This name “Good Shepherd” speaks of relationship. 

Think of the wonder of this relationship. It is the wonder of a relationship with God Himself. This is part of what Jesus is saying - He is saying I am God in the flesh. 

All through the Old Testament God is referred to as the Shepherd who cares for the people of Israel. Jacob, (Genesis 49:24), Isaiah (40:11), Micah (7:14) and of course David all refer to God as their Shepherd. So when Jesus says “I am the good Shepherd” He is identifying Himself as divine. It is tantamount to saying, “I am God, the Shepherd.” 

And so our relationship with Jesus Christ is one filled with wonder, the wonder of actually being able to relate to the one who set the stars in space and calls them each by name. The wonder of actually belonging to the one who has ownership and authority over all of creation. The wonder of it all, that we are actually able to say, “I know Him. And He knows me.” 

And it is this relationship that is at the heart of Christianity. It is what sets our faith apart from the rest of the world religions. Some people say, “All faiths are basically the same – they all teach the same thing, obey God, do the right thing, treat your neighbour with respect, live at peace with one another and all will go well with you.”

No, no, no - Christianity is so much more than all of that. It is at its heart the good news that a relationship can now be had with almighty God, because the Good Shepherd has come in the flesh and has revealed Himself to us and called us His own. There is no longer a distance between ourselves and God – Jesus the good Shepherd has bridged it for us and now in the words of that great old hymn, “He walks with me and talks with me and he tells me I am his own.” The wonder of it all - that we can actually be in relationship with the Lord.

2

Think next of the cost of that relationship. Jesus says in verse 10 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” 

The truth that we learn in Isaiah 53:6 is that “We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” We have rejected God, we have turned our back on God and said no to His rule in our lives. And the Lord, Isaiah continues, has laid the price of our sin on Jesus. 

We are in relationship with Jesus Christ because He has paid the price for us with His own life, He has laid down His life for us. And I pray that if you don’t know this to be true in your life that your eyes would be opened to the fact that we are great sinners who have a great Saviour. 

But there is more here and that is the fact that Jesus Christ, as our Shepherd, did not lay His life down for us once but He continually lays down His life for us. You see, it cost Jesus Christ to be our Shepherd. Once He bought you and me through His death, it wasn’t the end - we are sheep after all. You go buy yourself a herd of sheep and do you think that after you’ve made the purchase that’s the end of it? No. There’s the need for constant feeding, constant guidance, endless attention and care. 

And Jesus as our Good Shepherd does not simply purchase us with His life, but continually gives Himself to us, constantly lays Himself down for us. Scripture says He is constantly making intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). And don’t we know it to be true in our relationship with Christ? Don’t we know Him to be generous. Giving far more than we ever ask, always willing to help us in our journey through life far more eagerly than we are to receive his help? 

Is there a habit you need help to overcome? Is there an anxiety you are facing? Is there a difficulty that we are facing at work or at home? My friends, you and I have a good shepherd who has purchased us and now through faith we are His. And my friends, like a shepherd cares for his sheep, so Jesus seeks to care for you. Give Him that habit, give Him that anxiety, give Him that difficulty – go to Him in prayer – you have a relationship with Him and He knows you and seeks to care for you. He lays down His life for you. He’s the good Shepherd.

3

Consider next the deep trust we can have in Jesus, the Good Shepherd. This figure of speech can be difficult to understand – there are many people involved. There is the sheep, the thieves and robbers, the watchman, the gate, and the Shepherd. 

The difficulty for us is that Jesus in verse 7 identifies Himself as the gate and as the good shepherd in verse 11. How can He be both the gate and the way one enters the sheep pen by the gate. 

I believe the answer is that Jesus is saying that He is the true Good Shepherd who has come to care for the sheep. We learned two weeks ago that He has come with the approval of God on Him, the miracles prove His authenticity, and we know He is the answer to the messianic prophesies of the Old Testament. He is the true good shepherd – all others are fakes. He emphasizes this authority in verses 17 and 18 in our text. And now having as the true good Shepherd He steps into the sheep fold and He becomes the gate as well – in ancient Palestine the Shepherd would lay Himself down across the entrance to the sheepfold being a human gate keeping out predators and keeping in the sheep. So Jesus is not only the Good Shepherd but also the gate through whom we must come if we wish to part of God’s flock and the one who stands as a gate to protect the sheep.

And Jesus says there are two kinds of shepherds in this world – there are trustworthy shepherds and there are false shepherds. The false shepherds who try to shepherd the flock but don’t have the approval of God, the false shepherds see a wolf coming and they run – abandoning the sheep. The false Shepherd cares nothing for the sheep. 

Phillip Keller in his book entitled, “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23” Tells of how on the ranch next to his there was a tenant sheepman who was the most indifferent manager he had ever met. “He ought never to have been allowed to keep sheep. His stock were always thin, weak and riddled with disease or parasites. Again and again they would come and stand at the fence staring blankly through the woven wire at the green lush pastures which my flock enjoyed. Had they been able to speak I am sure they would have said, ‘O to be set free from this awful owner!’ ”1  

But thanks be to God this is not the kind of Shepherd we now have. We used to be owned by that kind of shepherd, but not any longer. Now we have a trustworthy shepherd is one who acts like a gate and steadfastly watches over His sheep with care and compassion and concern. Jesus is the trustworthy shepherd. 

As F.B. Meyer points out He has the “Shepherds heart beating with pure and generous love” for you and for me. He has the “shepherd’s eye that takes in the whole flock” so that not one of His lambs is overlooked. He has the shepherd’s faithfulness which will never fail or forsake”. He has the shepherd’s “strength so that he is able to deliver us from the jaw of the lion, and the paw of the bear” . He has “the shepherd’s tenderness” so that even the tiniest lamb can know His care and the weakest saint will be gently led and be given strength.2 Surely He can be trusted as the true Shepherd. 

And He deserves to lead you. This is what a Shepherd does. Jesus says in the middle of verse 3 “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” 

Jesus is the shepherd who can be trusted and He longs to lead you. 

But so many times we run out ahead of Him. We think we know the decisions that need to be made. We know the things that must be done, we know what has to be said. And all the while Jesus is saying – Wait, wait, let me lead you. He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep, and it is a relationship of trust where we follow Him. I know elementary stuff, simple truths, but some of us forget. 

Some of you are facing large decisions. You are wrestling with God’s direction in your life. You are feeling unsettled in life and in work and God is calling you to allow Him to lead you to the place and the situation and the decisions He would have you make. Sometimes that means that we need to wait so that we can discern His voice but He is the good Shepherd and won’t let you down. But He does demand that He be leading you. 

Then think of the intimacy of this relationship. Look how Jesus describes the relationship between yourself and Him. At verse 14 He says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” And then look how close He describes this relationship – “just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” It is that close, it is that intimate as close as the Son is to the Father. So our relationship with Christ is that close and intimate. 

And is this not the basis and foundation of our testimony? It’s not that we know about God. James says that even the demons acknowledge that there is a God (James 2:19) and shudder. It’s not that we know about God – that’s not the basis of a living testimony – it is that we actually know God and are known by Him. And Jesus says that this intimate relationship is possible. 

I remember during my undergraduate work being challenged by fellow students in philosophy. And they would present well documented arguments against the existence of God. They would argue persuasively, “There is no God and your faith is a sham.” And I was shaken in my faith. I had grown up in a Christian cocoon. I had grown up in a Christian family, went to church every Sunday, youth group on the weekends, and the summer I went to a Christian camp. After High School I went to Bible School and then to university for undergraduate work and there I met people who believed in their faith, which was against my faith as strongly as I believed in my faith. 

And it was a time of testing for me – and I remember thinking – you can present all the so-called logical arguments against Christianity you like (I was later to discover that Christianity is indeed a very logical faith) but at the time I thought, argue all you like, because there is one thing they cannot take away and that is my experience of God’s love, my experience of the grace of Christ in my life. Argue all you like against the existence of God but I know He is real, I have a relationship with Him. And so with John in his first letter we are able to say, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (I John 1:1) 

We have experienced God intimately in the person of Jesus Christ who is the good Shepherd. And our ears are attuned to His voice. Jesus makes this point again and again in our text. The sheep know the voice of their shepherd (verse 4,5,14). This is a well-documented phenomenon among the sheep of Palestine. An Arab shepherd can separate personal sheep from larger flocks by using a particular whistle or call.

The relationship between Jesus the Good Shepherd and ourselves is that close, that intimate - when we hear His voice we follow. It takes some work we need to listen intently we need to practice listening, reading His Word, being familiar with the lilt of His voice. So that when we hear it in our conscience, when we hear it through brothers and sisters in Christ, we can recognize His voice and say, “That is my Lord speaking,” allowing His voice to break in on us through the din and clatter of this world. That’s why it’s so important for us to have a daily quiet time, when we are reading His Word, and praying, listening to His voice.

Can you see why this name is cherished? It speaks of relationship. The wonder of our relationship with the Creator of the universe, the cost of this relationship – He laid down His life for us so that we can have this relationship. The trustworthiness of this relationship - He will not lead you astray, He does want to lead. The intimacy of this relationship is so close that we can actually hear His voice. 

But there is this left to be said. There is a temptation when we speak of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and us as sheep to make it into a mushy relationship. We have these ideal pictures of the shepherd tenderly taking the lamb in his arms, cradling it. And all of that is true. There is care, there is compassion, there is intimacy. But don’t over-romanticize it, when the Shepherd calls the sheep and owns the sheep we know that the sheep are branded3. They are marked with a distinguishing mark on the ear showing ownership. So you and I when we become Christ’s sheep, we belong to Him, we are marked and we are to follow Him. And sometimes before He leads us to green pastures and quiet streams He can lead us to some difficult situations and some hard places. 

He is the Shepherd who lays down His life, after all. So if we are following Him do you think He would ask us to anything less? We give our lives to Him, we give our lives to each other, we give our lives for His glory. 

This past week one Constable Schiemann of the RCMP was buried. He was one of the four who were brutally ambushed and shot. The papers covered his funeral and in one in particular, the Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford wrote of the funeral. His father said he didn’t want his son to become an RCMP officer. “But we talked about it. We talked about the dangers of policing and Constable Schiemann would reply, “Dad, don’t worry – I know where I’m going.” 

Constable Schiemann was a Christian and because he was a Christian, because he knew Jesus Christ was his Shepherd he was able to go and do that job. 

And Christie Blatchford wrote one sentence that was very insightful, she said, That faith that lead him to become an RCMP officer and gave him the steadfastness and bravery to do that job, also lead him to that situation on that farm and brought about his death.” 

Constable Schiemann gave himself on that day. He wasn’t even on duty, he went to be of help to his fellow officers. 

And that’s it, isn’t? We give ourselves, we go wherever He leads us, knowing all the while that He is the Good Shepherd. 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March 2005

ENDNOTES:

1.      Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 (Grand Rapids, Michigan Zondervan Publishing House, 1970) page 21.

2.      F.B. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm (London, Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1953) page 22.

3.      Phillip Keller, Ibid., page 23.
 

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