THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"I Am the Good Shepherd”
Rev.
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
In
John 10:11
we
have these wonderful words of Jesus: “I
am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” These are the words that the Lord Jesus is
speaking to us right now—words that tell us not only wonderfully who He is (He
is the Good Shepherd), but also what He has done, and they explain the cross of
Jesus Christ for us. He tells us that,
as the Good Shepherd on the cross, He gave His life for the sheep, for me, for
all those who, by grace, believe in Him and have been chosen graciously by the
Father.
Whenever we sit at
the feet of the Word of God, whenever we come under the pure preaching of the
Word of God, whenever we take the Bible into our hands, then as believers we
ought to understand and acknowledge that this is talking about me, and
it is telling me what Jesus is and what Jesus has done for me.
Let us look at
these wonderful words of Jesus: “I am
the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Let us look at that personally, as the Lord
speaks to us.
First of all, let
us hear in those words today His own willingness to
die the accursed death in our place. The
Good Shepherd giveth His life for the
sheep. He gives it. Later on in verse 15 of
John 10
He will say,
“As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the
Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep.” He gives, He lays down His
life. In other words, the Lord is saying,
“I do this voluntarily. I do this
willingly. I do not do this out of an
external compulsion placed upon Me or because I am
forced by something outside of My control or ability. I do this voluntarily.” The Lord makes this explicit in verse
18: “No man taketh
[my life] 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 commandment have I received of my
Father.”
Jesus died freely,
voluntarily, with no external, outside force compelling Him to go to the
cross. He went to the cross because He
would. That is of utmost importance. That is of the greatest importance! That tells us everything. We must remember, first of all, that Jesus is
God in the flesh. God, the true and
living God, never does anything by compulsion.
The true and living God always does all that He does freely for His own
name’s sake. So repeatedly in the Bible
we find God saying, “I will do this for My good
pleasure, because I am pleased to do so.”
Also the cross of
Jesus Christ was caused by the voluntary will of Jesus. He was pleased to do this. He was pleased to do this out of His own
eternal and perfect love for us. The apostle Paul will say in
Galatians 2,
“The Son of God loved me and gave Himself
for me.” Jesus Christ, then, went to the
cross, not because the power of His enemies was greater than His, or because
somehow He fell into a tragic train of events that were beyond His ability to
cope with. No, He lay down His
life: “I give My
life for the sheep.”
This is what He had said so eloquently in
Psalm 40,
prophetically. In
Psalm 40
Jesus had proclaimed, “I come: in the volume of the book it is written of
me, I delight to do thy will, O my God.”
He poured out His soul, says Isaiah in chapter 53. He poured out His soul unto death. With all the desires of His heart, He was
determined to pay our debt upon
Let that sink down
into your heart. Observe all the
immediate events that led up to the cross, beginning in the upper room when
Jesus said, “One of you shall betray Me,” by which He made it impossible for
the traitor, Judas Iscariot, to remain within that room. That night he went out to accomplish his plot
of betraying Christ. Jesus said, “The
Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man
is betrayed.”
Remember when Jesus
stands at the gate of the
Jesus Christ went
to the cross willingly, out of love for the Father, out of love for you and for
me and for all God’s people. He never
faltered, He never wavered. He was
steady, He was unrelenting, He was unstoppable. The Good Shepherd gave His life for the
sheep.
Learn of that. Embrace that.
Cherish that precious truth.
Shall we not weep?
For whom does Jesus
willingly give Himself? For those who
are unwilling. That word “unwilling,” as
referring to us, is really too mild, far too mild! We are the ones who, according to Scripture,
have turned everyone to his own way. We
are the ones who would not have Him rule over us. We are the ones who would say with Pharaoh,
“Who is the Lord that I should obey him?”
We are rebellious, evil sinners of ourselves.
But it was the
eternal grace and love of God that gave His Son to take our place. And it was the Son who willingly took our
place, in obedience to the Father, and in love for the Father and for all the
sheep given to Him of the Father.
You say to me, “Who
are these sheep for whom He willingly gives His life?” Jesus answered in verses 29 and 30: “My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” The sheep for whom
He willingly gave Himself are those whom the Father had freely chosen and given
to Him out of mere grace. For them,
voluntarily, willingly, the Good Shepherd gave His life.
Secondly, hear in
these words not only a willing Savior but also a Savior who is the sacrificial
Shepherd. “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I lay down,” He says, “my life for the
sheep.” For the
sheep means literally in the place of or in the behalf of the
sheep. It means that our
Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, knew that something was coming to
the sheep, something was owed to us.
What was owed to us was eternal death.
He knew that we were responsible for something that was so horrible that
it must surely destroy us, something that we could not
avert, something that we could not take away, something that would utterly damn
us. And that something was the
punishment that was owed to us for our sins before a holy and a righteous
God.
The Good Shepherd
declares: “I will sacrifice My life, I will give My life in the place of these
sheep. I will substitute My life for the sheep.”
He declares here the wonder of the sacrificial, the substitutionary
death of Jesus Christ. Substitutionary. That is, God took His Son and put Him in the
place of His sheep. Instead of
destroying the sheep, God smote the Shepherd.
God placed His own Son under the weight of the sins that His sheep had
committed in order that the sheep might not perish but that the Shepherd might
make an atonement for them, for all of their
sins. Substitutionary. Particular. For every sheep. Jesus dies for the sheep, in the place of the
sheep. That is the cross of Jesus
Christ.
Hear His word: “I gave My life in
your place, My child. Before the throne
of God you, My child, appeared. Eternal justice drew a holy and a righteous
sword upon you. You had profaned and
attacked the holy God with your sins and you deserved eternal destruction. That sword should have been brought down upon
you. But I lay down My
life for the sheep. I said to the
Father, ‘I will stand in their place.
Let the guilt of the sheep be imputed unto me.’ And justice was done.” God gave the Shepherd to experience all the wrath that our sins deserve. Did not men nail Him to the tree? Yes, they did. But it was God who put His Son to
grief. It was the Lord who brought this
upon Him out of eternal grace. God gave
His Son that we might have life eternal.
That is the cross of Jesus Christ!
You must embrace
that. You must cherish that. You must love that with all your heart. This is the wonder of salvation. This is the wonder of the love of God. See Jesus at the gate of the
And what were His
words? These were His words to the
mob: “Whom seek
ye? I have told you that I am He: if therefore ye seek me, let these [that is, My disciples] go their way:
That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake,
of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none.”
That was not simply
one man being surrounded and attempting to save other eleven men from a
mob. No, His words are the words of the
Good Shepherd. These are the words that
He enters into the court of heaven, before the justice of God. He says, “Let these go their way—all those
given to Me by Thy eternal love and grace. Let not Thy justice fall upon them. But let that justice now fall upon Me. For I am the Good Shepherd.
And I give My life for the sheep. I lay it down for the sheep. No man makes Me do
this. I do this willingly for the
sheep.”
What held Jesus to
the cross? The nails? No.
The nails did not hold Him to the cross.
It was His eternal love.
Willingly, sacrificially, as the substitute for the people of God, in
love for the Father and in love for all of His own sheep, Jesus willingly took
their place and laid down His life. He
endured what we could not endure, in order that we might have life eternal with
Him.
That is the Good
Shepherd. That is the cross of Jesus
Christ.
Therefore, finally,
you and I must see today a loving Shepherd.
A willing Shepherd. A sacrificial Shepherd.
Why did the Good
Shepherd willingly give His life as a sacrifice in our place? If Jesus had done no wrong at all, if He was
the innocent, perfect Son of God who had no sin, why was He nailed to a cross? And why was He abandoned of God so that He
cried out: “My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?”
And, if Jesus was mighty God (and He is!), then why did God allow His
Son to be nailed upon a cross, to be spit upon, to be whipped with cords, to be
mocked by soldiers? Why?
There is only one
answer. Eternity will not be enough for
you to get your heart around this answer.
The answer is: Because the Good
Shepherd loves His sheep. We read in
verses 14 and 15: “I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father: and I lay
down my life for the sheep.”
That word “know” is
often used in the Bible for “love.” It
is the knowledge of love. The love of
God is not ignorance. The love of God is
not infatuation. The love of God is not
merely surmising something and having an infatuation. But the love of God is perfect
knowledge. The Father knoweth me and loveth me. And I know the Father and I love Him. Within the triune being of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is the
spotless wonder of perfect knowledge and perfect love joined together. From eternity to eternity, before the world
was, before the sun shone in the heavens, before there were mountains or stars,
God loved His Son and His Son knew and loved His Father. And out of that love He died for us. “As My Father knoweth
Me, so I know My sheep. I know them in that perfect love of the
Father.”
Think of it. The love of the Good Shepherd is not merely
an infatuation. It is not merely a
temporary attraction. It is not merely
something that will end in the grave.
Oh, no. It is the eternal love of
the Father for the Son. As He loved the
Father, He loves us. And as God loves
Himself and wills to glorify Himself, so has God loved
us. Not a love that dies. Not a love that can be reckoned in earthly
years. Not a love bounded as the oceans
are bounded by a shore. Not even a love
like the universe, in which the stars are bounded by the created hand of
God. But a love that
has no limit. The love of
God: “I know My
sheep, know each one. I love them. That is why I lay down My
life for them.”
Cherish that! Hold that fast. Believe that.
Embrace that by the gift of faith today.
The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. Let the wonder of that be
upon your soul. “I am the Good
Shepherd. I know and love My sheep. And I lay
down My life for them.”
Do you know
that? Do you hear Him? We began by saying that the child of God must
always hear this personally, through faith.
Do you hear this? “I am the Good
Shepherd,” says Jesus. The Good Shepherd
gives His life for me! The Good
Shepherd says, “When I sent Judas out into the night that I might be betrayed,
I thought of you. When I stood at the
gate of the
You and I are left
speechless, lost in wonder and in praise.
Let us pray.
Father, what shall
we render? How shall we respond to such
love, such grace? The Holy Spirit has
convicted us that we are unworthy, filthy, corrupt sinners, worthy only of
destruction. And Thou hast given a Good
Shepherd to save us from our enemies, our sins, and bring us into the
fold. All praise, all glory be to Thee. May our
lives be a fit testimony of Him who hath loved us so exceedingly. In Jesus’ name, Amen.