I AM the Good Shepherd

I AM the Good Shepherd:

Jesus said…“I AM the good shepherd.” John 10:11

Jesus, as he always does, uses images, metaphors, language that all the people could easily grab on to… and that speaks deeply to their experience…

Sometimes we miss some of that because the imagery and the culture is removed from our experience… but when we take the time to pause and study… the alive and powerful word of

God becomes even more profound, more alive, more powerful for our lives…

So, what does it really mean that Jesus is the Good shepherd? Do you know any shepherds?

Have you ever even seen or touched sheep? Have you done any shepherding yourself? What was shepherding like in Jesus’ day… what sort of environment did shepherds live in and work in… what sort of history does this image of the shepherd have in Israel’s past? What does the context say to us as John relates to us this very important I AM statement of Jesus?

I AM… the Good Shepherd!

Sheep and shepherds were part of everyday life in Jesus day… and throughout the history of the people of God in the Old Testament. Sheep need a shepherd to guide them, to lead them, and protect them.

In biblical times the job of a shepherd was tough… we often see images of Jesus the good shepherd holding a cute little cuddly lamb… well that really doesn’t paint the best picture.

The dangers of the desert and the skills of the shepherd must be understood to see more clearly what Jesus is getting at. The desert in Israel can be found along the eastern edge of the central mountains of Israel and it stretches for thousands of miles across the Jordan River all the way through Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Even today children in the Middle East tell adventures stories about the desert. Villagers living along the fringe of the desert use it for their sheep. From

October to March a good rain brings plants and pasture for the sheep. But the rest of the year water is scarce, food is rare, dangers are everywhere. The eastern deserts of Judea have steep, eroded cliffs with a 1000 foot drops in places.

The well-known Psalm 23 gives us insight in to what it means to be a good shepherd in an environment like this… It talks about green pastures, quiet waters, right paths, and the presence of enemies… Psalm 23 teaches us that a GOOD shepherd can find food, water, safe paths, and safety from danger for his sheep!

Good shepherds would guide and lead and protect their sheep from the elements, from wild animals, from thieves… When a flock of sheep is attacked a good shepherd would find a sheep pen, get them into the shelter and stand at the gate to protect them from danger… Good shepherds protect their flocks from all harm.

Another interesting fact about shepherds in Jesus day and the near east today is that they lead the sheep. They don’t drive sheep with dogs but they call to the sheep… they sing to their sheep… and the sheep know their shepherd’s voice… their shepherd’s call…

Because of the importance of the shepherd to guide, to lead, to protect and to provide for the sheep… you can see how it easily became a term, a metaphor for any leader, teacher, guide in the ancient near east. And so, this is part of the background for Jesus’ words in John 10. His words come right after

Jesus healed a blind man in chapter 9. Ironically, the Pharisees, the supposed shepherds of

God’s people, were more concerned about themselves than the healing of one of God’s creatures, one of his sheep. THEY were blind to God’s work and Jesus calls them out on it.

In John chapter 10, Jesus says…

10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep BY NAME and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

The Pharisees didn’t get it that Jesus was calling them out. That they were the thieves/robbers… and the sheep, like the healed blind man, would follow after Jesus. Though Jesus doesn’t say it, in the first 6 verses He implies that he is God’s shepherd. Before he states it outright he makes an I AM claim…

7 … I AM the gate for the sheep…. …9 I AM the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Jesus is calling the religious leaders out again… and he’s saying that the only way to get into the sheep pen, the only way to find safety and the only way to get out to find protected pasture is through Jesus, the Gate, by believing in him! The Pharisees only want to steal, kill and destroy… but Jesus wants all people to have life, to have it to the full, to really live!!!

Remember that John said the purpose of the Gospel was that people would believe and live!

Don’t you want to really live, to experience life, to have a rich, satisfying, meaningful life, life in the fullest possible way? Both now and for eternity? Jesus came to give you that life…

Jesus didn’t just come to teach about that life, or to lecture about it…. Or write a book about it… but he came to give it… and there was only one way that it could be done… In verse 11 we see that great I AM and we see how it is possible for us to have the full life he wants for us…

11 “I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Jesus wants you to have abundant life and he gives it to you by laying down his abundant life

… He died… so that you might live…

This was his plan all along … listen to his voice now… see his authority and His desire to give

His life for you… and for everyone… He says…

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 ….and I lay down my life for the sheep...

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again….

Jesus, the Good shepherd, not only gives his life that you might have life…. But he takes his life up again, he rises from the dead… that you too may rise… to eternal life… in the eternal protection of THE Good shepherd… The imagery of the Good Shepherd is rich… because not only does it point to a leader, a teacher, a protector. But it points to the promised messiah and to God himself.

Psalm 23 says, the Lord is My Shepherd… Ezekiel 34 talks about God being the shepherd of

Israel… and through the prophet Ezekiel God criticizes the leaders of Israel that should have been taking care of God’s people but instead were only taking care of themselves… In fact this very thing is what Jesus is driving at when he said “I AM the Good Shepherd.” You see he was speaking these words in the context of the festival of Hanukkah! In John 10:22 it says “Then came the Festival of Dedication.” That’s Hanukkah.

You see with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Greek influence in the Middle

East gradually worked its way into the lives many Jews …

During this time, Many Jews compromised their commitment to their faith, and bad leaders, bad shepherds, contributed to the demise of Jewish temple worship. …Greek soldiers desecrated the temple with pig’s blood, they outlawed Jewish ritual, they burned scrolls of Scripture and set up a pagan idol in the temple.

Judas Maccabeus, a conservative Jewish leader, led a revolt against these corrupt shepherds and captured the temple in Jerusalem in 165 BC. They rededicated the temple. Hanukkah means dedication. Hanukkah was celebrated each year after that and it became a time when the Jewish people asked hard questions about failed leadership and bad shepherds. So, During the week

Jesus gave his good shepherd sermon, synagogues were reading prophetic critiques of leadership… like Ezekiel 34, written 600 years before Jesus. 2 - ‘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?.....4 You have not strengthened the weak or 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. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd…

The Lord then promises to be their shepherd…

11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. …. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, ….

Then a few verses later… the promise of the future messiah from the line of King David comes…

23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, The Lord spoke these words 600 years before Jesus… …. in the midst of Hannukah when the people were remembering these words from Ezekiel, remembering the false shepherds of Israel’s past and remembering God’s promise to shepherd

Israel and …In the midst of the false shepherds of the Pharisees… Jesus makes a radical claim that changes everything… and in that claim he fulfills the prophecy spoken 600 years earlier through Ezekiel. Jesus says…

I AM… the GOOD SHEPHERD!!! I AM…

HE IS God, He is the Messiah, He is God’s Shepherd and HE IS GOOD!

Not only do his sheep know his voice but HE knows His sheep, BY NAME!!! Your Leader,

Your Guide, Your protector, Your God and Your Good Shepherd Knows you by name…

If you’re wandering in a desert right now? I hope you hear that loud and clear… He knows you by name…

Maybe it’s A desert of grief, or pain, or addiction, or hopelessness…

Or maybe you’re in a desert and you don’t even realize it… the desert of prosperity is often really a mirage that is always just out of reach… giving a false sense of security… a never ending pursuit that leads us to care only about material goods and temporal comfort…

Jesus is the only Shepherd who can help you navigate the desert… He’s the only one who can bring you to safety… and lead you to water, to pasture, to righteous paths, and to an abundant life in the midst of perilous cliffs!

Whose voices are you listening to lately? remember the Good Shepherd’s words… look out for the false shepherds who are merely trying to steal, kill, destroy… perhaps they’ve already stolen your family from you, or tried to kill your sense of identity, or destroyed any hope you have for the future, and riddled you with guilt and shame or puffed you up with false pride and arrogance… Listen to your Good Shepherds voice… 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

What does that full life look like? It looks like an eternity with God and his people when Jesus comes again… When we will rise as he has risen! But what about here and now…? What does that life look like… what does it really mean to have life to the full?

I think we get a glimpse of it at the end of the Gospel of John. Remember Simon Peter, who claimed he would lay down his life for Jesus (13:37), but when Jesus was arrested and then

Simon Peter was questioned in the high priest’s courtyard, Three times He denied even knowing Jesus…

Simon Peter failed miserably… He wandered out into the desert alone and his zeal was stolen, his courage killed and his conscience was utterly destroyed… Guilt and shame devoured him.

And in one of the most powerful stories of scripture…

The Good shepherd himself, who knows His Sheep by name, appeared to his disciples after he rose from the dead and actively pursued Simon Peter in John 21 we Jesus speak directly to him…by name… 3 times Jesus says

Simon… Feed my lambs (21:15)

Simon… Shepherd my sheep (21:16)

Simon… Feed my sheep! (21:17)

Not only does the good shepherd lay down his life for his sheep and give them eternal life… but he includes his sheep in his work of shepherding here and now! He entrusts, and calls and empowers and equips lost souls like Simon Peter and builds his church on them! That’s a huge part of what it means to have life to the full here and now! Don’t ever short change this reality for your life… Just like Simon Peter… Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is entrusting to you, depending on you, calling you to feed his lambs, to Shepherd his sheep.

This is what it means to really live, to experience life, to have a rich, satisfying, meaningful life…life in the fullest possible way. To Shepherd, to protect, to lead, to guide, to save God’s sheep from the deceits of the desert and the lies of false shepherds.

The abundant life, here and now, is more than just enduring the desert, it’s thriving in the desert

– Shepherding God’s sheep… Whether it’s a child, a grandchild, sibling, or friend, a neighbor or an enemy… there are people in your life that need the care of the Good Shepherd… he’s called you to find them, to rescue them, to heal them, to feed them, to strengthen them, to

Shepherd them as he has shepherded you… He’s called you to his oasis in the desert and He’s called you to be an oasis in the desert.

Jesus said…

“I AM the good shepherd. ….” John 10:11 the Good Shepherd, knows you and calls you by name… Believe in Him, Listen to Him, Follow

Him, Shepherd his sheep, and you will have life to the full…