I invite you to turn tonight in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John chapter 10. You'll find that on page 1140 in your Bibles, a few Bibles in front of you, 1140, and we will read together the first 18 verses. John chapter 10, beginning at verse 1, let's give our attention tonight to the Word of the Lord. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. a stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers but this figure of speech jesus used with them but they did not understand what he was saying to them so jesus again said to them truly truly i say to you i am the door of the sheep all who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 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 in 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. And there ends the reading of God's Word. Well, if you've been with us the last weeks, we have completed, last week particularly, we completed a study in the little book of Jude. And you know that we have been putting the spotlight on identifying false shepherds, on identifying false prophets and looking at them carefully so that we might see what a false prophet, a false teacher, a false shepherd is and what marks by which we can know them. And I thought tonight it would be helpful if we then considered the character of the good shepherd. That seems to be the best way to go forward tonight as we come to the table to consider what your shepherd really is like to you. You'll remember that Jude said at the beginning of that little book, although I had planned a right to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you to contend earnestly for the faith that is once for all delivered to the saints. I think once Jude was done, he started talking about common salvation, don't you? That's what we're doing tonight. We're going to talk about common salvation. We're going back to common salvation and looking now at the good shepherd. The history, of course, of false shepherds is a sad one, but the Lord, throughout the Old Testament, had made promises all over the place that he would solve that problem by not just giving good shepherds and filling Israel with good shepherds, but the great promise in the Old Testament was the Lord himself would be our shepherd. That was promised in the Old Testament. That He would be your pastor. The Lord Himself. We don't often think about that. You call me pastor, right? We're under shepherds. But we're not the good shepherd. And the Old Testament anticipated a day when the good shepherd would come. And that's what's so wonderful tonight about looking after Jude at John chapter 10. For that is just what Jesus is saying to us. John 10 is saying to us, everything that was promised about the good shepherd has come because I am here. Everything that you love about Psalm 23. It's still amazing to me every time I read Psalm 23 how comforting that is. And I always think when I'm going to visit a sick one in the church, visiting Bill Brower the other night, what do I read? And I go back to Psalm 23 so frequently because it says everything, doesn't it? Those words are so tender. they're so beautiful it's the whole answer to life captured in that one psalm and and and john 10 gives us to understand what psalm 23 really looks like in life that's what's so helpful it gives us a real understanding of psalm 23 at play and at work in your lives when we read things like he leads me and he guides me and i walk through the valley of the shadow of death and i don't have to fear evil what do i have to fear his rod and his staff they're over me you comfort me you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life and i have the assurity that i will dwell in the house of the lord forever all the themes of this morning come out what kind of table does he spread for us in the midst of our enemies john 10 is showing us not just that jesus is the shepherd that all the scriptures anticipated and spoke of in psalm 23 the lord is our shepherd but it's helping us understand what this shepherd is like and i don't doubt that many of us struggle with that constantly we go through life and we struggle what is what is the good shepherd really like to us how good is he to us and again as i say psalm 23 comes alive through this particular passage in john 10 it'll help for a minute to understand this context i'm not going to develop it too long i wish i had time to preach chapter 9 alongside with this but some of you will get mad because that's 41 verses tonight and i won't do that to you but you really can't separate these two. Jesus says in verse one, most assuredly, I say to you, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. You have to understand a little bit of the setting to appreciate this, because everyone in Israel knew the basic metaphors that he was using and describing here. Throughout Israel, you had this main plateau and then you had hills and it was not uncommon to see shepherds in those hills with their sheep in these places being led by the shepherds to to grass to be fed they were in constant danger they were ravines there were wolves there were valleys and the shepherd had a great job in caring for the sheep everyone knew this it was not an easy job to be a shepherd in Israel. So in each village, after a long day, they would be brought into a common sheepfold. The imagery is really powerful, beautiful. The sheepfold was a large wall or hedge made of stones to protect the sheep. Just imagine this big enclosed structure where all the sheep, all on the hillsides would be brought in through one single door. A porter, or known as the gatekeeper, would guard them in at the fold and he would stand there all night watching over. In the morning, the shepherds would return. And each shepherd would come and they would stand at the door and with a loud voice he would call, My sheep, come! They're all mixed together. Sheep are a little smarter than you think. And at the voice of their shepherd, these sheep would come out from amidst the mass of sheep in the sheepfold, in the pen. Jesus applies it all to himself. in verse 2 he says but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep you've seen me come i've come that's me to him the gatekeeper opens his voice you'll notice it's so beautiful this is verse 3 is some of the most comforting language if you understand jude and you've listened to what jude was saying verse 3 is some of the most comforting language in all of scripture the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out so early in the morning the shepherd would arrive and he would come to the sheepfold door and all the shepherds would be there and the shepherd would come and they'd begin to speak and as they all would come forward they would hear that voice they would recognize that voice and they would come to him and he would then bring out his sheep his particular sheep who he knows by name he'll say here in a minute and they will follow him all through the day the shepherd and he'll guide them and he'll lead them and he'll he'll lead them to green pastures and they'll be fed and they'll be cared for and they'll be watched over it's just a beautiful imagery that the lord is giving here and jesus then says something that should really stand out to you they will by no means follow anyone else isn't that wonderful isn't that a wonderful statement my sheep will never be led astray by a false shepherd my sheep will never be plunder for anyone else i will never allow it to happen he has absolute care and he has absolute control of the sheep by his voice it's hard to process how beautiful and the language he's using here that they saw every day out in israelite life uh this phenomenon and jesus is taking it all to himself sometimes i think we go through life thinking we have to hold on to god and we have to remain with him and we bring a lot of anxiety upon ourselves wondering if we're going to do it and how we're doing and you open up John 10 and he's saying I'm coming for you I'm calling you and you're coming you're not going anywhere else you're mine you're mine beautiful comforting word picture he's giving us now now everyone to some degree understood this but they didn't know why he was saying it you'll notice that in verse 6 they they didn't understand why he's giving this proverb as some of the translations have this figure of speech why is he doing that sure they knew about the sheepfold they knew about the door they knew about the sheep and the shepherd but what is jesus what is he doing here what does he what does he mean by using it and they would have known uh they should have known exactly what he was describing for somebody was standing right in front of him who the blind man of john 9 who's been healed you back up in chapter 9 you have everything we looked at this morning you have a poor blind beggar whom jesus has come and saved whom jesus has come and gathered out in the highway and the byway and brought into the sheepfold you see everything we looked at this morning is right here he was disregarded he was abused he was hurting he was empty he was thought to be a terrible sinner because he had this great problem no one cared for him nobody john 10 is vitally connected to john 9 here and the healing of this blind man there should have been no chapter break the scene is so so um powerful this blind beggar born from birth blind jesus has compassion on him jesus gives him sight by telling him to wash and the rest of the account is an awful scene of the Pharisees brow-beating this man to death, wanting to destroy him and Jesus for this man testifying he believes. Notice some. It's a remarkable passage in light of the professions this morning because as he professed faith in Jesus, they put all the pressure in the world on this man that they could to deny him. remember it remember how hard they were on this man he's the great test of can god keep his sheep can jesus keep his sheep he's the great test in the scriptures can jesus keep his sheep and it's almost full of ironies in that particular section you'll remember this so for the second time these pharisees called the man who had been blind and said to him give glory to god we know that this man is a sinner he answered whether he's a sinner i do not know one thing i know that though i was blind now i see they said to him what did he say to you how did he open your eyes he answered i've told you already and you will not listen why do you want to hear it again do you want to become his disciples too it's supposed to be a comical moment in the gospels if you could sit there and hear that. You really want to be His disciples, don't you? They couldn't touch this man. They couldn't touch Him. They didn't care about Him. They lived for self-glorification. The false teachers of Israel were all self-appointed. The whole time Jesus had been telling them they don't know God, they were trampling God's people, ruling them with force, subjecting them by guilt, forcing them into their ridiculous interpretations of the law, browbeating them with their traditions to hold them and control them. You don't think this goes on? They were so out of control. You know what they did to this man? They excommunicated him. They unsynagogued him, is the word. They cast him out because he disagreed with them and believed in a man who healed them. Healed, healed them. This is Jude. And what that exposed is these false shepherds were not in it for the sake of the people. They didn't care for the people. And the question is, what did Jesus think of their little excommunication? What did Jesus think about the unsynagoguing of this man? And if you've paid attention to Jude, you know how many false teachers and ideas are constantly coming at you and your children. And Jesus here is addressing that issue head on. Verse 2. He who climbs up some other way is a thief and a robber. The thief and the robber has two purposes. That is, to either fleece the sheep or slaughter them. The whole thing at this moment is being applied to Israel's history. The constant cry throughout the Old Testament, going back all the way to the book of Kings, remember, in 1 Kings 22, 17, think of this language that Jesus then sees the same thing in his day. I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep that have no shepherds. And the word of the Lord Ezekiel came to me saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds, Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you've not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost, but with force and cruelty you've ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd. Remember what the Lord said? So, I will establish one shepherd over them. just one and he shall feed them my servant david the fulfillment being jesus he shall feed them and be their shepherd you understand when jesus was out in the wilderness and he's burdened and what is he burdened over isaiah 40 he wasn't talking about filling bellies when jesus came out he saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd so he began to teach them many things they weren't fed they weren't cared for how seriously do you take that he gave them bread from heaven he gave them the truth he gave them the word he replenished their souls he made alive their hearts he cared for their bodies he loved them flesh was constantly coming on dying malnourished sheep you know this was the single great call in israel's history for the lord to come and shepherd his people so i'm going to do something right now this is what the old reformed churches used to do you probably don't know that because you're all new and you're not too old in the middle of a sermon they would pull out the hymn book and they would sing this truth we'll ask dr godfrey if he knows about that later i want you all to turn to number 153 the greatest cry for a shepherd is psalm 80 in the old testament for the lord to come and fix israel's wandering we're gonna sing staying seated one and six of number 153 we'll sing these two stanzas My people in love In cherubim's blood Thy love from the Lord In thy love and say My people resolve And we shall be saved Thy patience once more. Through the touch of the light, my name we have prayed, and then we are serving the heart of our chains. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. What I'm saying is important. I am the door. I'm the only one by which anyone can have access into the fold. There is no other entrance. As Jesus will say, I am the truth, the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me. He's applying everything the Old Testament said to himself. Now we're on the other side of the sheepfold. After a day, when the sheep have been out in the hills and the valleys, jesus has entered the sheep back into the door he's enfolded them he safely rescued them he got them all he didn't lose one whoever came before me verse 8 are thieves and robbers but the sheep didn't hear them verse 10 the thief does not come except to steal kill and destroy this was the sad history of the false teachers i think of the woman who was caught in adultery and the adulteress who came and poured water on Christ's head in Luke 7. She comes weeping over her sins, pouring oil on Him, washing His feet with her tears and Jesus forgives her and the leader said, this man, if he were a prophet, would know what manner of woman this is who is touching Him for she is a sinner. This woman would have never been talked to, helped, loved, rescued, and led out of her adulteries. A hireling, he is not the shepherd one who 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 a hireling flees because he's a hireling and does not care about the sheep verse 9 but if anyone enters by me he will be saved and he's going to go in and out and he's going to find pasture i have come that my sheep would have life and that they have it abundantly. This is why I've come. My purpose has never been to rule my people with cruelty. Every night, the shepherd would bring in his flock and each one would enter the sheepfold by the door and he would stop and he would lower his rod and he would inspect each of the sheep, knowing them all by name. calling it by name and he would look for injury and he would look for harm and he would look for scrapes and bruises knowing them by name hearing his voice those sheep follow they never left him I am the good shepherd I know all my sheep they follow him he leads them in and out and they find pastor this is the care you have beloved from him That's all that to lead today to say this is the love you have from Him. I am the good shepherd, says Jesus, and I want you to know all these benefits are a reality because I've laid down my life for the sheep. What shepherd has ever done that? I have laid down my life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd. i know my own and my own know me as the father knows me i know the father and i lay down my life for the sheep and i have more and all of them will be here and he's talking about you in this particular passage christ fulfills everything that was told to us about the lord himself being our shepherd as the shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep so i will seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day i will feed them in the good pasture and their fold shall be on the high mountains of israel there they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of israel i will feed my flock and i will make them lie down says the lord i will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick that's how persistent your shepherd is that's the message of john 10 this is your shepherd this is your shepherd it caused a response of course in verse 19 there was again a division among the jews because of these words many of them says 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 imagine at this moment jesus like he did always come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and i'll give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and lowly and hard and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light I want to tonight as we go to the table turn to Psalm 23 and let's say it out loud together and then we'll close in prayer and come to the Lord's table tonight. Let's say with one heart tonight. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There's one more benefit He has. Did you hear it tonight? Surely you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That's what we come to now. He's feeding you in the wilderness and He'll bring you home. Let's thank Him for such benefits. Gracious Heavenly Father, Thank You for revealing these wonderful truths to us and for sending the Good Shepherd an answer to our cries. Thank You that the Good Shepherd comes and seeks and saves that which is lost. Thank You that when He calls, when that gentle voice says, come, we come because it's a powerful voice that has control over our lives in a beautiful way. And that we are led in this way so that we can say tonight, the Lord has fulfilled His promise. He's gathered the outcasts and the scattered upon Israel's hills and He's brought us into one sheepfold, into one pen, as one people, all by the powerful voice of the Good Shepherd. Thank You for knowing us by name. Thank You for assuring us that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life and we shall dwell forever in the house of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.