Our Shepherd Jesus, Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Only One Way Into The Sheepfold
Only One Way Into The Sheepfold
10 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. What are examples of this? False teachers such as Mormons, J.W’s, Scientology, “All paths lead to God,” etc.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Shepherd References in Scripture:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[Lord =YHWH is my Shepherd, therefore if Jesus is Shepherd, He is YHWH]
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand,
And His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.
He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.
“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
And declare it in the isles afar off, and say,
‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,
Against the Man who is My Companion,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.
Bad Shepherds:
And the word of the Lord 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 flocks?
Good Shepherd:
‘For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.
As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.
Shepherd “Types”
1) Abel: keeper of sheep; slain by wicked hand [of Cain]
Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
2) Jacob: cares [for] the flock
So he said, “What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks:
3) Joseph: first thing recorded about him is feeding the flock
This is the history of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
4) Moses: watered, protected, guided
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
5) David: jeopardized his life for sheep (1 Sam 17:34-36
But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,
I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.
Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”
6) Idol Shepherd: Number six in our list (Zech 11:16,17),
For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
“Woe to the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”
This is an example of the Anti-Christ
7) Christ: the Good Shepherd, number seven.]
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Jesus knows your name, he calls you by name. At the end or our lives, or when Jesus returns, if we are still alive, this great shout may well be God calling each of our names, yet we hear our names individually though all of the are spoken by God at the same time.
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
[How can we know His voice? The Word! Prayer, where we listen as well, through brothers & sisters in Jesus. How would you discern if this is of God or not. You know a person who says he is a Christian and yet claims, “It is alright to never pay taxes! I never have and I never will!“
Is that something God would say? Now it is not. How do I know? listen to these verses.
I want to read all seven of the first verses on Romans Thirteen
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.
For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.
Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
Jesus even told Peter that a coin which Peter found in a fish he had caught was to pay both Jesus’ and Peter’s tax. Clearly, we are to pay taxes. People who claim to be believers can say all kinds of things, but unless they line up with what our Shepherd has taught us in God’s Word, we can simply ignore what they say.
Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Is this true for us? Do we follow the voice of strangers? I hear a lot of blending of other world religions and Christianity today. For example Buddhist thought.
Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
[When did they understand what Jesus spoke? After the resurrection, when He breathed God’s Spirit on them.
And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Jesus also poured out the Holy Spirit on Pentecost when all believers received the Holy Spirit]
Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
[I think it is 7x in John where Jesus says, “I AM the ___ door, light, way-truth-life, Vine, shepherd, etc.]
All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
Thieves and robbers use deception and violence. Satan will use any means to detour us from the Kingdom.
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
[Living out our faith is a life-long journey, we go in and out, with the Shepherd providing pasture. Clearly Jesus is saying here that there is only one way to be saved, and that is to enter through Jesus!
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
In this one short verse we have both Satan’s & Jesus’ job descriptions! Look at the contrast between them. Satan steals/kills/destroys. Is that what you want? No one wants that. Even dope dealers, when they have things stolen want justice. Some of the less bright ones have called the police to report the the theft of their drugs!
So Jesus, our Shepherd comes with what for us started at Creation. Jesus comes with life.
How important is life to you? Life is one of the greatest gifts from conception until natural death, God has blessed us with life. We are thankful that we have been given this amazing gift, despite our tendency to take matters into our own hands, often with disastrous consequences.
What lengths doe Jesus our Shepherd go to to protect our lives?
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
Jesus not only spoke these words about laying down His life, He actually put them into practice. Jesus knows that Satan is out to steal, kill and destroy, especially the lives of believers. So what did Jesus do? He layed down His life.
At the time of Jesus’ death on the cross it looked like failure. It looked hopeless. It looked like total defeat and collapse
However, because Jesus, never sinned, His sinless blood was able to pay for the debt of sin we owe, but could never pay.
Let’s say you personally owe THREE TRILLION DOLLARS in debt because of your sins. You know you could never pay that in many lifetimes, but Jesus the Shepherd laid down His life. What is the price of Jesus blood that He shed for you and me? It is infinitely more than all of us owe put together.
Jesus paid for you debt and mine. When we repent and trust Jesus as our Savior, His blood washes us whiter than snow, and He says about your debt and mine:
“It is paid in full!”
Having received the freedom from our debt to sin, we begin to know what the abundant life is all about. Now that abundance may, or may not mean wealth. When we think about it, the true treasures of our hearts, we see the life-relationships we have with people like our parents, spouses, children and grandchildren]
But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
[Only the shepherd will sacrifice Himself to spare the sheep from the Wolf. Who is the Wolf? Satan and his thieves & robbers. ]
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
[ Hired man only wants his check, it’s a job, not a calling.]
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
[Know here is a very strong word. In the OT it is often used for the physical union between a husband & wife. God is intimate in His relationship with us, as we are to be with Him.]
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
[Again, we see this deep intimacy of “knowing” between the members of the Trinity. Again, Jesus shows us that He will go to the greatest length to rescue His sheep. How does Jesus do this? By paying the ransom for our sins with His sinless blood.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Who are the other sheep? We are! Jesus was talking to the Jews, but He came to rescue everyone, not just the Jews. In the Bible, anyone who is not Jewish is a Gentile. Gentiles are part of the flock. Look at verse 16 again. How many flocks does Jesus say are in his domain as Shepherd? One! How many Shepherds does Jesus refer to? Again, only One.
Jesus and all of HIs disciples were Jewish. I am so glad that they didn’t think less of us and exclude us. We are included in Jesus’ flock, where there is room for all of us, Jew and Gentile.
Our nation and our world is more fractured now than ever. Jesus is the only one who can heal the hearts of all people who surrender their lives to Him and bring them together.
We are all Jesus’ sheep. However, many have wandered off into pastures which Jesus does not Shepherd. He is calling us to come home. All sheep who are weary and overcome with burdens, Jesus has already paid the price, and Longs for you to be in the fold of His flock again.
For some sheep, it seems hopeless. They think they have wandered too far. There is no place too far, too dark or too deep for the Shepherd.
Remember Jesus the Shepherd will never stop searching for you. Even when you are too week to return to the flock because of the folly of your sin this is what Jesus will do for you.
I close with these words of Jesus from the fifteenth chapter of Luke.
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’
I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Call out to Jesus in repentance and He will rescue you and carry you home to His flock, and you will be the reason for the party in Heaven.
Amen! Now may the shalom of Jesus guard your hearts and minds to remain in His flock. Amen!