Oh folks, John chapter 10. My soul needed this this week in John chapter 10 and it needs it this morning.
And can I suggest that you need the truth of John chapter 10 this morning.
And just in terms of being reminded this week of one of the things we know to be true about God, that he is sovereign.
He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what is happening in each of our lives.
He knows what we would be facing this week as a church.
And in his sovereignty, his total control, I could not have picked a better passage to be preaching today had I been given the whole Bible to pick from as the one that we're in.
And so John chapter 10 is just the most profound of passages.
So please do have it open in front of you as we get into this today.
But let me just to get us into it. Let me ask us at the start.
If you were an animal, what would you be?
Right? Have a think about it. It's one of those awkward icebreaker questions that we all love.
And we're all so glad when people ask it, aren't we?
If you were an animal, what would you be?
And I have to be honest and say that everything inside me wants to answer that question and say tiger.
Okay? King of the jungle.
These guys are top of the food chain.
They're brave. They're powerful. They're large. They're in charge.
You fend for yourself.
And I want everything that's true of a tiger to be true of me.
And I hear Katy Perry sing in the background.
I've got the eye of the tiger, a fighter dancing through the fire because I am a champion.
And you're going to hear me roar.
And I think to myself, I would love to be a tiger.
I would love to have the things that are true of a tiger and have them true of my life as I lead it in the world.
Except the thing is, I know none of that is true for me.
Right? Powerful.
How about he needs his eight hours sleep a night minimum or he's a walking zombie the next day?
How about brave?
Well, how about somebody who gets so easily distracted, his emotions are up and down,
and so often I sit under a dark cloud of discouragement?
Okay?
I am no lion.
And that's why I think I have found, by God's goodness, such strength in being reminded of the wonderful and liberating truth
that comes if you and I embrace the animal that Jesus says we are in this passage.
This animal is not top of the food chain.
This animal has fleas.
This animal doesn't know what it's doing, and yet this animal is where we will find freedom today in embracing that we are it.
Because what this has done this week, in all honesty, is being in this place again and reminding myself of this truth.
It's taken the eyes of my heart off of a weak me,
and it's flung them onto a strong Christ.
It's taken them off of how I'm feeling,
which is always such a sugary peg on which to build the foundation of our lives,
and instead it's fixed them on what I know to be true.
Can I suggest if that's you here this morning,
and you're coming in here and you're not feeling great,
what you need this morning is not people telling you that you should be feeling better.
What you need to be this morning is to be in a place where you're reminded of what is true.
Because Jesus says quite simply, and this is one of the most simple yet profound statements
I think any human being has ever made.
Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.
And it's unique among the I am statements, the other ones that we get in John's gospel.
All the others reveal something about him,
except this one also reveals something humbling and freeing about us.
You know, years ago there was a Scottish minister and hymn writer called Horatius Bonnard.
They don't do first names like that anymore, do they?
Horatius Bonnard.
He lived in Broughton on the other side of the city early 1800s.
I've loved learning about Horatius Bonnard over the years.
That's why many of you know the Bonnard Trust that we're involved with as a church,
is where they take their name.
I think it was Andrew Bonnard, Horatius Bonnard.
Anyway, big brain, he penned these words to a hymn to describe what his soul found in Jesus.
And this is one of my favourite hymns.
And if you want to go home and go on YouTube, you'll find a wonderful version of it by a lady called Audrey Assad.
Simply says this, here it is.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest.
That's what Luke I read at the start.
Lay down thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast.
I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad.
And I found in him a resting place.
And he has made me glad.
And that is the song of someone who's embraced what it is to be a sheep.
I find myself coming back to that song again and again and again and again in the Christian life.
And so what we're going to do over the next half hour or so,
is we're just going to bleat our way through this passage of scripture.
And here's the beat of the bleat.
It just says, how good is our shepherd?
Now if we're going to savour the sweetness of what Jesus says here even more,
we need to understand that he's saying it at a particular time in this gospel.
With Jesus, if you've learnt anything, it's that timing is everything with him.
No opportunity is wasted.
No moment is squandered.
No, Jesus says it in John chapter 10.
Here's the first thing that we need to understand.
is that there's bad shepherds in the background of this.
So come with me.
Verse 1, Jesus says,
Truly I say to you.
And immediately we should be asking who is the you that he's speaking to.
And if you glance back to verse 40 of chapter 9,
you just go back a few verses,
you will see that Jesus is still talking to the Pharisees.
In the immediate context of John chapter 9,
Ian took us through that last week.
Jesus has just given sight to this blind man.
And he has become,
verse 38,
look at that little description there we get of him.
What did he do?
He worships the Lord.
He worships Jesus.
This man has become a worshipper of the living God.
And is that not a wonderful description of what it is to be a Christian?
Worshipping Jesus.
Jesus has quite literally given this man his life back.
And you think everybody should be rejoicing in this scene,
but verse 34,
the Pharisees cast him out of the synagogue.
You're a liar.
You're not speaking the truth.
And so when Jesus speaks in this passage of thieves and robbers,
when he speaks about hired hands,
who don't give two hoots about the sheep,
this is a jab at the Pharisees.
Now these men would know that this isn't the first time that God's had some really chilling words to say
about bad and selfish leaders of his people.
Ezekiel chapter 34.
Ezekiel,
one of the prophets that we get in the Old Testament,
speaks to his generation.
God,
through Ezekiel,
speaks to his generation of really,
really bad and selfish leaders.
And you get it in Ezekiel 34.
You can read it in your own time,
a little snapshot of it there.
These leaders are not feeding the sheep.
They're not caring for the sheep.
They're not running to meet the needs of the sheep.
They're not tracking down the sheep who have run way,
way off course.
And as a result of that,
God's people are massively suffering at the neglect
of this generation of God's leaders.
And the root cause of it,
I think,
is that the relationship between God's leaders,
if you like,
the under shepherds,
and God the great shepherd,
that relationship that's meant to be driving everything that they do,
is non-existing.
Now it was Robert Murray McShane,
who was another Scottish pastor from way back,
he observed that what his people needed most from him
was his own holiness.
Now what he meant by that is if he's saying,
if I'm not pursuing the Lord,
if I'm not loving him and worshipping him,
I've got nothing to pass on to my people.
I'm in no fit place to lead them in worship of the Lord.
He recognized that in order to serve and love God's people,
you need to do so out of an overflow of a heart
that's captivated by a wonderful Christ.
Something that we're always asking ourselves as elders of this church.
We did it a few weeks ago as we went away.
Is this job,
is this role still a joy to us?
Because we love the Lord Jesus.
We love him,
and that love for him spills out in a love for his people.
Because no one is more committed to his people than Jesus,
as we'll see.
We serve you,
dear friends,
and it is a joy to do that,
because we love him.
And we love him,
and get this right,
because he first loved us.
And there's none of that going on in Ezekiel 34,
and God says to those shepherds,
I am against you.
But in the very next breath,
God promises,
not only to deal with the bad shepherds,
but also gloriously and graciously,
God promises,
not to post an advert on S1 jobs for a better shepherd.
Not to try and recruit and go head hunting to get more shepherds.
God says,
he promises to be to his people.
He will come and be the good shepherd that they need.
John chapter 10,
that's the context.
There's bad shepherds in the background,
but the good shepherd is in the foreground.
And I just want us to hear,
if we can do this today,
right,
as we hear his voice,
I just want us to hear,
as he speaks,
three wonderful tones
in the voice of our good shepherd today.
If you're a note taker,
these are three C's.
And hear him speak to you today.
He says,
I want to be your shepherd.
Here's the first.
Hear in his voice,
him express,
his complete care of us.
Jesus says,
verse 3,
and just take it what he's saying here.
I call my own by name.
Verse 14,
he says,
I know my own,
and my own know me.
So in terms of his relationship with his sheep,
Jesus doesn't know of his sheep.
He doesn't just know about his sheep.
He knows his sheep.
Now many of you will have that experience
of running a race,
right?
It's marathon day today.
I didn't even know that until yesterday.
Marathon day today in our city.
You know what it's like when you do these races
and what do you get on your chest to put on?
You get a number,
don't you?
And nothing makes you feel special
and known like knowing
that you are number 44978,
does it?
That's not far off being a telephone number,
in truth, is it?
44978.
We cannot get our heads around
knowing that amount of people.
But Jesus is not like us.
He's not just like us on our best day.
Right?
The all-knowing one.
When Jesus says he knows his sheep,
we need to understand
that we are not a number to him.
You are a name to him.
These are wonderfully intimate words
that convey his wonderful
and perfect knowledge
of every detail of our lives.
And that's the metaphors
what a shepherd in this day would do.
He would sleep beside the sheep.
He would camp out
and eat with the sheep.
He'd even have nicknames for his sheep.
Because in this day,
his flock
is his livelihood.
Right?
It is his bank account,
if you want to put it like that.
He loves his sheep.
They are his sheep.
And Jesus is saying
in a greater way,
he knows his sheep.
Right?
And you need to take this in today
if you are his.
He knows every single struggle
that's going on in your heart today.
And he knows every single weakness
that you're carrying
in your life today.
And he knows every fear
that's in your mind
that's dominating you today.
And he knows every need of your soul.
And so when we call out to him,
this is not like
when you phone your insurance company
and you get
the customer services line
that says,
your call is important to us,
your number 18 in the queue.
And you think,
how can I be important to you
if I'm 18 in the queue?
Friends, when we pray
to our Father
in the name of Jesus,
we need to understand
that he is right there
at the right hand of God
interceding for us
by name, by need.
And when we pray,
we have the ear of God.
Not begrudgingly,
but delightfully.
He loves us.
You know, Chloe did that the other day.
She came down into our room
at one o'clock in the morning.
I want a drink of water.
I can't get to sleep.
Now, who does that?
Only somebody who's got
the confidence
that they're going to a parent,
not a teacher, right?
That we have that kind of access
before this God.
We can pray to him
knowing that he loves us
because of the son.
In the words of the late Tim Keller
who died and went to be
with Jesus last week,
Tim Keller,
profound influence
on my life
and many others in the world,
he says this
and take this in.
To be loved
but not fully known
is superficial.
To be known
but not loved
is our worst nightmare.
Only Jesus
knows us to the bottom
and he loves us
to the sky.
Hear the complete care
this morning
of your shepherd's voice.
And hear secondly,
hear the total commitment
to you in his voice.
Verse 10,
Jesus says,
others have come
to steal,
kill and destroy.
And you see,
it's just a contrast
that he's setting up here.
He talks about
the hired hand.
The hired hand
sees the wolf coming
and he thinks to himself,
I'm getting out of there.
This is not my job.
I did not sign up for this.
I'm not taking on the wolf
for this sheep.
I'm not paid enough
for this.
Right?
I remember doing that
one of my first ever jobs
as a student
during the summers.
One of those old school
restaurants we used
to have to go to.
Some of you remember
this kind of thing.
You had to clock in
and stamp.
Yeah?
Stamp, clock,
that was you in.
When you left,
stamp, clock,
that was you out.
I'm doing my shift.
And that's the hired hand.
I'm only paid to do this.
I don't care about the sheep.
It's my job.
But with Jesus,
it's not a job.
With Jesus,
this is his calling.
They say that,
verse 12,
because they don't own the sheep.
They don't care
what happens to the sheep.
They just want to care themselves.
Jesus, on the other hand,
he could not be more in it
for his sheep
because he owns his sheep.
Do you see that word?
He owns them.
And it's a wonderful thought today
that if you're a Christian
here this morning,
that Jesus called you.
Jesus bought you
with his precious blood.
Jesus took responsibility
for you and I's sin.
Jesus pulled out all the stops
to make you and I his sheep.
And the truth that we need
to understand this morning
is that this good shepherd,
he has us.
He has us.
Our times are in his hands.
No one is getting to us
because our shepherd will defend us.
Our shepherd has our times.
Our shepherd has our lives.
And as dark
and as scary
as the valley gets
and as painful
and as long as the path might be,
even through death,
this shepherd,
not only is he with us
in the darkest valley,
this shepherd will lead us
through to the other side.
And no one will snatch us
from his hand.
We'll see that next week.
No one will snatch us
from his hand.
And what I want us
to know this morning
as a church family
is that no one
is more committed
to loving us
than Jesus is.
Jesus will never run away
from us.
Jesus knew exactly
what he was taking on
when he called us
to himself.
What makes him
the good shepherd
is verse 15.
He says,
I lay down my life
for the sheep.
He's talking there
about the cross.
In other words,
if you were a roaming reporter
going around the streets
of Jerusalem
on the day
that Jesus was crucified
and you held up
a microphone
to his mouth
and said,
Jesus,
what are you doing
up there?
The answer
which he could have given
is I am laying down
my life
for my sheep.
Friends,
if you want to know
his commitment
to you,
if you want to see
his love for you
demonstrated,
that's where we look
today.
Hear in his voice
his total
commitment
to you
and thirdly,
hear the absolute
control
in his voice.
Jesus says,
I lay down
my life.
That's verse 17.
I lay,
now just take that in,
I lay down my life.
In other words,
he's no tragic hero.
If you grew up in Scotland,
you'll know Macbeth
was standard reading.
Shakespeare kind of
created that term,
didn't he?
Tragic hero,
classic,
you take a good character,
you show them
making a bad choice,
audience sympathizes,
classic tragic hero.
Jesus is no tragic hero.
He lays down
his life.
He is in complete
control of that.
That is the very
reason he came.
He lays down
his life.
He's in charge.
He lays it down
and
he takes it up
again.
He's talking about
the resurrection.
He lays down
his life.
He takes it up
again.
Jesus is in
total control.
And it reminded me
this week of that song,
Who's Afraid of the
Big Bad Wolf?
And as I think
about the biggest
wolf that's facing
each of us
in our lives,
the wolf of death,
we have to understand
that Jesus
has taken
care of it.
Because he laid
down his life,
because he took
my sin,
because he took
my place,
because the Father
raised him in power,
he took on
death,
which is the
biggest wolf
facing us,
and he won.
And in him,
his victory
is our
victory.
And what's
driving all of
this?
What's driving
all of this?
You've got to see
this.
See the glorious
answer at verse
15 and 17.
What's the reason?
15 and 17.
It's because of
the loving
relationship that
exists between
the Father and
the Son.
Jesus, the Son,
obedient to death.
The Father in
heaven who sent
the Son loves
him for it.
The Holy Spirit
sent to apply
that work to
our lives.
Salvation is the
overflow of that
loving relationship
of our triune
God that has
existed for all
eternity.
And so when
Jesus talks about
life to the
full, the life
that he has come
to give his
sheep, life to
the full, is
life with our
three-in-one
God.
And see the
promise that
Jesus makes at
verse 16.
He says, I
have other
sheep.
Now in the
context there,
who's in his
mind's eye?
It's the
Gentiles.
Yeah?
It's other
sheep who in
the years to
come will hear
the voice of
the shepherd and
will respond to
his voice as
his word goes
forth.
Before we
move to
Edinburgh, Alex
and I spent
five months in
Malawi in this
place called
Blantyre.
And it's called
Blantyre because
it's after one
of Scotland's
leading explorers
slash missionaries
called David
Livingston.
David Livingston
takes the gospel
to the people of
Malawi.
There's that close
relationship that
exists between
Scotland and
Malawi still to
this day.
I didn't know
this, but in
David Livingston's
grave down in
Westminster Abbey
is this verse
from John 10.
I've got other
sheep, says
Jesus.
I've got other
sheep.
In other words,
I've got people
all over the
world, down the
years, through
the ages, who
are going to
respond to my
voice as I
call them to
me.
And here's the
blessed thought
this morning of
you're a
Christian.
However weak
you're feeling,
however messy
you think your
life is, it's
if your trust is
in Jesus, you're
here because you
are in Jesus'
mind as he
said this.
He called you
by name.
That should be a
great evangelistic
comfort to us,
that Jesus is in
the calling
business.
You know, my
calls have little
effect.
We were at the
Meadows Park
yesterday, couldn't
find one of our
kids, shouting
her name, no
response.
But Jesus
calls his
sheep and
they respond to
his voice.
It's what's
happening now.
What gives us
any confidence in
evangelism is that
Jesus, through his
word as it goes
forth, he has
his people who
will respond to
his voice.
As Danny goes
off this morning,
as she goes,
and in her heart
to go to
Asia, what gives
her any confidence
this morning, and
what gives us as
we support her
this morning as
a church, any
confidence that the
Lord will do
things through her
and through her
work, is this
verse, that Jesus
has other sheep.
He has sheep all
over the world who
he wants to call
to himself.
I don't think
anyone's expressed
this better than
American missionary
D.L.
Moody.
He says this, and
think about this, and
I know for many of
you God has laid
things like this
international mission
work on your heart.
He said this, God
doesn't expect the
impossible from us, but
he wants us to
expect the impossible
from him.
And you have to
say, what a
shepherd.
Verse 20, some in
this crowd say he's
insane.
Others, verse 21, say
he couldn't have
opened the eyes of
the blind man if he
wasn't who he says
he is.
And the question
we've got to ask
ourselves is how do
we respond to the
news of the good
shepherd?
Do you know his
voice in your life
presently?
Maybe for some of
us we've never heard
nor responded to
his voice.
Well, I take it that
as Jesus has walked
off the pages of
John chapter 10, and
as his voice has
gone forth, that
some of us need to
stop and think about
his claims about
himself and about
us.
Dear friends, it is
foolishness to go
alone in life.
But for us who
know Jesus as our
shepherd, I wonder
if some of us just
need to be still this
morning and listen to
him, to fix our eyes
on him and follow.
Let me ask you, are
you, are we, letting
the good shepherd feed
and lead our souls as
he speaks to us in his
word?
You know, there's a
reason that so often
the funerals that I've
done over the years,
90% of them have
featured Psalm 23.
We don't have time
this morning to go
into the connections
between Psalm 23 and
John chapter 10.
I would love to do
that, except to say
that Jesus steps right
in to fulfill that
psalm.
But I love that bit in
Psalm 23, as Jesus
is the shepherd, leads
us by still waters.
What happens to our
souls?
He restores them by
his word.
What are you doing by
means of cultivating
that deep trust in and
love for the great
shepherd as he leads
us through the ups and
the downs of life?
What a shepherd.
You know, I heard, went
for a walk with Ross this
week and he said
something about his
dad.
He said, my dad keeps
saying, I just don't
know how you would do
this.
I don't know how you
would do this without
Jesus.
And it's so true, isn't
it?
It's so true.
I just don't know how
you would do it.
I don't know how you
would fathom it and get
beyond it if it wasn't
for the good shepherd.
So friends, what animal
would you be?
And just as we close and
as we think on that, and
as we think about embracing
the posture of a
dependent sheep who's
totally reliant on the
good shepherd.
You know, I had another
shepherd in my mind this
week.
Life staging that.
That I'm at.
She's a shepherdess
actually.
I had little Bo Peep in
my mind all this week.
And I didn't know it
until I googled it this
week.
And I don't know if you
know this as well, that
there's several verses to
that nursery rhyme.
Third verse.
There's a lot of them.
Goes like this.
Little Bo Peep began to
weep and lay down to rest
for a while.
She fell fast asleep while
counting her sheep.
Then dreamt they came
home with a smile.
And you have to say
that's lovely and cute.
And credit where credit's
due, Bo Peep right there.
She clearly loves her
sheep.
She loves her sheep.
But she's also powerless
to do anything to help
them.
And it strikes me that the
Pharisees in John chapter
10, sorry, in the
background of John chapter
10, do the opposite of
Bo Peep.
They've got all the power
in the world to help
people.
All the power in the world
to help the sheep.
But because they don't
love the sheep, they're not
bothering.
But what I want us to
understand as we finish
this morning about Jesus.
Jesus is one who has both
the power to help his sheep
and the love for them that
drives him to act.
He is all power and he is
all compassion.
And they are married, both
of those things, in the
person of Jesus.
Friends, our lives could not
be in better hands than the
hands of the good shepherd.
And so three quick things as
we close.
Let's know his voice.
Let's trust his heart.
And let's follow his lead.
Let's pray together.
And so Father, I just pray in
the silence now.
Lord Jesus, as we've heard
your voice in John chapter
10, as you walk off the
pages of the Bible.
Lord, I pray that this voice
would come as a challenge to
many of us.
I pray that it would come as a
comforting balm to some of
us.
And Lord, it would come with
great strength to all of us.
And I pray particularly for
those here today who are
walking some of the darkest
paths, through some of the
darkest and scariest valleys,
that they would be so aware of
your rod and your staff in their
lives.
Lord, they would be so aware of
your presence with them as you
lead them and love them through
the good shepherd.
So I just close with that thought
that Fraser brought this week to
me.
That I just don't know how you
would do this without Jesus.
And so Lord, I pray that as we
finish our service and as we spend
time together and as you, as we
speak, Lord, that your spirit would be
ministering to us in our
conversations, that we would be
bringing the truth of God's word to
bear on our lives.
Father, help us to be a community
that is founded on the truth of the
gospel.
Father, we just thank you as we
close for your incomparable love
and commitment to us.
In Jesus is worthy and in his
precious name we pray.
Amen.