Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1688
June 1, 2025
John 10.1-18 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“The Good Shepherd”
“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.” 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 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.”
-
A Shepherd’s Work
One of the unfortunate losses in modern life and city life is the common sight in the country of shepherds or cattle ranchers or other livestock professions. I saw a program last week that showed the last remaining men and women who raise a particular cattle in Italy. They had hope for some young people to come along to keep the tradition alive. I’ve known some people who raised goats, but never meet a shepherd of sheep. I’ve watched some fascinating videos on shepherds and sheep dogs, but never met or seen anything like that in person. What I know and what most of us probably know is what we have seen on video or read about in books or maybe just limited to what we have in the Bible.
Shepherds tend the sheep! Shepherds care for their sheep, they tend the flock. John 21 uses the shepherd/sheep metaphor when Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep. Shepherd is often a word used to describe what pastors and church leaders do. We are to lead the sheep, feed the sheep, care for the sheep and Jesus told the parable of the sheep that went astray and the shepherd would leave the 99 behind to go after the one.
In our reading today Jesus speaks of His work, to call His sheep by name and lead them, and the sheep know His voice. They follow only Him. We follow only Jesus. I want us to focus on three particular works of Jesus from John 10: that He lays down His life, He exercises His authority, and He gives us life!
-
To Lay Down His Life
Jesus says four times in this passage that He lays down His life for the sheep. Like a shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, Jesus lays down His life for His people. Every time I read this passage I also remember John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” When we couple this verse with John 10, I think about laying down one’s life in two different ways. First is what we might think first, that Jesus gave His life on the cross. Jesus gave his physical life as a sacrifice by dying for us that we might know the forgiveness of sin. Secondly, I think about Jesus laying down His life by coming to earth and living among us as a servant. That is He gave of His life by laying it down to serve and not to be served. Mark 10:45 says that Jesus came to serve: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This verse includes both service and sacrifice. Jesus laid down His life in that He served and in that He died so that we might live.
The apostle Paul tells us to share this attitude with Jesus, the passage we read last Sunday on Christ as Lord. Philippians 2:5-8, 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Here again Paul describes the laying down of life in two ways, emptied Himself to become a servant and was obedience to the point of death. This is the expression of God’s love for us. He gave His Son and His Son came willingly for both service and sacrifice. We respond by giving our lives back to God as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). We seek to empty ourselves that we might be servants of God. The Bible speaks of that as self-denial, taking up our cross and following Jesus. Paul says it this way, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). We seek to become like Christ and share in His life, death, and resurrection.
The work of Jesus demonstrated to us the need for an attitude and a life of sacrifice and obedience. Jesus gave of Himself as a shepherd gives of himself for the flock. In that work, Jesus protects, saves, redeems, feeds, leads, and forgives.
This is what a shepherd does, lays down His life for the sheep.
-
To Exercise Authority
The second work I see in John 10.18 is that Jesus exercised authority. Jesus was given authority in all things. When speaking of His life He says, “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.”
When we examine the authority of Christ we see it in many ways through the Gospels:
He taught with authority - for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. Matthew 7.29
He has the authority to forgive sin - But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Matthew 9.6
He bestowed authority to the disciples - And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. Matthew 10.1
He gave us authority by His authority – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Matthew 28.18-20
He has the authority to execute judgment – For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. John 5.26-27
We see it all over the Bible, that the Son of Man, that Jesus Christ is given authority in all things. He teaches, forgives sin, shares authority, commands us to act under His authority, and executes justice with authority. This is His work as our Shepherd and that authority gave Him the will and power to lay down His life and to take it up again. God raised Him from the dead. He was resurrected. It is the message we proclaim as the good news for the world. The Easter message of salvation and hope. John’s gospel is the only one that expresses Christ as taking up His life again. The other gospels express it as God raising Him from the dead. It is a small difference perhaps, surrounded by the mystery of the Trinity and how God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit function. Somehow, God raises Jesus from the dead and it is the same thing as Jesus taking up His life again. We do not propose the ability to explain it, only to know that Jesus gave His life and took it up again. He was dead and now is alive. He was crucified and is risen. The questions of how and who are not nearly as crucial to the story as the understanding that the Good Shepherd has completed His charge from the Father in complete obedience and love.
This is what a shepherd does, utilizes his authority to care for the sheep.
-
To Give Life
One of the verses I have clung to since first ever reading it is John 10.10. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jesus came to give life. Through His act of sacrifice as the shepherd of the sheepfold, He has given us life and not just life, but life in abundance. New life, joyous life, peaceful life, loving life, energetic life, generative life. I could go on and on in this description of life.
His Word gives life (Psalm 119.93), I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.
His Spirit gives life (John 6.63), It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
He is the bread that gives life (John 6.33), For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
His sacrifice gives life (Romans 5.18), Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
He is our life! (Colossians 3.4), When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
There is another shepherd for those who do not put their trust in God, for those who do not know the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd, for those who think they know better.
This is the path of those who have foolish confidence; yet after them people approve of their boasts. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd...Psalm 49.13-14. Sheol is the pit of death, the place of utter darkness, something of a mystery to us as the Old Testament does not reveal much about it other than stating things like its connection with death in Psalm 49. Our message today is that Jesus leads us as a shepherd to life, and those who put their confidence elsewhere will find that death will be their shepherd. It is certainly a scary thing to contemplate! But we know the shepherd who gives life. The lamb of God gave His life so that the sheep might have life. It is life in abundance here and now as well as life in eternity, eternal life to come. Life all around!
This is what a good shepherd does, gives life to the sheep by providing for them, by protecting them, by caring for them and searching them out when they stray from the flock. May the Good Shepherd give us life!
-
The Good Shepherd
Jesus Christ is the good shepherd. He is good all by Himself, but certainly compared or contrasted to many of the bad shepherds who had come before Him and, we might add, those who have come after Him. So why make that distinction of Good Shepherd? In Psalm 23 it is sufficient to call the Lord our shepherd. In John’s gospel, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Israel had many bad shepherds in its history. Jeremiah 10:21 was one indictment of the leaders of Israel, “For the shepherds are stupid and do not inquire of the Lord; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.”
Ezekiel 34:1-6, The word of the Lord came to me: 2“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.”
Jesus may have also been pointing out there were bad shepherds in the leadership of Israel at the time, the New Testament Pharisees and Sadducees. A majority of them were acting stupid and did not truly know God or inquire of God. Jesus is the complete opposite of all those bad shepherds. He truly is the Good Shepherd. He looks after the sheep. He gathers the scattered. He feeds and tends and leads beside still waters.
Jesus states “I am the Good Shepherd.” It is another “I am” statement that reveals the character and attribute of the God who is “I am”. It builds on our understanding of the great Psalm we hold dear in Psalm 23. The Lord is our Good Shepherd, who laid down His life, knows us and is known to us, He speaks to us, and He took up His life. All this for us, that we might know God and be reconciled to Him. Such is the power of God’s love and mercy. Such is the grace of God. Such is the living God we serve and proclaim, sharing the Good News of the Good Shepherd. Amen.
