Scripture: John 10:11-18
Structure:
- Introduction
- Jesus knows – intimacy
- Jesus brings – outreach
- Jesus volunteers – love
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Theodore Roosevelt once said: “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads and the boss drives.”
Roosevelt was drawing attention to the fact that people willingly follow a good leader because they see value and meaning in where that person is taking them. By implication the leader is out front, showing the way by their example.
In contrast, the boss is behind, driving people, forcing them on a path they don’t necessarily agree with or understand.
Today we continue our sermon series on the I am sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John. Jesus uses a number of I am statements to describe himself. These sayings tell us about Jesus’ being, his identity. What we notice is how closely Jesus identifies himself with God the Father.
Please turn with me to John chapter 10, verse 11, page 132 toward the back of your pew Bibles. This morning we hear how Jesus says: I am the good shepherd. A shepherd (in Biblical thought) is a leader. Jesus is referring to himself as a good leader, not a boss. We follow Jesus, we are not driven by him. From John 10:11-18, Jesus says…
11 “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep. 12 When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. 14-15 I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them. 16 There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
17 “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. 18 No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Our message today focuses on three main things: Jesus, the good shepherd (or good leader) knows, brings and volunteers. First let’s consider Jesus’ knowing.
Jesus knows (intimacy)
If you watch the TV program, Country Calendar, you would have seen (many times) the image of a farmer on a motor bike, or horseback, driving a large flock of sheep from behind. This is not typically the way shepherds move their sheep in the Middle East. In the first century shepherds led their sheep. They walked in front and the sheep followed because they knew the shepherd.
Gary Burge tells a true story which demonstrates the mutual knowing between Arab shepherds and their sheep. [1]
During the Palestinian uprising in the late 1980’s the Israeli army decided to take action against a village near Bethlehem for not paying its taxes. The officer in command rounded up all of the village animals and placed them in a large barbed wire pen. Later in the week he was approached by a woman who asked him to release her flock. Her husband was dead and the animals were her only source of income.
The officer pointed to the pen containing hundreds of animals and said, with a chuckle, that it was impossible for him to find her sheep among so many. She asked that if she could separate the sheep herself, would he let her take them. The army officer agreed.
When the soldier opened the gate the woman’s son pulled out a reed flute and repeatedly played a simple tune. Within moments sheep heads began popping up across the pen. The young boy continued playing his tune all the way home with his flock of 25 sheep following him.
The shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know the call of their leader.
In verses 14-15 Jesus says: I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me.
When we hear the word ‘know’, we tend to think head knowledge. Facts and figures. Objective, rational information. Nothing below the neck.
But to know someone in a Biblical sense means far more than mere head knowledge. Biblical knowing refers to deep, profound and intimate relationships between people.
I guess it is the difference between knowing someone at a virtual Facebook level, without ever having met them, and knowing someone in real life who you’ve lived or worked with for many years. Biblical knowing goes way beyond Facebook knowledge. Biblical knowing involves personal experience.
R. didn’t get to know me by reading my biography. When she agreed to marry me it wasn’t a case of picking me out of a catalogue. R. got to know me by spending time with me and with my family. She saw how I behaved in different situations and experienced how much she missed me when I wasn’t around. (I can say this because she is in Sunday school and can’t hear me.)
In verses 14-15 of John 10 Jesus is holding up his intimate knowing of God the Father as a model for the kind of intimate knowing his sheep (or his followers) are able to have with him. Jesus, the good shepherd, knows his sheep and through the experience of faith we know him.
Twice in these verses Jesus says: I am the good shepherd who is willing to die for the sheep.
That’s how much Jesus cares about the sheep. He is willing to sacrifice himself that we would live.
The word translated as ‘good’ comes from the Greek kalos. Kalos combines a number of ideas of goodness. It means morally good but not in a ‘holier than thou’ or legalistic sort of way. The moral goodness of Jesus has overtones of beauty and winsomeness. Kalos goodness leans towards being noble in the sense of having fine personal qualities.
So Jesus is an attractive leader. He is a noble leader, one we admire and respect. Jesus wins people over so they want to follow him. Jesus does not boss or drive people with guilt. He woos and draws people with grace.
The mother in the story of the 1980 uprising was like a good shepherd. There was a certain attractiveness in the way she bravely but respectfully approached the army officer. The soldiers would have been armed but the woman and her son were willing to risk their lives to redeem their sheep.
There was of course some self interest in their risk. The sheep were their livelihood. Without the sheep they would be destitute. But there is no self-interest with Jesus’ willingness to die. The sheep in Jesus’ parable are actually people and Jesus is not dependent on them for his livelihood.
In contrast to the good shepherd, Jesus describes the hired hand who does not know or care about the sheep all that much. When the hired hand sees a wolf coming he runs away and leaves the wolf to snatch and scatter the flock.
In a general sense the hired hand represents those who are motivated by selfish gain. Some of the temple priests of the first century were corrupt and in it for the money. They didn’t like it when Jesus over turned the tables of the money changers in the temple because that was bad for business. But not all the priests were like that. I expect many were decent men who sought to honour God as best they could.
Unlike the hired hand who is a flawed human being, the wolf is not human. The wolf is a powerful force of nature, a beast that cannot be reasoned with. The wolf represents death.
Now some of you may be thinking, how does it help the sheep if the shepherd is killed. Surely that is worse for the sheep. Well, ordinarily, that is true but Jesus is no ordinary shepherd. As we know Jesus has the authority to rise from the dead. Through the cross and the resurrection Jesus has conquered death.
Jesus, the good shepherd (the ideal leader) knows his sheep and Jesus brings his sheep into the fold.
Jesus brings (outreach)
Some of you may have heard of the wives of Weinsberg. The legend goes that the Duke of Weinsberg possessed an immense fortune in gold, silver and fine jewels, which he kept in his castle.
The Duke had a falling out with King Konrad (the sovereign of the realm) and so the king gathered his army and laid siege to Weinsberg, demanding the Duke’s fortress, the massive fortune and the lives of the men within.
Although the King had allowed for the safe release of all women and children, the wives of Weinsberg refused to leave without having one of their own conditions met. They requested to be allowed to leave at sunrise the next day bringing with them whatever they could carry on their backs.
Thinking the women couldn’t possibly make a dent in the massive fortune, the king decided to grant their request. After all, he would be hailed as a generous and merciful king and most of the Duke’s fortune would still be left for him.
But the king got more than he bargained for. The next morning at sunrise, as the women walked out, the entire army was stunned to silence as they saw each wife carrying her husband on her back. The wives and husbands of Weinsberg shared a love that was more powerful than death.
Deeply moved by their love, King Konrad kept his word and no lives were lost that day.
The wives in this story are like Jesus who brings us out of the castle of death and into the freedom of new life. And we are like the husbands, in need of Jesus’ rescue.
In verse 16 of John 10, Jesus says: There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
In the context of John 10, Jesus is speaking to the Jews. The other sheep he mentions here refer to the Gentiles or non-Jews (people like us). The one flock is the Christian church which includes people of all nations. And the one shepherd is Jesus himself. Jesus is looking forward to that time when his followers would comprise people of many different cultures and ethnicities.
Jesus isn’t just the good shepherd (or ideal leader) of Israel. Jesus is the ideal leader of the church universal – all Christians, of every race, throughout history.
What we notice here is that Jesus says, “I must bring them too…”.
To bring means: to go with someone or something. If I ask you to bring me an apple, you have to get up, go outside to the tree (or supermarket), pick the apple and walk back with the apple to where I am. Bringing takes time and effort.
Bringing an apple with you is relatively easy because the apple does not have a mind of its own. Bringing people with you is quite different. To bring someone with you involves reaching out and establishing trust. Forcing someone at gun point is not the same as bringing them. There is no coercion or threat of violence with bringing people.
When thinking of the way Jesus brings people with him we remember the wives of Weinsberg who brought their husbands out of death and into life.
At the same time, we are conscious that the women could not force their husbands to come with them. The husbands needed to swallow their pride and trust themselves to their wives. They needed to cooperate. It takes humility, on our part, to receive Jesus’ help and let him bring us with him.
In relation to bringing these other sheep Jesus says, ‘they will listen to my voice.’ This tells us that bringing involves communication. The ability to communicate effectively is one of the essential qualities of a good leader.
Jesus communicates with people in a whole variety of ways. Preaching of the gospel has been one of Jesus’ main ways of bringing people to himself through the past 2,000 years, but it is not the only way. Jesus also speaks to people through dreams and visions. Even today we hear reports of people, who have never heard the gospel, having dreams in which Jesus appears to them and talks with them.
It is not enough though to sit through a sermon in church or to receive a dream in the night. The thing that opens our ears to really hear the word of God and to really be moved by a vision of Jesus, is our need. More than anything else it is realising our own poverty, our deep hunger, that brings us to God.
The husbands of Weinsberg allowed their wives to bring them out because they were conscious of their need for salvation and their powerlessness to save themselves.
Whenever I pray for someone’s salvation I feel the weight of that prayer. Because I know that God’s answer will most likely involve some pain and humiliation for the one I am praying for, as they realise their need for God.
How did Jesus bring you to himself? What need opened your ears to hear Jesus’ voice and follow him?
Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus knows, Jesus brings and Jesus volunteers.
Jesus volunteers (love)
There is a moving scene at the beginning of the first Hunger Games movie where Primrose Everdeen is selected to participate in The Hunger Games. Prim is just a young girl with a compassionate nature and will certainly be killed.
Prim’s older sister, Katniss, realises this and volunteers as tribute in Prim’s place. Katniss knows there is a pretty good chance that she will be killed in The Hunger Games but her love for her sister is so great she is ready to die for Prim. Katniss and Prim share a love that is more powerful than death.
The Hunger Games is fictional of course, while Jesus’ death is a historical fact. But Katniss’ example serves to illustrate the point that Jesus volunteered to die as tribute in our place.
Some of you may have heard of the Catholic priest Maximilian Kolbe. Father Kolbe was arrested in 1941 and sent to Auschwitz. He had been providing shelter for refugees, including many Jews.
At the end of July 1941 a prisoner escaped from the camp, so the deputy commander ordered 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker as a deterrent to anyone else planning an escape. When one of the men cried out, ‘My wife, my children’, Father Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
Each day in the bunker Max Kolbe led the other nine condemned men in prayer. After two weeks Father Kolbe was the only man left alive. The soldiers wanted to clear the bunker so they gave Kolbe a lethal injection of carbolic acid. Max Kolbe did not resist but calmly offered his arm.
That’s a true story of a man who followed Jesus’ example by volunteering his life to save another. And, in case you are wondering, the man Father Kolbe saved survived the war and was present when they canonised Father Max.
Max Kolbe shared a love with Jesus and with his fellow prisoners that was more powerful than death.
From verse 17 of John 10, Jesus says: “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. 18 No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”
In these verses Jesus is saying he volunteers for the cross. He lays down his life freely and willingly because this is what God has asked him to do.
Like Katniss and Max Kolbe, Jesus is willing to give up his life to save others. But Jesus’ volunteerism is not exactly the same as Katniss’ and Father Kolbe’s. Jesus volunteers from a position of power.
Katniss and Father Kolbe’s hands were forced in a way. They had little control in the situation. They had the power to volunteer in someone else’s place but, unlike Jesus, they didn’t have the power to overthrow their enemies.
Jesus did have the power to overthrow his enemies. When the guards came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and one of the disciples drew his sword, Jesus told him to put the sword away saying: Do you not think I could call on my Father and he would at once put more than twelve legions of angels at my disposal.
That’s remarkable. Jesus had the power to destroy his enemies and avoid the cross but he chose instead to submit to God’s will in going to the cross, such was his love for God the Father.
You know the word Muslim is an Arabic term which means ‘one who has surrendered’. [2] More than any other human being Jesus surrendered to the will of God. But it wasn’t a forced surrender. Jesus surrendered willingly and freely to God’s will for him because of the love they shared.
When Jesus says, in verse 17, “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life…” he does not mean that he wins God’s love by going to the cross. Far from it. Later, in John 17, Jesus says that the Father loved the Son from the creation of the world. God the Father has always loved Jesus the Son.
The point is, Jesus’ voluntary death is a hallmark of his union with the Father’s will and an expression of the love they share together. [3] The love, the bond, the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son is more powerful than death.
In verse 18 Jesus says, I have the right (or the authority) to give up my life and I have the right (or the authority) to take it back.
It wasn’t just God’s will for Jesus to die a sacrificial death on the cross. It was also God’s will for Jesus to live again, to experience resurrection life. Therefore, Jesus dies knowing he will receive his life back.
What we notice here is that Jesus’ authority comes from being one with God’s will. Being in God’s will gives us a certain authority also. I think Max Kolbe was able to volunteer like he did because he felt the power of being in harmony with Christ.
Now, in some ways, I am reluctant to hold up the example of Max Kolbe. It may not always be the right thing to volunteer to die for someone else. If you are a parent of young children, then they can’t really afford for you to be a hero. You have responsibilities to your family.
More often Jesus does not call us to die for him. More often Jesus calls us to live for God. We are to be living sacrifices, giving ourselves to God’s will and purpose in a hundred different ways (large & small) every day. This is what it means to follow Christ. Volunteering as a living sacrifice, over a long period of time, is usually the more difficult thing.
Conclusion:
Jesus is the good shepherd, the ideal leader of the church. And what a wonderful leader he is.
Jesus knows us intimately and desires that we share in his intimacy with God the Father.
Jesus reaches out, at great cost to himself, to bring us with him into the fold of God’s people.
And Jesus freely volunteers for God’s will, even unto death, such is the quality of the love he shares with the Father.
May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- What does Jesus mean when he says: I am the good shepherd?
- How is knowing (in a Biblical sense) different from head knowledge? How do we get to know Jesus and God?
- How did Jesus bring you to himself? What need opened your ears to hear Jesus’ voice and follow him?
- Why did Jesus volunteer for the cross?
- Where did Jesus’ authority come from? Where does our authority come from?
- In what ways has God asked you to volunteer?
[1] Refer Gary Burge, NIVAC on John, page 302.
[2] Refer Kenneth Bailey, ‘The Good Shepherd’, page 243.
[3] Refer Gary Burge, ‘NIVAC John’, page 292.
Tawa Baptist 