In our series in 1 Timothy, and so if you have your Bibles, turn them to the book of John. That was a joke sort of, but I still want you to turn to the book of John. Chapter 10, if you don't have a Bible that's fine, today's text is also in the back of your order of worship. And the reason I'm preaching out of the book of John this morning is I am preaching through the book of 1 Timothy. And we've gotten to the point in 1 Timothy where the Apostle Paul is beginning to talk about elders in a church and elders by definition are shepherds. And so for the past three weeks, we looked at God's role as a shepherd. And today we will look how that role culminates in one person in particular. So with all of that said, I'm in verse 11. I've said you hear the word of God. Jesus said, 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 is not the owner of 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 is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me even as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it again. No one is taking it away from me but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have the authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father. What does it pray? Jesus, I pray that you would come now by your spirit and you would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. For those of us who are slothful in our walk, I pray that you would wake us up. And I pray for myself even that you would be in my head and in my thinking and in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking. In your name we pray. Amen and amen. Basically as I alluded to before in the 23rd Psalm which we looked at last week and the week before and the week before. We looked at a shepherd's view or sheep's view of his shepherd. We saw the sheep telling what his shepherd is like. He pursues and he initiates and he gives rest and he never lets me go. And then as you look through the Old Testament, God has this growing role of shepherd. You see David was just sort of recognizing he's my shepherd but at some point God just sort of takes it over. And if you remember in today's Old Testament reading in Ezekiel 32 what you have there we didn't read the bad part. In the bad part God actually rebukes the bad shepherds in Israel, the elders in Israel because they were feeding off of the sheep. They were using their position to abuse the sheep and if you remember the Old Testament reading he says I myself will shepherd them. I will gather them. I will bind up the brokenhearted. I will do all these things myself. And if you fast forward to the New Testament you find Jesus saying this morning I am the good shepherd. The same one who said I will do I will shepherd my flock now comes in the person of a man and says I am that guy. I am the one. And so this morning we are going to look at three things basically about Jesus. And the first is one that Jesus is the good shepherd. The second thing is that Jesus is the only shepherd. And the third thing is that Jesus is a willing shepherd. So let's look at the text in verses 11 through 13. The first point Jesus is the good shepherd. He says I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Now we are just jumping into the text here and you need actually some context before we can talk about this because what this is today's text where Jesus says I am the good shepherd is really part of a conversation that started way back in chapter 9. Remember in chapter 9 and the book of John you have this strange event because the disciples are walking by and they see a man who is blind and they say Jesus why is this man blind? It was at his sin or was at his parent's sin and Jesus said it wasn't either one of their sin. It was so that God might be glorified and they sort of wonder what that means. So Jesus puts mud on the man's eyes and tells him to go wash. Remember the man doesn't see Jesus. He just tells him to go wash in the pool and he does and he is made to see. Now he goes to tell the religious leaders and the religious leaders instead of rejoicing and embracing the fact that the blind is now able to see. They say he healed you on the Sabbath didn't he? He said what do you mean? I can see now. They said that's not the point. It doesn't matter that you can see what matters is that he broke the law which means he's a sinner and since he's a sinner that means he couldn't have healed you. And the guy says hey I'm not sure about this all I know is I was sitting there by the side of the road and he came along he put mud on my eyes and now I can see. And they said bring your parents in here. So his parents come in and they said tell us is this your son was he born blind and did this man Jesus heal him and it says his parents were afraid of being cast out of the synagogue. So what did they say? They said he was born blind but as far as that Jesus guy we don't know you'll have to ask him he's an adult now. And so they turned back to the blind man who can now see and they said tell us did this sinner heal you. And the blind man says it's a famous line it's been a famous him now he says hey you know what whether he was a sinner or not what I do know is that I was blind and now I can see. And they scream out blast for me and then the blind man goes on the offensive room where he says why are you guys so worried about this do you want to become his disciple too. And they said we're disciples of Moses and what we learned of Moses is that God only listens to good people and since you are not good this man cannot have been good either and both of you are cast out. So the cast out of the synagogue the cast out of he can't go to church anymore because his eyes have been opened by Jesus he's been healed. And it's interesting because Jesus comes and finds him remember the guy never saw Jesus he just heard him and Jesus comes and finds him. And he says Jesus says to the blind man who can see he says do you believe in the son of man and blind man who can now see he says tell me who he is. And Jesus says you've seen him I am he you speak to him even now and it's as the man who was blind but can now see bowed down and worshiped him. And then Jesus said to him you know I came to make those who are blind see and those who are see blind and what do you know some Pharisees have come along and they said what about us are we blind too. And Jesus starts he got he doesn't answer them directly he just starts in this esoteric talking about sheep. Oh that's where we pick up. They said are we blind too and he's truly truly I tell you whenever Jesus has truly truly I tell you that means you're in trouble truly truly you can write that down. His truly truly I tell you basically he says there's good there's good shepherds and there's bad shepherds and he talks mostly about bad shepherds have bad shepherds they don't care about the sheep. They just sort of use and abuse the sheep to the extent that it's good for them and then when the troubled times come they leave. And he's really talking about the shepherds in Ezekiel he uses them to see exact same language of the bad shepherds. And it says that they didn't understand what he was talking about and he says I am the door for the sheep. I'm the only way to get in. They still didn't understand and so finally he just comes out and blurt it out. Who is the good shepherd? I am the good shepherd. I'm not just a shepherd I am the good shepherd the one in Ezekiel the one God said I will come and heal my own and I will blind up the one. That's me I'm him and let me tell you what the good shepherd does. He says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. There are several huge points to get out of that for one a decent shepherd a relatively responsible shepherd might risk his life for his sheep. Right the bear or wolf comes he might sort of step out there and try and fend him off but as soon as it gets hard and if it came down to the sheep for the shepherd what would the shepherd do? You know what I can lose a sheep but I'm not going to die over this thing. So a relatively good one might risk his life but Jesus doesn't say that. He says I'm the good shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep. That I actually give my life for the sheep that's how much I care about my sheep I give my life for them. And the other important thing to hear to notice here in this text is Jesus says four times in this text I lay down my life. I lay it down I lay it down I lay it down I lay it down. What's his point? What was point among other things is he always says I lay my life down on behalf of someone else. In other words when Jesus went to the cross and he died it wasn't only to be an example. You've often heard that the Jesus was just a great example of good moral teaching or that Jesus death in the cross was a great example of sacrifice. Sacrifice for what? Example of what? There wasn't even an example of love unless it accomplished something. And what Jesus says is I lay down my life on behalf of others. The principle here is substitution. Right at the core of the gospel is this idea of substitution that one person lays their light down on behalf of someone else. I was watching when I was in seminary I used to watch Abby our oldest daughter in the mornings. Well Judy would work and I used to watch the filled on in your show when it was still on. And I used to love just watching watching him lose it right. And one during one show I remember I think the man's name was Henry Watson. He had a guest on his name was Henry Watson and he was a guy who had broken into someone's house while he was on drugs and he had killed the woman in the process. And then five years later he had been pardoned and was now working in rehabilitation program for the state of Connecticut. And of course the whole program revolved around the injustice of his pardon. Right? The daughter here would say you know see you're telling me that you just walked Scott free. And he said yes that's what happened I got I was pardoned and someone stood up everyone was livid that he would be pardoned. And someone stood up and said you still have to face God. And Henry Watson said something that was that was so beautiful. He said you're right and that would be frightening because God doesn't pardon anybody in the crowd screaming that's right. And Henry Watson's right you know God doesn't pardon anybody. There's no such thing as a pardon. What do I mean by that? There's no such thing as a pardon because what a pardon does like with Clintons all this scandals. What a pardon does is it just lets people off and justice isn't served. That's what everyone's angry about them because there's no justice in the Bible. What you don't see is pardon what you see is substitution and that's what Henry Watson told the crowd. He said it would be frightening because God doesn't pardon anybody but what he does is he provides a substitute. You see I deserve the justice of God but Jesus took it for me. He said that on the dawn of his show made people even more angry but nonetheless I liked it. And that's the principle that Jesus is laying out here. God doesn't pardon anybody that someday all of us will face up to the justice of God and we will either bear it in our own beings or we will point to Jesus and say he bore it for me. And it's your choice. Is Jesus your shepherd? It's interesting because at the end of this chapter people come to us after all of this language. The Pharisees come back to Jesus again at the end of chapter 10 and they say would you please quit being so evasive with us. Would you please just tell us are you the Christ or are you not? And Jesus says you know what? You guys don't get it. And they said why don't we get it and he said because you get it the reason you don't get it is because you're not my sheep. Because if you're my sheep you don't understand. And of course they picked up stones to stone him. Right. How do you know you're Jesus sheep? You know you're Jesus sheep if you've trusted him. And you've trusted him because that means he's sought you. And the reason he seeks you is because he is the only shepherd. There are not many shepherds. There's one shepherd. Jesus is the only shepherd. You see first of all he's the good shepherd. He substitutes his life. He lays it down on behalf of his sheep. And there's a lesson in there by the way for under shepherds, for elders and not only for elders but for every Christian. Right. That what it means to be an elder what it means to be a shepherd is to lay your life down on behalf of others. What that generally means is stop being selfish. Even for Christians you know one of the most disappointing things about being a pastor is not when people slander you. It's not when people cast accusation at you. It's not anyone people don't like your sermons. The hardest thing is the same thing that makes it hard to be a parent. Right. Parents don't long for their children to tell them what good parents they are. They don't long for that. They don't want pets in the back and their children. What makes a parent happy is seeing their children get along. And when they don't get along you feel somehow like you have failed. And the biggest thing that disappoints me is a pastor sometimes, not all the time, is when you see your children not getting along. And the reason the children don't get along is because they have ceased to lay down their lives for each other. The extent that they've ceased to lay down their lives shows you the extent to which they don't understand that Jesus has laid down his life for them. So not only see the good shepherd, but he's the only shepherd. Listen to what he says in verses 14 and 16. He says again I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me. Even as the father knows me and I know the father, I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one shepherd. How do we know from this passage that Jesus says the only shepherd? It's because he uses some interesting language here. He ties two things together and he implies something but he doesn't come right up and say it. He says on one hand I know my sheep and my sheep know me. On the other hand he says I know the father and the father knows me. And what is the implication there? Jesus knows the sheep, the sheep know Jesus, God knows Jesus, Jesus knows God that somewhere in the middle Jesus takes God in sinner and joins them together. But the sinner knows Jesus, God knows Jesus, Jesus, God meets sinner. That Jesus is the only mediator between man and God. Remember that was in first Timothy several weeks ago. There's one mediator between man and God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down his life as a ransom for all. That Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. That's because Jesus became a sheep. He was a man. Jesus was God and so having both of those natures in one person he was able to mediate. And because he is the only mediator between God and man, that means that every sheep must come to God through Jesus. And that's what he says. It's not just for the Jews, he says. Because in verse 15 or 16 he says, I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also. Remember he's talking to Jewish leaders here. And so on one hand there would be angry because he is acting as if he's God. He's this great shepherd from Ezekiel. I am the good shepherd. And then he would even make them more angry because not only does he say I am the good shepherd, but he says I have other sheep. That you guys are important, but you're not most important. I love all my children the same. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. And it is my job to go get them and to bring them in so they'll be in one fold with one shepherd. That's what the gospel does. Remember in Ephesians it says that Jesus went and preached the gospel to those who are far and to those who are near. He preached it to the Jew and the Gentile and he broke down the dividing wall to make the two into one new man. Remember Galatians, he says that in Christ there is either Jew or Greek, slave or free male or female, but in Christ all are one. And even in the book of Revelation those of you who are members have heard me talk about the vision for grace. That the city of Seattle would begin to look more and more like the city of God. Well one of the things that makes the city of God distinctive is first of all that is multi-racial and multi-ethnic and full of every different tribes hung in people group. But what makes it distinctive is that they all are reconciled. They love each other. There's a racial reconciliation in the city of God. And the only thing that can bring racial reconciliation or any kind of reconciliation is the gospel. You know Judy and I went to a home school conference a few weeks ago which I went to this thing. And anyhow while there at some point I became a little bored and began to wander around the book tables. And all the book tables frankly were not that interesting to me. You know workbooks on analogs and logic puzzles and this. And I looked across the room in one of these rooms with vendors. And I saw a small station with some odd books and there was an African American woman talking to some people. And I thought I might be interesting. And so I drifted over. And basically it was children's books about black history and Native American history and everything else. And as I looked at these books I just sort of got teary eyed. And then as I focused in a one book it was sort of a modernist painting on the cover of Africans. Not African Americans. They were still in Africa with shackles around their necks and around their ankles and around their hands. And they were standing there looking destitute and I stood there and I was just weeping. And all of a sudden this woman who is much shorter than me put her arm around me and said it's hard isn't it? And I said yeah it is. And before you knew it I wonder what people thought walking by because here you had this bald white guy weeping on the shoulders of this short motherly black woman and she was going to be alright baby. And I stayed there the whole time and just talked to her. And it was wonderful and the thing that's so beautiful about that is the only thing that can have a bald white guy weeping on the shoulders of a motherly black woman and her saying it's going to be alright is the gospel of Jesus. She said it wasn't sentimental and I wasn't guilty looking at these pictures I was broken. How could anyone treat anyone like that? And she was an angry she was loving and the only thing that can make that happen is the gospel of Jesus because the gospel preach is not not tolerance. It preaches reconciliation right tolerance is the root of tolerance is hatred you know I tolerate you but the gospel says I want to be reconciled to you. I pay your bill and Jesus the only shepherd is the one who can do that because he gets the sheep from every different fold and he brings them under one shepherd. And the beautiful thing is he's not only the good shepherd and the willing shepherd and the only shepherd but he is the willing shepherd and perhaps that's the most odd about this all. You see many of us think when we think about Jesus we think somehow that Jesus was plan B and God tried a bunch of stuff to reconcile men to himself and it didn't work so he sent Jesus down as a last resort. Jesus go down and fix something you're all the prophets screwed it up Moses screwed it up Adam certainly screwed it up you go down and fix it. And that's not what the gospel says the gospel says something different look at verse 17. Jesus was a willing shepherd he says for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it again in verse 18 no one has taken it away from me but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again this commandment I received from my father. Verse 17 sounds odd for his thesis for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life for my sheep and I take it up again as if God was basing his love for Jesus on some kind of works. Now the difference between Jesus and us is this is that God does love Jesus because he's obedient. But Jesus and God have been an eternal relationship from the before the creation of the world and before time where Jesus was life was defined by his unconditional obedience to his father and get this before the foundation of the world Jesus Jesus obedience to the father was not only defined by being obedient but by the cross. He says the father loves me because I lay my life down and I take it up remember the book of Revelation calls Jesus it calls Jesus the lamb who is slaying before the foundation of the world that before anything even came to be Jesus had already pledged his obedience and his willingness to rescue the lost sheep of God that he would go he was willing to go he volunteered to go and not only would he lay his life down for them but he would raise up from the third day for them. You see Adam was the first man who was created but Jesus was as the last Adam was the first one raised from the dead to take all those who had trust him with him that Jesus came back and he says here he says no one has taken his life away taken it away from me my life but I lay it down on my own initiative. I love reading the last few chapters of the Gospels besides seeing the cross there I love the dialogues in the last chapters especially in John because remember Jesus goes before Pontius Pilate and Pontius Pilate really is trying to be gracious he knows that Jesus is probably innocent and he keeps trying to talk to Jesus for those two chapters and he almost keeps saying to Jesus throw me a bone here help me help me out here give me some way that I could let you go give me some way that people are not going to put you on this cross. Right remember he says is it true are you the king of the Jews let's just start there and he says it is as you say and eventually Pilate says you appeal to me right I have the authority to let you go and then Jesus very very graciously says you know what you don't have any authority the only authority you have is what's been given to you that's not something you want to say to someone who's about to crucify you. And yet that's exactly what Jesus said because Jesus remember in the book of Acts it says that according to the four ordains plan of God the son of God was crucified you killed him Peter says and he was raised again from the dead Jesus knew exactly what he was getting into and once that hits you it's amazing I remember reading John Owen is a Puritan writer and he spends about in his death of death in the death of Christ he spends about 54 pages of that book talking about the curses of God. Right that the Messiah will bear that he will tread the wine press of the wrath of God and that the arrows of God's justice will become drunk with his blood it's horrifying. And I remember about page in the 50s it hit me that Jesus knew what he was getting into that he wasn't surprised that he would have to bear the wrath of God he wasn't surprised that he would have to go to the cross he wasn't surprised that he would be spat upon and scorned and bear the burden of all of our sin he willingly undertook it. And because he willingly undertook it guess what you can't earn it. It's not a cost it's not a transaction where he says I'm going to do this and you do this for me he says I volunteered for it and because I volunteered you can't earn it and that that phrase remember earn it that's where the movie saving private Ryan remember the movie that's where they screwed up it was a great movie till the end everyone else was crying because it was sad I was crying because it was so to horrifying the last line in that movie. Remember the movie saving private Ryan Tom Hanks was a ranger rangers have a wonderful history and in the history of ranger battalions the motto has always been suicide. I volunteered for this of my own accord right when I was a ranger whenever someone getting trouble or you wanted to pick on a private say you want to quit private I volunteered for this remember the movie saving private Ryan they go to save private Ryan and they get to an enemy hold out and they're going to fight the Germans. And private Ryan won't leave he says I'm going to stay here and fight with my men. So Tom Hanks says okay we'll stay with you and there's a horrible battle and there's horrible blood and guts everywhere and Tom Hanks the lead he's shot in the end and yet they win the battle and as he lay there dying remember Ryan walks up to him and basically says what do I do now. And if Tom Hanks was a real ranger he would have said suicide I volunteered for this there's nothing you have to do it's my job and instead what does he say. He looks at Ryan and he says earn this and then it's his horrible whirlwind because remember it fast forwards to a private Ryan in as an old man looking at a grave and he's weeping and he turns to his wife and says please tell me I've been a good person and she can't do it. We can't do it. Roll the credits. Life's over earn this the problem that you and I have is we look at the cross and instead of hearing Jesus say Suas Ponte we hear him say earn this and the cross by definition says you can't earn it. The cross by definition says that Jesus volunteered when you look at the cross you don't hear him say earn this what you hear him say Suas Ponte of my own accord I am here and now I offer you myself will you take it. You don't have to earn anything think about that let me pray Jesus we thank you that you have come unto us your sheep Suas Ponte of your own accord that you volunteered willingly to lay down your life only to take it up again and that you have been given authority to both lay it down and to take it up and that you also have been given the authority to forgive us and so I thank you for that. I pray even this morning you would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf that you would make us to see your substitution on our behalf and glory in it and so we thank you for this in your name amen amen.