ARE YOU IN?
The Medal of Honor was created during the American Civil War. It is the highest military decoration presented by the United States government to a member of its armed forces. The recipient must have distinguished themselves at the risk of their own life above and beyond the call of duty in action against an "enemy of the United States" or an "opposing foreign force". Due to the nature of this medal, it is commonly presented to the person after they have died. Here are a few stories of Medal of Honor recipients from WWII.
Thomas A. Baker was a Private in the Army. In Saipan on the Marianas Islands, he advanced ahead of his unit with a bazooka and destroyed a Japanese emplacement which was firing on his company. Several days later, he single-handedly attacked and killed two groups of Japanese soldiers. On July 7, 1944, Baker's position came under attack by a large Japanese force. Although seriously wounded early in the attack, he refused to be evacuated and continued to fight in the close-range battle until running out of ammunition. When a comrade was wounded while trying to carry him to safety, Baker insisted that he be left behind. At his request, his comrades left him propped against a tree and gave him a pistol, which had eight bullets remaining. When American forces retook the position, they found the pistol, now empty, and eight dead Japanese soldiers around Baker's body.
George W. G. Boyce, Jr. was a Second Lt. in the Army. On July 23, 1944, after being ambushed by superior enemy forces, he was planning a tactical maneuver with his platoon. During this planning, a hand grenade fell in between him and his men, and he promptly threw himself on the grenade to save his men.
Richard B. Anderson was a Private First Class in the Marines in the Marshall Islands when on February 1, 1944, in a shell crater, he hurled his body on a grenade to save his companions, taking the full impact of the explosion.
These are just a few of the Medal of Honor winners of World War II. These and many more were worthy of the Medal of Honor they received for what they did during that War.
Now I cannot adequately follow that up with a story from my life but as I was growing up in my home church, I was part of a group called Christian Service Brigade. It was like a Christian Boy Scouts and the highest honor was called the Herald of Christ. In all the years my church had this program, no one had ever achieved this award. In my junior year of high school, one of my best friends and I worked through all the book requirements and the service projects to be the first in our church to become a Herald of Christ. I had been deemed worthy of that award by my pastor and my church. It was a very humbling experience.
Now maybe you can think of a time that you were deemed worthy of a promotion at work or an award at school, etc. How many remember or were a part of the Safety Patrol growing up? They wore orange belts and helped other kids cross the street and get on the bus. There were certain requirements to be on the safety patrol. A Safety Patrol member should be responsible, respectful, cooperative, and helpful. They must remain in good academic standing in all subject areas and model good behavioral choices. They were held to a higher standard and those students who wore the “belt” were deemed worthy of being on the safety patrol.
As Christians we are all held to a higher standard by God. Our purpose is that God is glorified by people for all generations and to that end we are all called to “walk worthy.” In Ephesians 4, Paul urges us “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have received.” If our purpose is to display God’s glory and God be glorified through us, then there is a particular way we need to live our lives. As Christians we do not get to act the way we want to act or do what we want to do. We need to surrender our will to God’s will and be willing to obey him with our lives. Our walk is our response to all that God has done for us. You have been called to something great and glorious. Walk worthy of it! That brings us to the first next step on the back of your communication card which is to “walk worthy of the calling that I have received from God.”
This morning we are in chapter 10 verses 1-21. Our scripture this morning is a continuation of the healing of the man born blind from birth in Chapter 9. Chapter 9 ended with the theme of judgement and in chapter 10 Jesus uses a parable to condemn the Pharisees as unworthy rulers of Israel because of their conduct toward the man born blind. As the spiritual leaders of Israel they were responsible for the flock of God but they had shown to be in grievous dereliction of duty. Greene says, “Jesus’ object in giving this parable to those opposed to him was to show them how unfit they were to be leaders and teachers in Israel.”
The background for this parable was Ezekiel 34 where Israel’s rulers are seen as false shepherds and in prophetic vision, God deposes them, seeks out his lost sheep, sets over them a shepherd Messiah of David’s line and delivers his flock from all evil. In John 10, the Pharisees are accused of being thieves and robbers, hirelings and heartless shepherds, and the veiled claim is made that in Christ’s mission God’s promise of deliverance is fulfilled. The shepherd of Ezekiel’s vision has come alive in the person of Jesus who truly cares for God’s sheep and who by his life-giving death brings them deliverance.
This morning, we will see the unworthiness of the Pharisees to be shepherds of God’s flock and the worthiness of Jesus to be the Good Shepherd. We will see that it is what Jesus does for us that makes him worthy of being our shepherd. That brings us to the big idea John wants us to understand this morning which is “Jesus is the only one worthy of being our Good Shepherd.”
Before we dive into our scripture, let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you that you created us, you know us and you love us. Though we fail you, you have never turned your back on us, you remain faithful forever. We praise you for your sacrificial love and we strive to walk worthy of the calling you have placed upon us. We thank you that you are our Good Shepherd and that you take care of us and provide for us always. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Our scripture this morning is a well-known passage in the Bible. It is called the Parable of the Good Shepherd and John paints a descriptive picture of Jesus as a shepherd of his people. Like a true shepherd, Jesus is concerned with the welfare and the care of the sheep in his flock. We see Jesus’ love for us and the qualities he possesses that make him worthy to be our Good Shepherd.
The first reason Jesus is worthy to be our Good Shepherd is he possesses the right credentials. We are starting in John chapter 10 verses 1-5. This is what God’s Word says: “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
The first thing that proves the shepherd’s credentials is he came the right way. When Jesus says, “I tell you the truth” it means to listen up because what he is about to say is important. What follows is Jesus indirectly calling the Pharisees “thieves and robbers.” They claimed to be the spiritual leaders of Israel but instead of helping souls to be saved they were robbing the people of the opportunity of being saved because they were teaching the traditions of men not the teachings of God. The Greek word for “thief” means “secret fraud and dishonesty”, and the Greek word for “robber” implies more than open violence. They were actual wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Jesus used a familiar image of the sheep pen. A sheep pen was a circular wall about 10 feet tall with a single opening that served as a door. At night, several shepherds would bring their flocks to the same pen and the gate keeper, probably someone hired to watch the flocks, would watch over them. He would lay in the opening so nothing or no one could get into the sheep pen without having to go through the gatekeeper. The next morning when the shepherds came back to gather their flocks for the day, the gatekeeper would let the shepherd in. The gatekeeper knew the shepherd and the sheep knew their shepherd as well. He came into the sheep pen the right way unlike the thieves and robbers who would have to climb the walls of the sheep pen to get to the sheep.
The Pharisees, as thieves and robbers, were self-condemned because they attempted to enter the sheepfold another way, setting themselves up as leaders with the wrong motives. Milne says, “As a result they are false shepherds whom the sheep of Christ do not recognize and from whom they will run away.” We see this is the story of the man born blind at the end of chapter 9.
But Jesus is worthy because He came into the world in the right way. He was the one sent by God to be our Messiah. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” And Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” Jesus is worthy because he was born of a virgin and born in Bethlehem as the scriptures predicted. He is worthy because he came according to God’s plan and timing. (Big Idea)
The second things that proves the shepherd’s credentials is he calls the right way. Like I said, many flocks would sleep together in the same sheep pen but when each shepherd came the next morning and called his sheep, his sheep would instantly recognize his voice and respond to him. The shepherd would call them by name and they knew and understood his call.
I found this illustration I liked. A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep. But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days. When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter. At last he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal. The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened. The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door. It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master. "His sheep knows him," said the judge. "Case dismissed!"
If we are part of Jesus’ flock, we will recognize his voice and follow him. There are many voices in the world trying to get our attention and sway us from following the one true shepherd. The voice of the Good Shepherd is the only one that can change us, give us hope and truth, and set us free. John 8:31-32 says, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus’ voice sounds right to the lost and desperate soul. All other voices sound empty and frightening.
The third thing that proves the shepherd’s credentials is he commands the right way. Verse 4 says the shepherd commands his sheep meaning he leads the sheep. When he calls them from the sheep pen he goes on ahead of them and they follow close behind him because they know his voice. He doesn’t drive the sheep forward, he goes before them and leads them to the green pastures and the still waters. Verse 5 tells us that the sheep will never follow a stranger because they don’t recognize his voice. The stranger doesn’t command the sheep the right way.
Jesus is not a dictator. He doesn’t browbeat us into submission. We love him because he first loved us and that causes us to want to follow him and to surrender our lives to him. We follow him because he has rescued us from sin and death and our response to that should be our devotion to him. We surrender our will to his because we know he has our best interest at heart and he leads us the right way. Psalm 23:2b-3, “He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”
The verbs in verse 3, opens, listen, calls and leads shows the intimacy between Jesus and his sheep. They listen for the shepherd’s voice and they follow the shepherd because they know his voice. Do you know Jesus’ voice? We can know the voice of Jesus by being in a relationship with him. This means we are daily surrendering our lives to him. It is a life of doing his will and not our own. We daily strive to follow and obey him. If you are here this morning and you don’t recognize the voice of Jesus, maybe the second next step on the back of your communication card is for you. My next step is to cultivate a life of listening to and knowing the voice of Jesus so I can better follow the Good Shepherd.
In verse 6, John stops and gives us an aside as to what was going on between Jesus and the Pharisees after he said these words. Follow along as I read verse 6. “Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.”
John tells us Jesus is using a figure of speech. The other gospels would call it a parable. This figure of speech, like a parable, was a story that was told in which the meaning was not obvious. But those who had ears to hear would have understood its spiritual truth. John tells us that the Pharisees did not understand. It wasn’t because they couldn’t understand but because they were unwilling to understand. The figure of speech Jesus was using should have been very familiar to them but by not understanding, it showed their pride, self-righteousness and their willful rejection of Jesus and his words. Jesus’ figure of speech served two purposes – it revealed spiritual truth to his followers and concealed it from those who continued to reject him.
The second reason Jesus is worthy to be our shepherd is he possesses the right character. Follow along as I read verses 7-10. This is what God’s word says, “Therefore Jesus said again, ‘Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’”
The first thing that proves the shepherd’s character is his identity or his person. Again, Jesus says, “Listen up” because what he about to say is going to be very important. Now, instead of the shepherd entering through the gate, the shepherd is now the gate. If you remember, in the sheep pen there was only one door and at night the shepherd would lay in the door to keep any predators, animal or human, away from the sheep. The predators would have to deal with the shepherd first before they could steal or drag the sheep away. The shepherd proves he is worthy because of the kind of person he is. He takes care of and protects his sheep.
In the same way, Jesus’ character is seen in his person or in his identity. He is our gate or door to God. If anyone wants to come to God they must go through Jesus. He is the only way to God. John 14:6 says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This truth is also made abundantly clear in 1 John 5:12, which says, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Jesus is the only way to God and all other ways leads to death and destruction. And Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
The second thing that proves the shepherd’s character is his performance. After a night in the sheep pen, the shepherd would lead the sheep out to find food and water. In verse 9 it says, the sheep will come in and go out and find pasture. This means the shepherd provides safety and security for the sheep as he guides them through their day. He protects them from harm and makes sure they find the greenest pastures and the stillest waters.
Jesus again says he is the gate for the sheep meaning he is the only way to God and all who enter through him will be saved. John 5:24 says, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” And Romans 5:9 says, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” Those who enter through Jesus will be rescued from God’s wrath and will spend eternity in Heaven with him. They have been saved from eternal separation from God in Hell. Jesus is worthy to be our Good Shepherd because he provides safety and security to us for eternity. (BIG IDEA)
The third thing that proves the shepherd’s character is his promise. The thief in verse 10 doesn’t enter the fold for the benefit of the sheep. He enters the fold in order to steal, kill and destroy. He doesn’t enter the fold the right way. He doesn’t call or command the sheep right way and his person and performance proves he is not the shepherd. He only comes for his own personal gain and his promise is not for the sheep’s welfare but for his own. But the shepherd cares for his sheep and promises that he will take care of them and that their lives will be better because he is their shepherd.
Jesus comes to give us life and give it to the fullest. False shepherds don’t care for the flock they lead. They only want to benefit themselves. They aren’t sent by God, they don’t call or command the people they lead properly and their promises aren’t true. But Jesus’s promises are true. We know this because his promises are for our benefit. They are not self-centered. He comes to give us life to the fullest. That is the best life we can ever have which is one that is in total submission to Jesus. He gives us the ability to love others, to love ourselves, to live a better life, to live our lives to glorify God and to do his will.
The third reason Jesus is worthy to be our shepherd is he possesses the right concern. Follow along as I read verses 11-16. This is what God’s word says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
The first thing that proves the shepherd’s concern is his sacrifice. Again, Jesus changes the characters in the metaphor and the thieves and robbers become the hireling. The difference between the shepherd and the hireling was the concern that each of them had for the sheep in their flock. The hireling doesn’t own the sheep and therefore does not care about them. He has no real attachment to the sheep and is only in it for the money. He is not necessarily wicked like the thieves and robbers, he is simply committed to his own well-being rather than the well-being of the sheep. When watching the sheep is easy, its fine but when any trouble comes such as a wolf, he abandons the sheep and runs away. He leaves them to be attacked and devoured by the wolf. He is not going to sacrifice anything for the sheep especially not his life. In the Mishnah (Jewish traditions) it laid down the legal responsibility of the hired shepherd. One provision was that if one wolf attacked the flock he was required to defend the sheep, but two wolves meant he could leave the sheep and no blame could come to him for the damage the wolf did.
But the shepherd gives his life unconditionally for the sheep. He fights for the sheep because of his great love for them. A real shepherd is born into his task. He was sent out with the flock early in life, he grew into his calling and grew up with the sheep and they became his friends. He owns the sheep which speaks to his unique passionate commitment to them. He is invested in their lives. He dotes on them, he cares for their hurts, and he feeds them and give them clean water so they can grow up healthy. Because of these things he will pay any price to keep them safe even if it means giving up his own life for them.
Jesus again is condemning the Pharisees. They are the hired hand who cares nothing for the sheep. They are the religious leaders of the Jewish people, but they were selfish and self-righteous and don’t care about the souls of their flock. Jesus knew this in Matthew 9:36, where it says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” The Pharisees were no better than the hireling.
Jesus is worthy because of his sacrifice for us. (BIG IDEA) He saw the danger humanity was in and did not shy away from that danger. That danger was sin. Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” We are like wayward sheep and that waywardness is because of our sin. Isaiah tells us that sin has separated us from fellowship and a relationship with God. Listen to those words from Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” And because of our sin we are brought under the wrath of God and if we die in our sin, Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.” What we have earned and deserved is a spiritual death which is an eternal separation from God. But the rest of that verse says, but “the gift of God is eternal life.” The gift of God was his son Jesus who came down from Heaven, born in human flesh, lived a sinless life so he could be the perfect sacrifice on the cross for our sins. When Jesus was crucified on the cross he literally took all our sin and all God’s wrath on himself and was judged in our place. By his sacrifice he put us back into fellowship and a right relationship with God.
Because of his sacrifice on the cross, he is the only one worthy of being our Good Shepherd. His sacrifice is a free gift that everyone for all time can receive. All you need to do is believe in Jesus and what he came to earth to do. Maybe you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior. You can do that right now, which brings us to the third next step on the back of your communication card. My next step is to accept Jesus as my Savior and become part of his Flock.
The second thing that proves the shepherd’s concern is his own sheep. Verse 14 and 15 speaks about the bond between the good shepherd and his sheep. The shepherd knows his sheep and they know him. Individual sheep in a flock may look the same to an untrained eye but the shepherd can tell each sheep apart just by looking at them. He knows their traits and their scars and he knows each one by their own name.
Jesus knows us intimately because he created us. In Jeremiah 1:5, God tells Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” The same goes for us. And in Matthew 10:29-31 it says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” God knows us. He knows our weaknesses and failures and loves us with and unconditional love. He knows our doubts and our fears and he is always with us and will never forsake us. He will walk through the valleys of the shadow of death with us. We can rely on our good shepherd.
The other thing is, we need to know Jesus as he knows us. That means we need to cultivate a relationship with him every day. We need to be in the word, we need to be in prayer, we need to be in fellowship with other believers. He wants to be one with us just as he is one with the Father. Jesus is the only one worthy to be our Good Shepherd because he knows us and wants to be known by us. We are special to him just as he is special to his heavenly Father.
The third thing that proves the shepherd’s concern is his salvation. Jesus says that he has other sheep that are not in the sheep pen at the present time. He will bring them into the same fold by his sacrifice on the cross. These other sheep will hear the voice of Jesus and will be one flock and have one shepherd. These other sheep Jesus is talking about are the Gentiles. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The salvation of Jesus is for everyone. He is worthy because he wants everyone in the world to come to salvation.
In verses 17-18, Jesus expounds upon his self-sacrifice which will produce the new united flock from all nations. The eternal love between the Father and the Son will be its source. Follow along as I read those verses. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to 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 authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Two attitudes define the relationship of Jesus to the Father. The first attitude is love. God loves Jesus because Jesus loved us so much that he sacrificed his own life on the cross in order to save us from our sins and an eternal separation from God. One of the reasons the Jews didn’t think that Jesus was the Messiah was because of his death on the cross. They believed that the Messiah would never be humiliated like that and it proved that God didn’t love him. But the opposite was true. God loves Jesus because he was willing to die on the cross for us.
The second attitude was obedience. No one forced Jesus go to the cross. He was not a victim of circumstance. God didn’t make him go to the cross nor did Satan force him to go to the cross. Jesus went to the cross voluntarily. Jesus showed his love to the Father by becoming obedient even to death on the cross. Love and obedience are inseparable since it is impossible to love God without obeying him.
When Jesus said “I lay down my life, only to take it up again” he is referring to his resurrection which was the ultimate demonstration that he was the Messiah. His resurrection was victory over death and sin. Jesus had the power and authority to come back to life after three days. Acts 2:24 says, “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Jesus had full confidence in God that he would not abandon him. He knew obedience to God would bring suffering, for a moment, and glory for eternity. Jesus came into the world to do the Father’s will and to finish the work the Father gave him to do. The purpose for Jesus’ death was to rise again so that we could rise again with him one day.
In verses 19-21, we see the reaction of the Jews and the Pharisees that heard Jesus’ words. This is what God’s word says, “The Jews who heard these words were again divided. 20 Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?” 21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
We see again that there is division among the Jews because of Jesus. Many of them, probably led by the Pharisees said Jesus was demon-possessed. Having already rejected Jesus they held their ground stubbornly and attributed his ministry to demons. They were coming dangerously close to committing the unforgiveable sin – blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the sustained and deliberate closing of the heart to the clear witness of the Holy Spirit. This accusation was evidence of a hardening of the heart on the part of the Pharisees that blinded them to the light of the world.
But there were some who questioned what the religious leaders were saying. They wondered whether a man possessed by demons would say the things Jesus said or do the things Jesus did, such as opening the eyes of the blind. Jesus’ words and works were the opposite of what the demons would have done. These people only said what Jesus was not but they make no attempt to say what they believed Jesus was. However, it is possible, as MacArthur states in his commentary that they had reached the same conclusion as the blind man did, that Jesus was sent from God.
I will close with this illustration: “Two men were called on, in a large classroom, to recite the Twenty-third Psalm. One was a published orator trained in speech technique and drama. He repeated the psalm in a powerful way. When he finished, the audience cheered and even asked for an encore that they might hear his wonderful voice again. "Then the other man, who was much older, repeated the same words--'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want...' But when he finished, no sound came from the large class. Instead, people sat in a deep mood of devotion and prayer. "Then the first man, the orator, stood to his feet. 'I have a confession to make,' he said. 'The difference between what you have just heard from my old friend, and what you heard from me is this: I know the Psalm, my friend knows the Shepherd.'"
“Are you in?” “Are you in the Good Shepherd’s flock?” "Do you really know the Shepherd?" “Does the shepherd know you?” If you answered “no” to those questions, what are you waiting for? Jesus calls you by name. He knows you personally. He goes before you and he leads you out. He finds you green pastures and brings you safety and security. He gives you life to the full and he laid down his life voluntarily for you. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for you. If you are here this morning and you have not accepted Jesus as your savior, what are you waiting for? Today is the day for salvation. You can be a part of the Shepherd’s Flock and my prayer is that you will not hesitate this morning to give your life to him.
As the ushers prepare to take up the offering and communication cards, let’s pray: Dear God, we thank you that you are our worthy shepherd. You prove this over and over to us. Help us to remember what you have done for us and help us to live a life totally surrendered to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.