23-0813p Transcript

Preacher: Jim Lokenbauer

(1:12) Well, good evening, everybody. (1:14) This is the conclusion to the I Am the Good Shepherd lesson.

(1:20) I think this is like the 23rd lesson in the Great I Am series that I’ve been bringing you. (1:30) So, but it’s part 18 in the book of John. (1:38) So, I’m giving you a lot of lessons on the Great I Am.

(1:45) So, let’s look at, well, first of all, we were in John 10 this morning, (1:57) looking at I Am the Good Shepherd statement that Jesus makes. (2:04) The I Am the Good Shepherd statement is a continuation of the I Am the Door, (2:09) which was in the earlier part of Chapter 10. (2:13) And this evening, I’ll bring you the conclusion.

(2:16) And we got up to verse 12. (2:20) And so, we’re going to look this evening at verse 12 and 13. (2:25) And we’re going to do, you know, a verse-by-verse for this.

(2:31) And it reads, (2:33) The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. (2:37) So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. (2:41) Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

(2:46) The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. (2:53) Jesus is still making a contrast between he and the Pharisees right here. (3:00) And they are now represented in this allegory as a hired hand.

(3:05) And the shepherds who are paid to watch someone else’s sheep. (3:08) These men don’t love the sheep or care for them. (3:13) They’re just looking for a buck.

(3:15) It’s just a job to them. (3:18) And when trouble comes, they quickly abandon the sheep to fend for themselves (3:23) and run away from the wolf. (3:26) And this is a unique allegory because it’s relevant for all times of man.

(3:32) It was relevant for them as the allegory of shepherd and flock. (3:39) And for today, it’s true against the scribes and Pharisees. (3:46) And it’s also true in our time period against false teachers, false shepherds, (3:53) and ministers of questionable, dubious integrity, let’s say.

(4:01) So, verse 14 and 15. (4:04) I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, (4:09) just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father.

(4:13) And I lay down my life for the sheep. (4:17) So in verse 14, Jesus explains the different relationship that he has with sheep (4:24) or, in reality, his church, the sheep or the church. (4:29) And then the hired hands do.

(4:33) By Jesus saying he knows his sheep means that he is intimately involved with them. (4:41) He knows their needs. He knows their wants.

(4:45) He knows their nature and their tendencies and what’s best for them. (4:49) Most of all, by knowing them means he loves them and will die for them. (4:55) And if you look ahead in verses 15 and 17, we see that know, K-N-O-W, (5:02) and love are used interchangeably between Jesus and the Father’s relationship.

(5:09) So we can apply that same knowing as being loving here in these verses. (5:15) So Jesus loves us. He knows us.

(5:19) The complete opposite relationship than the hired hands. (5:23) Jesus, sheep know him as well. (5:29) It is through Christ’s revealed word that we learn what Jesus is like.

(5:34) It is his voice that we recognize and follow. (5:38) It is to him we go to for refuge, for aid, mercy, and pardon. (5:44) It’s to him that we give thanks and praise to.

(5:48) And it’s to Jesus, our shepherd, we go to for wisdom, understanding. (5:52) And Jesus gives us without measure. (5:57) He gives us everything we need for life and godliness and knowledge and grace, (6:02) as Peter tells us in his second letter.

(6:06) Let’s look at verse 16. (6:08) I have other sheep that are not of this sheep kind. (6:11) I must bring them also.

(6:13) They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (6:19) So the other sheep that Jesus is talking about is us, the Gentiles. (6:25) The sheep pen at that time was filled with only Jews.

(6:30) And since they were the main focus of his ministry, (6:36) by order of the great commission that he gave his disciples, (6:41) they would carry the good news out to the Gentiles after they reached the Jews, (6:48) and either they accepted or rejected it. (6:52) And Jesus knew the history of the Old Testament better than anyone, (6:57) since he’s the malach berith, which is Hebrew for the angel of the covenant. (7:04) Jesus, as the second person of the Godhead, was that being.

(7:10) And I covered that in lessons long ago. (7:13) He’s the very one who gave and taught Moses the law (7:18) and gave him the history of the world from the beginning of creation (7:23) right up until that moment in time. (7:27) So Jesus knew all about the promises made to Abraham (7:30) because he knew the law, and as Yahweh, (7:36) he’s the one who actually made the law as the angel of the covenant.

(7:42) So he was that being on top of the mountain (7:45) where the Shekinah settled over with its lightning and trumpet blasts and fire (7:51) and rumblings and earthquakes that terrified Israel. (7:59) And this same person now is in the flesh as the Christ. (8:07) And so he knows all these things.

(8:09) That’s how he can intimately know us. (8:12) He knows everything. He’s God.

(8:15) So praise be to God for loving even us Gentiles (8:19) to include us in receiving the blessing that was to come to the whole world (8:25) through Abraham’s seed. (8:27) And that’s the Christ, the third promise to Abraham. (8:30) So Jesus was saying that the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, (8:35) would become one flock or one people as the church of Jesus.

(8:42) And he is their shepherd. (8:47) So Paul emphasizes this point in the Galatian letter (8:52) in chapter 3, verses 26 through 29. (8:56) And this is going to show the oneness of the people.

(9:03) He says, (9:03) For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (9:08) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (9:13) There is neither Jew nor Greek.

(9:16) There is neither slave nor free man. (9:19) There is neither male nor female. (9:22) For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

(9:26) If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring (9:29) and heirs according to the promise. (9:34) So we have this oneness. (9:38) No one person in the Lord’s church is above another.

(9:42) The way God sees us is we’re all his children. (9:47) We’re all his sheep. (9:50) If you look at today’s culture, today’s political culture, (9:56) they’re all about dividing the people, gender politics, color politics.

(10:08) They’re all, you know, splitting people apart. (10:13) What word am I looking for? (10:16) Something identity. (10:19) Tom? (10:21) We’ve talked about this.

(10:23) Anyhow, the culture today splits people up. (10:29) It’s all about division. (10:31) And with division, there’s no unity.

(10:34) Well, in God’s church, that’s taken away. (10:38) There’s no black man and white man. (10:41) There’s no female and male.

(10:44) There’s no Gentile, I’ll read here in the text, but Gentile and Jew. (10:51) We’re all one, and that’s how we should see each other. (10:57) We are all children of God.

(10:59) We are all children of faith. (11:00) We are all children of Abraham. (11:03) We’re all children of promise.

(11:06) And the way we get into Jesus' fold is to have faith in him, (11:11) faith that trusts God by obeying his commands, (11:16) like to be baptized in order to put on Christ. (11:20) We are all equal in the Lord’s church. (11:23) All barriers between us have been removed, (11:27) and we are now one family with our Holy Father in heaven (11:31) and Jesus Christ our brother and head of his church.

(11:35) Have you ever considered what heaven’s going to be like? (11:42) Do you think there’s going to be a section over here for the women (11:47) and a section over here for the men like they had in the synagogues? (11:52) Or in the 40s and 50s, do you think there’s going to be a section back there (11:59) for the black people while the white people sit up close? (12:05) Heaven forbid. (12:07) Do you think there’s going to be Jews and Gentiles sitting next to each other? (12:12) Yes. (12:15) That’s the beauty of God’s kingdom.

(12:19) We’re all one. (12:21) And if everybody had that attitude, when we look at each other, (12:26) we just see an equal, you know, a brother or a sister. (12:33) It’s that simple.

(12:35) We don’t have to be split apart like today’s politicians try to do, (12:45) because if they can divide us, they can conquer us. (12:49) Isn’t that how Satan operates? (12:52) Let’s split that church. (12:54) Let’s cause division.

(12:56) Let’s cause trouble between people (12:58) so we have no titles that would elevate us over one another. (13:11) We’re all sheep. (13:12) That’s why Jesus calls us his brothers.

(13:18) And in Ezekiel 34, 31, he says, (13:23) You, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, (13:28) says the Lord Yahweh. (13:30) So in the Lord’s eyes, we’re all sheep. (13:37) Okay.

(13:38) Verse 17. (13:40) The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life (13:44) only to take it up again. (13:47) No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

(13:52) I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. (13:57) This command I receive from my father. (14:01) Jesus is loved by God because of his love and dedication (14:05) to the plan of man’s salvation.

(14:09) Jesus willingly and out of love would go to the cross (14:14) as an atoning sacrifice, suffer greatly, (14:19) and actually have a physical death on that cross. (14:31) And he did that to redeem us, we who are guilty. (14:36) And so if we put our faith in him, (14:39) God will apply that blood of his to us, cleansing us.

(14:48) If we die in like manner as he did, as we see in Romans 6, (14:55) that’s through baptism. (14:58) Our death and burial and resurrection, (15:03) going down and into the water and coming up a new person. (15:11) Jesus had the power and authority from God to lay down his life (15:17) and the authority to raise it up again.

(15:22) Evil men didn’t take it from him. (15:27) Jesus lovingly obeyed and commanded the command (15:30) from his heavenly father to go to the cross. (15:35) This was a prearranged agreement made before time began.

(15:40) This atoning sacrifice is available for all mankind. (15:50) But as we’re going to see, not all will believe in Jesus as their savior. (15:56) By choice they reject him.

(16:00) In the latter verses of chapter 10, (16:03) many of them still rejected the Lord (16:07) even after seeing amazing jaw-dropping healings. (16:14) Like in chapter 9, the man who was born blind (16:18) being given brand new eyes to see. (16:25) So this is kind of a good point to explain the big picture (16:30) in hope of giving us a better understanding and appreciation (16:35) of what Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and God have done for us.

(16:41) Before there was a physically made world, the world we know, (16:45) and perhaps even before there was a created spiritual world known as heaven, (16:52) God existed in some other realm where it was he, the Spirit, and his Son, (16:59) the Trinity, or God as we know it. (17:03) And we do not know what that realm was like (17:06) because God didn’t reveal it to us in his word. (17:10) That’s the only way we could ever find out.

(17:14) So it is one of those secret things that God talks about in Deuteronomy 29. (17:19) It doesn’t pertain to us. (17:23) But anyhow, we probably wouldn’t understand it if he was to explain what it was.

(17:31) It was in a realm in which the Trinity decided to create life. (17:39) And this creation would be for their good pleasure, Paul tells us. (17:47) They came up with a plan that would showcase their love.

(17:52) God is love. (17:54) And so that is the motivating factor that God does everything by. (18:01) The object of their love is their creation, and out of it, it’s free will.

(18:09) Out of our free will, we willingly love him back. (18:15) And that’s what the Creator’s hoping for. (18:18) The Creator would love, obey, and worship the Creators.

(18:24) God knew that with a free will to choose whether to obey his commands or not, (18:31) that we would sin and not be able to pay the price of the penalty for sin, which is death, (18:37) and there would be a need for a Savior. (18:40) So even before time began, they arranged for someone to be a Savior, (18:46) and that was the second person of the Godhead. (18:51) God would be the sacrificial lamb.

(18:56) By this, God would display the beautiful qualities of his nature. (19:03) And we see that in the allegory of the Good Shepherd. (19:08) All of creation would see their love, their mercy, grace, compassion, pardon, gentleness, (19:15) patience, kindness, humility, care, and intelligence.

(19:23) Yes, intelligence. God outthinks everyone. (19:28) This plan that was thought up before anything was made took great planning, great forethought, (19:34) great composure and restraint to carry it out over the millennia (19:39) without the enemies of God foiling the plan.

(19:45) So being infinitely powerful and imaginative, they created two worlds, (19:52) an eternal spiritual world not bound by time in which they would dwell, (19:58) and a physical world made up of matter that was bound by physical and natural laws and time. (20:06) The second figure of the Godhead was the main creator, Jesus. (20:12) Scripture credits him as having created all that there is.

(20:18) The Godhead together created two forms of intelligent life that were fashioned after themselves. (20:25) They made spiritual beings of various types, angels, cherubim, seraphim, to name a few. (20:31) So, like I mentioned before, what is heaven going to be like? (20:36) We have to get along with our minor differences.

(20:41) Because when we get up there, have you read some of the descriptions of the beings that are up there? (20:48) Multiple sets of wings with eyeballs all over them. (20:55) What would you call that? Certainly not a man. (20:59) But it’s one of God’s loving beings that worship him and carry out his will, just like we’re supposed to.

(21:14) So both spiritual and physical beings were all given free will. (21:19) Man is a three-part being, body, soul, and spirit. (21:24) And we can’t go to the physical realm, but those in the heavenly realm (21:29) can certainly come here and do.

(21:32) They visit man, they help man. (21:34) That’s part of most of their jobs, is to carry out God’s will, helping man. (21:39) In my last lesson, we covered that pretty well.

(21:45) So, it didn’t take long for some of the created beings of both realms (21:51) to make bad choices with their free will. (21:55) And they had to pay the penalty for disobedience to his commands. (22:01) All beings in heaven and on earth will make choices that determine their allegiance to the Creator.

(22:09) Bless you. (22:14) So because all intelligent beings have this free will, (22:19) it was going to become a battle of good versus evil. (22:22) Because those of the spiritual realm that saw God in person, not having to have faith, (22:30) theirs was their reality, they got kicked out of heaven.

(22:35) And they’re on a time schedule to try and spoil as many of us as they can before Christ’s second return. (22:49) Some say that one-third of the angels in heaven abandoned God and followed Satan. (22:54) And we know what their end will be.

(22:57) All of mankind has sinned except Jesus. (23:02) He’s the one and only human who has not sinned. (23:06) And that made him the perfect candidate to be a human sacrifice (23:13) that would take away sin once and for all.

(23:17) A one-time offering. (23:20) And we know all of this to be true in regard to the plan of salvation that was made from the beginning of time. (23:27) Listen to these words from the Bible.

(23:30) John 17, 24. (23:32) This is Jesus in the upper room on the night he was betrayed. (23:38) Shortly before he was betrayed, and this is his prayer, part of his prayer to God.

(23:44) He says, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, (23:51) that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. (23:59) So Jesus, in his final prayer with his disciples in the upper room on the night he was betrayed by Judas, (24:06) said that his desire and the object of his love was to have those who believed in him to be with him in heaven (24:15) to see the glory he had from the beginning, before the beginning of creation, (24:22) to see him as the holy second figure of the Godhead. (24:28) That’s pretty cool.

(24:31) So in Ephesians 1, verses 3-5 it says, (24:36) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (24:39) who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (24:46) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, (24:51) that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, (24:56) having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his desire. (25:08) This is God’s great desire. (25:11) This is the whole point of creation.

(25:16) God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Spirit got together and wanted to create a world in which they can enjoy loved ones. (25:30) Loving them, and them loving their children, and we worshiping and praising them. (25:39) That’s their whole joy.

(25:42) That’s what they want. (25:45) And the least we can do is love them back, be obedient, enjoy, appreciate, and be thankful for the salvation we have. (25:57) Again we see that it was God’s good pleasure and desire to have a people to call his very own in heaven with him.

(26:07) We have God being praised by Paul here for the plan of salvation. (26:10) And those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are the elect, those who are chosen to become children of God, (26:20) being adopted into his family for all eternity. (26:24) So I want to finish this chapter out.

(26:29) So let’s look at John chapter 10, and we’re going to read 22 through 42. (26:44) And after Jesus had given his dissertation here on being the good shepherd, the crowd once again is stirred up. (27:00) In verse 19 it says, a division occurred again among the Jews because of these words.

(27:05) Many of them were saying, he has a demon, and it’s insane. (27:10) Why do you listen to him? (27:11) Others were saying, these are not the sayings of one demon possessed. (27:16) A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he? (27:22) At that time, the Feast of Dedication, which is Hanukkah, took place at Jerusalem.

(27:29) It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. (27:34) The Jews then gathered around him and were saying to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? (27:42) If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. (27:45) Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe.

(27:51) The works I do in my Father’s name, these testify of me. (27:56) But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. (28:01) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, (28:09) and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

(28:17) My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, (28:22) and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (28:26) I and the Father are one. (28:32) The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

(28:35) Jesus answered them, I show you many good works from the Father, (28:40) for which of them are you stoning me? (28:44) The Jews answered him, for good works we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, (28:50) and because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. (28:54) Jesus answered them, has it not been written in your law? (29:00) I said, you are gods. (29:02) If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, (29:09) do you say of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, (29:15) you are blaspheming because I said, I am the Son of God? (29:19) If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me, (29:23) but if I do them, though you do not believe me, (29:27) believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, (29:34) and I in the Father.

(29:37) Therefore they were seeking again to see them, and he eluded their grasp, (29:42) and he went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, (29:47) and he was staying there. (29:50) Many came to him and were saying, while John performed no sign, (29:54) yet everything John said about this man was true. (29:58) Many believed in him there.

(30:02) So Jesus, through great miracles, should have proven to them that he is the Son of God. (30:12) And they saw those miracles. (30:15) They saw the man whom they saw begging every day in front of the temple, (30:20) who had no eyes in his sockets.

(30:25) He was born blind. (30:28) And they saw him standing, praising God, beautiful bright eyes, (30:35) being able to see the Savior and praising his name. (30:40) And yet they didn’t believe.

(30:44) We have a great God. (30:46) We have a great Savior who is our Shepherd. (30:51) And before we are admitted into heaven, (30:57) we have our final view of the Good Shepherd’s work, (31:02) and it’s on Judgment Day.

(31:04) So let’s read our lesson’s final scripture reference here. (31:08) It’s in Matthew 25, verses 31 and 34. (31:42) Then the King will tell those on his right, (31:45) Come, blessed of my Father, (31:47) inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

(31:54) These are words every Christian desires to hear one day. (31:59) The Good Shepherd welcoming us into heaven. (32:03) I say to you, keep the faith.

(32:06) Don’t give up. (32:09) Remain faithful. (32:11) All right, now we extend the invitation.

(32:14) If you have any need, we encourage you to come as we stand and sing the invitation song.