Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Notice what Jesus says. I am not a good shepherd. I am the Good. Shepherd.
Our topic is the Good Shepherd, particularly our Good Shepherd dying for us. Welcome to the Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Jesus referred to himself as the Good Shepherd. But let's be honest, most of us aren't too familiar with shepherds, and it's easy to miss the incredible truth that our Lord is teaching. Today, on the verdict, John does a reset and takes a closer look at what it means for the Lord Jesus to be our good shepherd.
Now, let's join Pastor John Monroe for the start of a message titled Dying for Me. Thanks for joining us today as we continue this series, Encountering Jesus. We're looking at various peoples who encountered Jesus in the Gospel of John. and were never the same again. In our passage today, we hear him say, I I'm the Good Shepherd.
That sounds familiar, doesn't it? In the Old Testament, King David wrote, The Lord is my shepherd. That's Psalm 23. is probably not very flattering. But the Bible describes us as sheep.
Like sheep. We stray. We're prone to wandering. We get off track. and get ourselves into all kinds of trouble.
Wandering sheep Need a good shepherd. Have you encountered the Good Shepherd? If you have a Bible, open it to John 10 as we encounter Jesus, the Good Shepherd. If you have your Bible, let me invite you to turn to John chapter 10. John ten then verse one.
Jesus is the speaker. Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way. He is a thief. and a robber. But he who enters by the door Is a shepherd of the sheep.
To him, the doorkeeper opens a And the sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name. and leads them out. When he puts forth all of his own, he goes before them. And the sheep follow him.
because they know his voice, And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they don't know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech, Jesus spoke to them. But they did not understand what those things were which he had been saying to them. Jesus therefore said to them again, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. If anyone enters through me, He shall be saved. and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came.
that they might have life. and might have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life For the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
He flees because he's a hireling. and isn't concerned about the shape. 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.
And I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also. and they shall hear my voice. and they shall become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me.
Because I lay down my life that I may take it again. 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 twenty-seven.
My sheep hear my voice. And I know them. and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish. and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hands. I and the father I won. Here is the word of God to us. Our topic is the Good Shepherd particularly our good shepherd dying For us.
We ask this question, why do we need the good shepherd? We could say, first of all, we need the good shepherd because of the existence of bad shepherds. In that culture, A shepherd normally had the care of about twenty to one hundred sheep in his particular flock, so that meant that the shepherd knew his sheep. At night the different flocks. From the different shepherds would go into one fold, normally a walled-in enclosure, and a watchman would guard the sheep all night.
Because of wild animals that could attack, or because of thieves or robbers who could come over the wall and steal the sheep. Not all shepherds, obviously, are good shepherds. Last week, as we looked at John chapter 9, we learned of the existence of bad spiritual shepherds. Instead of caring for this man who had been blind from birth, And this man who received his sight from our Lord Jesus, the religious leaders, the false shepherds, abused the man. They threw him out of the synagogue.
There was no compassion. They were just concerned with a legalistic application of their religion. Instead of caring for the sheep, They devoured The shape. The great English poet John Milton wrote, The hungry sheep look up, and are not Fair. Many sheep looking up to be spiritually fed, but there are false shepherds who do not feed.
or lead the sheep. All of us need to be spiritually cared for. And some of you in the past may have been part of a cult or even a church where your spiritual leaders were not really concerned with you spiritually, but abused you, perhaps manipulated you, or. Use their position to perpetuate their traditions or their power or their privilege.
So it isn't surprising as we read the Gospels that the fiercest denunciation by our Lord in the Gospels. was against false shepherds False teachers, false prophets, false religious leaders. We need a good shepherd. because of the existence of of bad shepherds. We need the good shepherd because of the nature Mm-hmm.
Sheep need. a good Shepherd. Why is that?
Well, sheep are helpless animals. Sheep normally cannot defend themselves. There is a famous verbal exchange in the House of Commons In the British Parliament in London a few years ago, one politician, Dennis Healy, showing his disdain for another politician of the opposition party, Sir Geoffrey Howe. Said that to be verbally attacked by Sir Geoffrey Howe was like being savaged by a sheep. Yeah.
And the House of Commons, of course, roared in laughter. It was a wonderful put-down by a rather ruthless politician against another individual, because sheep do many things, but they never ravage. Of course not. Sheep. are helpless.
animals. As a boy, I remember being with my father in his car as we drove along a country road, and there in a field in the Scottish countryside was a sheep on his back, absolutely helpless. To my astonishment, my father stopped the car, jumped out, explaining as he went that it was important that we got the sheep on his feet. My dad explained, I don't know if it's true or not, I accepted it as a little boy, that this sheep by itself would never ever be able to get on its feet. It was helpless.
And so my dad managed to get this wretched sheep back on its feet. Sheep are helpless. animals. Defenceless. against the wolf.
against the enemy. When a sheep gets into Problems. It can hardly ever get out of that problem.
Now, the Lord Jesus says here in verse 6 that he is speaking in a figure of speech, a very obvious one, rather, because spiritually speaking, and this is not very flattering to us, but it is rather realistic. Spiritually speaking, We are like sheep. We are helpless. A ship. You see, left to ourselves, and this is rather humbling but it's very true, left to ourselves, you and I will never make it to the heavenly fold.
Left to ourselves, we will never ever get into heaven. We can't Save. ourselves. We are helpless against thieves and robbers and wolves. We acknowledge that in our world there are forces which attack us and destroy us.
evil forces, wicked forces. And they threaten to destroy us, spiritually speaking. Think of greed and selfishness and lust and lies and power and resentment and pride. And if you've lived long enough, you know that by yourself, You are powerless to overcome them. That is why we need A good Shepherd.
Sheep are not only helpless, sheep, as most of us know, also stray. Left to themselves, sheep wander. When I was practising law, we acted for clients who owned some islands in the Shetland Islands, the Shetland Islands being the most northerly islands in Scotland. And as a very young and a very inexperienced attorney, I later find out from the other lawyers why I was dispatched. I was dispatched to one of these islands to try and resolve legal problems involving sheep.
The sheep were straying, I was told, from the common grazing. Different farmers, different small crofters owned sheep, and there was this common grazing called the skaddled. But the sheep didn't like to stay in that particular grazing, and so they wandered into the little town of Hamnevo. going into the gardens, eating plants, eating flowers, making a mess and generally infuriating the good citizens of Hamnovo. And there I was dispatched to listen to the loud protestations from several large it seemed to me at the time, very large Shetland women regarding the problems of these straying sheep Holding me personally responsible because we acted for the owners of.
the land. I was only 23 or 24 at the time. I tried to appear very wise and very lawyerly, but I was never quite sure what I was meant to do. But I did realize this. that sheep left to themselves Invariably.
stray. Sheep don't keep. to where The farmer puts them they tend to stray. Because of that, Sheep needs. a good Shepherd.
We did insult you this morning to say that we also are like sheep in that regard. We stray, we're prone to wander, we're prone to get off track. We're prone to stray from the straight and narrow, to get into the ditch, to break a leg, to get into difficult circumstances. We wander from the straight and narrow path, as it were, into dangerous situations. The Bible says that's true.
One of the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, says we're like sheep. All of us. We've gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. Because sheep are helpless, because they tend to stray, they need a good Shepherd.
Notice what Jesus says. I am. not a good shepherd. I am the Good. Shepherd.
The little children. Recited Psalm 23. The Lord is My Shepherd. King David who was a shepherd boy who knew a lot about sheep. But also knew about the Lord, says the Lord is my shepherd, and because of that I shall not want.
Jesus is that good shepherd. that King David wrote about. in Psalm twenty three. C. S.
Lewis in part of the Narnia Tales in the Silver Chair writes, quote, And if you've read C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Tales, you know that Aslan is a lion and is also a picture of Christ. Quote, Aslan is a lion. The lion, the great lion.
Oh, said Susan, is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. That you will, dearies, and make no mistake, said Mrs. Beaver. If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else silly.
Then he isn't safe. said Lucy. Safe, said Mr Beaver. Didn't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe?
Course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king. I tell you. What kind of shepherd is Jesus? He's the king.
He's the king. Of love. Is he some tame person that lets us live as we like? No. In that sense, it's not safe to follow him, but in another sense, it's completely safe because he is, above all, he is a good.
Loving. Shepherd. He is the king of love, my shepherd, whose goodness fadeth. Never. He is the Good Shepherd.
That is why we need the good shepherd. We The second question is this. What does the good shepherd do according to our passage? A number of things. First of all, the good shepherd finds the sheep.
Look at verses 12 and 13. Jesus said, He who is a hireling, the hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and isn't concerned about the sheep. But the good shepherd, in contrast to the hired hand who doesn't love the sheep, the good shepherd. fines.
The shape. When the wolf comes The higher tan disappears. Ah, but this is a good shepherd, our Lord Jesus, who searches searches For that sheep which has wandered that sheep which is Lost, and in arguably one of the most famous stories in the Gospels, Jesus tells the story in Luke chapter 15 of the man who had a hundred sheep. And one of them, just one of them, was lost. That's just a one percent loss.
You say not too bad. You've got ninety-nine, but no, this shepherd, because he's a good shepherd, goes and searches, says Jesus, for the lost sheep until he finds it. In the story, we don't know how long he searched, but he searched as long as it took to find the lost sheep. and he finds the shape. Jesus said, This is why I have come.
In Luke chapter 19, verse 10. He says, I've come to seek And to save The lost. That's good news if we acknowledge that we lost, if we acknowledge that we are sheep who have strayed and we need someone to find us, spiritually speaking. And this is why Jesus comes as the bread of life to give spiritual Food. He comes as the light of the world to give us spiritual light.
He comes as the good shepherd. to find those of us who are spiritually lost. straying sheep like you and me. First, the good shepherd finds the sheep. Secondly, the good shepherd leads and feeds the sheep.
Listen to Isaiah 40, verse 11. Our Lord tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. Here in verses 3 and 4, in John chapter 10, Jesus says that He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. The Palestinian shepherds of this time went ahead of their sheep, and the sheep followed them, unlike our shepherds who go behind the sheep and tend to drive them. But as we follow Jesus, He feeds us. The children.
said in Psalm twenty-three, about her lord. He makes us to lie down in the green pastures. He leads us beside the quiet waters. Here is the good shepherd. Not only does he find us now in life, he's going to lead you.
And he's going to feed you, and as you follow him, you will get spiritual food, you'll get spiritual care. That is why he is a good shepherd and he knows his sheep.
Some of the old shepherds did actually give names to their sheep. That might sound strange to us, but To our unpractised eyes, most sheep look all the same, don't they? But to the Good Shepherd, He knows the sheep. The Good Shepherd, verse 3, our Lord Jesus, calls us. By name.
Isn't that the amazing truth? Here Not one person in the sanctuary knows the name of everyone here, but our Lord Jesus knows your name. He knows you exactly. And he calls us By name. John Mary, Bill, Susie.
That is why he is a good shepherd. He knows our name and he cares for us. You might meet someone today, and they may say their name, and you might think, I really don't care if I know you or not. Even at human level? I don't know if I'm going to make any attempt to try and remember this guy's name.
I'm really not that interested. How wonderful Let our God Nose. Your name Cares for you. As an individual, I've read of some shepherds With a care for the sheep Realizing that in their flock there are some sheep that are particularly timid. and want to be close to the shepherd.
And that shepherd has his rod, and as he's walking, he has the rod by his side, and the sheep, the timid sheep, come by the shepherd just to feel the rod and to be reassured that the shepherd Yeah. You ever had that experience in life? I'm sure many of us have. In times of difficulty In times when we may feel alone, in times when we may feel that our world is being turned upside down and we're in a downward spiral and we don't know about the future. How reassuring to know that this good shepherd not only leads us, not only feeds us, but he is always, always with us.
And from time to time, in his grace, he gives us, as it were, a little nudge with his rod. A little reassurance. An arm on the shoulder, as it were, to say, I am here. I am the good. Shepherd.
And those Who know? The good shepherd. Know his voice. Here's one of the tests. I'm asking you this morning, do you really know this good shepherd?
One of the tests is: do you recognize? His voice. From time to time I call a friend of mine in Pennsylvania. And when he answers, I only have to say hello, and immediately he says, Hi, John. I don't even have to say my name.
I'm speaking to someone hundreds of miles away. And I just say one word. And he knows my name. Why is that?
He knows my voice. He recognizes My voice. When your children or your parents or your friends call you, you don't need to formally introduce yourself, usually, do you? They know you. By your voice.
Do you know Jesus Christ by His voice? Those who belong to the good shepherd know his voice. Remember the boy Samuel, the young boy? And God speaks to him and says, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel did not recognize the voice of the Lord, and he thought it was Eli until Eli had to say to him, No, this is the Lord calling you, Samuel.
And when the Lord calls, say, Speak, Lord, for your servant here. How true it is often that we read the word of God and hear the word of God and hear the shepherd's voice. And our ears are spiritually closed. Think of all of the voices. Think of all of the opinions that you've heard this week.
Many people telling you their ideas. Did you take any time? to hear The voice. of the Good Shepherd. When he speaks, Do you hear?
His voice. That's one of the marks of the true sheep who is following the good shepherd. And for all of eternity, our good shepherd will lead us, feed us, and protect us. Listen to these wonderful words from Revelation 7 regarding a picture of the future. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore.
Nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat, for the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. What an amazing thought. That for all of eternity, this good shepherd is going to continue to be my good shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Why? Because he is a good shepherd.
This is the verdict with Pastor Jean Monroe, and the beginning of a message titled Dying for Me. Be sure to stay with us. We'll hear more from John in just a moment. Our current series is called Encountering Jesus, and we're learning from the personal encounters of Jesus what it means to have a real personal relationship with Him. As we heard today, our spiritual lives depend on our Savior's protection and provision.
even though we don't always recognize it. But perhaps you've been reluctant to put your trust in Christ. Maybe you don't understand why trusting God will make any real difference in your life as you face difficult issues. That's why John has written a guide called Trusting God in Tough Times. and today we'd love to send you a free copy of this helpful booklet.
Just go to our website at the verdict.org and request your free copy of Trusting God in Tough Times. And if you're looking for ways to impact others for the gospel, would you consider playing a part in this radio ministry by making a one-time donation? We've made it quick and easy to give through our website. at the verdict.org. Don't forget to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast.
Find us on all major podcast platforms, or visit theverdict.org. And then we also want to invite you to join us for Sunday morning worship at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the verdict. To find directions or to worship with us via our live stream online, just go to theverdict.org. And now, here's Pastor Jean Monroe with closing remarks for today's lesson.
Well, what's your verdict? Have you ever strayed in life? Turned your back on what you knew was right and did your own thing? What was the result?
Some of you may have physically left family or friends to do things your way. How did that work out? What is true is that we all have wandered from God. Praise God that Jesus is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. receive new life from Jesus.
And join me next time as we continue our study on Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
