John 10:11-21

If you have your Bibles, turn

with me, or you can look on the screen to

the Gospel of John, chapter 10,

verse number 11.

We looked at the first

10 verses of this 10th chapter, the last time we were here.

You kind of put your memory banks in play.

You remember that there is an incredible word

picture that Jesus painted

in this section of John 10.

And then we're going to continue with this word picture

today in our text.

I want you to remember the setting first.

We're still with the same group of people that

were around Jesus at the end of chapter 9.

Remember the blind beggar?

He is no longer blind, because

Jesus has healed him.

Then there were the disciples.

Then there were the Pharisees,

and there were others in the crowd.

Now, also remember this.

There's no break in

this scene between chapter 9 and 10.

They put a chapter break in there, but this is still within

the same context, the same scene.

And last time, we saw how Jesus used shepherding

in this great word picture, which,

as you remember, would have been extremely familiar,

to all of the Jews of that day, to whom Jesus was speaking.

Not only were the hills around

Israel filled with sheep and shepherds,

remember that in the Old Testament, God himself,

is referred to as a shepherd, many

times, and I showed you many of those quotes, maybe the famous Psalm

23, The Lord is my what?

Shepherd, right?

And we looked at a lot of those.

We also saw last time that Jesus

launches into

this description of

how it is, that a good shepherd conducts his life.

Verse number 6, look there, called

this discourse, look inside that verse, a

figure of speech.

You see that phrase?

It's a brilliant

word picture.

It's deep in its theology,

and it really, what it also does, is it makes this

strong contrast between the true shepherd

and the false shepherds that are standing right

there in front of Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees.

You will remember that we studied about how a

shepherd of that day was responsible

for his own sheep.

He knows his sheep, remember.

He brings them in and out of that sheepfold

that was in every town in Israel.

And remember, the shepherd calls

his sheep by name.

Remember, they gave names to them, even like we give our pets.

And the sheep know the shepherd's voice.

And we also learned that while the sheep were

in the fold at night, sometimes thieves

and robbers may try to come in over

the wall to still steal the sheep, or even kill the sheep.

So there had to be that night watchman.

that we talked about to protect the sheep while

the shepherds were sleeping to get ready for the next day.

And as Jesus painted this picture,

including how the sheep

would never follow the voice of a stranger,

when we got to verse 9, we

saw the theology come out.

very straightforwardly.

Look in verse 9 where Jesus says, I

am the door.

If anyone enters through me,

He will be saved.

Now, without going back over to every detail,

you can go back and watch that sermon online, if you

want the details of that, if you missed it, you will remember that all

of this picture is a

picture of salvation.

It's provided by the true shepherd.

These verses that we're looking at are all

pictures of the doctrine of salvation.

And unmistakably, reformed

theology is on display here.

The divine shepherd has

his own sheep.

This is not everybody in the world.

This is his own sheep.

They have been given to him, remember?

By the Father, they have been chosen

from before the foundation of the world.

And he knows them all by name.

He alone also has the

right and the authority to call them out.

He calls them by name.

They know his voice, they follow him,

and they will never follow a stranger.

The elect Jews, he calls out of Judaism.

And the Gentiles, he calls out of the world.

And what we studied last time, theologically,

out of the text we looked at were the doctrines

of irresistible grace, the effectual call, and regeneration.

That's what Jesus is talking about.

Now this word picture

continues in verse 11, and that's where

we want to pick it up for today.

This is where Jesus first

refers to himself as

the good shepherd.

So let's read together our text for today versus 11

through 21.

Jesus says, 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 he is not concerned about the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

And I know my own, and my own, no 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 fault.

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 laid down my life so

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.

A division occurred again among the

Jews because of these words.

Many of them were saying, he has a

demon, and is insane.

Why do you listen to him?

Others were saying, these are not

the sayings of one demon possessed, a demon

cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?

We'll stop it right there.

For today.

So here in this text, Jesus

explains for us.

How he fulfills the identity

of the good ship.

He is.

The good shepherd.

Another reason Jesus launches into

this particular figure of speech is because the religious

leaders of Israel at that time, during those days,

they were known as the shepherds of Israel.

That's what they call the Pharisees, the scribes.

But as we know, they were false shepherds.

And so he distinguishes between

the false leaders and himself.

They were blind.

They were absolutely spiritually

blind to the truth of God, though they

thought they knew it.

They couldn't lead anybody anywhere because they

didn't see where they were going themselves, spiritually speaking.

They are

false leaders.

They are strangers, not shepherds.

They are like the hired hands in

verses 12 and 13 who do what they do for money.

And Jesus says, they have no real concern for the sheep.

They are like the thieves and the robbers of

verse one who only want to fleece and to kill.

Jesus was talking about them, in

contrast, to himself.

Now, did they understand that that's what he was doing?

No, they didn't, because look at verse 6.

They did not understand what those

things were, which he had been saying to them.

Remember from chapter 9.

He told him.

Whatever I say, you don't understand.

And he even went so far in

that chapter to say, because I tell you the truth.

You don't understand, because you

are of your father, the devil.

Who is a liar.

And the father of lies.

Now, it's hard for me to illustrate

the intensity of Jesus saying

those words to the religious leaders of Israel.

The only thing I can think of is, in a modern day equivalent,

Imagine Jesus on CNN with a panel of rabbis.

And they're discussing the differences between Christianity and Judaism.

He says, you are of your father, the devil.

Can you imagine?

Well you think that clip would go viral?

I think it would.

So, this word picture is

designed as an illustration, not

only of the good ship, but also

an illustration of the blindness of

the false shepherds.

That's how Jesus, the master teacher taught.

He's just constantly teaching multiple things all the time.

So this word picture is designed as an illustration.

And these false leaders, these thieves, these robbers,

these strangers, these these hired hands.

They have nothing in mind.

But protecting themselves.

They were all about themselves and their money and

their position and their status.

They're not about to risk their lives

for the sheep as we're going to read in this text.

They want the money, and if need be, They'll

become thieves and robbers to get it.

They are strangers, again, they are not

shepherds.

But the true shepherd, however, is

described here as one who loves

and cares for the sheep,

and nourishes and lives and dies,

if necessary for the sheep.

And the true chief shepherd.

Is Jesus.

He's the true chief shepherd of the church.

I'm not the true chief shepherd of the church.

God help us all if that were the case, right?

I'm just a lowly under shepherd.

That's all that I am.

So let's work our way through these verses.

And I just want to mention, this is the 4th I am.

in the Gospel of John.

And as we've studied, these are claims

to the deity of Jesus, the

Godhood, of Jesus, the fact

that he is the only God man,

the only God man who has or

will ever exist, is Jesus.

He says, I am the way the truth and the life.

He says, I am the resurrection and the life.

He says, I am the door.

I am the good shepherd.

All of those are affirmations of the deity

bound up in each

of the IM statements that we find here in the Gospel of John.

So let's start with the 1st phrase in verse 11.

Look at it there with me.

I am the good shepherd.

Then notice he repeats it again right after that.

Notice, the good shepherd.

So that phrase good shepherd right there is repeated back to back.

And before we move forward, we have to recognize the construction

here in the Greek, there's a reason why he does this.

The emphasis here from

the Greek is, I

am the shepherd, the good one.

As if to say, in

contrast to all these bad ones standing right here.

I am the shepherd, the good one.

There are 2 words in Greek for good.

The 1st one, Agathos means just a

standard moral goodness.

But there's another word in the Greek

for good, kaos, and that word

means, to be good, not

only in the sense of being, morally good,

but it expands to mean, to be magnificent.

To be excellent on all levels,

to be beautiful and attractive.

And that's the word used right here

with the good shepherd.

Jesus is the good shepherd, the excellent

one, the magnificent one.

He's not just another shepherd.

He is the shepherd.

The good one.

The one who is preeminently excellent

above all other shepherds that have ever existed.

Now, the Jews had an idea.

about who was the best shepherd.

For them, it was Dave.

The shepherd boy who defeated Goliath.

became the king of Israel.

David in their minds was

their great shepherd historically.

But remember back in John chapter

5, jog your memory banks.

Jesus claimed to be greater than Moses.

And then in chapter 8, he claimed

to be greater than Abraham.

And then he said, Before Abraham was.

I am.

And here, he's a shepherd.

Greater than any shepherd, including David.

So just try

to grab hold of the fact that

these are some unbelievable claims to

make before these Jewish religious leaders, to say you're

better than Moses, to stand in front of them

and say, you're better than Abraham, and you're better than David,

and to say that you are, I am?

That your God?

And you're from Nazareth?

That's Joseph's boy.

What in the world?

Listen to me now, carefully.

That is why his claims

that he made like this had to be backed

up with miracles.

That's the reason.

The primary reason for the miracles was not to heal people.

That was the byproduct.

The primary reason was to establish

who Jesus is.

Do you think that we would be talking about

Jesus today, at all, in

any regard, historically, if he had never done any miracles?

No.

We wouldn't namely, his rising from the dead.

No, we would not be discussing him at all.

He would be, as Ben Shapiro

described, just another religious revolutionary

who got himself killed on a Roman cross.

That's all it would be.

And we wouldn't even remembering that far.

We wouldn't even remember him, period.

Thousands of people were crucified in those days.

Now, his true goodness

as a shepherd.

It's seen in three ways that

I want to show you in this passage.

The true good shepherd is marked by...

Three particular ministries

that he has to his sheep.

Number one, he dies for them.

Number two, he loves them.

And number three, he unites them.

So let's look at the first one.

Go back to verse 11.

Jesus says, I am the good

shepherd, the good shepherd,

lays down his life for the sheep.

Now, try to remember back from last time.

Shepherds were completely responsible for their sheep.

It was a serious business.

And this was a man's man kind of job.

Shepherding.

And it was also a low, humble kind of job.

It was unskilled.

It was high risk, messy, dirty,

but the shepherd was absolutely fully

responsible for every one of the sheep that he tended to.

If anything went wrong, the shepherd had to

produce proof to the owner that it was not his

fault due to the dereliction of duty, or rustling

sheep away for his own keeping, or whatever the case might

have been, in Amos, look at Amos chapter 3, verse

12, uses the shepherd as an

example to make his point here, where he says, within

this verse, just as the shepherd snatches

from the lion's mouth, a couple of legs

are a piece of an ear.

Let me tell you, that was real.

They had to battle.

Wolves, mountain lions,

even bears, on some occasions.

Scripture says David fought off a lion and a bear.

And the law was laid down in Exodus

22, if a sheep was torn into pieces,

while the shepherd was battling with the animal?

Then guess what?

The shepherd had better bring a piece, a

leg, a thigh, a wing, something, to back to the owner.

Okay?

To prove,

Hey, I fought for this.

So there was total accountability to

the owner for the shepherd.

The most natural thing that he did was to

risk his life in his work.

That's what they did.

And yet, I mean, there were long periods

of time where they were just sitting out there in the grass, you know, got

a piece of straw in their mouth, just checking them out, nothing's happening.

But when the danger came, and it did on

a regular basis, the shepherd had to

be the protector.

There's an old book called The Land of the Book.

It's a historical look at Israel, and

in it there are graphic accounts of savage

and desperate fights between shepherds

and wild beasts.

And then also you had to deal with the thief and the robber.

The faithful shepherd often would put his

life in his hand to defend his flock

and sometimes they die doing this.

That was his job.

A shepherd who was doing what he should.

He never hesitated to risk his own life.

And guess what?

It was voluntary.

Nobody forced anybody to do this work of shepherding.

It wasn't a job that anybody was forced to do.

They chose to be shepherds.

That's why Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, the good

shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He voluntarily.

voluntarily laid down his life.

Skip down to verse 18.

Just for a second.

Look at what Jesus says about his own life.

No one has taken it.

away from it.

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.

So freely, voluntarily,

Jesus gave up his life for the sheep.

And somebody might say,

Well, that's no big deal, man.

What you making a big deal about that?

He's God, and he took on a body, and he just gave up that body.

Well, let me tell you the word for life right here.

is more than just about the body.

It speaks of the whole person,

body and soul, not just the outside.

But the inside.

That which makes us human, designated

away from the animals.

We have souls.

He didn't just feel the pain of the nails.

And the thorns.

And the scourging, and the getting punched

in the face in his body, he

felt those things, and they were terrible, but the

whole of his person, his soul took

on sin bearing for all who believe.

anguish and suffering

in a way that is quite unimaginable

to us in his substitutionary

atonement on the cross.

Matthew chapter 20, verse

28, Jesus said, just as the son of man did not

come to be served, but to serve and

to give his life a ransom for many.

The Greek word for life, there is the same as here in John 10:11.

He gave his soul.

He gave his whole person.

And he felt it.

in every part of his being.

And why did he do that?

Well, notice again, verse 11?

He says, for the sheep.

Oh, that's strong in the Greek.

On behalf of, for

the benefit of, it's the same word Paul uses

in 2 Corinthians, where he says, he who knew no

sin became sin for us.

Same Greek word, which is used in a lot of patches, is

that speak about the substitutionary atonement

of Christ.

Jesus literally took our place.

He died church for us,

believers in an actual atonement

for every person who comes to saving faith in Christ.

And let me tell you, it's pretty narrow.

He laid down his life for

the sheep.

The sheep that he knew.

The sheep that who,

when he called, know him when he called.

He did it for the benefit of the sheep only.

Now, from a natural standpoint,

if this happened to the regular shepherd.

The sheep would be toast after that, right?

I mean, they'd be eaten or stolen or killed, the shepherd's dead.

Doesn't work that way with the true good shepherd.

As Vert 18 makes clear.

Because he had the authority to

lay down his life, he had the authority to

take it up again, and he did on the 3rd day.

On the 3rd day, he came out of

the grave, proving that he is alone the

true good shepherd, and all that the Father gives

to him, will come to them to

him, and he loses none of them, but

he raises them all up on the last day.

So the death of the shepherd usually meant the death

of the sheep, but not in our case.

Aren't you glad?

Why did Jesus die?

Matthew 121.

And you shall call his name Jesus,

for he will save his people from

their sins.

His sheep.

It's an actual atonement only for them.

This is not a potential atonement.

Jesus didn't come to make salvation

possible for people.

He came to make it actual for

his sheep, fully and completely.

He pays the penalty in full for his sheet.

Those who he has always known throughout human history that

he is calling to himself.

Listen to me.

Jesus didn't die to make us have a

happy and fulfilled life.

He died, you will, you will have a happy and

fulfilled life full of joy, inexpressible, in peace in

your life as a by product of the fact that you have been saved.

But he died.

To save his sheep from

their sins.

That's why Jesus died.

Very unlike the hired hand.

Look next in verses 12 and 13.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who

is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and

he leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf

snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he's a hired hand, and he's

not concerned about the sheep.

The true shepherd or the owner,

and sometimes they were the same.

He cares about the sheep.

It's not just a job for him.

This is his life.

He has developed relationships.

with those sheep.

You remember Bichi, my dog?

I had such a tight bond with Bishi,

my dog, I can't get another dog.

I haven't never gotten another dog, and I never will get another

dog, 'cause there'll never be another Bishi.

That's me.

Now, some people, they go immediately go get another dog.

Look at Christie.

But I just can't do it.

No dog will be like that dog to me.

And that's how these shepherds were with their sheet.

They're loved by the ship.

But that was not true.

Of those hired hands.

According to Zachariah, They

make no attempt to gather the scattered sheep.

The world has always been full of hired hands.

This is yet another word for

the religious leaders of Israel that are standing right in front of him.

along with stranger, thieves, robbers.

And maybe it's better to be a hired hand

who runs than a being a

thief or a robber.

But guess what?

In the end, it's all the same.

The sheep become victims.

of any of these.

The flock and the world have been attacked by

these false leaders who fleece and destroy the

sheep, and they flee when the real trouble comes.

It's hard to get up.

I had much better video clips on Twitter than they do on Facebook,

and I tried, I guess, meta and X fight

one another or whatever, but I tried to, you could go click on it.

I put it on a church page, a video.

I think it was Thursday about false shepherds.

You should go watch it.

It's an important message.

Just click on the link and it should come up for you.

And who's the wolf here?

Well, that's easy.

The wolf is anything that attacks the sheep.

Anything satanic or otherwise that comes against the sheep.

There are many false pastors

and false teachers in our day.

As there have been all through history.

There are perverse men who rise

up, Acts 20 says, within the church, who

lead people astray.

And then you also have the wolves from the outside.

But Jesus, He's

the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

A hired hand is a mercenary.

No, impulse, just personal gain.

And guess what?

They are cowards when a crisis hits.

When the crisis come, whether it's an attack on

the outside or the end, the hired hand is going to only

protect himself, and he's out the door.

There's outside danger from the wolves.

There's also wolves, dressed in sheep's clothing.

Remember that?

From Matthew 7, they don't care about the sheep.

They just want your money.

But the true shepherd is the opposite, and

that leads us to the second characteristic of the show.

Relationship to this.

First, he gives his life, for the sheep.

Second, he loves his sheep, and this, of course, is

what is behind the giving of his life, is his love.

Look next, verses 14 and 15.

Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.

And I know my own, and

my own, no me, even

as the father knows me, and

I know the father, and I lay down my

life, for the sheep.

Now, this explains why he lays down his life voluntarily

for the sheep, because it says, he knows them.

You notice I emphasize that word.

So where do I get love out of all of that?

Well, notice in this verse, it's all no,

4 times here in verses 14 and 15.

He says, the Father knows me, and I

know the Father, I know my own, and my own know me.

The word for no there is more than

just intellectual knowledge.

The word for no there means a loving relationship.

This goes all the way back to Genesis, where Adam knew his wife, and they had a child.

God says in Amos, Israel only

have I known.

That doesn't mean that the Jewish people are the only people in world history

that God knew about in human history.

to know.

In all these cases is not about information that you know.

It is information, of course, about

the object, but this is more than that.

It's about love.

It's about an intimate love, relationship.

Joseph was so disturbed, because Mary was pregnant,

and he had never, what, known her, remember?

So you have to understand the context in

which the word no is used.

When Jesus says, he knows his own sheep.

It's more than just their name.

It's more than just knowing who they are.

This is a special relationship that

Jesus has with his sheep.

Now think about the contrast.

In Matthew, Jesus tells the false professors of faith.

Remember we saw it this morning, son is going,

Lord, Lord, didn't I do this?

Didn't I do that?

And he says, depart from me.

I never what?

knew you.

It is it that he didn't know who they were.

Said he didn't know them with that special,

loving relationship that he has with his sheep.

Notice again, verse 13.

He says, I know my own and my own

know me.

Now, to what degree, Do

we know him as Christians, and he knows us?

Oh, look at next in verse 14.

Even as the

Father knows me.

And I know the Father.

That is, that is incredible.

There's no higher degree of knowing that.

I know my own, my own know me, even as,

just like the Father knows me.

That blows my mind.

That leads us to the third aspect of the relationship.

The true shepherd unites his sheep.

Look at verse 16.

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.

Now, remember that I told you about the fold in verse one last time.

The fold in verse one is Israel.

The shepherd comes to the fold, and

he calls his sheep out of Judaism.

Jesus is the shepherd in the word picture.

He comes to Israel to the Jew first.

Remember?

As Paul says in Romans, and he calls them out by

name, and those who are of his sheep

out of Israel, they know his voice, and they

follow him, but he also has sheep, which are

not of the fold of Israel.

He says here, I must bring those also.

Who are they?

Well, as I said last time, they're not the South

American Indians that Jesus appeared to in South America

after his resurrection, as Joseph Smith of Mormonism says.

Jesus never went to South America and appeared to any Indians ever.

It never happened.

It's a lie.

These are the Gentiles.

Of course.

Anybody outside Israel.

Every tribe, tongue, nation, every group.

Believe me.

This is stunning and most unacceptable

for the Jews here in this on that day.

Big time.

This is more fuel for their animosity

because of how they feel about the Gentiles.

They believe that the Gentiles were permanently outside salvation,

the covenant promises of God.

But they weren't reading their Old Testament.

Right?

Let me give you an example.

Just, let's allow me for a moment.

Isaiah 42.

Messianic chapter, verse 6.

Old Testament.

God is speaking to the Messiah.

He says, I, the Lord have called you in righteousness.

I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and

I will appoint you as a covenant people as a light

to the nations, to open

blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those

who dwell in darkness from the prison.

Of course, that's spiritually speaking.

That is a messianic promise right there.

That the Messiah would take salvation to the nations.

Here, let me give you another one.

Isaiah 49.6.

Is it too small a thing that you should

be my servant talking about the Messiah?

To raise up the tribes of Jacob and

restore the preserved ones of Israel?

Israel?

Israel?

I will also make you a light of the nation so

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

They had that book.

There you go.

They had Isaiah.

That's clear.

But that's why Jesus is telling them.

He's looking right at him.

I have sheep, not a u fold.

This is why there's a great commission.

Go into all the world and preach the

gospel to every creature.

Go make disciples of all nations.

Now, we also learn here in verse 16,

They will become one flock with one shepherd,

and that's why Paul says, in Galatians, in

Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

It's done in Ephesians, the

middle wall of partition is broke down, torn down.

We're all one in Christ, Jew, and Gentile

making up one new body, the church.

We should not be confused about this.

At all.

Jesus unites his sheep.

He brings them together to himself, and

he brings them together to each other.

So that's the relation of the good shepherd to the

sheep he gives his life, because he loves them.

He brings them into unity with himself, and

one another, and now there's another relationship here.

This one is heavy.

It's that of the Good Shepherd, to the Father.

Look at verse 17 and 18.

For this reason, Jesus says, the Father loves me.

Because I laid down my life so

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, look at this, commandment

I received from my father.

Now look.

This is deep inter

Trinitarian theology.

Okay?

This is way above all of our pay

grades to fully grasp.

You understand that?

So we just have to keep it simple.

And understand this with

the ability that God does give us to understand it.

The Father gave a command.

To the Son.

I can't grasp.

The command to Jesus,

in their relationship, to lay down your

life and to take it up, you have the authority to

do that, and I'm commanding you to do that, the Father says, to the Son.

It was a command.

But no

one has taken it from me.

Not how it works with me, Jesus says.

I lay it down on my own initiative.

When I'm ready.

That's why the father loves me because

of my obedience to his command.

Folks, this is... this is beyond

profound right here.

The father chose Jesus to

be the lamb that was slain, the acceptable sacrifice.

Ultimately.

It was the father who killed the son,

the book of access by the predetermined counsel

and foreknowledge of God.

We had that raging debate.

When the passion of the Christ came out, who killed Jesus?

Well, you're anti-Semitic, if you say that the Jews

killed, Jesus, or the Romans killed.

They were just the means.

The Father, God the Father,

sacrifice God the Son on the cross.

According to the predetermined counsel and

foreknowledge of God, the book of access.

Understand the big picture, not just the means that

God used to accomplish his purpose in the cross.

But this is not fatalism.

This is not something about which Jesus had no choice.

I laid down my life, he says.

No one takes it from me.

No one.

That includes the Father.

Jesus is telling us here, this is, understand this.

This was a perfect act of willing

obedience from Jesus, and, of

course, there's mystery in this.

Of course there is.

This boggles our little pea brains,

that submission to the Father in the workings of the Trinity.

Jesus was sinless and had no capacity

to sin when he was here, and yet there really was

a real struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It was, to the point where his capillaries burst.

He was straining so

much under the anguish of what he knew perfectly was coming.

He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, and

he says, Father, if it's possible.

It's possible.

Take this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my...

Yours be done.

It was real.

He voluntarily did what

the father commend him to do.

I can't put that together with sovereignty.

I can't put that together.

I just know it's true, 'cause that's what the Bible says.

And I just say, okay.

That's right.

And that's how Jesus demonstrated

his love to the Father.

And that's why the father loves him.

He says, the father loves me.

Why, Jesus?

Does the Father love you?

Because I laid down my life, that I may take it again.

That's what the Father wanted him to do, that

was critical to the plan of redemption, to gather

the redeemed into eternal glory.

He did this voluntarily.

This wasn't something he had no choice about.

He couldn't make a wrong choice.

He's Jesus.

But at the same time, he voluntarily made

the right choice, because he always makes the right choice.

because he's the god man.

Understand?

Jesus is saying here, I had a command given to me.

From the Father, I voluntarily,

willfully obeyed that command, secured the Father's love.

If you love me, Jesus said, do what?

Keep my what?

Commandments.

It works the same for us.

Do you understand that?

That's how you affirm your love.

By doing what he says.

It's not legalism.

The outworking of true regeneration,

again, the interaction between the members of the Trinity is an

area of thought that is far bound up our

ability to comprehend, but let me tell you something.

We can grasp something up the concept when we read

the way that Jesus lays this out in the scripture.

Is anybody unclear about this?

Please, if you are, you don't want to raise your hand.

See me after church and we'll get it clear.

It's important to understand this.

And this happens especially in the gospel of John.

We find Jesus' relationship to the Father,

was one of 2 things, was 2 things.

love and obedience.

Two sides of the same thing.

The love motivated the obedience.

Folks, do you see?

That's the model for us in the way that we live the Christian life.

Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ

Jesus, who was obedient unto death,

even the death of the cross, the Father, eternally

loves the Son, the Son, eternally

loves the Father.

And some kind of,

I can say this in some kind of unique way.

The son voluntarily, willfully obeyed

the command of the Father to come here, and give up

his life as a substitute out of love for the Father.

Love and obedience.

That's the model for us.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, right?

Now, one more thing.

Final relationship that we're looking at this morning,

and then we're gonna wrap it up.

occurs in verses 19 to 21.

Look 1st at verse 19.

A division occurred

among the Jews because of these words.

Anybody in here have division

in your family because of the words of Jesus and your

understanding of those words?

Hmm, seems pretty common.

We've seen this kind of division before, back in chapter

7 and chapter 9.

And we've learned Jesus divided the

crowd, and Jesus still divides today.

There are divisions between believers

and nonbelievers, but there's also divisions

between nonbelievers amongst themselves.

And that's what you have here in verses 19 and 20.

Let's look at it.

A division occurred among the Jews because of these words.

Many of them were saying, He has a demon, and is insane.

Why do you listen to him?

Now, you know, as we've studied, John, that's been the

mantra of these leaders for a while now, people

were buying into what they were saying.

I mean, he does what he does by the power of Beelzebub.

So at one poll in the division were

the people who said, Jesus is a demon possessed lunatic.

But at the other end, look at verse 21.

Others were saying, these are

not the sayings of one demon possessed.

A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind,

can he?

Now, think about

maybe these people listen to the Sermon on the Mount, or any of them,

Jesus' teaching.

That's pretty rational after you heard Jesus preached.

Demon possessed people don't talk like this guy, right?

That's pretty rational.

I mean, demons are not even coherent.

They don't do these miracles.

So whatever counterfeit things demons do.

Hey, don't look like this, what this guy's doing.

So the 1st group, we could say, represent

the irrational blasphemers.

And the 2nd group are more rational.

But the sad thing is, they

both wind up in the same hell.

together, forever.

Because it really doesn't matter, folks.

In this short life that we get, whether

you curse Jesus, or whether you treat him

more reasonably in your thinking, that

kind of hesitation will get you nowhere with Jesus.

You either confess Jesus as Lord,

as we learn this morning, and you come to him on his terms of repentance

and faith, or you die in your sins.

And there's no middle ground.

So,

We meet the good shepherd.

He gives his life for the sheep.

He loves his sheep.

He unites his sheep.

He loves and obeys the father.

And in his relation to the world, he

is rejected by those who blaspheme him in an irrational

way, and even by those who

rationally tolerate him.

And we got a lot of those in America.

But for us, on

this Lord's death, and every day, we

will place ourselves, amongst the disciples

who were there in the crowd that day, who confessed,

you are the Christ, the son of

the living God, we confess,

as a church family here at Providence, and

I'm going to close with this, we confess,

through our church's confession of faith, the 16

1689 London Baptist confession of faith.

Let me just read you one section of what we confess together

as a church in our confession about Jesus.

It pleased God, in his eternal purpose,

to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus,

his only begotten son, according to the

covenant made between them both, to be the

mediator between God and man, the prophet,

priest, and king, head, and savior of the

church, the heir of all things, and judge

of the world, unto whom he did from

all eternity, give a people, to be his

seed, and to be

by him, in time, redeemed,

called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

That's our confession to the world without Jesus.

Let's pray.

By the way, thank you, Lord.

In the book of John.

We thank you, Lord.

For the express privilege that we get to

be right back there 2000 years ago,

in this interaction, with

Jesus and the Pharisees and the Jewish religious

leaders, through the inspiration of your Holy

Spirit, that you gave to the apostle John.

Oh, thank you, Lord.

I pray today that we would all walk out of here with

a deeper understanding of what it means, that

you, Jesus, are the good shepherd, the

good one, the true, good shepherd.

I pray, if any are here today, have not bowed the needed Jesus,

and saving faith, God, that you would use the word today.

to draw them to yourself, and as always, we pray

that every aspect.

And what we have done at your church today has been done

in such a way as to bring you maximum glory.

Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.