Jesus the Good Shepherd

The Life of Jesus Christ 7b

“The Good Shepherd” Part 1

John 10

This morning’s sermon covered a lot of material: Jesus’ earthly occupation as a builder, why He chose to illustrate His life as a shephered and what made Jesus a “Good Shepherd.”  But the point I want to discuss with dialogue this evening is the principle of percentages.

Everything Jesus does is valued at 100%.  Does anyone want to give an example of this principle in the life of Christ?

·         In John 6, Jesus said, “…of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing.” And so we see that every sheep in the fold will go to Heaven due solely to the fact that the Good Shepherd WILL NOT lose His sheep.

·         In Luke 17, we read the story of the “ten lepers.”  All were healed but only 1 returned to give thanks.  Because everything Jesus does is valued at 100%, He was concerned about all 10.

·         In Luke 15.  Jesus picks asks His disciples a great question, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?”  What was His focus on in this text?

The disciples knew the value of having a complete fold… a whole flock.  Anything less than the whole family of sheep decreases the value of the sheep fold.  If every disciple of Christ at Calvary were to seek to walk in the Lord 100%, imagine the joy of the Lord in our church. Would you agree that the bulk of our church growth, spiritual advancement and individual interest in church comes from our not living for God 100%?

For example: bitterness is stored up between church members, gossip runs rampant and sin takes place without discipline.  When these things exist, the value of the flock is decreased.

Question:  why do we allow these things to take place in the church without concequence?

Why is church discipline important?  It either brings back the wondering sheep, thus making the flock 100%.  Or, it removes the wondering sheep. Either way, the flock is 100%. 

For example: When Judas chose to turn his back on God and betray Jesus, the flock was not lessoned, but rather, made complete. As long as Judas was in the fold, the value of the fold was lessoned.

Another example is found in John 6.  Turn there and review this text.

Jesus is preaching/teaching “hard sayings” according to verse 60.  These teachings separated the sheep from the goats. Verse 60 says, “From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”  This gave a whole new meaning to “the truth shall make you free.” (John 8.)

When Jesus preached the truth, many chose to follow Him no more.  Now, let me ask you a question: was the value of the sheepfold decreased or increased by the departure of the unbelieving sheep? 

The truth will always set men free. It will always separate the sheep from the goats.  The principle we see is the principle of 100%.