Good morning. It's a joy to be here. If I haven't met you yet, my name is Isaac. I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, and I bring greetings from our pastor, Jim Sebastio. I believe he preached here a few years ago, and he was very happy that I would have a chance to greet you guys on his behalf. Our church also says hello. My wife and my son are still back in Louisville. They wish they could be here, but he's only four months old, so he's not down for that five and a half hour drive just yet. Please turn with me in the Word of God to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Our text this morning is going to be from John 10 verses 11 through 21. Allow me to read the text and then we'll pray. And we'll hear from God this morning. John 10 verse 11. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees. 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 does not own 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 cares nothing for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he has a demon and not the words, excuse me, and is insane. Why listen to him? Then others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Let's pray and ask for God to bless his word this morning. Heavenly Father, we approach You this morning acknowledging our weaknesses, acknowledging our sinfulness, and acknowledging even as believers we can approach Your Word in an inappropriate, lazy, dishonest way. So we ask that You would provide for us during this hour a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a hunger and thirst honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, not just today, but Monday through Saturday in all areas of our lives. And we pray that you would personally attend to every person in this room, that you would providentially speak into the specific areas of each person's circumstances, each person's war with sin. And we pray, most of all, that you would grant in our hearts a greater love, a deeper love and a deeper trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. In His name we pray. Amen. So if I ran for a government office in Kentucky, let's say, I might go with a slogan such as, Kentucky's Best Choice. Now if I say that, I am doing two things. One, I'm promoting myself in a positive manner. But secondly, I'm also denouncing, implicitly, all my opponents. I would be understood as the best choice and it would promote me positively, but it also cast a shadow on my opponents. I would be saying that I have the best character, I have the best policies, I have the best ideas, I have the best leadership, but I'm implicitly saying nobody else has the same character, the same leadership, the same policies. You guys understand. I'm casting a shadow. I'm putting a negative shadow on those who are also in the running. In a similar way, when Jesus declares Himself to be the Good, the Good Shepherd, He didn't just give Himself that title for a popular nickname, for a slogan. He declared this to confirm who He was in contrast to the other shepherds who were present, in contrast to the other teachers and preachers of Israel at that time. In other words, he was confirming his positive traits while calling out the negative traits of the Pharisees. Our passage here in John 10 is basically a response to the non-believing, hard-hearted Pharisees who were mentioned at the end of chapter 9, if you look down in your Bibles, verse 40. That's his audience. That's his direct audience as he goes on in chapter 10. And as Jesus claims to be the good shepherd. He's actually playing off of a text in the Old Testament Scriptures that the Pharisees will be very familiar with. You don't have to turn there, I'm just going to read a few verses from Ezekiel 34. But that is the text that Jesus has in mind as He's using this language about being a good shepherd. In verse 1 in Ezekiel 34 we read, The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and the Lord said to Ezekiel, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds. Thus says the Lord God, Ah, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slather the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. Therefore, the The point is, the Pharisees were following in the footsteps of the self-centered shepherds, the spiritual leaders of Israel in Ezekiel's time, in Ezekiel's day. And Jesus is separating himself, distinguishing himself from them. Essentially saying, I am not like these men. But in fact, he's actually doing a little bit more than distinguishing his moral integrity or his righteousness in contrast to the Pharisees. Later on in that same chapter that I just read from, Ezekiel 34, we read in verse 23, And I, God, will set over them one shepherd, one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. David was long dead by the time Ezekiel said that in Ezekiel 34. So, Ezekiel is referring to a prophecy concerning the ultimate son of David, the long-awaited Messiah of God. So, my goal this morning is this. As we hear Jesus declaring Himself to be the Good Shepherd, my goal is that we may grow in our trust in Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd, for He is good in three ways, excuse me, four ways. He is good in four ways, as a sacrificial Shepherd, secondly, an intimate Shepherd, thirdly, an evangelistic Shepherd, and finally, a powerful Shepherd. Let's go on to verse 11 where we hear Him to be the sacrificial Shepherd. Verse 11, again, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. How does Jesus express His love for us primarily? How does He primarily express His love for us? It is displayed climatically in the cross. Amen? That is the pinnacle. That is the climax of His love for us. He lays down His life by dying on the cross for our sins, bearing the wrath of God on our behalf. Our substitutes, as we just sang with those wonderful words. This is in contrast to the hired hand who is in verse 12. Verse 12 reads, He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leads the sheep and flees. and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He, the hired hand, flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. You can break it down this way. The hired hand doesn't do three things according to the text. One, he doesn't own the sheep. He doesn't sense any kind of ownership over the flock. Secondly, he doesn't stay He doesn't stick with the sheep. Once he sees any sign of danger, he's out. He bounces. And thirdly, he doesn't care. He doesn't care about the sheep. He only cares about making some money off of the service that he is giving. And this was apparently exactly what the Pharisees were like. This was a description of the Pharisees. It's a hammer home on the on the weight of having a hired hand. We've seen the tragic consequences of these types of hired hands in world history. For instance, in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which I trust some of you are familiar with, the United Nations perfectly resembled Jesus' description of a hired hand here. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire led the United Nations peacekeeping mission during that genocide in 1994. That genocide took place across a hundred days, during which more than 800,000 Rwandans, primarily from the Tutsi ethnic group, were slaughtered by the Hutus, most of them being hacked to death by machetes. In the months leading up to the genocide, Dallaire repeatedly, over and over again, warned the higher officials in the UN, in the United Nations, and that includes us, the United States, and the European superpowers at that time. He warned them something catastrophic is right around the corner. It's about to happen. And he wanted to intervene. He wanted permission to do something about the upcoming chaos. But the world leaders were too concerned about troop casualties to intervene, to give them permission to act. In fact, once ten of their United Nations soldiers were killed in the conflict, the Belgian government withdrew all their forces from Rwanda. In the movie Hotel Rwanda, the film that documents this genocide, there's a scene actually where the colonel who represents Delaire in many ways, puts it bluntly to the Rwandan hotel owner, Paul Resisabagina, and says, if I'm going to be straight with you, we think you're dirt. We think you're dumb. We, as the West, we think you're worthless. In other words, you're not worthy of us sacrificing any blood. You're not worthy of that. this tragedy, the United Nations did not take ownership over the Rwandans, they did not stay with the Rwandans, and they did not care about the Rwandan people. Needless to say, they definitely were not interested in sacrificing themselves. Bless God that Jesus is not like any of us. Bless God that Jesus is the exact opposite. With Jesus, there is no doubt that he takes ownership over his people. There is no doubt that he sticks with his people, even in the middle of chaos. And there's no doubt that Jesus cares for his people. And of course, he sacrificed himself in the most obvious, most incredible way. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep, for his sheep, the sheep. And the sheep here must be qualified By that later verse, if you look down on the page, John 10, verse 29, John 10, 29 says, My Father who has given, who has given them My sheep to Me. These are the sheep that Jesus is talking about. When Jesus says He lays down His life for the sheep, it is about the sheep whom the Father chose, elected, predestined before the foundation of the world. The sheep he is speaking of are indeed the elect whom God has prepared for him in eternity past. Therefore, we've stumbled across one of the most critical texts, I would argue, in support of the doctrine of limited atonement. The doctrine that Jesus went to the cross for a specific group of people, the predestined, the elect of God. And I want to be careful about being overly strict about how we apply this doctrine, how we preach this doctrine. For example, I've heard of evangelists, good evangelists that I respect say to non-believers, Jesus died for you. And I don't want to be nitpicking and say that's inappropriate. They're still preaching the gospel. For the most part, they're preaching the whole counsel of God. I'm not against that, but for me, when I preach the gospel to non-believers, I do generalize my language of it. Jesus died for the world. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus died for men. It's been a while since I remember myself saying, Jesus died for you, because I definitely know that Jesus died for you, even though this person that I'm speaking to might not have come to Christ. But if you are here today, if you are here in this room today and you are a born-again believer, if you have been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus died personally, specifically for you. I can say that. The text is saying that very clearly. He wasn't just dying on the cross for an ambiguous list of sins. The specific sins. The things that you did in private. The things that you did in your youth. The things that you even did as a Christian. In hypocrisy. When you were straying from the faith. The specific list of sins which only He would know He bore the wrath of God for. Jesus died for you. And let that sit just for a few seconds. That's not meant to, that truth shouldn't just be skipped over or taken for granted on any day for that matter, especially the Lord's Day. Amen? He died for you, the sheep of God, chosen before the foundation of the world. We, as a culture, and I hear this a lot, I'm sure you hear this a lot, our American culture just continues to teach that we're entitled to the love of God. Amen? We're entitled to it. That cannot be further from the truth. cannot be further from the truth. This kind of love we have no business receiving. We're not entitled to the love of Jesus on the cross. This love far surpasses all the loves, you could say, of this world. And even the love, and I don't mean this to be offensive, this love far surpasses the love that even your fellow brothers and sisters could offer you. If you are a follower of Christ today, today you are here as a true believer, and you ever begin to doubt, you ever begin to become skeptical about the love of God for you, when you see the things happening in your finances, when you see the things happening with your children, when you see certain things that come out of nowhere to disrupt the entire plans that you have for your life, And you begin to doubt. There's a shadow that begins to loom with providence. And you begin to doubt that the love of God is a reality for you. Look to the cross. Don't look anywhere else. Look to the cross and you see the greatest love displayed for you. Personal love for you. Are you trusting today? Have you trusted this past week that Jesus loves you through the cross? We cannot jump. It would be folly of us to think that we can trust Jesus in finances, that He's trustworthy in these difficult circumstances with raising our families. It would be folly of us to think that we can trust Him in those situations If we are not truly trusting His love for us in the cross, that's fundamental to trust Him in all other areas of our walk with Him. The point is this, we must consistently rejoice in the magnificent, sacrificial love of Jesus as it is displayed on the cross, for it is foundational for trusting in Him in every walk of life. Let's move on to verses 14 and 15. One word comes up four times in these next two verses. It is the word, no. The word, no. Before I read those two verses, I'm just going to comment a little bit on that word. The translated Greek word, ginosko, for no, has a rather broad definition, it can mean know, understand, to perceive, but the context helps us understand that it's not talking about intellectual head knowledge. Jesus, again, is contrasting himself with the hired hand, correct? He's contrasting, he's separating himself, he's just compared the Pharisees to a hired hand who doesn't take ownership, who doesn't stay and doesn't care about the sheep, and it's in that context that he says this, verse 14, he says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, just as I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I believe he's talking about intimate, underscore that, intimate knowledge. And humanly speaking, if we're to understand this from our own experiences, it's only the intimacy that we know with our spouses. It's the intimacy that only a best man would know with the groom. That the maid of honor would know with the bride. It's the intimacy that only a parent would know with a child. Of course you know where they're from, their hometown. Of course you know their hobbies. Of course you know their birthday. But you also, most importantly, know what it's like to be in each other's presence in an intimate, personal way. That's the knowledge that Jesus is talking about here. So, he is not just a sacrificial shepherd. Secondly, he is also an intimate shepherd. The text says, Jesus, this is another thing that's worthy of some pause. Jesus loves us just as much as God the Father loves Jesus, and just as much as Jesus loves the Father. We already caught a glimpse of the Father's love. We looked briefly at John 10.29. The Father has given these sheep to the Lord Jesus Christ. But also in John 17.24, we read this is Jesus praying And we find some incredible nuggets of truth here. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory, to see my glory that you, Father, have given me. Why did the Father give the Son this glory? for us to see, for us to witness one day? Why did the Father give this glory to the Son? Because you, Father, loved Me. Loved Me, the Son, before the foundation of the world. The love of the Father can be described this way. He so loves Jesus that from eternity past, He wanted to prepare a people to worship His Son by basking, by basking in the glory that He would give His Son. On the flip side, Jesus, so that was the perspective of the Father towards the Son, now this is the perspective of Jesus to the Father. On the flip side, Jesus said His food, His very food is to do the will. of God, to do the will of His Father, even to the point of dying on the cross. He so desired to glorify God in the cross that He even prayed these familiar words, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. Now, let's pause, okay? Recognize The love that we just heard there, from the Father to the Son and from the Son to the Father, that divine love that you could maybe say is triune love, the love within the Trinity. Jesus is saying in our text, the strength of His love for you, brother and sister, Saint of God, is just as strong, is just as weighty, just as strong as the love that He has for the Father, and just as strong as the Father's love for the Son. Is that not a wonderful way to understand how weighty, how holy, how separate, how different the love of God is from any other love that we would experience? I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me. And I know the Father. To provide a picture, just an illustration that will help us at least put a picture as to what he's saying, look over to John 19. John 19, verses 25 to 27. Turn over a few pages. And in that section, we see Jesus is already on the cross. Jesus is already on the cross. as it reads, but standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold, your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. We have to realize that as this is taking place, Jesus is bearing the sins of his own mom, right? On the cross. He's bearing the wrath of God in her place. He's still on the cross. He is suffering the wrath of God. And as he is doing so, nothing could get in the way of him loving, caring for his mother in a practical, simple, earthly way. Just dwell on that for a moment. That the love of Jesus is so strong, is so overflowing, that she not only bears the sins of Mary on his body, but simultaneously cares for who will take care of her after he is gone. And that's because he loved her, a sheep, with the same kind of love that the Father has for him and that he has for the Father. This is a display of that incredible heavenly love. So let me ask everybody here, are you trusting that this is the reach of God's love for you in Christ today? I mentioned before, right? We have to trust foundationally in His love for us on the cross. He suffered the wrath of God in our place. But do we also trust, because we have trusted in that reality, do we also trust that in every other area In the practical earthly matters, if you will. Jesus does care. Jesus does oversee. Jesus does care for us. Do you believe that He is, indeed, your Good Shepherd right now over every area of your life? Over your family, finances, your ministries, and most importantly, your sanctification. When things go sideways, when things go unexpected, we must cling, anchor ourselves to the truth that one, Jesus' love is proven, proven for us on the cross, and that Jesus' love for us is as strong as triune love. Because it is as strong as the love within the Trinity, Jesus will accomplish, out of love, His good will for you in your life. You might have realized that the text doesn't just mention Jesus' love here, but also our love, or our knowledge of Him. Go back to verse 14, my own know me just as the Father knows me. My own, us, we, the sheep, know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. You might think at first glance, I don't love Jesus like that. I don't know Him like that. Even as a believer, there are spots of corruption in my heart still as I strive to know Him better, as I strive to pursue Him and seek Him out. You might think I don't love Christ like that. The good news is that may be true, but one day it won't be. It won't be true. The good news is that there will be a day in our glorified bodies after this life that we will be so free, so free of sin, so free of sin and so full of holy and righteous love that you could say our love for Jesus is just as perfect as the love within the Trinity. As we are sanctified by the Word day by day, Our prayer is that that kind of heavenly love would grow within us. In addition to Christ's sacrifice and intimacy, we find Jesus to be an evangelistic shepherd. That's our third point this morning. We find Jesus to be an evangelistic shepherd. His love for his people is also seen in him seeking us out. Him seeking us out to bring us into his fold. Verse 16, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must, I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So, as a result, there will be one flock and one shepherd. You ask the question, who are the other sheep? Who is he talking about? Who are the other sheep? He's obviously not talking about Peter, James, John, the entire pact that he's with right now. He's talking about the people, Jew and Gentile alike, who will be saved later on in the book of Acts and throughout all of church history, which would include us, right? It would include us. He's talking about us, you could say. Oh, look, Jesus is talking about me. Therefore, we are also the other sheep And what a statement in its historical context. Let's say you're a bystander as Jesus says this. Maybe you're a bystander at the Great Commission in Matthew 28. You're eavesdropping on what's going on and you see some fishermen and a rabbi. And you would probably conclude this is another one of those crazy fringe groups going on. They think they're going to take over the world. They're never going to make it out of the first century. And yet 2,000 years later, here we are. Here we still are. Because we don't have a dead shepherd, we have a risen shepherd who continues to add to his fold. We sometimes might, you know, picture Jesus to be taking a break after, you know, he did all that work, 30 years of ministry, dying on the cross and resurrected, ascended back into heaven. But that cannot be further from the truth. He ascended into heaven, was coronated as Lord, and he went to work. He went to work to bring his gospel to the ends of the earth. You could say that, you could call church history the history of the evangelistic shepherd. That might be even a better way to understand our history as believers. The Great Commission ends with Jesus saying, right in Matthew 28, am with you. I am with you as you go out and are dispersed to the ends of this world, to the ends of the age. He came and got us. He came and brought us in. He came and brought us into his fold. Many of our Bibles, if you look over to the book of Acts, just glance over there at which is basically the title, the Book of Acts, most of our Bibles probably say the Acts of the Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles, and that's not a bad title, that's even a fitting title. The book is pretty much about Peter, Paul, and their companions as they go out to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, and they're used to build the Church of Christ. But I think a better title would be the Acts of the Risen, Jesus Christ. In Acts 1, verse 1, we read, in the first book, this is Luke speaking, in the first book that I just wrote, the Gospel of Luke, Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. Underscore began. The suggestion of this statement is that Jesus is not done. He began work, but he has more work to do, right? That's the suggestion of that text. And this reality is confirmed later on in the chapter, Acts 2.47, as the Jerusalem believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and have fellowship with one another. It says there in Acts 2.47, the Lord added, right? The Lord added to their number, day by day, those who are being saved. The Lord Jesus Christ added to their number. The Greek word kurios, translated Lord in our Bibles, consistently refers to Jesus in the first couple chapters of Acts, including that verse, Acts 2.47. Therefore, you can picture the Lord Jesus Christ risen and glorified in heaven at the right hand of the Father, adding more and more to his flock. And going back to John 10.16, our main text, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to what? My voice. They will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd." This is a powerful image, especially for the Near Eastern people of that day. They would have really appreciated what he's getting at here. The Near Eastern shepherds would stand outside the sheep pen sometimes. So there's a bunch of sheep in one pen, but those sheep belong to separate owners, separate shepherds, a pen with sheep belonging to different shepherds, and these shepherds would draw their own sheep out by calling out in a unique way, letting out a unique sound, and the sheep would gather around their own shepherd. That's the image that Jesus is getting at. by using His Word, which is the Gospel, the Good News, the Salvation, and preaching it through His servants. With the power of His Spirit, Jesus builds His own church. Jesus builds His flock. A few questions. Do you believe that Jesus' voice is enough? to convert a sinner from darkness into light. Do you really believe in Romans 1.16 that there is power in the gospel itself? It doesn't say anything else. There is power in the gospel itself. I told this to my brothers last week. We were doing some evangelism, some open air preaching, some gospel tracts, free Bibles by the Kentuckiana Bridge. And there's a lot of traffic and a lot of families in the area. And as we're beginning, as basically giving a pep talk to my guys, I was telling them, hey, look, you know, look at that text in Romans 1.16. Look at the text in 1 Corinthians 1.18. There's power in the gospel. There's power in the preaching of the cross. You might not think, you might not see, it might not be visible, that when you proclaim truth to a non-believer, that there's power in the gospel. But this is indeed what the Word of God is saying. There is something unique, something special going on in that interaction, regardless of what you see with your eyes. There is power in the Gospel. Do you truly believe? Right? In your office spaces, with your family members, with a stranger, whoever. Do you really believe that all you really have to do, bottom line, you have to proclaim powerfully, the powerful Good News. That that is enough. to save. Jesus' voice, if it's cast out faithfully, will grab ahold of His sheep and draw them in. Do you trust that when you proclaim the gospel to a non-believer, so when you do, that there's more going on behind the scenes? So when you're proclaiming the truth to a non-believer, you're not the only one speaking, if that makes sense. Jesus is speaking through you, through His servants. The Lord Jesus Christ is with us, Matthew 18 again. He is with us as we proclaim the gospel to others, to the world. And my final question, are you being faithful? Are you being faithful to let Jesus speak? When I ask that question, are you faithful, it's like, oh man, how many times did I share the gospel? Do I know everything? Am I ready to preach the gospel? I'm not so much asking that. Are you being faithful? When I ask that question is, are you letting Jesus speak? Jesus wants to save sinners, amen? He wants to add to his flock. Are you being faithful to let Him accomplish what He wants to do? Or is your will competing with His? You know, you hear sometimes, I don't have the gift of evangelism. I saw a good meme. I usually don't like memes, but I thought this was a good one. The first half said, you know, this guy saying, you know, I don't want to evangelize. I don't have the gift of evangelism. And the second half of the meme reads, Well, uh, you don't have the gift of singing, so why do you sing hymns? Well, it gets to the point, right? Like, we do things that maybe we're not gifted in, but when it comes to maybe something that we're uncomfortable with, we just tend to say, oh, I'm not gifted in that. Not gifted in preaching the gospel. Well, whether you like it or not, the passion, the heart of Jesus is to reach sinners. is to add to his flock, is to add to his people. So my exhortation, the text, the Word of God's exhortation is align yourself with the heart of your evangelistic shepherd. In my testimony this morning, if you were there, I mentioned a brother, Zephaniah Mel, who was very instrumental in showing me how to preach the gospel in public, primarily in open air preaching. I was recently watching a video he posted as he preached on the streets of Oceanside, California. And my brother's calling souls, preaching the wrath to come, proclaiming the love of Christ and grace and truth. And there's some scoffers, there's a guy who comes along and unplugs his amp out of hostility. He's preaching for about 18 minutes, but around the 11 minute mark, around the 11 minute mark, You see a man around my age with a suitcase stop by. It's a homeless man. You see this man stop by. I'm sure he was not planning on running into a street preacher on that night by the beach of all places. It took six minutes. I calculated on the YouTube video. It took six minutes for this man to be on the brink of tears. It took six minutes. And once my brother finished preaching, this man, Terrence is his name, asked my friend Zephaniah if Zephaniah could pray for him, trembling with tears in his eyes. And specifically that Zephaniah would pray that he, Terrence, would seek Jesus in his life. And as Zephaniah is praying for this guy that Jesus will change him and cleanse him, you see this man nodding his head. You see this man nodding his head with conviction and afterwards, still on the brink of tears, he tells my brother, I never believed until I heard what you said. And it just changed my opinion. You talk about power, right? The voice, the word of God just being simply and boldly proclaimed. and just latching on. Latching on to a soul who is needing Christ. That has nothing to do with my brother, the giftedness of Zephaniah. That has nothing to do with Terence and his ability to listen. It has everything to do with the Good Shepherd reaching out with his voice and adding to his flock. The point is this. We must trust, all of us must trust that Jesus is powerful to save souls through his word. Therefore, we must be faithful in proclaiming the gospel to this world so that Jesus may use that gospel to bring in his sheep. He builds one flock, the text says, through his word. One flock. That's a beautiful truth. That's a beautiful truth that the main reason why we're all here in this room is not because of political preferences. not because of culture, not because we're in the same age group, same class of society, but it's because we have the same Savior. Amen? That's why. That's why. Bottom line, that's why we're here. That's what brought us here. That's what made us wake up before everybody else probably in the city on a Sunday. To further illustrate just how beautiful this is, let's just say a believer from China comes here. Let's say somebody from a completely different culture comes in here. He doesn't have a clue to fit in, doesn't understand any slang, doesn't understand anything about American culture, has no ability to relate to what's going on politically in our nation, he can barely speak English. But let's say he's sitting in on this service, he's wired up, and somebody's translating for him the Word of God, right? He's translating the songs, translating the scripture reading, translating the sermon from English to Chinese. I would argue, I'm confident, that despite the culture, cultural and language barriers, I'm confident that he will be able to have fellowship with you. Because you all have the same shepherd. You have all the same shepherd with you. I'm confident that even despite those barriers, we will all be able to rejoice in our salvation with him. We're almost done. Jesus is good in his sacrifice, his intimacy, his evangelism, and finally, we close with his power. Jesus is a powerful shepherd. Verses 17 to 18. Contrary to the world's description or depiction of the cross, and their depiction is that Jesus was a decent man, a good teacher, a good man, but he died tragically on a cross, never resurrected. The Word of God, in contrast, is clear that Jesus' death was not a tragedy. It was his intention, his motivation, his goal, his purpose all along. Verse 17, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of what? My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I've received from my father. It was the father's will for Jesus to give himself over to his enemies and be butchered on that cross. It was also the father's will for Jesus to be resurrected, for Jesus to raise himself from the dead. And the key word here in these two verses is authority. the authority that Jesus has here. Jesus has authority to lay down his life and take it back. And nobody, and this is one of the main themes of the Gospel of John, right? Nobody has that authority besides who? Besides God. This is an indirect claim to his deity, right? He's clearly bringing attention to his deity as if he is God. Therefore, he also highlights the fact that he freely freely and authoritatively chose to go to the cross, and freely and authoritatively chose to resurrect himself. In other words, nobody forced him to be crucified, he wasn't caught in a corner, and nobody forced him to be resurrected. He was a willing agent in both events. And it's hard to find a better illustration of Jesus' authority in the context of the cross than John 18. Please turn there real quick, a few pages over again, John 18. After Jesus has prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, that incredible prayer in the Garden, He knows, He already is aware that Judas is coming with the soldiers and the Jewish leaders, and they're coming to arrest Him. In John 18, though, it reads in verse 4, Jesus, then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward, didn't run, didn't stay in neutral ground, He came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. And now pay attention to what happened. When Jesus said to them, I am he, what happened? They drew back and fell, fell to the ground. as his enemies close in with murder in their hearts, Jesus purposely uses his word to completely floor his enemies. I mean, talk about making a statement, right? Making a statement about who's in charge, even though the picture looks like he's caught in the corner. By his very word, he could make these men stumble over themselves, and if he wanted to, he could take out the air out of their lungs and he would be free to go. But he doesn't do that. He lets them come. He lets them arrest him. So isn't it clear that from this moment on, Jesus is the one in charge. He's going to the cross on his own terms. He's going to the cross on his own terms. These murderous men, they think they have control, they think they're foiling Jesus' plans as this Messiah. But that could not be further from the truth. He willingly went to the cross on his own terms to glorify his Father and to save all of us. That's what he was doing. And the Father also desired that Jesus authoritatively bring himself back from the dead. And as a side note, the New Testament clearly teaches that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in the resurrection. For example, Galatians 1 says the Father raised him from the dead. That's pretty cut and dry. It also says in Romans 1-4 that Jesus was declared the Son of God according to the Spirit by His resurrection. And we also have our text. Jesus has authority to take His life up again. Going back to our text, the Father desired that Jesus resurrect Himself because the end goal was that the Father desired that Jesus' flock will worship Him. We'll worship Him as the God-man. We'll worship Him. In John 20, one more passage to turn to in the Gospel of John. John 20. Doubting Thomas. Can I believe that Jesus is back from the dead? We're in verse 26. And he won't believe until he sees the marks. He sees the marks of the nails and he wants to put his hands in Jesus' side. We read in verse 26, eight days later, His disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. And now this is what I want you guys to see. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. My Lord and my God. And I would like to think he said that on his knees. Jesus died and rose again to be worshipped by his people. To be bowed down to as your Lord and your God. That's why we're here. That's why we're saved. So has this past week, this past month, would your life have been characterized by a sense of worshipping your God and Savior? Not just going to church, right? Not just reading your Bible, but worshipping that. When you open up the Word, when you contemplate the Gospel, when you recognize all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you, do your knees buckle a bit. That's the idea. Are you worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ in the inner man? And there's this term in theological circles, you hear this a lot in maybe seminaries, you know, we need to have big God theology. We need to have big, you know, we don't want to You know, God's not a pushover. We need to magnify God as glorious, as strong, as mighty, as sovereign. You could put it this way. Do you have big Jesus theology? Right? Not a dead Savior, a resurrected Savior. Do we see Him as gloriously triumphant in His resurrection, His ascension, and ultimately, as we look forward to, His second coming? When we think of Jesus, do we also, we see the cross, but we also see the crown. Do we see both? And are we appropriately responding to that truth, to that reality? That's the question that I'm asking all of us in this room. If we really do believe that Jesus is God, and as powerful as God, our hearts will consistently be bowing down before his glory as he sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father. our lives will be characterized by worship. And if He is powerful God, we can trust Him to accomplish His purposes in our lives. We can trust Him to preserve our soul to the very end of our lives. And we can truly trust Him to make us better worshipers of who He is. I finally close with this final three verses of our passage. Verse 19, there was a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? The other side of the divide, others said, these are not the words. These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. That would be crazy. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? As many of you know, Jesus always causes division, right? In one text, he says he brought a sword, not peace. He causes division. You are either with him or against him. And you know, we have people, we have people in our society and maybe even in this room, who are not believers, who have not bowed in the knee to Christ in your pride and your arrogance. But you will say, but I don't, I don't cuss Jesus out. I don't use the Lord's name in vain. I don't mock the gospel. I don't mock the preaching of the gospel. I respect the Bible. Now, you can think, right? Like, from our perspective, it's like, yeah, this guy's not against God, doesn't hate God. But the reality is, your opinion doesn't really matter. From heaven, God sees the inward workings of your heart. There's always a division. There are those who are with Jesus, and there are those who are against Jesus. There's only two parties in this world. So if you are not in Christ today, and the wrath of God is hovering over you today, the question that I want to ask is, even if you respect Christianity, even if you maybe claim to be a Christian, If somebody asks you on the street, what religion are you? Oh, I'm Christian. If that's you, but you have not placed your trust in the cross, I want to ask you, do you worship Jesus like we just saw with Thomas, my Lord and my God? And going back a little bit further, are you like Terrence, the man who came up to Zephaniah and said, I need to seek Jesus. My prayer is that that would become you, that you would desire to seek salvation, cleansing, transformation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He indeed has the authority to forgive sins on the basis of His death on the cross, on the basis of His resurrection. So, therefore, bow down today and trust Him as your Good Shepherd. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for your word. We thank you that you paint a picture of Christ that is truly helpful for the believer, the tired saint, the weary saint. You also paint a picture of Christ that is appropriate for the saint who is looking forward to eternity, who can't wait to meet the Savior, You also paint a picture for those who are without you, who are still raging against you. We pray that you would do a good work in every heart in this room, believer, non-believer alike, in every stage of life, Lord, we pray that your Son would become precious and delightful to everybody in this room. Lord, we pray that as we head out from this place, we have some lunch and spend the rest of this day together, that you would be glorified and honored in the inner workings of our heart and also in our behavior and activity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.