If you'd open your Bibles to John chapter 10, as I've hinted already, I'm going to do something a little bit different, but it's something that really excites me. Of course, Jesus declares in John 10 that He is the good shepherd. Really, everything that we see in the Gospels shows Jesus shepherding. It shows how Jesus interacts with people and how He draws His own to Himself and then shepherds them. Well, this particular narrative in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus shepherding His flock very deliberately and very well. And in John 10, He explains what the Good Shepherd does with almost direct pulling from themes from Psalm 23. But let's look in the Gospel of John just very quickly. If you look first in John 7, just wanted to bring you back to what's happening in John 10. In John 7, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, and He declares to the entire city that the whole feast is about Him. The lighting ceremony they had, which is an extra-biblical ceremony, but we have an account of it in that Jesus stands up and declares himself to be the light of the world. And during a water pouring ceremony that we know to be part of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus says, if anyone is thirsty, they should come to him and drink. So he he takes authoritative ownership of the feast. And says it's about him. It's all about him. He's still there at the feast in John 8, so if you flip to John 8, and we see that some of the people there are trying to entrap Him, and they bring a woman accused of adultery, and ask Him what should be done to her. He saves this woman, and then later declares to the Jews that before Abraham was, I am. He uses the divine name. They try to kill Him, but they're unable because it's not His time. He's still in Jerusalem in John 9, If you look at John 9, and this is where he passes by a man who's begging probably, who's blind. He's been born blind. He's never seen with his eyes. And he heals the man. And then this man goes to the Jews, to the leaders, to his own spiritual shepherds, and they tell him basically that Jesus is a sinner. And this man refuses to back down, and he actually defends Christ. And Jesus, now in John chapter 10, is comparing Himself to these false shepherds. These false shepherds who have now cast this formerly blind man out of the fellowship. They've cast him out of church. They've excommunicated him. So in John 10, Jesus shows the contrast between these very poor shepherds, these bad shepherds, and Him. He calls Himself the good shepherd. He compares the Pharisees and the leaders of the Jews to blind guides, to robbers, to thieves, wolves. And then he describes his own care of the flock as the good shepherd. So that brings us to John 10, and particularly I'm going to read verses 10 and 11 as the text. that we'll be using to bounce from Psalm 23 during this sermon. Would you please stand and hear God's holy word from John 10. Beginning in verse 10. This is God's inspired word. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Amen. Please be seated. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we know that it is only by Your Holy Spirit that we can understand spiritual truth. We pray that Your Spirit would work in each one of our hearts this morning. Lord, we desire as we lift up these prayers to your throne, that you would speak from your throne to your people this day, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I think before I begin, it's proper just to describe a little bit about the name Yahweh, the Old Testament name The proper name of God is Yahweh. Most Bibles translate it into the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. And this is perfectly fine. It's within the Eastern tradition to translate the name of God, not to say the name, to treat it as holy. So I have no problem with the Lord as a translation of the proper name. But, with that said, it is special that God's people in the Old Testament use the name Yahweh as a proper name all the time. Constantly. David uses the name Yahweh constantly in the Psalms. And Yahweh, just to remind you, is very close to the Hebrew for the words, I am. It's not directly the same, but it's very, very close. to I am. In Exodus 3, God tells Moses that His name is I am who I am, and then He also declares His name Yahweh. So you see why when Jesus used the divine name, when He said, echo a me in Greek, which is I am, I am. And He did this in the Gospel of John many times. But very frequently when He did so, the Jews sought to kill Him. Why? It was blasphemy to them that He would call Himself the I Am. He was declaring His divinity. He was saying, I am that I am, the Good Shepherd. And the Greek words, ego, eimi, followed by a predicate are very, very clearly, I believe, Christ declaring His divinity. So this happened seven times in the Gospel of John. We've talked about this. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate in John 10. I am the shepherd, the good shepherd. Later he says I'm the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the true vine. And as we've already talked about in John 8, Jesus told the Jews before Abraham was I am. Very clear. pointing to His divinity. And as you know, probably my favorite instance of Jesus declaring the divine name was when they came to arrest Him in Gethsemane. And He said, who are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And He said, I am. And they all fell down. He was identifying with Yahweh. The name that God gave to Himself. From the burning bush to Moses. Just keep that in mind and remember, that's one of the reasons why the Jews were so intent on killing Him. He's declaring Himself to be Yahweh. So I'm going to focus on the I Am statement of divinity. Twice we hear it in John 10, in verse 11 and then in verse 14, where He says, I am the Good Shepherd. Or literally, I believe in Greek, I am, I am the Good Shepherd. And I want to look at what Jesus is alluding to in the Old Testament. He's alluding to many times the kings of Israel are called shepherds. Many times God is referred to as a shepherd of His people. And in Psalm 23, David, the shepherd king, says that God is his shepherd. David, in particular, the Israelite King David, is the most like the coming Messiah. He was, in many ways, the king who was also a prophet and a priest. A type of Christ pointing forward to Christ. So important was David to Jesus, that Jesus describes himself in the very last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22, He says, I am, and then he says it, I am the root and descendant of David. The bright morning star. And while on earth, you must know that Jesus knew all of this. Jesus knew David personally. If He knew Abraham, certainly He knew David. Jesus knew Psalm 23, where David describes from the sheep's perspective, looking up at the shepherd, what that care is like, what it's like to be part of the I Am's flock, to be part of Yahweh's flock. And David declares in Psalm 23 that Yahweh, the Lord, was his shepherd. The I Am is my shepherd. So, what I'm going to do over the next, really, five weeks, or at least five times that I preach, including tonight, we're going to pause Deuteronomy and I'm going to hit verse 2 of Psalm 23. comparing it and contrasting it with Jesus as the Good Shepherd. So my goal is to compare and contrast with the perspective of Christ the Shepherd looking down at His sheep, seen in John 10, and really seen in all of the Gospels, but specifically in John 10, comparing and contrasting that perspective, looking down at His sheep with the perspective of the sheep seen in Psalm 23, looking up at the Shepherd. Again, I've told you I'm very excited about it. I hope you are too. That's why we see that Jesus, the I Am, is my shepherd. That's what David said. Yahweh is my shepherd. So I'm just going to look at each part of verse 1 with you. Well, before I actually start, I want to also mention too that by the time of Christ, Yahweh was a name that was not spoken by the Jews. They wouldn't say it by then. They had experienced a time of great silence. 400 years of silence from God. No prophets for 400 years. No one spoke on behalf of God for 400 years. And in that time, they came to magnify and glorify God in a new way, insomuch as they would not even speak. the name Yahweh any longer. Such was their view of the holiness of God. So with that said, there is something special, of course, of David describing God as Yahweh, as his own shepherd. David, of course, was a shepherd. You remember, he was a shepherd. He took care of sheep. He knew what it meant to take care of sheep. He knew what it meant to be a good shepherd. And he knew a lot about sheep as well. And considering all of this experience, David himself says, Yahweh, the Almighty God, is my shepherd. I believe this is for all of us who get it, it's a jaw-dropping insight to think that God is your shepherd. Certainly God the Father is your shepherd and Jesus declares himself to be the shepherd as well. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit lives in you and is shepherding your soul. But the amazing truth is that God was David's shepherd. And that David was a sheep. There's a man who's a pastor who wrote a book, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm. I don't agree with everything he writes in this book, but he does give some amazing insights as to what it means, because he was a shepherd for many years as well. What it means, from the eyes of a shepherd, to have sheep. His insights, I felt, were helpful. One of his points in the first part of the book is that to really see healthy sheep and to understand the care of sheep, what you really need to do is look at the shepherd. You have to understand the shepherd to understand the health of the sheep. You have to know the shepherd. You have to know God. Most of us think we know God. Most of us would say that we have a knowledge of God. But what is the character of our shepherd, specifically when it comes to the care of the sheep? What do we think of? How should we think of it? And I think most importantly, how do I become part of this flock? That should be something that we all want if you're not already in the flock. So who is this shepherd that David declares so forcefully to be his own? Well, he says, the Lord. The Lord is his shepherd Yahweh. Well, who is Yahweh? Yahweh is the almighty God, the creator of the ends of the earth. Yahweh is the infinite, eternal and unchangeable one in all of his being wisdom, power, holiness, justice and goodness and truth. Yahweh is the preexistent, eternal and ever present king of the universe. That's our shepherd. That's who he is. If you want to. To when you go home, look at Isaiah chapter 40. Tells us much about Yahweh and he's referred to there in Isaiah 40 as a shepherd as well, who picks up his own sheep and holds them close to his bosom. But in Isaiah 40 we also see that Yahweh knows everything. Yahweh is so perfect in his knowledge that he knows the end from the beginning. He's all powerful. He can do anything. The nations of the earth are nothing before Him. The leaders of the earth that you may think are so important as you look around the geopolitical landscape of America and the world, all of these big powerful leaders, they're nothing to Him. Grasshoppers. He spans the stars with His hand. 250 million times 250 million. Whatever that number is, that's a lot of stars. and He calls them each by name. It's a universe more complex than anything we can imagine. And if you get an electron microscope and you look into that universe, the microscopic universe of a cell, for instance, again, it's more complex than anything we could ever contemplate. And this one God who controls all things by the Word of His power is the Lord, is Yahweh. And then fast forward to the New Testament, and Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd. That's Him. He's the Good Shepherd. You say Jesus would attribute to Himself all of the power and the might and the wisdom that you just described? Absolutely 100% yes. Here's how Paul puts it in Colossians 1.15. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." So Yahweh, the Lord, is powerful, wise, and good. We also learn throughout the Scriptures that this Lord, Yahweh, is gracious and compassionate. He's slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love. His character is such that He can never do wrong or evil, but can only ever do good. In His holiness, all the wonderful attributes of God are united in a purity and a majesty and an infinitude that with such Our minds are just so small that we can only grasp a fraction of it. And similarly, we can only grasp just a tiny piece of how far is the distance between God and man. And yet, that God, that Yahweh God, the Almighty Creator God, He is actually our shepherd. And He came to us. He came down to us. The Son came to us to shepherd the souls of man. David was a man after God's own heart, we are told. And he declares that the Lord, Yahweh, was his shepherd. And Yahweh was watching over him. That's Psalm 23. watches over him. The shepherd tends his flock, carries them close to his heart, gently leads those who have young. All this pointed to Christ, ultimately the good shepherd, so that when Jesus comes and declares, I am, I am the good shepherd. The Jews immediately knew he was making a truth claim about his divinity. that he was claiming to have all authority, that he was claiming to be the agent of creation of the universe, that he has authority over death, even his own death, which he says plainly in 1018, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This is a truth claim of divinity saying I'm God. He has authority over sin and hell. He has authority over demons. When he was on earth, he showed his authority over all these things, over sickness, over death, over nature, over everything. And this is our good shepherd. This is our I am shepherd. That's the Lord. That's your shepherd. And David claimed to know Yahweh in a special way, too. He said, He's my shepherd. He's mine. It's personal. J.I. Packer said that you understand how much someone understands his own Christianity by what he makes of the notion of having God as a father. In other words, if someone doesn't think of God as their Father, they really don't understand their own Christianity. If someone isn't constantly praying to God and running to God as a child to a father, they really don't understand what's happened because you've been adopted. You've been brought into the family. You've been made a son. Well, similarly, I would add that it's probably a corollary that you can understand how much someone grasps the wonderful care of their Christianity that they have in Christ. by how much they make of Christ as their shepherd. Their ever-present shepherd. Their shepherd who is watching over them and caring for them. Their personal shepherd. Because David got it. David said, he's my shepherd. He could have said, Yahweh is the shepherd of his people. There are scriptures that say that. Yahweh is the shepherd who watches over But David says, no, he's my shepherd. Luther said the heart of a religion lies in its personal pronouns. Luther said a lot of stuff that's good. In its personal pronouns, what's the pronoun? Pronouns take the place of nouns. Kids, if you're in school, you're probably eventually going to study English and all the parts of language A noun is a person, place, or thing, and a pronoun takes the place of a noun when it's personal. It's I, you, me, she, he, us, they, them. Some pronouns, though, have a possessive kind of flavor. My, mine, ours, yours. And that's the astounding thing about this particular Hebrew word. It's very certainly possessive. David says, Yahweh is mine. He's my shepherd. He's not just up on high reigning from a throne, looking down at little people and just hoping they do well and stomping out the ones who are evil and giving some help to the ones who are good. He's your shepherd. He's a God who is personally known and knows you personally. So David could say, Yahweh is my shepherd. Christ says in chapter 10, verse 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. I believe sometimes children can better understand the most important, crucial parts of Christianity than adults do because they just hear it and believe it. The children's catechism states, who made you? Kids, who made you? God did. That's right. What else did God make? He made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For His own glory. How can you glorify God? By loving Him and obeying Him. And finally, why ought you to glorify God? because He made me and He takes care of me." This is what a shepherd does. He cares for his own. Kids, you get it. If you believe that, that He made you personally and takes care of you, then you understand what David is saying. The Almighty God is your personal shepherd. And David knew this. The Creator God was his own. If you love Christ, He's yours. He's your own personal Savior, your own personal shepherd. And you know this not by your own will. This knowledge, if you have this knowledge, isn't of your own making. You didn't smart yourself up and get it. You can only know wonderful things like this by the Holy Spirit. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They're folly to him. He's not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. In Romans 8, we read that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. See, there's something happens that's transcendent interaction. It's not something that that you can actually explain when the Spirit works on you. And that's why when Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice and they know Me. I know them and they know Me. And they run from the voice of a stranger. Well, what is that? Is it just, oh, I know good doctrine, so when I hear bad doctrine, I run from it. No, there's actually something more there. When the Spirit of God lives in you, there's an instinct. When you hear someone who's speaking something And it's just not right. And you may not know exactly what, but you know, that's not my shepherd. That's not my shepherd. And it's special too, because I can say things to you that are very hard and difficult, and your heart just grapples with them. You may not even like the words that I've told you, but in your heart you know, that's the voice of my shepherd. I don't like it, but I know that's my shepherd's voice. We see the Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit that you're a child of God. That you have God as a shepherd. That Jesus is your shepherd. You know the shepherd's voice. And this is spiritually discerned. This is from the spirit that David could say, the Lord is my shepherd. He's mine. And I commend the Psalms to you. If you're struggling with your Bible reading, pick up your Bible today and start reading the Psalms. The Psalms certainly are a great encouragement, a worship book for God's people, a prayer book for God's people. And they're very personal. Often they're very personal in their prayers and praise to the Almighty God. If God is your Shepherd, if He is your King, then the Psalms will reverberate through your soul as you read them. You read the laments and the prayers and the cries. It's God's Word. It's the words of your Shepherd. He knows His own, and His own know Him. We must know Him. And certainly we've said there's a part of our knowledge of Him that we can't exactly explain because it's a work of the Holy Spirit. But what we can know about Him is right here. It's in the Word of God. You must be in the Word of God. You must study the Scriptures. And the Holy Spirit will reveal Himself to you in the Scriptures. By your personal reading of the Word, by submitting yourself to regular preaching and teaching of the Word. Jesus reveals Himself to your soul. We find out as well in John 10 that our faith in Christ and our Good Shepherd is very personal. It's personal for Him, and it's also personal for us. As my Shepherd, and as our personal Shepherd, Jesus, we read, didn't actually come and die for the entire world of men. He came to save those whom His Father had given Him. In verse 29 of chapter 10, He says, My Father who has given them to Me... Again, look at the pronouns. Them, specific sheep, to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hands. Jesus was given a people to come and save. Before the foundation of the world, the Father gave the Son a people whom He would save from the fallen race of man. This means that He didn't come potentially to save everyone, which is commonly taught today. He came just to potentially save people. And the only thing that makes people saved or unsaved is their own good decisions. So potentially, no one could be saved. At least in that paradigm, but we don't believe that's what the Scriptures teach. He actually saved everyone for whom he came. He actually did it. Everyone whom he was given to save, he saved. John 14, John 15, John 16, John 17. Jesus constantly talks about those whom he has saved, those whom the Father has given him. So you see, when He says that He is your shepherd and He gives up His life for His sheep, He's talking about specific people. If you have faith in Christ, He's talking about you. You can call Him yours only because He first called you His. He said you did not choose Me, but I chose you. And the covenant promise found throughout the Scriptures is simple enough. will be your God and you will be My people. That's very personal. Through the will of God, the work of Christ, and the power of the Spirit, He owns you. He purchased you with a price. You are His and He is yours. The Puritans often took the Song of Solomon and used it as a picture of the love of God for His people and vice versa. And in chapter 6, verse 3, famously, it reads, I am my Beloved's, and He is mine, and His banner over me is love. You see, God has covenanted to make us His people personally, individually. We are His. We are His children. We are His workmanship. We are His slaves. We are His people. We are His sheep. So David could declare, the Lord is my shepherd. And Jesus could declare in John 10, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Let me look at the third part of this Scripture. The consequence of this personal relationship, this very personal interaction between the shepherd and the sheep, The consequence of it, according to David, is absolutely perfect care. The Lord is my shepherd and what? I shall not want. In John 10.10, Jesus says, I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. I shall not want. This means that he doesn't now nor ever will need anything that his shepherd doesn't provide. David says, whatever I need, I know my shepherd will give it. Because he's Yahweh. And he's his personal shepherd. Sheep who are with the shepherd have an abundant life. Why? Because he's a good shepherd. He knows everything about them. He knows their parents. He knows their children. He knows their futures. He knows their past. He knows their friends and co-workers. He knows their wounds. He knows all of their challenges. He knows their sicknesses. He knows their sins and their wanderings and their sorrows. He's that good. He knows everything about his sheep. He knows the secrets of their thoughts, words and deeds. He knows what they're going to do before they even do it. He knows what they're going to say before they even say it. He knows what they're going to think before they even think it. That's how well he knows his sheep. So our Good Shepherd uses His infinite knowledge and His unlimited power to provide absolutely perfect, perfect care and feeding for His sheep. We have nothing to fear in this wilderness life. We are with our good, our excellent, our perfect Shepherd. And Jesus, you might be saying, well, my life's pretty hard sometimes. Even right now, you might be having a really difficult time in some way. Has my shepherd forgotten me? Has he left me alone? Absolutely not. We'll talk more about this in two weeks. If you are with your shepherd, you are getting exactly what you need. No more, no less. And this should give you great comfort. Jesus says in Luke 12. Actually, would you just open the Scriptures to Luke 12 with me? A little bit of a lengthy passage, and I'd like you to have your eyes on it with me. Luke 12.22. And He said to His disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet your God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than birds? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to His span of life? If then you are not able to do a small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For the nations of the world seek after these things. and your Father knows that you need them, instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you as well. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Jesus says that those who have God as a Father, who have Christ as a Shepherd, should not be anxious and should not fear. Do not fear, little flock. He says it's not just what you're eating and drinking. He's talking about the length of your life. When you are going to die, you can't add a single hour to the span of your life. but your Father knows what you need. So you see, having a good shepherd brings peace. It doesn't bring perfect comfort in life, but it brings peace. It doesn't mean you'll never have hardship or sickness. You'll never have trials or tribulations, but you are called not to be anxious, not to be afraid. Why? Because your Father's good pleasure has been to give you the kingdom. He's been pleased to give you the kingdom. Absolutely, He's going to give you your daily bread. But you see, we forget this very often. Although our Good Shepherd has our best interests at heart, and He leads us often in difficult places, we forget. The sheep are easily frightened. I always remember hearing the stories of Todd's fainting goats. He said he would just take a ball and throw it into the middle of these goats, and they would all just fall down as if dead. Just like that. And it was funny. Sheep are like that. Easily frightened. Also, sheep are stupid. We think we know what we need, and we are just like sheep. We're habitually stupid. We're headstrong and willful. Sheep are lazy. Sheep consume things that aren't good for them, that can harm them. Sheep struggle with parasites that eat them from the inside out. Sheep often stray away from the shepherd and have to be brought back. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? What do sheep know? Apart from the shepherd, they know nothing good. They didn't know that a certain valley was dangerous. They didn't know that a certain plateau was dry and without water. But if they stay with the shepherd, they know that no matter what the terrain is, they will be safe. If they follow the shepherd where he's leading, it's for their good. Fear not, little flock, it's your father's pleasure to give you the kingdom. The only thing that a voice or the only thing that a sheep thinks of, as we see in John 10, is the voice of his shepherd. What they're experiencing in that moment, if they hear the voice of the shepherd, They know they're safe. They're not anxious. This is the only way to not want. I shall not want. To have an abundant life as a sheep in God's flock. To keep your eyes and ears on the shepherd. But what if a little sheep does poorly? What if the train goes off the track, so to speak, and he wanders off somewhere? the shepherd will leave the 99 to find the one, such is His love for the sheep. He'll carry you if you're injured. He will do what's necessary to bring you back. So a sheep may only be concerned about the moment, but the shepherd, he's got all of that from beginning to end in his hands. The Lord, Yahweh, is your shepherd, and He's good. So in conclusion, I say, Have peace. Be at peace. If you're in this flock, be at peace. Jesus had a shepherd's heart. He felt compassion for the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And yet, He's called a number of people to Himself. We are among them. Our shepherd is the Good Shepherd. And He's ours. He talks to His sheep often. In His Word, in the preaching and reading of His Word, in the teaching of His Word, He talks to His sheep. He knows them personally by name. And He'll fight to the death to defend His own. So, it's almost impossible to argue with David's understanding of what it means to be part of the flock. The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. Jesus says, that we will have life abundantly because of his shepherding. He's the door. He's the only way to the flock. He's the only way to go in and out and find good pasture. So let the shepherd, the good shepherd, lead your soul. Trust him. He has your best interests at heart. Trust your good shepherd. Let us pray. Almighty God, we thank you that you have sent your only son To show us Your own character and to be the shepherd of our souls. Lord, thank You that we have a shepherd who knows everything about us and who loves us individually. Who has died and shed his own blood so that we might have life and life abundantly. Lord, I pray especially for those who are experiencing great difficulties and hardships right now. Lord, that they would know that even in the valley of the shadow of death, even in dark valleys, you are with us. You're not making any mistakes. You're not causing any missteps. You are doing everything perfectly according to your shepherding plan. Lord, please comfort our souls. Let us not be anxious. Let us not be afraid. Let your little flock be encouraged in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, would you please stand with me and sing?