I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD - Robert Murray Mcchene
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15)
In the preceding verses, we have seen that Christ is the door into the sheepfold. Now let us regard him as the shepherd of the sheep. Christ is represented to us in Scripture under a great variety of names and titles. There are more than a hundred different names applied to Christ in the Bible. He is the rose of Sharon, the apple tree, the plant of renown, the bridegroom, the husband, the friend of sinners, the door, the way, the true vine, etc. The reason is that no one name fully describes Immanuel. He is so full, so wonderful, so filled with treasures of grace to the needy soul, that all the names in the Bible do not half describe him. Here is one of the sweetest: “I am the good shepherd.” May God draw you this day to put your lost souls in his hand!
We understand things best by contrast. For this reason Christ here contrasts himself with the hireling.
I. The hireling.
1. He is an hireling.
It is quite right for ministers to preach for hire: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn;” “Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). It is not desirable that God’s ministers should waste their strength in other occupations, so that they must needs be maintained. But unfaithful ministers make hire the end of their ministry. So they did long ago: “Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter” (Isaiah 56:11); “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely” (Jeremiah 6:13). “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves: should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” So Paul complains of those in his day: “For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s” (Philippians 2:20, 21). Ah! this is the black mark of every unfaithful minister. He is an hireling, he seeks his own: his own ease, his own profit, his own honour.
2. Whose own the sheep are not. (verse 12). He has neither part nor lot in the sheep. Faithful pastors have a peculiar relation to the sheep. There is a peculiar tie between a minister and the people saved under him, a tie that will never be dissolved. They are fathers: “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15); “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19); “Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2); “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds” (Philemon 10). Those saved under them are to be their crown: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19,20). Not so careless ministers, whose own the sheep are not. Instructors they may be, but not fathers. God, in general, does not own them in the conversion of souls. They have no sons in the faith. They shall have no crown in the presence of the LordJesus at his coming.
3. He careth not for the sheep. (verse 13). Faithful pastors have a peculiar care for the sheep. How remarkably is this exemplified in the case of Paul? (1.) He prayed for them: “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you” (Colossians 2:1 ); “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers” (Romans 1:9); “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you” (Colossians 1:3). (2.) What labours he underwent for them: “Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons” (Acts 20:18); “… remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one day and night with tears” (Acts 20:31); “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Corinthians 12:15). “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). (3.) What tears did he shed for them: “For, out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4); “I fear … lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many that have sinned already” (2 Corinthians 12:20-21); “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18). (4.) What joys over them: “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God?” (1 Thessalonians 3:8-9).
Not so the unfaithful pastor. He cares not for the sheep. They are not his brothers and sisters. He may call them brethren; but they are not his joy and crown. They are not his spiritual children: “He careth not for the sheep.”
4. He fleeth. The wolf in the Bible means either false teachers, or a persecuting world: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29); “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16); “behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). Heresy and persecution are the two great dangers to which the sheep are exposed. These are the very times when faithful pastors stand most firmly to their post, though it should cost them life itself. But the hireling fleeth. He does not defend the flock from heresy by sound teaching; nor does he stand between the flock and the arrows of a God-hating world.
O, my brethren! pray for a faithful ministry to be given and continued in Scotland; not hirelings, whose the sheep are not, who care not for the sheep, but flee at the approach of the wolf. Pray for holy self-denied pastors, who will spend and be spent in the cause of Christ, and not count their lives dear.
II. The good shepherd: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (verse 11); “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (verse 14). Our Lord here lays down the marks of his excellency as a shepherd.
1. In giving his life for the sheep. This is the chief point of his excellency. Herein he excels all others. Jacob was a faithful shepherd: “… in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes” (Genesis 31:40). But the good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. David was a faithful shepherd. A lion and a bear took a lamb out of the flock, and David went after them, and delivered it out of the mouth of the lion, and caught him by the beard and slew him (1 Samuel 17:34-35). But what was this to Christ? “I lay down my life for the sheep.” The sheep were condemned to die. This sentence was suspended over every one of them: “Thou shalt surely die.” All were ready to be cast into hell, when he cried, “Lo, I come.” He laid down his life for the sheep.
Observe, it was not merely temporal death. His death was equal to the eternal death of sinners. He died under the wrath of God: “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 13:7); “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). He himself “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” He was made a curse for us.
Observe, he did it freely: “I lay down my life;” “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (verse 18); “as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2); “Who gave himself for us” (Titus 2:14); “Who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6).
Herein consists the goodness of the shepherd. He was such an one as to lay down his life freely. There will be much in Jesus to admire when we shall see him as he is. But that which will draw out the loudest notes of the new song will be the sight of the prints of the nails, and of the wound in his side: “… thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood” (Revelation 5:9). This makes Christ the most attractive of all objects now: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). Ah! brethren, what are you made of, that you are not drawn to give up all for Jesus?
2. In knowing his sheep: “I know my sheep.” Christ knows the sheep, as the Father knows him. The Father knew the Son from all eternity: “Then I was by him as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him” (Proverbs 8:30). He was in the bosom of the Father. So did this good shepherd know his sheep from all eternity: “Chosen before the foundation of the world.”
The Father knew the Son with a knowledge of most perfect delight and love: “I was daily his delight.” At his baptism, a voice from heaven was heard saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). So does Christ know his sheep: “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee;” “The King is held in the galleries;” “How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!” “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.”
The Father knew the Son through all his sufferings. So Christ knows his sheep: “I know their sorrows;” “In all their afflictions, he was afflicted.” He knows their decays: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.”
The Father will know the Son to all eternity; and so the Son will know his sheep for ever and ever. They shall soon “hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat” (Revelation 7:16).
3. I am known of mine. Christ knows the Father perfectly: “No man knoweth the Father but the Son;” “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee.” So do Christ’s sheep know Christ. He gives them “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” He manifests himself to them in another way than he doth to the world. He gives them an understanding to know him that is true. This is the perfection of our shepherd, that he reveals himself to us, that he lets out his fragrance and draw us after him: “I am known of mine.”
Brethren, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ’? Has he opened up his unsearchable riches to you, and drawn you to leave all for him?