The Great Shepherd

http://www.thegracelifepulpit.com

This morning I want to go back to John 10 and pick up where we left off last time we looked at this chapter. We stopped with verse 10, one of the great, key verses of John's gospel—John 10:10, where Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." That's the verse we ended with last time we delved into this chapter, and I want to start there this morning and work our way through verse 18.

This is the heart of Jesus' discourse about the Good Shepherd. It's a parallel passage to Psalm 23, ("The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want"). That, of course, is practically everyone's favorite psalm—and it deserves to be. John 10 expands on the truth of the 23rd psalm, and this is therefore one of the most comforting and encouraging discourses Jesus ever gave.

And yet, as we saw last time, there's an overtone of severity that runs right alongside the comforting words about the Good Shepherd, and this severe note is a powerful denunciation and condemnation of the false shepherding that was being done by the priests and the Pharisees who were so eager to discredit Jesus and turn people away from Him...