The Good Shepherd

Order of Service

• Hymn — To God Be the Glory
• Call to Worship — Romans 11:33-36
• Hymn — To God Be the Glory
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Ephesians 1:7
• Scripture Reading — Isaiah 52:13–53:12
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — The Lord's My Shepherd
• Sermon
• Lord's Supper
  • Words of Institution — 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
  • Hymn — Fairest Lord Jesus (verses 1–2)
  • Prayer of Consecration
  • Distribution of Bread
  • Distribution of Cup
  • Hymn — Fairest Lord Jesus (verses 3–4)
• Benediction — 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: The Good Shepherd

Scripture: John 10:1-21

I. The Distinguishing Marks of the Good Shepherd's Enemies

A. The Pharisees as the thieves, robbers, and false shepherds

1. Set in context of John 9: after healing the man born blind, the Pharisees excommunicate him rather than rejoice
2. They are thieves who steal souls by burdening people with the law while turning eyes away from Christ, the only door to heaven
3. Calvin: "Christ is the end of the law and the gospel… he is the mark which all heretics aim and direct their arrows"

B. The hired hand as a false shepherd

1. The hired hand flees when danger arises, leaving the flock to wolves (John 10:12-13)
2. False shepherds serve only while comfortable; the true Shepherd serves unto death
3. Application extended to under-shepherds (ministers and elders) and all disciples: the call of Christ is not a job but a vocation unto death
4. Illustration: Calvin's reluctant calling to Geneva under the rebuke of William Farel — he served despite fear, calling it "a cross on which I would perish a thousand times every day"

II. The Distinguishing Marks of the Good Shepherd's Sheep

A. Two sheepfolds: Israel and the Gentiles

1. John 10:1-6: within Israel, the true sheep are those who hear the shepherd's voice and follow him
2. John 10:16: "other sheep not of this fold" — the Gentiles, brought into one flock under one Shepherd
3. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24: Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to the called — both Jews and Gentiles — he is the power and wisdom of God
4. Within both groups there is a cacophony of false voices, but a remnant has ears to hear the one true Shepherd

B. The sheep are those whose souls long for what only Christ can give

1. Zwingli's 67 Theses, thesis 15: "Our salvation lies in faith… all truth is clear in Christ"
2. Augustine: Plato and Cicero offer wise and beautiful sayings, but none of them say "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" — only Christ speaks peace to the soul
3. John 10:9: "I am the door… he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture"
4. Leon Morris: "go in and go out" simply indicates free and secure movement — a life of freedom, not merely a conversion
5. Luther: "A Christian is perfectly free, Lord of all, subject to none; a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all"
6. Psalm 119:45: "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts" — Christ liberates us into obedience

III. The Distinguishing Marks of the Good Shepherd's Service

A. The intimacy of the Son's knowledge of the Father is the source of the sheep's redemption

1. John 10:14-15: "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"
2. The eternal love between Father and Son is made incarnate and displayed most fully at Golgotha
3. The atonement is not cosmic child abuse: John 10:17-18 — "I lay down my life of my own accord… this charge I have received from my Father"

B. The Covenant of Redemption (pactum salutis)

1. The Father gives the Son all the sheep he is to purchase with his blood
2. The Son agrees to lay down his life for them
3. The Spirit agrees to call, draw, and work faith, union, and communion in the sheep
4. All three persons act not under compulsion but out of the sheer love of the Triune God

C. The cross is the fullest display of the character of God

1. The Lord's Supper is an Agape Feast — a love feast — where we feast on the Triune love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
2. The early church rightly called the Supper a love feast: in the bread and cup we encounter the heartbeat of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for his sheep