John 10:11-13 The Good Shepherd
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep“ (NLT).
“Shepherd” is defined as a person who herds, tends, and guards sheep. When we apply the word to a shepherd of people, we mean a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people. Jesus calls Himself the “good shepherd,” which I take to mean a shepherd who goes above and beyond what is necessary to protect his flock, and we are His flock, the sheep of His pasture. Jesus doesn’t just protect us, His flock, He provides an eternal home for us even as he protects, guides and watches over us while we are on the earth.
Jesus guards His flock when the “wolf” attacks--keeps them safe, and keeps them close to Him. Sheep are known to wander, and so do we. When Jesus sees us beginning to wander, He calls us back, but sometimes we are stubborn and keep going in the wrong direction. It is my belief that Jesus never stops calling us back even though we may be persistent about leaving the flock. He not only calls us back, but He also pursues us to draw us back to Him. In Matthew 18:12 we are told, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost” (NLT)? Jesus, as the good shepherd, will go look for the one that is lost, but He will not leave the ninety-nine because He, being God, is omnipresent. He maintains protection over the ninety-nine while He searches for the lost one. My guess is that, at some point in time, each of us has wandered, and we have experienced the joy of His calling us back and the thrill of walking back by His side.
There is a point where we can reject Jesus, deny Jesus, and not be drawn to Him. If we reject Him and deny Him until death, then we are eternally lost. Please don’t let that happen to you. When you hear the call of the Lord, reach out to Him. He will be overjoyed and rejoice in the day of your returning.
0 Comments