What makes Jesus the Good Shepherd? That is what defining traits separate good shepherds from n0t so good ones? In our country, we do not realize the intimacy of a shepherd with his flock as they do in Syria and parts of Southern Europe. It was my daily delight every day for many weeks and a dozen times a day, to watch a shepherd who had this almost incredibly close communion with his flock. Many times have I accompanied him through the green pastures and by the stream. If my shepherd wished to lead his sheep from one field to another, he went before them, and he was usually singing.

He led them with a song or with a sweet, low, wooing whistle like the call of a bird, and the sheep raised their heads from the herbage, looked at their guardian and guide, and followed on. I have heard his song and his low birdcall by the watercourse, and have seen the sheep follow his course over the rocky boulders to the still waters, where they have been refreshed. At noon he would sit down in a place of shadows, and all his flock crowded around him for rest. At night, when the darkness was falling, he gathered them into the fold.

We must realize an intimacy like this if we wish to understand the shepherd imagery of the Old Book. The communion is so intimate that the shepherd knows if one of his sheep is missing.¹ What Makes Jesus the Good Shepherd, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Why Following Jesus is Difficult, Risky, and Adventurous

[Tweet “The Good Shepherd is good because He lays down His life for the sheep.”]

Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This week’s call is:

Your Pastor, no doubt, is a good shepherd, a local representative of the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you told him or her how much you appreciate them?

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s conversation starter is:

Conversation: What do you appreciate most about your Pastor?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

Subscribe to the Podcast

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe.

  Stitcher Radio                                                            Google Play

iTunes                                                                                PlayerFM

Share the Love

If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

---

Podcast Notes

Jesus, the Good Shepherd

• We are talking about Jesus today.
• Don’t you love talking about Him?
• In scripture, Jesus bears many titles and descriptors that give us a glimpse of who He is.
• The Word of God calls Him:
  • The Christ or the Messiah
  • It identifies Him as the Son of Man
  • Or the Son of God
  • What about the Son of David?
  • How about Lord?
  • The Logos
  • Our Great High Priest
  • The Savior
  • Or Immanuel
  • And the Servant of the Lord
• That’s just a few of His many descriptors.
• John ten points to Jesus by yet another title, the Good Shepherd.

John 10:11–18 (ESV) — 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

New Characters in Jesus Parable

• So here in John 10:11, we have the introduction of some other new people in Jesus Parable.
• You know, in a previous podcast, we looked at about shepherds and sheep in general, and thieves, and robbers, specifically.
• Jesus talks about ‘a hired hand’ looking over the flock.
• He introduces a wolf in this parable, and he comes onto the scene with ill intent.
• What does the Good Shepherd do when this wolf comes?
• How about asking the same question of the hired hand?
• What does he do?
• Let’s drill down into all of this today.
• let’s start by defining terms.

Defining Terms: The ‘Good’ Shepherd

• A shepherd is a person whose occupation is tending, feeding, and guarding sheep in a pasture.
• Jesus is not just any old shepherd.
• He calls Himself a particular kind of shepherd — a Good Shepherd.
• The Greek qualifier ‘good’ is the word we want to look at, and with that thought, here’s the definition of the day.
• The adjective ‘good’ means having desirable or positive qualities, especially those suitable for a thing specified.
• This Jesus, this Good Shepherd, is one who has positive and desirable qualities.
• What are those qualities?
• These attributes are found right in the same verse.
• The Good Shepherd is good because He lays down His life for the sheep.

David, a Good Shepherd But Not Like Jesus

• David, from whose lineage Jesus came forth, did the same thing.
• He didn’t give His life for the sheep, but he put his life in harm’s way for the sheep.

1 Samuel 17:34–35 (ESV) — 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

• The other desirable and positive trait – again, that’s what the word ‘good’ means — is His God status.
• Jesus is God — He is the Son of God.
• There are many Old Testament references to God as the Shepherd of Israel.

Old Testament Good Shepherd References

Psalm 23:1 (ESV) — 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 80:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.

Isaiah 40:11 (ESV) — 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

• So these are just three references where the Lord said to the nation of Israel, I am your shepherd.
• So when Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, what He is doing, is publicly declaring His oneness with God.
• God the Father is God, and Jesus is God.
• The Heavenly Father is a Good Shepherd, and so His son.
• So, we are talking about God here, and everybody knows or should know that God is a good God.

God is Good

Psalm 34:8 (ESV) — 8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm 145:9 (ESV) — 9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

• The exact words “the Lord is good’ occur seven times in scripture.
• Seven is a perfect number and shows our God is perfectly good.
• So, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, that’s the first term we need to look at.

The Good Shepherd Is Not a Hired Hand

• So, Jesus is a Good Shepherd because He is God because He lays His life down for the sheep.
• Why else is Jesus a Good Shepherd?
• He is good because He is unlike a hired hand.
• What’s a hired hand?
• Well, let’s define that.
• The Greek word ‘hired hand’ means just exactly that, a worker who is hired to perform a job.
• The term ‘hired person’ is found in three other places in the New Testament.
• In Matthew 20:7, in another Jesus parable where laborers are hired at different times of the day.
• Mark 1:20, where James and John’s father decided to follow Jesus and left their father Zebedee with the fishing boat and the hired servants.
• And in Luke 15, where the prodigal son, in deep straits, hires himself out for food.

To Be Hired Is Not Evil by Itself

• In each of these cases, the term ‘hired servant’ is not used in a wicked sense.
• It’s not evil to be hired.
• Aren’t you glad that someone hired you?
• To sell your time to do a job for money is not wrong.
• But, some things transcend money.
• There are some things more priceless than Ben Franklins.
• Edwin Blum, in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, has the following to say.

In contrast with the Good Shepherd, who owns, cares, feeds, protects, and dies for His sheep, the one who works for wages—the hired hand—does not have the same commitment. He is interested in making money and in self-preservation.²

• Jesus is so good – He is so full of compassion and caring for the flock – interested in every single sheep to the point where He said in John 17, that He had lost none of those that Father had given Him except the Son of perdition that the scripture may be fulfilled.
• The love of God is so pure and so high that anything that compares in the natural looks terrible.
• It’s like how the brightness of the sun puts a flashlight in the dark.
• You can’t even see it.
• This is the effect of comparing the Good Shepherd to a hireling preacher.
• Jesus loves the sheep with such a pure love that the hireling, the guy that’s only interested in pastoring because of the money he could earn, looks super selfish.
• To the world, it is okay to preach only for money – “why a guy’s gotta earn a living,” they say.
• But, that thinking is putrid.

Pastoral Compensation: A Good Thing

• Now, I am not saying that it’s wrong for a pastor to get a salary or for a minister to be compensated.
• The scriptures teach that those who preach the gospel should live by it.

1 Corinthians 9:14 (ESV) — 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

• Notice that compensating those in the ministry is a commandment of God.
• The Greek word commanded means to charge (instruct) v. — to authoritatively give someone detailed instructions on what to do.
• So, just because a minister receives compensation doesn’t mean he is a hireling.
• A hireling is a person whose sole motive is gain.
• He is an individual who cares nothing for the sheep and at the first sign of trouble bales.
• I heard a minister once say, “There are three things a man who represents God must be careful of the girls, the gold, and the glory.
• Ministers must be super extra cautious in their interactions with the opposite sex.
• They also must never take credit for the Lord is doing.
• That is, taking the glory for oneself.
• And of the course, the third is having the gold as your sole motive.

Pastors Should Emulate the Good Shepherd

• Jesus is your role model.
• He is your pattern for ministry.
• The following poem illustrates this point well.

There is a pastor, himself he cherished, Who loved his position not his parish So the more he preached The less he reached And this is why his parish perished. ³

• That tells the story, doesn’t it?

Difference between Hirelings and Real Shepherds

• There is an enormous Paradise size gulf between real shepherds and hirelings.
• Listen to the Lord’s words on the subject.

Ezekiel 34:1–6 (ESV) — 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

• Notice the specific sins that the Lord mentions concerning the leaders of Israel.
• Leaders are shepherds; that’s what the Lord is referring to here.

The Sins of Hirelings: Selfishness

• Shepherds put their needs ahead of the people: they fed themselves and not the sheep.
• Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was selfless: He gave His whole life for you and me, even to the point of dying for us.
• Totally unselfish.
• Praise His Name.
• What are some of the other sins of hirelings?

The Sins of Hirelings: Not Strengthening the Weak

• How do you strengthen the weak?
• Well, one way is to put out good food for the sheep to graze on.
• A minister’s first job is to feed.
• To the Ephesian elders, Paul spoke this into their lives.

Acts 20:28 (KJV) — 28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

• The Greek word ‘feed’ means to rule or to shepherd that is to rule over a group of people, conceived of as tending sheep or goats.
• The principal role of the shepherd is to lead the sheep to food.

Psalm 23:1 (ESV) — 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

• I shall not want for food.
• So these hireling shepherds didn’t feed the sheep so that they could become strong.
• The hirelings didn’t strengthen the weak.
• Jesus, the Good Shepherd, made provision for you by sending the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to you when He ascended into heaven.
• One of the spirit’s roles is to lead you into the truth of God’s Word.

John 16:13 (ESV) — 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

• What else didn’t those classified hirelings do?

The Sins of Hirelings: They Didn’t Heal the Sick

• Get this now.
• The Lord was upset about this.
• These selfish, self-centered shepherds did not heal the sick.
• Jesus, the Good Shepherd, gave His life so you could receive healing.

1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) — 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

• Ministers, lay your hands on the sick.
• That’s the Word of the Lord to you.
• Don’t worry about the people you have prayed for and didn’t get healed.
• You don’t have to make excuses for God.
• I heard about one man who kept praying for the sick and prayed for hundreds of people; I think he said a thousand people if memory serves before the first got healed.
• After that, this man is getting them healed left and right.
• Don’t get hung up on the number.
• He learned how to pray for the sick by praying for the sick.
• You learn by doing.
• I’ve prayed for people who didn’t receive their healing, and then, I’ve prayed for some who did.
• Keep obeying the Word of the Lord.
• Lay your hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
• What else didn’t the hirelings do?

The Sins of Hirelings: They Didn’t Minister to the Injured

• There are more problems with sheep than just physical illness.
• There are emotional problems, family problems, mental problems, and financial problems, to name a few.
• That’s why you have to keep putting the Word of God out.
• God’s Word has the answer to your situation.
• Jesus, the Good Shepherd, said these very familiar words.

John 8:32 (ESV) — 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• Here’s another negative hireling trait.

The Sins of Hirelings: They Didn’t Seek the Strays and the Lost

• The hireling is too focused on himself to care about others.
• The sheep are drowning, and their bleating, and they didn’t respond in their hour of need.
• The Son of Man, however, one of His soul purposes was to seek and save the lost.

Luke 19:10 (ESV) — 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

• We have to care for people.
• We have to be concerned about the lost and back-slid-den sheep.
• There’s a verse of scripture that’s been on my mind lately in Matthew nine.

The Need for ‘Good Shepherd Style’ Laborers

Matthew 9:35–38 (ESV) — 35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

• In verse thirty-five, we see Jesus preaching and teaching.
• He’s trying to feed the sheep.
• Jesus is laboring and putting out tremendous physical energy getting the Word of His Father out to people.
• At the same time, He’s healing the sick and praying for hundreds and hundreds of people.
• That takes a tremendous toll on your body, try it some time, you’ll see.
• But, after all of this effort, Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “Pray to the Father God, the Lord of the harvest, that He would send out laborers into the harvest.”
• What was He saying?
• Jesus was saying that one man can’t do it all.
• Reinforcements are needed, More shepherds who care about the sheep and who are more like the Good Shepherd than the bad hirelings are needed.
• That’s what Jesus was trying to get over.

A Closing Illustration

• Here’s a story that illustrates the point.

A party of tourists was on its way to Palestine and its guide was describing some of the quaint customs of the East. “Now,” said he, “you are accustomed to seeing the shepherd following his sheep through the English lanes and byways. Out in the East, however, things are different, for the shepherd always leads the way, going on before the flock. And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” The party reached Palestine, and, to the amusement of the tourists, almost the first sight to meet their eyes was that of a flock of sheep being driven along by a man.

The guide was astonished and immediately made it his business to accost the shepherd. “How is it that you are driving these sheep?” he asked. “I have always been told that the Eastern shepherd leads his sheep.” p 499 “You are quite right, sir,” replied the man. “The shepherd does lead his sheep. But you see, I’m not the shepherd, I’m the butcher.”⁴

• Big thumbs down on the butchers.
• Great big thumbs up on the Good Shepherd and those who respond to the call of ministering to the flock.
• You guys have a great God week, and we’ll see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Secrets to Hearing God: Are You Listening?

---

References: