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I. CHRIST'S KNOWLEDGE OF HIS PEOPLE.

1. The faithful and experienced Eastern shepherd knows every one of his sheep. So does Christ. He knows —

1. Their persons; not only the numbers of His flock. We are as well known to Him as the stars (Isaiah 40), and as our children are to us.

2. Their condition and circumstances — but general and peculiar — our sins that He may pardon them; our diseases that He may heal them; our wants that He may supply them; our fears that He may quiet them; our burdens that He may give us strength to bear them; our prayers that He may grant them, our graces that we may delight in them; our services that He may reward them.

2. We trace this knowledge to —

(1)  His great love. It is clear that the shepherd who loves his sheep best will know them best.

(2)  His intimacy. He dwells with them.

(3)  His omniscience.

II. CHRIST'S PEOPLE'S KNOWLEDGE OF HIM is —

1. Peculiar. Their fellow men do not possess it or understand it.

2. Acquired. It is not natural to us. Nature does not teach it. The young sheep knows its mother by instinct, but not its shepherd. All real knowledge of Christ is the effect of a special manifestation of Him to the soul.

3. Experimental chiefly. Some knowledge we get of Him from faith in God's testimony concerning Him, but our chief spring is this: when we have hungered, He has fed us; when we have not known our way, He has guided us; where we have fallen into danger, He has extricated us.

4. Practical. The soul that possesses it becomes willing and obedient.

(C. Bradley, M. A.)

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KJV: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

WEB: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.