I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd. Sermons
I. THE GLORIOUS AND INSPIRING VIEW WHICH JESUS TOOK OF HIS OWN OFFICE AND WORK AMONGST MEN. He was regarded in Palestine, both by friends and foes, as a Jewish Rabbi. But this was not the view he was accustomed to take of himself. He did his daily work for those amongst whom he lived; but he was aware that there was a vaster sphere of service which was truly his. He was the Shepherd, not of Israel only, but of mankind. The majesty of his position and office did not break in upon him either gradually or suddenly. He brought with him to earth the consciousness of a Divine election and commission. And in such passages as this we have a revelation of his mind; and we feel that no mere human teacher or leader could have assumed such a relation towards the vast multitudes here contemplated, but distant in space, remote in time, and seemingly estranged in sympathies. II. THE LIBERAL, AND COMPREHENSIVE REPRESENTATION WHICH JESUS GAVE OF HUMANITY AS HIS FLOCK. The fold of Israel was very select and very exclusive. The Hebrews were wont to regard the less favored nations with indifference and even contempt. Narrowness was almost the "note" of the Jewish temper. Yet the Old Testament contained no justification for such bigotry. In the Psalms and in the prophets we meet with representations of the purposes of God towards humanity at large, which are startling in their magnificent liberality and comprehensiveness. God's salvation, we are told, shall extend to the ends of the earth; all nations shall sing the praises of the Lord. Accordingly, when we read our Savior's language in this passage, and find him claiming as his own other sheep not of the Hebrew fold, we feel that such language is a verification of his claim to fulfill the Jewish prophecies, to supersede the Jewish prophets, to realize the substance of the Jewish types and shadows. The Samaritans had long ago come to the conclusion that Jesus was the Savior of the world! Jesus now openly declared that the Gentiles were, in the counsels of God, members of his spiritual flock and household. And he was about to assert the mysterious power of his cross, by assuring the Jews that he should thence draw all men unto himself. III. THE SUBLIME FORECAST WHICH JESUS COMMUNICATED CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. Observe the several steps. 1. Gentiles are the possession of the Divine Shepherd, and the purchase of his redeeming love and sacrifice. Far away there are sheep which he has, for which he lays down his life, equally with those nearest to him the objects of his interest, love, and care. 2. The time shall come when the Gentiles shall realize their privileges, shall be led by him, and shall hear his voice. Then the Redeemer shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. 3. The ultimate purpose of Divine grace shall be fulfilled, when the unity of the ransomed shall be complete, when there shall be "one flock," and when the Savior shall be acknowledged as the Sovereign, when there shall be "one Shepherd." - T.
I am the Good Shepherd. Christ is "the Good Shepherd." He is this because —I. He OWNS the sheep. He is the Proprietor of the flock. They are His — 1. By the gift of the Father. "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me." 2. By creative ties. "His own" — sheep which are His even before they are called. 3. By purchase. "The Good Shepherd giveth" as a deposit, layeth down as a pledge, "His life for the sheep" (Hebrews 13:20). The blood He shed was not in His own defence, but for the sake of those whom He came to rescue. II. He KNOWS His sheep. 1. By their faces. An ancient and convenient custom among shepherds is to put a mark upon their sheep, an ear-mark, as they call it; and by the mark they know them in years to come. Jesus Christ, too, puts a mark on His sheep, not on the ear, but on the forehead (Revelation 14:1). 2. By their names. He knows His followers, not as men and women only, but as Peter and Andrew, Mary and Martha. The saints have queer names in the Epistles. I cannot remember them, but Jesus does. He calls the stars by name too, but then the stars are very big things. The wonder is that He calls the tiny sheep by name, scattered as they are. "What's in a name?" A great deal, especially in a Christian name, given at the font, and accepted by Christ. 3. Their circumstances (Revelation 2:13). The Good Shepherd knows where you live — the town, the street, the house (Acts 9:11; Acts 10:5, 6). 4. By a thorough apprehension of their character. In the fourth and fifth verses "know" signifies outside acquaintance — that Christ and man have come within the same circle. But in the fourteenth verse it means a clear discerning insight into the springs of life and the motives of action. III. He FEEDS His sheep (ver. 9). 1. "They go in" first to the fold. Rest after wandering. "He leadeth me beside the still waters" (services of God's House: perusal of the Bible). 2. They "go out" to graze. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures" (marg. "in pastures of tender grass"). The Bible pasture is green pasture. Every truth as fresh as if it were spoken but yesterday. Not only is the grass green, but there is plenty of it (ver. 10). IV. He LEADS the sheep (ver. 3). 1. He leads the sheep. Exceedingly simple and helpless is a sheep gone astray. And when the Bible speaks of sinners it compares them to erring sheep (Isaiah 53:6). 2. He leads them gently (ver. 4). He is not behind them, searing them with the lashes of the law, but in front of them, drawing them with the cords of His love, and adapting His steps to theirs. 3. He leads them safely along "the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." This is, to me, one of the most cogent reasons for believing in His Divinity, that He was able to stamp His feet so deeply on the rock of history, that their prints have not yet been erased. The weight of Godhead was in His steps, the emphasis of the Infinite in His tread. 4. Not only does He lead us through life, but He goes before us through death (Psalm 23:4). Not a single sheep will be wanting, they shall all be safely folded by Divine love (ver. 16). (J. C. Jones, D. D.) This is one of those Divine sayings in which there is so much of truth and love, that we seem able to do little more than to record it and ponder on it, to express it by symbols, and to draw from it a multitude of peaceful and heavenly thoughts. It was the symbol under which, in times of persecution, His presence was shadowed forth. It was sculptured on the walls of sepulchres and catacombs; it was painted in upper chambers and in oratories; it was traced upon their sacred books; it was graven on the vessels of the altar. The image of the Good Shepherd has expressed, as in a parable, all their deepest affections, fondest musings, most docile obedience, most devoted trust. It is a title in which all other titles meet, in the light of which they blend and lose themselves. Priest, Prophet, King, Saviour, and Guide, are all summed up in this more than royal, paternal, saving name. It recalls in one word all the mercies and lovingkindness of God to His people of old, when "the Shepherd of Israel" made His own people "to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock." It recites, as it were, all the prophecies and types of the Divine care which were then yet to be revealed to His elect: it revives the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:12-27; Ezekiel 37:24; Isaiah 49:9, 10). And, moreover, by this title He appropriates to Himself the fulfilment of His own most deep and touching parable of the lost sheep. There is no thought or emotion of pity, compassion, gentleness, patience, and love which is not here expressed. It is the peculiar consolation of the weak, or of them that are out of the way; of the lost and wandering; of the whole flock of God here scattered abroad "in the midst of this naughty world." And though it be an office taken on earth, and in the time of our infirmity, it is a name which He will never lay aside. Even in the heavenly glory it still is among His titles. He is even there "the chief Shepherd," "that great Shepherd of the sheep"; and in the state of bliss shall still guide His flock: though more fully to express the unity of His nature with theirs, and His own spotless sacrifice in their behalf, He is called "the Lamb" (Revelation 7:17). Let us then consider awhile the surpassing and peculiar goodness of the One True Shepherd. And this He has revealed to the world in His voluntary death. There was never any other but He who came down from heaven that He might lay down "His life for the sheep." This is the one perpetual token of His great love to all mankind — a token ever fresh, quickened with life, full of power to persuade the hearts of His people to Himself. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"; and therefore the death of the good Shepherd is the subject of all the Church's testimony. Again, His surpassing goodness is shown in the provision He has made of all things necessary for the salvation of His flock in this state of mortality and sin. For this He has provided, first, in the external foundation and visible perpetuity of His Church. He has secured it by the commission to baptize all nations, by the universal preaching of His apostles, by shedding abroad the Holy Ghost, by the revelation of all truth, by the universal tradition of the faith in all the world. And, secondly, His love and care are shown, not only in the external and visible provision which He thus made beforehand for the perpetual wants of His flock, but in the continual and internal providence wherewith He still watches over it. The whole history of His Church from the beginning — the ages of persecution, and "times of refreshing"; the great conflicts of faith with falsehood, and of the saints with the seed of the serpent; the whole career of His Church amid the kingdoms of the earth and changes of the world, are a perpetual revelation of His love and power.(Archdeacon Manning.) Boston Homilies. He is the Good Shepherd in the sense of real or genuine. He is the Shepherd from the very centre of His being. Every instinct of His nature, every feeling of His heart, every thought of His brain, every touch of His hand are those of the true Shepherd, whose constant purpose is to guide and feed and save the flock, and for that purpose He counts no toil too severe, no suffering too intense, no sacrifice too costly. He has thoroughly identified Himself with the sheep, and whatever adds to their well-being He gladly does and bears. He is the Good Shepherd in contrast with the hireling, whose care is selfish and whose aim is wages. Jesus here gives us a distinction that applies in the most direct way to every phase of life. Interests of all kinds are intrusted with paid workers. Some of these are good shepherds, putting the very best of their lives into their toil; some are hirelings, faithful only so long as fidelity is easy, safe, and profitable. The railroad engineer who sees imminent danger and remains at his post, hoping to save precious lives entrusted to his care, is the good shepherd. The need today in the State, the bank, the factory, the store, the kitchen, is for good shepherds. The presence of hirelings brings disaster to every cause. The Good Shepherd guides His sheep by going before them. Those who follow where Jesus led are safe. He was at times in a very whirlwind of human beings who were wrought to the highest pitch by diverse passions, but His feet never made a misstep, His face never turned in the wrong direction. His lips spoke the right word, His hands wrought the most helpful work always. Jesus said, "I know My sheep, and am known of Mine." "I lay down My life for the sheep." These were the proofs that He was the true Shepherd. He certainly knew what was in man. He saw the treachery working in the heart of Judas. He saw in Peter's self-trusting, impulsive nature the flame that soon burnt itself out to leave only the ashes of his boasted faith and devotion. But further than this, He saw the repentant Peter converted into the brave hero. He looked into the very soul of Zaccheus in the sycamore tree and taw in him a stedfast purpose of righteousness. He knew that back of the cleanly appearance of the Pharisees there was moral leprosy. On the briefest acquaintance with Nathanael He spoke of him as one "in whom there was no guile." The young man who came to Him with eager inquiries for eternal life was before Him as an open book — a man with a kindly heart, but too weak to brave danger and privation and sacrifice. There was no martyr stuff in him. Sin blunts the faculties. The most exalted natures have the keenest insight. Jesus, the Perfect One, knew instantly the false and the true.(Boston Homilies.) These words are equivalent to —I. I am A Shepherd. I stand in a peculiar relation to a peculiar people, who are My sheep. II. I am a GOOD Shepherd. I possess the appropriate qualifications and perform the appropriate duties of the character I sustain. III. I am THE Shepherd — the one Shepherd — not like him of ver. 2, one of the shepherds, but the great, chief, proprietor Shepherd, whose own the sheep are — the Shepherd of shepherds as well as of sheep. IV. I am THE GOOD Shepherd. I possess in the most perfect degree all the qualifications that are requisite for the discharge of the numerous, varied, and difficult duties of this most exalted office. V. I am THAT GOOD Shepherd, i.e., the Divine Guardian foreshadowed in prophecy (Ezekiel 34:11-24), and answering in every respect to the type. Christ is all this — 1. As He secures for His peculiar people all the blessings they require. 2. As He secures these advantages to them at the greatest conceivable expense to Himself. 3. As there subsists the most endearing mutual acquaintance and intercourse between Him and His people. 4. As He cares for the happiness, so He secures the salvation of all. (J. Brown, D. D.) The truth here is Christ's exceeding love and care for the Church. He would show that He sustained towards it a relationship beyond parallel. Not a king, however wise his rule; not a parent, however fond his care; not a friend, however great his service, for all these are kindnesses of beings of the same nature only. They suggest nothing of that condescension by which a Being of the highest order could embrace one reduced to the condition of fallen man. Hence Christ selected as the type of our lost race the most helpless of animals, and compares Himself to one of the kindest of guardians. Let us consider some of His pastoral offices in which His love is set forth.I. HE PROVIDES FOR THEIR SPIRITUAL WANTS. This would be the first thing looked for according to the predictions (Psalm 23). 1. Pasture for the flock — enough for all; variety for each. 2. Wisdom to guide. 3. Watchfulness to tend. 4. Constraint to rule. 5. Diligence to seek out. 6. Power to restore. II. HE PRESERVES THEM FROM FOES AND DANGERS (ver. 12). It is our lot to be sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. If our soul escapes at all it is because the snare is broken by our Deliverer. That which enables the Good Shepherd to effect our deliverance is His profound and comprehensive knowledge (ver. 14). These perils are foreseen and provided for. How many tempted ones have derived comfort from the thought that when Satan has desired to have them, he has prayed, etc. Hence the encouragement, "Fear not little flock." "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." III. HE IS DILIGENT IN RECOVERING THOSE WHO STRAY (Ezekiel 34; Isaiah 53:1). In relation to the whole human family Christ came to seek and save the lost. The whole history of the Church has been the gathering in of outcasts. He is found of them that sought Him not; and under backslidings after conversion, will He go after us again. He may leave us to eat the bitter fruits of our ways for a time, and make us contrast the misery of the wilderness with the blessedness of the fold. He, who of all the saints of God lived nearest to Him, and yet wandered furthest, said, "He restoreth my soul." IV. HE HAS SPECIAL CARE OF THE YOUNG, whether young in years or in grace (Isaiah 40). An untended lamb is the very type of helplessness and folly. The temptations are many which beset the flock in early life from the example of companions, worldly pleasures, buoyant spirits, etc.; but for these and every spiritual danger the Good Shepherd provides. Still, there are special dangers which account for this pastoral care. The very warmth and freshness of their religious feelings render them more liable to fall. Hence the first duty enjoined on restored Peter was "Feed My lambs." V. HE IS WITH THE FLOCK TO THE END. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," etc. (D. Moore, M. A.) I. THE PASTORAL CHARACTER CLAIMED BY CHRIST.1. We shall learn nothing from the text unless we enter humbly and affectionately into its spirit. We must dismiss all Western ideas. Here the connection between shepherd and sheep is simply one of pecuniary interest; but beneath the burning skies and clear starry nights of Palestine there grows up between the man and the dumb creatures he protects, often at the peril of his life, a kind of friendship. For this is after all the true school in which love is taught; dangers and hardships mutually shared, alone in those vast solitudes the shepherd and the sheep feel a life in common. The vast interval between the man and the brute disappears, and the single point of union is felt strongly — the love of the protector, and the love of the grateful life. Those to whom Christ spoke felt all this and more. He appealed to associations which had been familiar from childhood, and unless we try, by realizing such scenes, to feel what they felt by association, these words will only be dry and lifeless. 2. To the name shepherd Christ adds the significant word "Good" — not in the sense of benevolent, but true born, genuine, just as wine of a noble quality is good compared with the cheaper sort; and a soldier who is one in heart and not by mere profession, or for pay. This expression distinguishes the Good Shepherd from —(1) The robbers who may guard the sheep simply for their flesh and fleece: they have not a true shepherd's heart any more than a pirate has the true sailor's heart. There were many such marauders in Palestine. David protected Nabal's flock from them. Many such nominal shepherds had Israel in by-gone years: rulers whose rule had been but kingcraft: teachers whose instruction had been but priestcraft. Government, teachership are sublime pastoral callings; but when the work is even well done for the sake of party, or place, or honour, or consistency, it is the spirit of the robber.(2) The hirelings, who are tested by danger. A man is a hireling who does his duty for pay. He may do it in his way faithfully. The paid shepherd will not desert the sheep for a shower or a cold night. But he is not paid to risk his life against the lion or bear, and so the sheep are left to their fate. So a man may be a hired priest, or a paid demagogue, a great champion of rights paid by applause; and while popularity lasts he will be a reformer — deserting the people when danger comes. The cause of the sheep is not his. 3. Exactly the reverse is the Good Shepherd. The cause of man was His, and His only pay the cross. He might have escaped it all, and been an honoured leader by prudent time service. But this would have been the desertion of God's cause and man's. II. THE PROOFS WHICH SUBSTANTIATE THE CLAIM. 1. I know My sheep as the Father knoweth Me, and not simply by omniscience. There is a certain mysterious tact of sympathy and antipathy by which we discover the like and unlike of ourselves in others' character. A man may hide his opinions, but not his character. There is a something in an impure heart which purity detects afar off. The truer we become, the more unerringly we know the ring of truth. Therefore Christ knows His sheep by the mystic power, always finest in the best natures, by which like detects what is like and unlike itself; and how unerringly did He read men — the enthusiastic populace, Nathanael, the rich ruler, Zacchaeus, Judas, the Pharisees! It was as if His bosom was some mysterious mirror, on which all that came near Him left a sullied or unsullied surface, detecting themselves by every breath. This Divine power must be distinguished from that cunning sagacity which men call knowingness. The worldly wise have maxims and rules; but the finer shades of character escape. Eternal judgment is nothing more than the carrying out of these words, "I know My sheep"; for their obverse is "I never knew you." 2. Christ's sheep know Him, not by some lengthened investigation, whether the shepherds dress be the identical dress, the crozier genuine — but instinctively. Truth is like light; risible in itself, not distinguished by the shadow it casts. 3. Pastoral fidelity, "I lay down My life." Here is the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice. Unitarians say He died as a martyr in attestation of His truths; but we cannot explain away the "for." This sacrificing love is paralleled by the love of the Father to the Son. Therefore that sacrifice is but a mirror of the heart of God. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) We have here —I. THE COMPLETE CHARACTER. There is more in Jesus than you can pack away in shepherd or any other emblem. But note — 1. He sets Himself forth as a shepherd: not such as is employed in England to look after sheep a few months till they are slaughtered. The Eastern shepherd is —(1) The owner or his son. His wealth consists in sheep. He has seldom much of a house, or much land. Ask him "How much are you worth?" He answers, "So many sheep." We are Christ's wealth, "the riches of the glory of His inheritance" is in the saints. The Lord's portion is His people. For their sakes He gave not only Ethiopia and Seba, but Himself.(2) The Caretaker. Christ is never off duty. He has constant care for His people day and night. He knows and prescribes for their every complaint.(3) The Provider. There is not one in the flock who knows about the selecting of pasturage. For time and eternity, body and soul, Christ supplies all our need.(4) The Leader.(5) The Defender. 2. Christ completely fills this character.(1) He is the Good Shepherd — neither thief nor hireling. What He does is con amore.(2) He is the Good Shepherd. Of others we can only say a shepherd. All the rest are shadows: He is the substance. 3. Christ rejoices in this character. He repeats it so many times here that it almost reads like the refrain of a song. And if He is so pleased to be our Shepherd, we should be pleased to be His sheep, and avail ourselves of all the privileges wrapped up in the name. II. THE COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE. 1. Christ's knowledge of His own, "As the Father," etc. Do you know how much the Father knows the Son who is His glory, other self, yea, one with Him? Just so intimately does the Good Shepherd know His sheep. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (a) (b) (c) 2. Our knowledge of the Lord, "as I know the rather." This is — (1) (2) (3) III. THE COMPLETE SACRIFICE. These words are repeated in different forms four times (vers. 11, 15, 17, 13), and mean that — 1. He was always doing so. All the life He had He was constantly laying out for the sheep. 2. It was actively performed. He did not die merely. 3. It was voluntary. 4. It was for the sheep. (C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. His knowledge of all the wants of the sheep is perfect. 2. His wisdom to provide is infinite. 3. His power enables Him to carry out all His will. 4. His kindness endures through all their waywardness. 5. His faithfulness will never forsake them. 6. His undying interest forgets and omits nothing for their good. II. HIS ACTIVE WORK FOR THE SHEEP. 1. He rescues them from the great robber. 2. Brings them into His own fold. 3. Provides them with all the nourishment needed. 4. Given them refreshing repose amid the cares and toils of life. 5. Guards them from all danger. 6. Guides them in all perplexity. 7. Heals all their diseases. 8. Reclaims them from all their wanderings. 9. Folds them at last in heaven. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) II. SPONTANEOUSLY UNDERTOOK TO DIE FOR THE SHEEP. He might have saved Himself; He made no attempt at escape; He prayed for no legion of angels to rescue Him; He told Pilate that there was a limitation of his power in regard to his apparently helpless captive; He committed His spirit into His Father's hands. III. DIED IN THE STEAD OF THE SHEEP. A shepherd while defending his sheep sometimes falls a victim to his faithfulness. So Christ died a vicarious death, the just for the unjust, which exempted the sinner from the doom deserved. Not that there was a commercial equivalent, as when a debt is paid; but a moral equivalent accepted by a righteous and gracious God. IV. DIED ON BEHALF OF THE SHEEP. It was not for His own but our advantage. By His sacrifice we are redeemed from the curse of the law and the power of sin, and have secured for us eternal life. Application: 1. Adore and bless the love which animated the Good Shepherd. 2. Live as those who have been bought with a price, and have returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. (Family Churchman.) 1. It was deliberate. "For this purpose He came into the world." 2. It was voluntary. "No man taketh My life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." 3. It is vicarious. Not for them in defence, but for them vicariously. He died for them as a substitute, "bearing their own sins in His own body." 4. It was an accepted sacrifice. "Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again" (John 10:17). (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) 1. Is an exceedingly large one. If you were to go on counting for a whole year you could not count them all. The patriarchs had large flocks, so have many English farmers, but not altogether one so large. Some say all who are baptized, or take the Lord's Supper, or belong to this or that Church, are the Lord's sheep. But many of these are wicked, and so cannot be Christ's, while some where there are no churches and sacrament are Christ's because they love and obey Him. Ever since Abel died men have been gathered in, and thousands are joining the upper fold every day, and still millions are left behind. 2. While it is so large it is increasing very rapidly. Other flocks are to decrease. Every new convert is an addition, and what numbers are sometimes converted in a day (Acts 2)! Missionaries tell us of whole tribes casting away their idols, etc. It ought to increase more than it does when we consider the agencies at work Bibles, tracts, churches, schools, ministers, teachers, Christian fathers and mothers. 3. Christ's sheep are very much alike.(1) In their actions. Just as we can tell wolves from sheep, so we can tell who are Christ's and who are not. When we see a man roar like a lion, or greedy like a wolf, we know he is not of Christ's fold.(2) In their colour. "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me."(3) In their disposition. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ," etc.(4) In the treatment they require. None can do without the Shepherd's care. 4. They bear His mark. What strange marks farmers sometimes put upon their sheep — circles, crosses, initials. Some of Christ's sheep have got His mark in greater boldness, but the porter can detect it however faint. If a king were to attempt to enter without it he would be turned away, while a prodigal with it would be welcomed.(1) This mark is not being an Episcopalian, Independent, etc. We may have the Church's mark and not Christ's.(2) It is likeness to Christ, and we cannot be like Him without being born again. Some try to imitate this mark and affix Morality, Liberality, Good resolution, Fasting, etc. 5. This is a loving flock. Members of the same family, school, place of worship, ought to be kind and gentle, but Christ's flock is the most loving in the world. By this the world knows Christ's disciples. II. THE SHEPHERD. 1. He is awake and watchful. A good many people are awake but not watchful. Sometimes lambs are worried by strange dogs when the shepherd was asleep, and sometimes stray into danger when he is awake but inattentive. But nothing escapes Christ's sleepless vigilance. "He that keepeth Israel," etc. 2. He is patient. A shepherd cannot have too much patience: much as he may have it will be sorely tried. In all trials Christ's patience never left Him; and were it to leave Him now how many would be expelled the fold! 3. He is strong. Look at what He has done in Nature. "All power is given unto Me." All ministers, teachers, and angels combined would be unable to provide for or protect His flock. Then His stock of provisions never diminishes, and every sheep is fed according to its need. 4. He goes after every sheep or lamb that goes astray. How strange that any should desert such a fold; stranger still that those who stray should refuse to return. (J. Goodacre.) (C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. He protects them. Sheep are exposed to many dangers, from which they are not able to protect themselves. When David was a shepherd, he tells us of a lion and a bear, that each came and stole away a lamb from his flock; and how he went after the wild beasts, and slew them, and saved his lambs. And this is just what Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does for His sheep. He protects them from Satan, their great enemy. And in the same way He protects them from all their enemies, and from every danger. A Christian mother who lived in the city of New York, in very humble circumstances, had only one child, a little boy about seven years old, whom she had taught to know and love the Saviour. One day, when this good mother was going quietly on with her work at home, she was startled by a loud knock at the door of her humble dwelling. On opening the door she received this alarming message: "Hurry away to the police station; your little boy has been run over." She was terribly frightened, and, hastening as fast as she could to the station house, on arriving there she found her little boy surrounded by strangers. The doctor had been sent for, but had not yet arrived. She was told that the wheels of a large carriage had gone over his foot, but, on examining it carefully, she was surprised to find no real injury about the foot. "Why, Willie darling, how was it possible for the wheel of the carriage to have gone over your foot, and not have crushed it?" The child looked tenderly up into his mother's face, and said — "Mamma, dear, I guess God must have put it in a hollow place." This shows what faith that little boy had in the protection which Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has promised to exercise over His sheep. He always has "a hollow place" to put them in when danger is near. 2. He provides for them. This is something which the sheep cannot do for themselves, and unless the shepherd does it for them they must perish. II. WHAT THE GOOD SHEPHERD EXPECTS HIS SHEEP TO DO FOR HIM? 1. To hear His voice. "My sheep hear my voice," He says. 2. To follow Him. The sheep set us an example here, not only in hearing the shepherd, but in obeying him. (R. Newton, D. D.) I. THE FIGURE OF SHEEP SUITS US. We call them silly sheep. 1. They cannot guide their own way. As wild beasts can. 2. They cannot keep or defend themselves. Frightened at danger. 3. They quickly follow bad examples. Running after wilful one. 4. They are surrounded by unknown dangers. How much mother knows, and teacher knows, that we do not. II. THE FIGURE OF SHEPHERD SUITS CHRIST. A most blessed thing that we have someone to care for us. 1. Shepherd must be strong. To defend, carry, etc. 2. Shepherd must be wise. To guide to food and water. 3. Shepherd must be watchful. To see foes. 4. Shepherd must be loving and gentle. To tend in weakness. III. WHEN WE SPEAK OF JESUS, WE WANT TO CALL HIM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Especially because He was willing to die in defending us, Jesus. The old and familiar tale of Eric, who threw Himself to the wolves to save his master. Or, case of shepherd who died fighting three robbers. IV. WHEN CHRIST SPEAKS OF US, HE WOULD LIKE TO CALL US GOOD SHEEP. What is it to be good, so that Christ can think us good? A great difference in sheep. The good sheep know the Shepherd's voice. They follow, they keep close, they obey. (Weekly Pulpit.) II. SELFISH. He pursues his calling with an eye to his own interest and comfort — a type of Ezekiel's shepherds (Ezekiel 34:2-3), and of so-called Christian pastors who use their official position solely to secure worldly emolument, social preferment, or temporal renown (1 Timothy 3:3, 3). III. NEGLIGENT. Chiefly occupied with thoughts of his own happiness, he not only leaves the sheep to cater for themselves (Ezekiel 34:4; Zechariah 11:16, 17), but fleeing at the first approach of danger, permits the helpless creatures to be ravaged and scattered. Once more a representative of the corrupt hierarchy that presided over Israel, and of such nominally Christian teachers who, neglecting the highest interests of their people, leave them to fall a prey to the principalities and powers of evil. (T. Whitelaw D. D.) (Monday Club Sermons.) (J. Wesley.) 2. His surprises are crafty. 3. His hatred of Christ is implacable. 4. His hunger to devour is insatiable. 5. He attacks under darkness. 6. He scatters the flock by tempting them to luxury, avarice, and sensuality. Filling their minds with pride, envy, anger, deceit. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) 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) (2) (3) 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.) 1. It must be by following Him. "My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me." By living such a life as He lived. Likeness to Him is the power of knowing Him. Nay, rather it is knowledge itself: there is no other. It is by likeness that we know, and by sympathy that we learn. 2. There are peculiar faculties of the heart which must be awakened, if we would know Him as He knows us. There can be no true obedience without the discipline of habitual devotion — in prayer, meditation, sacramental communion. 3. This true knowledge of Him is not a transitory state of feeling. Out of obedience and devotion arises an habitual faith, which makes Him, though unseen, yet perceptibly a part of all our life. (Archdeacon Manning.) (J. E. Vernon, M. A.) (H. W. Beecher.) I. CHRIST KNOWS WHO ARE HIS SHEEP. Leave it then to Him to pronounce who are so. We seldom make a greater mistake then when we attempt to trespass on this province of Deity. "I know," almost as much as to say, "You do not." And there are times when it will be best not to form the judgment respecting ourselves. Leave it thus. "He knows whether I am His; and if not, that I wish to be, and therefore will make me. If I am, He will keep me." II. HE KNOWS THEM AS A WHOLE. As all one, gathered out of the same desert, washed in the same fountain, etc. In this collectiveness He expects concert of action, sympathy, unity among His people. We are accustomed to regard ourselves as separate individuals, families, churches. Hence our narrowness, selfishness. III. HE KNOWS THEM AS INDIVIDUALS. Each stands out known and loved as if He cared for none else. He knows — 1. You, and not merely about you. 2. How long you have been in the fold, and expects accordingly. 3. Your natural temperament, what you can and cannot bear, how much exposure, liberty, etc. What kind of pasture you require. 4. Your future, and is always working up to it. IV. HE KNOWS HIMSELF IN THEM AND THEREFORE HIS FATHER'S MIND ABOUT THEM. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) (J. L. Nye.) I. The heavenly Shepherd will find many of His sheep, among those who are NON-CHURCH GOERS. I do not think that the Church gains when you take sheep from one fold and puts them into another. It is the lost sheep on the mountains we want to bring back. II. The heavenly Shepherd will find many of His sheep among those who are now REJECTORS OF CHRISTIANITY. I do not know bow you came to reject Christianity: but I want you, before you finally discard it, to give it a fair trial. You want what it alone can give — if it does not give that to you then you may reject it. But it will. Take not the word of a clergyman, who may be speaking professionally, but that of laymen who have never preached — Milton, Wilbcrforce, Newton, Boyle, Locke, Morse. III. The heavenly Shepherd will get many of His sheep among THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN FLUNG OF EVIL HABIT. The way Christian people give up the prodigal is outrageous. They talk as though the grace of God were a chain of forty or fifty links, and, when they had been run out, there was nothing to touch a man's iniquity. But there is only one class about whom we may be despondent: those who have been hearing the gospel for twenty, thirty, forty years, and who are gospel hardened. (T. De Witt Talmage.) 1. Doubtless these times are exceedingly dangerous, and some brethren never allow me to forget it, for they play well on the minor key. But I heard it thirty years ago, and the times have been bad ever since, and always will be. This is better, perhaps, than living in a fool's paradise; but certainly the days of Christ were terrible days in the point of —(1) Utter ungodliness. A few godly ones watched for the coming of Christ, but the great mass were altogether gone out of the way.(2) Will worship; the commandments of men were taught for the doctrines of God.(3) Fierce opposition, as seen in the treatment Christ received. Yet He had a chosen company, and however guilty our age may be in these points, there is an election of grace still. 2. This company was a fold. Afterwards they were to be called a flock; but as yet one glance was sufficient to embrace them all.(1) They were distinct from the world "Ye are not of the world," etc.(2) In that fold they Were protected from ill-weathers, and from the wolf and the thief.(3) Even there were goats — "One of you is a devil."(4) They were being strengthened for future following of the Great Shepherd. 3. When Jesus had thus shut them in He would not allow them to be exclusive, but opens wide the door of the sheepfold and cries, "Other sheep I have." Thus He checks a common tendency to be forgetful of outsiders. Seeing that He has those who would be found by Him through His faithful people, let us rouse ourselves to the holy enterprise, 4. Never despair. The Lord is with us. We may be poor, but we are Christ's, and that makes us precious. There were three men who had to carry on a college when funds were running short. One complained that they had no helpers and could not hope to succeed. "Why," said another, "we are a thousand." "How is that?" "I am a cipher, and you and our brother; so we have three noughts to begin with. But Christ is ONE. Put Him down before the ciphers, and we have a thousand directly." II. OUR LORD HAS OTHER SHEEP NOT YET KNOWN TO US. "I have," not "shall have." The apostles never dreamed of His having sheep in Britain or Rome. Their most liberal notion was that the scattered seed of Abraham might be gathered. 1. Who are these sheep?(1) Christ's chosen — "Ye have not chosen Me," etc.(2) Those whom the Father had given Him.(3) Those for whom He laid down His life that they might be the redeemed of the Lord, Ye are not your own, etc.(4) Those on whose behalf He had entered into suretyship engagements even as Jacob under took the flock of Laban that he should lose none. 2. What was their state? People without a shepherd — lost, wandering, ready to be devoured by the wolf. Bad as the world is today it must have been far worse in the vile Roman world. 3. This thought gave Christ great encouragement when confronting their adversaries, and should be a great comfort to God's people now. "I have much people in this city." This is our authority for seeking the lost sheep in whoever's preserves they may be. III. OUR LORD MUST LEAD THOSE OTHER SHEEP, not "bring"; Christ must be at their head, and they must follow. 1. It is Christ who has to do this, even as He has done it hitherto, "also." As Jesus has done it for us He must do it for others. 2. He "must" do it. Subjects are usually bound by a "must"; this "must" binds the sovereign. Who can resist it? Clear out all enemies! 3. How He must do it? "They shall hear my voice." Christ is going to save people still by the gospel, and we must not look for other means. "Go ye into all the world." IV. OUR LORD GUARANTEES THE UNITY OF HIS CHURCH. "One flock." 1. We hear a great deal about the unity of the Church. We are to have the Roman, Greek, and Anglican all one. God has chosen people in each, but their union would be a dire mischief. 2. This has been carried out as a matter of fact. There never was but one Shepherd and never will be but one flock. All the visible Churches contain parts of it. 3. As a matter of experience this is carried out in believers. A spiritually minded man is at one with all spiritually minded men. Set a Calvinist and an Arminian at prayer: let the Spirit work on Baptist and Paedo-Baptist. What Protestant but loves Bernard? 4. The external Church is needful, but it is not the one and indivisible Church of Christ. 5. This Church is known by its obedience to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) II. OTHER SHEEP NOT OF THIS FOLD. Here the expansive love of Jesus breaks forth. He began at Jerusalem, but the longings of His heart go forth to the end of the earth. III. I HAVE. Mark the all encompassing sovereignty of His love. They were His in the covenant from the beginning. At a time when they were neither born nor born again He counts them His. IV. THEM ALSO. There is no respect of persons. No poor slave will be left out because he is black; no servant pushed aside to make way for his master; no rich or powerful man is kept out at the cry of the envious mob. If any were kept back the Lord would say, "them also; gather up the fragments," etc. What a cheering word l It embraces the prodigal, the dying thief, Saul of Tarsus. V. I BRING. He sends none forward to make or find their own way. "In all their afflictions He is afflicted." They shall not traverse the valley of the shadow alone. None shall stand at the Judgment to make the best of his own case. "I am the Way." He brings them through the regeneration into the fold on earth. It often takes much bringing; but all power is given to the Captain of our salvation. The drunkard, miser, etc., are made willing in the day of His power. And that same bringing power shall rend the gates of death. VI. I MUST. He commands the winds and the sea and they obey; who then can command Him? His own yearning love. (W. Arnot, D. D.) (C. H. Spurgeon.) Them also I must bring. — They must be brought — 1. To realize the visions of ancient prophecy. 2. To accomplish the promise of the Father (Psalm 2:3). 3. To secure the object, and to recompense the suffering and the toil of the Redeemer's mediatorial undertaking. 4. To answer the prayers, fulfil the expectations, and crown the prayers which He has animated and inspired. (T. Raffles, LL. D.) One fold and one shepherd. — I. CHRIST'S PROPERTY IN HIS SHEEP. 1. How acquired.(1) By donation. "Thine they were and Thou gavest them Me." "Ask of Me," etc.(2) By purchase, "Ye are bought with a price."(3) By the sanctification of the Spirit; after which He gives them back to the Father to be glorified. 2. There are but three possessions to which the word property really belongs.(1) The sinner's possession of his own sins.(2) The believer's possession of his own Saviour.(3) Christ's possession of His own people. 3. Possession is an endearing thing. If you possess a thing you love it; and that feeling is a faint copy of the mind of Christ. 4. Concerning this possession, Christ declares that He holds it not only over those He was then addressing, but over others separated from them — perhaps other worlds, certainly Gentiles, of whose admission Jews were jealous. 5. Note, then, that Christ said this of those who were then unconverted. Paul (Acts 13) was almost driven from Corinth by opposition, but was stopped by "I have much people in this city;" and yet, with the exception of two or three persons, all were locked in unbelief. But it was not so eighteen months after. What a joy to the Christian worker to be able to think that any man may be among Christ's "other sheep!" II. CHRIST'S ENGAGEMENT FOR HIS SHEEP. "Them also I must bring." 1. The imperative obligation. God permits Himself to be ruled by His own covenant. 2. This certified engagement is this: "They shall hear My voice." (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 3. Your corresponding duty to this pledge is to hear — obey. This is happiness here and glory by and by. III. CHRIST'S INTENTION WITH HIS SHEEP. "One fold," etc. 1. This will be literally fulfilled in heaven. 2. It is spiritually fulfilled herein — (1) (2) (3) (4) (J. Vaughan, M. A.) 1. The views of mankind concerning religious subjects are to be extensively changed. 2. A mighty change, also, must be wrought in the disposition of man. 3. The change will not be less in the conduct of men. II. IN WHAT MANNER ARE THESE THINGS TO BE DONE? I answer, they are to be accomplished not by miracles, but by means. III. BY WHOM ARE THESE THINGS TO BE DONE? Solitary efforts will here be fruitless; divided efforts will be equally fruitless; clashing efforts will destroy each other. Learn — 1. The work to which you are summoned is the work of God. 2. The present is the proper time for this glorious undertaking. 3. The necessity of this work irresistibly demands every practicable effort. "The whole world," says St. John, speaking of his own time, "lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:19). Lieth — for such is the indication of the original — as a man slain lies weltering in his blood. 4. The day in which these blessings are to be ushered in has arrived. The day in which the mighty work will be seen in its full completion is at hand. We must labour, that those who come after us may enter into our labours. (T. Dwight, D. D.) (Dean Stanley.) (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) I. OF LAYING DOWN HIS LIFE. 1. No mere man could have said this. Power over life is God's prerogative. To none but the Son has He "given to have life in Himself"; and power "to take it again" is manifestly not ours. But we must not separate this claim from His obedience. Christ knows no power but to do the Father's will. 2. Much of our metaphysics is here silenced. Is obedience free if we are not also free to disobey? The truest liberty is voluntary restraint. The freedom of obedience is learned as we love to obey. The fullest consciousness of power is that of power to do God's will. 3. Christ's assertion of power is intended to illustrate His obedience. "I lay down My life of Myself." He could have withdrawn Himself from the people, or by yielding to their prejudices have won them. He could have awed them, as He did the soldiers, by His majestic presence. He had power over men's consciences, as was seen in the case of the Pharisees who brought the woman taken in adultery, and in the case of Pilate. The concealed aid of heaven was at His bidding. But more than all this was the strength of His submission. He speaks of His power to show how full was His obedience. 4. We have here an awful revelation of the powerlessness of sin. The Jews were simply tolerated, ignorant of the power that restrained itself. So with all sinners. But Christ was thus patient that when they had done their worst He might be their Saviour. 5. The chief truth here is the fulness of Christ's obedience. The consciousness that we might escape would be to us a motive for disobedience. We are kept submissive by weakness. He speaks not of power to avoid the sacrifice but to make it. II. OF THY FATHER'S LOVE. 1. We see the reason of this partly in Christ's obedience. Here is the oneness of the Father and the Son; the Son rejoices to obey; the Father commits His whole counsel to the Son that He may accomplish it. 2. The commandment was that Christ should lay down His life for the sheep. The Father's love for the Son is not one in which all others are shut out. We read that God did not "rest" in Creation till He had made man in His own image. His love is so bountiful that it forms objects on which to lavish itself. Here we have something more surprising — the pity for lost man which is in the Father, and that pity finding response in the Son. Well was it said that "God is love." 3. Christ tells us why the Father loves Him.(1) That we may know the men who are dearest to God — not as with us the learned, wealthy, powerful, but the obedient and loving.(2) That we may understand Christ's life and death. Neither Jews nor disciples could understand the Man of Sorrows. Hence the double proclamation, "This is My beloved Son." How many a reason has been given why Christ must die! But how poor all reasons beside the simple one that He loved us.(3) In order that we may know God. The object of our affection reveals our. selves. If the man of force be our hero, we show ourselves worshippers of power; if a good man, we prize goodness. Christ is dear to the Father because He loves us. What a witness to the love of God. III. OF THE ISSUE OF LAYING DOWN HIS LIFE. Christ is to reap the reward of His sacrifice, and we of the travail of His soul. 1. This alone renders His sacrifice lawful or possible, and distinguishes between sublimity of sacrifice, and scornful waste of self. The Father's commandment is not that the Son should perish. The life which is yielded up for the ends of love is restored in the triumph of love. 2. This illustrates the true character of trust in God — the assurance that He is righteous to vindicate fidelity and loving to reward it. 3. It is not love for men which is indifferent about sharing with them the joy of their restoration — this makes any sacrifice an affront. Christ anticipates the joy of leading many sons to glory. 4. Heaven would lose its value if Christ perished to secure it for us. We should feel that our salvation had been too dearly purchased, and the bitter sorrow that He was absent whose joy it would have been to meet His redeemed. 5. To labour in hope of reward is not always selfish. We need the triumph to vindicate the suffering. 6. We learn how to sustain ourselves in Christian struggle and endurance. "If we suffer with Him," etc. The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ is a rebuke to all despondency. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) I. PERFECT SPONTANEITY IN THE OBEDIENCE HE RENDERED. Not that His sufferings or death were in themselves well pleasing to the merciful Father. All men die, and by Divine appointment; but God does not love them for this, else the wicked would be loved as well as the righteous. It was the Divine principle that prompted it — obedience. It was not snatched from Him, nor did He yield it in idle passivity; He laid it down of His active free will, and so revealed the Father's will, developed the plan of redemption, and is therefore the object of God's intensest love. II. FAITH. There would have been no merit in His death had He sacrificed Himself without assurance of resurrection. It might have been from despair. Nor could it have taken place without this assurance. The extinction of such a one could not be permitted in the government of a righteous God. Knowing that He was sinless, He must have known that death, the wages of sin, had no power over Him. Hence He never spoke of His death apart from His resurrection. The taking up was as much in the Divine plan as the laying down. He was confident of the successful issue, and God loved Him because of this. Conclusion: 1. If God finds a new reason for loving His Son in the moral qualities He displayed, He will love us if we strive to live as Christ lived. Wherever He sees men obedient and self-sacrificing He will love them. 2. We should do our duty in spite of con. sequences, or rather with regard to the remoter consequences. Lay down our lives that we may take them again. "Whosoever loseth his life for My sake shall find it." (T. James, M. A.) (S. A. Tipple.) 1. From danger, the curse of the law, eternal death. 2. To obedience, holiness, blessedness, heaven. II. THE APPOINTMENT OF THE SON TO THIS GREAT WORK BY THE FATHER. "This commandment." This principle holds a high place in the Bible. Christ was predicted as the "servant" and "sent" of God; gladly accepts this subordination; and His apostles teach the same doctrine. III. THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SON FOR HIS GREAT WORK. 1. To atone for guilt He must be and was free from guilt. 2. To save man He must be and was man, and yet more than man. As man He had a life to lay down; but He had no power as man to lay it down of Himself; this was Divine. 3. This Divine-human life had sufficient merit to expiate the sin of the world. 4. But redemption could not have been consummated without its resumption; and so He had "power to take it again." IV. THE SON'S ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS GREAT WORK. His offering has been effectual for the purpose for which it was presented. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." Millions are now through His expiation "the spirits of just men made perfect," and millions are preparing for that blessed state. V. THE COMPLACENCY MANIFESTED BY THE FATHER TO THE SON IN AND FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS GREAT WORK. (Philippians 2:9-11). (J. Brown, D. D.) I. CHRIST COMFORTING HIMSELF — 1. With the reflection that someone loves Him. We find Him constantly doing this. "I am not alone," etc.; pausing in the midst of hostility, etc., to get soothing and inspiration. He could not get on without it any more than we can. Let none of us weakly and selfishly long for this, nor stoically determine to be above it; but value it as an impulse for work. 2. With His felt possession of power. His adversaries regarded Him as their victim. He muses, "they are mistaken; instead of being dragged helplessly, I shall march in might to die." We need not shrink from the thought that Jesus found solace in the consciousness of His superiority to what He looked: that while He seemed weak, He was sublimely strong. It is both natural and legitimate, when we are being estimated falsely, to feel the excellence or the gift that is not perceived. We may need this in encountering disparagement, to preserve our self-possession and keep ourselves from fainting. There are others, however, who can never have this consolation. Their reputation is the best thing they have; they are meaner than the social estimate of them. II. THE GROUNDS OF THIS COMFORT. 1. The Father loved Christ because He lay down His life in order to take it again. The beauty of self-sacrifice lies not in the act, but in its animating purpose. There is no necessary virtue in denying yourself. Sacrifices are often made out of mere weakness, regard for the usages of society, self-indulgence, even to spite others, and in disregard of the right and the claims of other people. Christ laid down His life in order to take it again. This explanation is at first sight disappointing. What was there to charm the heart of God in surrender for the purpose of recovery? But this recovery was meant to be a great source and fountain of good, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. It is noble to sacrifice self with a view to acquiring more capacity for service. 2. The secret of Christ's power was not that He had a right to elect to die, which we have not, but that He felt Himself able to make the sacrifice required of Him. He did not need to be dragged or urged into it, but was able to make it freely. What happens there then is in the sense of the power to respond at once to the call of a difficult, trying duty. But He was certain not only that He could bear the Cross, but that He should reap to the full the anticipated fruit of it. What more blessed than this — the assurance of power to do what is wholly true, and an assurance of gaining the object? 3. What was the secret of it all? "This commandment," etc. What God calls one to, one will have strength to accomplish, and it will assuredly yield its due fruit. In other things you may break down or be disappointed — never in this. (S. A. Tipple.) I. It was CONSTANT. The strength of one's will to suffer is tested by its deliberate formation and persistent endurance. 1. Our Saviour's resolution was no impulse born of excited feeling, liable to fail before calmer thought; nor a necessity for which He was gradually prepared, and at last shut up to through circumstances; but a habitual purpose, steadily kept in view from the first, till it grew almost to a passion. "How am I straitened," etc. 2. Many men are heroic only by impulse; give time, and the bravery yields to "prudence." Men have ignorantly taken the first step towards martyrdom; but, having taken it, have felt bound to go forward. But when the mind can form so terrible a purpose, and calmly hold it on for years, in the face of unromantic neglect and mockery, the purpose must have its roots deep. Such will was never in any except Christ. Precious life, which carried its own death in its bosom, like a bunch of sweet flowers, filling all its days with fragrance. II. It was ACTIVELY FREE. 1. While resignation was the habitual attitude of His soul, there was more than resignation. We underestimate His priestly act, by thinking more of His willingness than of His will to suffer. "I lay down My life" means that, with ardent desire and fixed resolution, He is, at His own choice, giving away His own Spiritual Person, including that which is the most personal thing of all — His will. And this active exposure to penalty accompanied Him through every stage. His was both the right and strength at every stage to free His soul; but He chose to go on deeper into the darkness till all was over. This came out very plainly when Peter put before Him the alternative; when, His time being come, He set Himself to go to Jerusalem, when He said to Judas, "What thou doest," etc.; when, on His arrest, He spoke about the legion of angels; yes, and when the torment reached Him, "Let Him now come down from the cross." 2. Now, it is harder to will a disagreeable lot than to consent to bear it when it is laid upon us. Many a man has piety to submit to unavoidable evil, or even to rest in it as wise, who would yet be unequal to make it a choice. Most men, therefore, aim at nothing higher than passive acquiescence in suffering; but it is nobler to seal God's afflictive will with our own, and will not to have it otherwise. It is a further advance still to enter voluntarily into affliction for righteousness sake. Yet even the martyr's choice of death before sin is less absolute and free than that of Christ. III. It was CROSSED BY HINDRANCES FROM THE WEAKNESS OF THE FLESH AND IT OVERCAME THEM. As you walk by the side of a deep, swift-running river, you know not how strong the current is till you reach the rapids, where its flow is broken. So on reading the smooth, constant story of Jesus' life, there is little to tell us with what power He was advancing to His agony. Near the end came one or two places where this was seen (chap. John 12:27-29). That was a short struggle. His will to die soon overcame the momentary perplexity, and the voice from heaven was needed not by Him, but for the bystanders. This, however, was only a foretaste of the greater strife in the garden — the weak flesh against the willing spirit; yet in the end it is divinely upborne to bear the unimaginable suffering for the world's guilt. In that hour He sacrificed Himself — laid down His life. With what relief do we read, "It is enough, the hour has come," etc. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) 1. He had power to lay His life down. Could we use His words? There is much in life we can control, but not our way of leaving it.(1) So far from laying it down, we yield it up. It is wrung from us by disease, violence, or accident. No men of this century have wielded more power than the two Napoleons; they little meant to die — the first at St. Helena, the third at Chislehurst. Bishop Wilberforce never entered a railway carriage without reflecting that he might never leave it alive. He was a fearless horseman, but he met his death when riding at a walking pace.(2) But cannot a man lay down his life at pleasure? And did not the Stoics commend it? As a matter of physical possibility, we can; but what about its morality? It is at once cowardice and murder.(3) A good man may find it his duty to accept death at the hands of others. Patriots and martyrs have had moral power to lay down their lives; but they could not control the circumstances which made death a duty.(4) Our Lord's act differs from that of the suicide in its moral elevation (ver. 11), and from that of the martyr in His command of the situation. As the Lord of Life, He speaks of His human life as His creature. 2. He had power to take it again.(1) Here His majesty is more apparent, for He speaks of a control over His life which no mere man can possibly have. When soul and body are sundered, there is no force in the soul such as can reconstitute the body. In the Biblical cases of resurrection, the power came from without.(2) Here barbarism and civilization are on a level. Science has done wonders in bringing the various forces of nature under control; but no scientist cherishes the hope of undoing the work of death, or of keeping it indefinitely at bay.(3) When Christ claims to take His life again, He stands in relation to His life, which is only intelligible if we believe Him to be the Son of God. II. WAS HIS ACT AND THE FATHER'S CONJOINTLY? 1. He is repeatedly said to have been raised by the Father. This was Peter's language (Acts 2:24; Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; Acts 5:30; Acts 10:40), and Paul's (Acts 13:30-37; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Timothy 2:3; Romans 4:24-25; Romans 6:4; Romans 3:11, etc., etc.). 2. On the ether hand, our Lord speaks of it as an act distinctly His own (Mark 10:34; Luke 13:33; John 2:19, and text). 3. There is no contradiction here. The resurrection does not cease to be Christ's act because it is the Father's. When God acts through mere men, He makes them His instruments; but the power which effected the resurrection is as old as the eternal generation of the Son (chap. John 5:26). 4. There is a moment when imagination, under the conduct of faith, endeavours, but in vain, to realize when the human soul of our Lord, surrounded by myriads of angels, on His return from the ancient dead, came to the grave of Joseph and claimed the body that had hung upon the cross. III. SUGGESTS THE FOLLOWING CONSIDERATIONS. 1. What Christianity truly means. Not mere loyalty to the precepts of a dead teacher, or admiration of a striking character who lived eighteen hundred years ago. It is something more than literary taste or a department of moral archaeology. It is devotion to a living Christ. If it were a false religion, literary men might endeavour to reconstruct the history of its earliest age. This is what has been done with the great teachers of antiquity, and with Christ. But there is this difference. What Socrates, etc., were is all that we can know of them now. They cannot help us or speak to us. But in the fulness of that power which He asserted at His resurrection, Christ still rules and holds communion with every believer. A living Christianity means a living Christ. 2. What is the foundation of our confidence in the future of Christianity? Based as it is on a Christ who raised Himself from the dead, it cannot pass away.(1) Mankind has lavished admiration on great teachers; but they have died and been forgotten. Their age proclaimed the dust of their writings gold; a succeeding age scarcely opens their folios. Why are we certain that this fate does not await Christ? Because men's loyalty rests not on His words mainly, but in His Person. Christ is Christianity. And why is it that, in thus clinging to His Person, Christian faith is so sure of the future? Because she has before her not a Christ who was conquered by death.(2) Had it been otherwise Christianity might have perished more than once; by the wickedness of the Roman Court in the tenth century; by the hordes of Islam in the first flush of their conquests, or by the great Turkish sultans of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; by the accumulated weight of corruption which invited the Reformation; by the Babel which the Reformation produced; by the relation of the Church to corrupt governments: by the dishonest enterprises of unbelieving theologians. Men said the Church was killed under Decius and Diocletian, after the French Revolution. But each collapse is followed by a revival, because Christ willed to rise. 3. What is our hope for the departed? Because Christ lives, they live also; because He rose, they shall rise. (Canon Liddon.) (Fred. Brooks.) 1651 numbers, 1-2 2018 Christ, divinity 5005 human race, and redemption 2330 Christ, as shepherd March 18 Evening May 11 Evening December 10 Morning July 18 Morning April 19 Morning 'Other Sheep' The Gifts to the Flock The Good Shepherd January the Seventeenth Spiritual Discernment August the Twenty-Third not Lost in the Flock The Shepherd of Our Souls. On the Words of the Gospel, John x. 14, "I am the Good Shepherd," Etc. Against the Donatists. On the Words of the Gospel, John x. 30, "I and the Father are One. " The Sheep and their Shepherd The Good Shepherd Abbott -- the Divinity in Humanity Life. The Disciple, -- what is the Meaning and Purpose of the Cross... Questions and Answers Discourse on the Good Shepherd. Feast of the Dedication. The Jews Attempt to Stone Jesus and He Retires to Peræa. The Good Shepherd' and his one Flock' - Last Discourse at the Feast of Tabernacles. |