Series: Committed
Message: Accountability
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read of listen to Psalm 52:1-4.
Read: John 10:11-21 — Re-read in the ESV translation for new insights/questions.
Reflect: I am the good Shepherd. We could simply end it right there, if we grasped just how powerful a metaphor the Shepherd was and especially when qualified by “good”. After all, David was a good shepherd too. The hero of all of Israel. This text of course is laden with deep implications for Israel and for us today. Not least would be verse 16. N T Wright in John for everyone points out on pages 152-153.
The original ‘sheep’ are the people of Israel. Jesus is calling them, and those from among his Jewish contemporaries who are ready for the call are hearing his voice, trusting him and coming to him. But, as Israel’s prophets and wise writers had always hinted, the God of Israel was never interested only in Israel. His call to Israel was for the sake of the whole world. The ‘other sheep’ are that great company, from every nation under heaven, that God intends to save, and to save through Jesus. The Jewish Messiah is to become the Lord, the shepherd, of the whole world.
This theme, too, will grow and swell in the coming chapters.
When Jesus eventually faces Pontius Pilate, the official representative of the ruling pagan power, he is looking at someone who, though not himself a Jew, is a potential ‘sheep’, to be challenged with a vision of God’s kingdom and truth (18.33–38). The Gentiles are no longer the enemy. They are sheep who have not yet been brought into the sheepfold. Take a moment to think through how this announcement must have sounded in a world – Jesus’ own world – filled with hatred and suspicion, with hatred and suspicion, with violence and counter-violence.”
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for identity in who you are in Jesus.
Research: What was the criteria for a good shepherd back in Biblical times?