Jesus Christ put His soul on the table on behalf of the sheepIn verses 11-13 we have the first message of the shepherd.
John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
John 10:12 "He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them.
John 10:13 "He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep.
John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
/ “good” – kalos, which means beautiful, symmetrical, perfect character, and maximum attractiveness – all of which apply to the humanity of Christ.\
/Christ is the easiest person to love in the universe, but that requires knowledge of Him.\
Here, one of the “I am” of Christ – He keeps on being, and will be forever, the perfect and beautiful shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.
We deserved eternal death and He substituted Himself for that judgement.
/God desires to share His happiness with man and God found a way to do that through the person of Christ and His substitution for all mankind on the cross.\
With the justice of God propitiated through the cross the barrier between God and man is removed forever (reconciliation) and now God is able to share His happiness with the believer.
You cannot share happiness without being able to love. The cross opened up the love of God to be shared with the human race and through that love you have the opportunity to love in return and this relationship with God supplies an abundance of God’s happiness.
/the good shepherd = the beautiful provider, preserver, protector. The sheep has nothing to fear.\
TLJC, the celebrity of the universe, the unique one of the universe, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, protects you, preserves you, and provides for you forever.
The word shepherd is used for the Lord Jesus Christ in three different ways.
/Christ is the good shepherd in this verse, and there will be an emphasis on salvation.\
/In Hebrews 13:20 Christ is called thegreat shepherd and this is His provision for the believer in time.\
Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace [prosperity], who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
Heb 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
/Then in 1 Peter 5:4 Jesus Christ is called the chief shepherd and this is His provision for eternity.\
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
1 Peter 5:2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
1 Peter 5:3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
1 Peter 5:4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
1 Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
When you were saved He was your good shepherd, after salvation and all through your time on earth He is your great shepherd, and after you exit this earth, for all of eternity He is your Chief shepherd.
The point is that there is never a time when He is not your shepherd, preserving you, protecting you, and providing for you.
/Ps 23:6 Surely goodness [prosperity, good things, benefits] and lovingkindness [grace and mercy] will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.\
John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
/ “lays down” – tithemi, whichmeans to lay aside, to put down, or to lay down. It was used in the ancient world to put down a bet, to put something down on a table. Jesus Christ put something on the table – His own soul.\
/The next phrase is “his life” – ten psuchen autou, “the soul of him.” So it is literally, “put down [on the table/cross] his soul.”\
Psuche can also be translated “life” but it has to be emphasized that Christ did not die physically for the sins of the whole world but spiritually, therefore it was His soul that was separated from the Father with the result that He experienced spiritual death.
The experience of this is indescribable, and He did so as the Beautiful Shepherd.
When it says He laid down His own soul it is a reference to the work of Christ on the cross.
/ “for” – huper = the preposition of substitution; “on behalf of the sheep.”\
By application to you and me, Christ anteed up His soul for everyone, believers and unbelievers and no one deserved it. He put His soul on the table like a bet, but knowing the cards since entrusting His soul to the will of the Father, which on the cross was the agony of separation, He knew He would win the jackpot.
Through the multiple commands to grow into the fullness of stature that belongs to Christ, to be conformed to His image, to have His mind in you, etc. the Father is asking us to do the same, ante up our soul, put it on the table, play a hand, but knowing the cards.
This bet includes sacrifice, suffering, true… but it also includes the return of an amazing life both now in time and in eternity.
Matt 10:38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Matt 10:39 "He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.
The word translated “life” is psuche. Now, for the most part you and I are not asked to lose our physical lives, but here we are asked to prioritize our soul. The list of priority has to be Christ and then others, and although self is there on the list, it is to be far lower on the list than it normally is for most Christians.
The promise is that if we lose our soul that we will find our soul and since the soul is the real you, they way God desires you, losing the priority of self will open your eyes to the real self that God has always desired – and I can tell you with great confidence that in the entire universe, that is the most pleasing thing to God.
Mark 10:29 Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake,
Mark 10:30 but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
Mark 10:31 "But many who are first, will be last; and the last, first." [there again is your priority of soul]
John 10:12 "He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them.
/A hireling is a hired hand who would never have as much desire for the sheep as the owner.\
The word used here is only used twice in the NT, both in gospels and it refers to any hired laborer and does not reference any particular skill.
It would not be abnormal for a shepherd to hire help and as we all know there are good workers and bad.
The reference here is definitely to the Pharisees and religious leaders of Israel who were supposed to be doing the job of teaching the word of God to the people while carrying out the temple rituals and sacrifices and they were doing a terrible job.
/The point here is that religion doesn’t care about people, but rather only desires to use them, and when they can’t use them anymore they flee from them.\
In this case, the wolf is Rome who 40 years from this time is going to descend upon Jerusalem and wipe it out.
The legend of the foundation of Rome states that the twins Romulus and Remus were taken from their father (either the god Mars or Hercules) and cast into the Tiber River where they were rescued by a she wolf who nursed them until they were found and restored to their proper birthright. They argue over where to build their new city, over which Romulus prevails and names the city after himself – Rome. The wolf is the symbol of the founding of Rome.
The hirelings flee, but Christ will not. And interestingly enough, the one world order that is organized during the Tribulation is the restoration of the Roman Empire as prophesied by Daniel, which conducts war against the Jews yet again, but in that time their Shepherd returns at the Second Coming and destroys all enemies of true Israel.
The good Shepherd does not desert His sheep. At this time in the gospel the client nation Israel must be destroyed because of their rejection of the Shepherd so that the church can be intercalated.
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