John 10:14

INDIVIDUAL KNOWLEDGE

‘I am the Good Shepherd, and know, My sheep, and am known of Mine.’

John 10:14

Few things come more closely home to true Christians than the shepherdly love which the Lord bestows upon them.

His word to us is this: ‘I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.’ And the Revised Version brings out a depth of meaning here. ‘I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father.’ So intimate is the knowledge between the shepherd and the sheep, between Christ and true Christians, that it is likened to that perfect knowledge which subsists in the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

I. Intimate individual knowledge.—This personal relationship, this intimate individual knowledge, has great stress laid upon it by our Lord. He knows us, marks us, loves us, one by one. ‘What is my soul among such a multitude of creatures?’ That is the question of one who wishes to be hid, and flatters himself that he is neither known nor observed. But there is another question, not asked in unbelief, but in wonder and humbleness of mind. ‘What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him?’ And there is an answer from the Lord, which tells of close acquaintanceship, of the most loving interest: ‘I have called thee by name: thou art Mine.’

II. A call to follow.—It is no hollow voice, no flattering voice which they hear, but rather a call to go after the Shepherd, whithersoever He goeth. ‘He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.’ And surely as to ourselves, if we love our Lord, and trust His word, we shall follow Him, even in darkness. For indeed it is no stranger’s voice that we should flee from it, but rather the voice of our best and greatest and most loving Friend. We know that His commandment is eternal life, and we know that to obey it here is present happiness. What a privilege it is for us to have this constant leading from our Lord—to feel certain that when we honestly ask Him, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ He will guide our feet into the way of peace, the path of duty, difficult but blessed!

III. Why doth He call?—Let us ever remember that by this Good Shepherd our souls are fed, partly on the ordinary paths of God’s Providence and in the doing of our duty in common tasks—‘in the ways,’ as the prophet says—partly ‘on all high places,’ by the Divinely ordered means of His glorious grace, and the assurance of His abiding Presence. In Him, the Incarnate Lord, all the promises of God are fulfilled, all the needs of men are satisfied. Whom He brings, He calls; and whom He calls, He loves; and whom He loves, He feeds. None is forgotten of Him. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.’

IV. But the love of the Shepherd goes further than this.—Not of Him can it be said, as it can be of the hireling, ‘that he careth not for the sheep.’ They are His inmost, constant, individual care. Their rest, their healing, their recall, their renewal, their preservation, their enlargement—all these are dear to Him, all wrought by Him. The promise which begins, ‘I will feed My flock,” goes on, ‘I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.’ This truly it was which our Jesus, our most compassionate and patient Saviour, took upon Him.

—Rev. Canon Jelf.

Illustration

‘That was the shepherd of the flock; He knew

The distant voice of one poor sheep astray;

It had forsaken Him, but He was true,

And listened for its bleating night and day.

Lost in a pitfall, yet alive it lay,

To breathe the faint sad call that He would know;

But now the slighted fold was far away,

And no approaching footstep soothed its woe.

A thing of life and nurture from above,

Sunk under earth where all was cold and dim;

With nothing in it to console His love,

Only the miserable cry for Him.

His was the wounded heart, the bleeding limb

That safe and sound He would have joy’d to keep.

And still amidst the flock at home with Him,

He was the Shepherd of that one lost sheep.

Oh, would He now but come and claim His own!

How more than precious His restoring care!

How sweet the pasture of His choice alone,

How bright the dullest path if He were there!

How well the pain of rescue it could bear,

Held in the shelter of His strong embrace!

With Him it would find herbage anywhere,

And springs of endless life in every place.

And so He came and raised it from the clay,

Where evil beasts went disappointed by.

He bore it home along the fearful way

In the soft light of His rejoicing eye.

And, thou fallen soul, afraid to live or die

In the deep pit that will not set thee free,

Lift up to Him the helpless homeward cry,

For all that tender love is seeking thee.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE GENTLENESS OF CHRIST

‘I know My sheep.’ How does the Good Shepherd know His sheep? In three ways.

I. His Father gave them to Him (read John 6:37).—‘All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.’ Men may reject Him, men may scorn Him, men may hate Him, yet all His Father gave Him shall come to Him. Cæsar said, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ Christ will say the same of every one His Father gave Him. Only, Christ conquers by love. He attracts by His Cross.

II. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep because they are redeemed by His blood.—For ‘the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep’ (John 10:11). He had each one in His heart when He died on the Cross. And by His atoning death His intention was to gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad. Behold, how He loved them! For that He was content to die.

III. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep by the gracious work of His Spirit in them.—That gracious Spirit teaches them their need of Him. He puts the cry of the publican into their lips, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner.’ He inclines them to trust Him. He constrains them to love Him. He enables them to work for Him, and as they work, to watch. And over all their heart, like a mantle of gold, the gracious Spirit spreads ‘ the gentleness of Christ.’ Let us ask ourselves, ‘Are these marks on me?’

—Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘Lady Somerset says that in a fisherman’s hut in the north-east of Scotland she saw a picture of the Saviour, and as she stood looking at it, the fishermen told her its story. “I was away down with the drink,” he said, “when one night I went into a ‘public,’ there hung this picture. I was sober then, and I said to the barman, ‘Sell me that picture; this is no place for the Saviour.’ I gave him all the money I had for it, and took it home. Then, as I looked at it, the words of my mother came back to me. I dropped on my knees, and cried: ‘O! Lord Jesus, will You pick me up again, and take me out of all my sin?’ ” No such prayer is ever unanswered. To-day, that man is the grandest man in that little Scotch village. Lady Somerset asked if he had no struggle to give up the drink. Such a look of exultation came over his face as he answered, “Oh, madam, when such a Saviour comes into the heart, He takes the love of the drink right out of it.’ ”

(THIRD OUTLINE)

‘THAT I MAY KNOW HIM’

The Good Shepherd as contrasted with (a) ‘thieves and robbers,’ those who use the flock for their own selfish purposes; (b) ‘hirelings,’ those who do their duty up to a certain point, but fail in time of danger, because the sheep are not their own. Then (c) an ideal Shepherd, embodying in Himself all that a shepherd should be; and (d) the ‘fair’ Shepherd, attracting by His moral beauty the eyes of all to whom it is given to appreciate Him.

I. His characteristics.—(Here note the mistaken punctuation at the end of John 10:14. The proper meaning destroyed by it. He teaches that there is a correspondence between the mutual knowledge between Christ and His people, and the mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son.) (a) He ‘knows’ His sheep. This an individualising, not a mere general knowledge. It is something more than the knowledge of omniscience. It implies sympathy, approval, complacency, love. But His sheep also ‘know’ Him. He is to them, not an abstraction, but a reality, a Person with whom they have real intercourse. There is, so to speak, an understanding between them. (b) This corresponds with the knowledge which exists between the Father and the Son. The delight of the Father is in the Son. ‘Mine Elect in Whom My soul delighteth’; ‘I delight to do Thy Will, O My God.’ Then ‘the Father showeth the Son all that He Himself doeth’; there are no secrets between Them. So ‘I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you.’ Trace here the resemblance, the correspondence.

II. His work.—This ‘knowledge’ of His people leads up to and finds its culmination in His dying for them. ‘I lay down My life for the sheep.’ All that He has done, and is doing, and will do for His sheep—is suggested in this expression.

III. The mention of His death carries Him on to the thought of the result of His work. No doubt His adversaries thought, ‘What a set He has gathered round Him; poor, ignorant, unlettered Galilæans! and this wretched blind impostor! Fit flock for such a Shepherd.’ But Jesus looks over the ages and sees the hosts of the Gentiles coming in. ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ ‘And there shall be one flock (notice the mistranslation), one Shepherd.’

IV. Practical application.—To ‘know about’ Christ is well. But we do ‘know’ Him with personal acquaintance? Only so can we be His sheep.

—Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.