John 10:11-15

11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

In a world where people wonder why we have some many different gods, beliefs, and religions, there is only one deity or Lord who lowers Himself to His creation. The Good Shepherd Jesus, tells His followers in the passage of John 10:11-15, He actually lays down His life for those He loves. An ancient Hebrew sheep enclosure had no gate between the opening and the shepherd would stand there and watch the sheep feed. When they went to drink water, the shepherd would continue to watch them. Jesus is comparing Himself to a hired shepherd and how much concern Jesus has for the sheep and hired individual. If and when a pack of hungry wolves comes and wants some tasty lamb, the hired hand will say to hell with this, let the wolves eat and save myself. Jesus on the other hand, is more than a Shepherd in charge of sheep.

Psalm 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. 3 Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

The Good Shepherd’s sheep are His creation, He didn’t buy them from someone else. Psalm 100: 3 tells us He made up with His own Holy Hands. So if  hungry wolves come, He will lay down His life. He would gladly allow ripped apart, be consumed, and let the wolves get their hunger satisfied while His sheep lived another day. Now the screen I just described may be gruesome but Jesus’ punishment He received, before being nailed to the cross for mine and your sins, was not a beautiful  day at Disney World or  a Hawaiian Beach.

Matthew 27:26  So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

Being flogged with a lead-tipped whip is made to rip flesh off muscle and bones exposed, maybe Jesus ripped my wolves but certainly looked like and felt like it. John 10 might be reflecting of the popularity of Psalm 23 but Jesus laying down His live and feeling like body is be eating by ravenous hungry animals is from Psalm 22, called the messianic Psalm, cause is prophetic prediction of His suffering from the Messiah point of view of laying His life down.

Psalm 22:13 They open wide their mouth at me, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me.

The Christian’s mind should never feel worthy enough, his or her Creator went unreal torture and pain, for me and you. But calls Himself the Good Shepherd. His word teaches us, greater no love one have for another then lay their life down for a friend.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Ask yourself today, if you really knew and realized how much Jesus your Good Shepherd loves you and went through and you are still hanging on to a life that is holding you back from a full relationship with your Savior. Then it is you who is missing out on an amazing love that cannot die. God bless you all, the Good Shepherd loves you and so do I. Samuel

1 John 3:16  We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.