Our Inheritance in Christ – 1 Pet 1:3-9

(Note: audio of this sermon can be found here)

Richard Baxter, a 17th century English pastor and writer, often said, “I preach as a dying man to dying men.” And that’s where we are today, isn’t it? We are all smart enough to know that we are only one car accident, one house fire or one cancer diagnosis away from the grave. So my goal, as a man who is dying and who does not know the number of his days, is to proclaim to you the glorious inheritance prepared for the children of God. And, my prayer has been that you, as people who are dying, may see more clearly the majesty of what Christ has purchased for you.  May we all be moved to no longer cling to the stuff that can never satisfy us and pursue that which is truly life.

I need to admit at the outset that there is more in this passage than can be adequately covered in one sermon.  So, my approach today is to first look and the arc of what Peter is saying to his 1st century audience and, by extension, to us. Following that, by God’s grace, we will drill down into just a few of the deep anchors Peter lays for us in these verses.

As we begin, we need to remember that Peter was writing to a collection of persecuted churches. While we don’t know the extent or the severity of the persecution, a few things are clear. Peter’s original audience had fled their homes. They were exiles for the gospel. In addition to that, Peter saw the warning signs and the seeds of doubt in the goodness and faithfulness of God.

Think about it. How often have our expectations of God failed to line up with the reality of God and resulted in our disappointment, maybe even the beginnings of our own doubt? I thought God really wanted me to get that promotion. I thought God really wanted us to get married. I thought God loved children. If we can be transparent for moment, (we can do that in church, right?) we would have to admit that we do this a lot. And it betrays that our vision is not focused on the right object.

Undoubtedly, Peter’s audience had similar problems. We’ve trusted in Christ and now we’ve lost our homes. We’ve lost our jobs and our friends. Not only that, the government is looking to arrest us. How can following a dead man possibly be worth all of that? How can we possibly go on?

This is the pastoral problem that Peter is speaking into as he starts his letter. Note his choice words as he begins to redirect our vision. In Christ we have:

• A living hope (v3)
• An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading (v4)
• God as the guard of our salvation (v5)
• Necessity of trials (v6)
• A tested, genuine, precious faith (v7)
• A faith the results praise, glory, honor for Jesus (v7)
• An inexpressible and glory filled joy (v8)
• A salvation is ours (forever) (v9)

If we take these truths as a package, the question we should ask is this: how do these truths overcome and overwhelm our tendency to lose sight of God’s faithfulness in our circumstances? How do they take us from looking at what we want or expect and re-orient us so that we are looking at what God’s doing and what He wants for us? In dealing with this question, Peter provides the answer in four parts.

First, we have a living hope. How often in the New Testament do we see the writers not simply stress the death of Jesus, but his resurrection as well? Christ died as a propitiation, a wrath absorbing sacrifice to God, but he also rose again as a clear testimony to God’s acceptance of that sacrifice. Paul makes this case profoundly in 1 Cor 15:17 when he states “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins”.

Peter’s point here is that Jesus did rise, that he is alive and that the hope we place in him is not static or fixed (like my hope of retirement), but rather it is alive and dynamic. Also, implicit in Peter’s statement here is that a living hope is a sure hope. If Christ had simply died, we could say he paid for our sins and that we have peace with God. But how could we be sure? However since Christ died and rose again we can clearly see that all of God’s promises are “Yes” in Christ.

The second part of Peter’s answer is that our inheritance is being secured by God. I’m not sure why, but it seems our human tendency is to think that when things are the toughest, God is the furthest away from us. Even the Psalmist thought so (read Ps 22:1-2, Ps 74:1 or several others). And yet Peter states clearly, as does the rest of Scripture, that God does not abandon his children.

The Psalmist says it this way in Psalm 121:1-4“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Jesus says it like this in John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”

Paul makes a similar claim in Rom 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And Peter states here that we are being guarded by God for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last days. Peter is not simply talking about what we often refer to as our conversion. He is talking about that and everything else tied up in Jesus presenting us spotless and blameless before God’s throne.

On top of that, look at the adjectives Peter uses to describe our inheritance in Christ in v4. Imperishable – it will never spoil and will always be good and useful. Undefiled – sin will never tarnish it and it will never let us down. Unfading – the general effects of the curse (a world that doesn’t last) are now reversed for those who are found in Christ.

Each of these biblical authors, along with others I didn’t have time to reference, underscore the simple but profound reality that God is preserving us. He is protecting us. Jesus has secured for us an eternal redemption so the Father, the Son and the Spirit are always near us and working for us no matter how we may feel.

There is a third aspect of how Peter addresses our easy distraction from God’s vision when troubles come upon us. He reminds us that our trials serve as a test of the genuineness of our faith. And, as much as we may not like the idea of being tested, tests have a purpose. I think if we take a Christ-centered perspective on the testing we may find ourselves agreeing with Peter that the results are more precious than gold.

Perhaps we can think of it this way. Since our faith is in the finished work of Christ and our salvation depends upon the gracious gift of God and our comprehension of what we’ve received is through the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, then the test is not really directed at us but at God. In a very real way, God uses struggles and trials in our lives to demonstrate to us that the faith we have received from Him is genuine. And a genuine faith that secures our eternal redemption is more precious than gold. Let me expand that: it is more sure than gold, which Peter reminds us, perishes even though it is also tested by fire.

A fourth antidote to the ease at which we replace God’s vision with our own vision is that Peter reminds us of the magnificence of our salvation. It has been said that we under value our salvation because we both under estimate the seriousness of our sin and we over estimate our own righteousness. Peter cuts through that mirage by clearly stating that our salvation rests exclusively on Christ. Anything else would result in glory going to someone other than Jesus. And it would result in a shaky and unreliable salvation.

But Peter is clear. Our salvation is secure and it brings glory and honor and praise to Jesus. On top of that, it produces a joy that is inexpressible. And this joy, this inexpressible joy, is what replaces our desire for the fading and fleeting things of this life. Since joy is one of those words that are often vaguely defined, I want to share one man’s description of joy. Thomas Watson summed up Christ-centered joy in this way:

• Joy is a delightful passion. It is contrary to sorrow and the perturbation of the mind, and it overcomes the heart that is perplexed and cast down.
• By joy, the soul is supported under present troubles. Joy stupefies and swallows up troubles; it carries the heart above them, as the oil swims above the water.
• By joy, the heart is fenced against future fear. Joy is the antidote by which the fear of approaching danger is blocked off. "I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me."

At this point, I would be remiss, if I didn’t underscore the fact that everything Peter is proclaiming, both to his original audience and to us, hangs on one inescapable reality. We must be born again. Peter states it directly in verse 3 and comes back to our salvation in verse 9. He also sprinkles in references to salvation and faith in Christ throughout the intervening verses. Thus, he leaves us no other choice than that the hope, the joy, the security and the preciousness that we have been promised is intricately tied to our salvation in Christ.

I want to stress this because I think it is very easy for each of us to focus the entailments of our new life in Christ and neglect the foundation. It would be similar to driving in a fancy suburb and admiring a magnificent 3rd floor deck while forgetting that the house and the deck only stand because of the sureness of the foundation. We dare not think in our minds or in our hearts that we somehow outgrow the gospel and move on to its implications. Instead, as Peter says in chapter 2 verse 2, we must grow up into salvation.

At this point I want to address myself to anyone who may not believe that Jesus died as a payment for their specific sins. I need you to listen very carefully. You need to know you are in a very dangerous place. To put it bluntly, you are headed to Hell. But the good news is that Christ has died. The price has been paid. The gift has been offered. Will you not repent and believe? You need to know that none of the good and glorious promises in the Bible apply if you reject the salvation that God has freely and graciously provided. In the words of Ezekiel I would plead with you, “Turn! Turn! God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. O that you would turn from your way and live.”

I also want to speak directly to those of you who would call yourselves believers, Christ-followers, disciples. I have one question for you: What place does the gospel have in your life? Is it one among many important things? You want to work on your marriage and your parenting. You want to be diligent and productive at your job. Perhaps you want to excel at a craft, say singing or karate or preaching. And of course you have the gospel to make everything fit.

Or perhaps you have the gospel first on your list. All the other things have their place, marriage, parenting, job, hobbies and interests, but gospel is always first on the list of all the important things in your life.

Or, is the gospel the list?

If we take a serious look at what Peter has to say, not just here, but throughout both of his letters, we can’t escape the fact that he saw that the gospel is in a category by itself. In chapter 1, his call to holiness is grounded in the gospel. In chapter 2, his view of the church and suffering flow from the gospel. In chapter 3, his call to prayer and to witness, even in the face of persecution depend on the gospel of a savior who suffered for those who deserved to suffer.

We can add to this Paul’s relentless pursuit and proclamation of the gospel and Jesus unwavering drumbeat of His kingdom transforming our lives. At the end of the day we are forced to stand back and admit that the gospel drives everything. We cannot have the gospel in our heads only. We dare not keep it on a shelf like some piece of treasured china.  We must allow it to own us, to mold us and to shape us, to propel us and to sustain us.

As I said at the beginning of this message, I wanted to drill down into just a couple of the deep anchors that Peter is laying to strengthen and solidify our faith.  The anchors I want to focus on are not more important than the ones that I’m passing over.  They are simply the ones I sense are perhaps more neglected than the others. But, I would encourage each of you, young or old, new believer or senior saint to take some time, either this afternoon or this evening or maybe tomorrow and slowly, reflectively, prayerfully reread this passage. Allow the Holy Spirit to sink all of His anchors deep into your soul.

Anchor number 1 is found in verse 3. Look at it again. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” There’s a ton packed into that single verse, but I want to zoom into the very basic statement that is being made. God caused us to be born again. Let me say that again. God caused us to be born again.

Brothers and sisters, this goes beyond the concept that most of us have of election. I would dare say that most of us see God’s election like picking teams on the grade school playground. God chooses who He wants on His team. If we think about it hard enough and long enough, we would probably admit we don’t have the skills to play the game we’ve been picked to play. On top of that we are the most antisocial kid in the school. Yet God picked us anyway.

But, what Peter is saying goes deeper than that. God did choose us. God did pick for himself people who were the most unlikely followers and set His affections on the most rebellious of people. Yet Peter insists that God not only choose us and set His affections on us: He caused us to be born again. This is not just a selective action. This is an operative action. He didn’t just declare us not guilty by some act of divine fiat, He worked in and through His Son to cause our sins to be absorbed by the body and blood of Jesus. He strained to take the righteousness of Christ and set it on us and locked it in place, never to be moved again. He groaned through the compassion of the Holy Spirit to awaken our spirits to the truth and the reality of everything that He has done and continues to do for us in Christ.

My friends, God saved us. And He continues to sustain us in that salvation. That’s Peter’s point in verse 5. And to top it off, God will ultimately, finally and completely save us when we stand before His throne. Nobody expresses this truth better than Jude in verses 24-25: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

What is our response to this great God? How do we even begin to express our love and gratitude? How can we hold back when He lovingly commands us to obey? How can we doubt His love and mercy and grace and power for us who believe? Should we not proclaim with Jeremiah: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

The second anchor I want to focus on in the time that remains is the preciousness of our faith. Peter points to the breadth of our faith in verses 5 and 9, but verse 7 is the key verse that I want to drill into. “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Peter states clearly that our faith is more precious than gold. As good, Bible reading Christians, we may intellectually agree with this statement. But do we believe it practically? Do really see our faith as being that valuable? Or have we lost sight of what is really precious, what is really valuable?

It should be noted that from beginning to end, the Bible consistently paints God’s economy as totally different often antithetical to ours. Our economy is always based on work and resources, our work, our resources. It results, if we work hard and have the right resources, in our wealth. The problem is, our work doesn’t last, or isn’t enough. And our resources never last and are often the wrong ones at the wrong time.

God’s economy is also based on work and resources. However, His work is perfect and His resources are infinite. But what makes God’s economy totally different than ours is that it is outward focused not inward focused. We work for money for food or clothes or rent for ourselves or our family. If we are really altruistic, we give some our stuff to ministries we support. God, however, does everything for the benefit of others, even those who hate Him. He makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust. He sent Jesus to die for a rebellious and sinful people. He delays the day of Christ’s return so more people can hear the gospel and believe. And he ties our salvation to faith so that it can be made secure in Christ and result in praise and glory to our Savior.

The bottom-line is this: God secures our salvation through faith. Any works on our part and our salvation would rely, at least in part on us. If this were the case, we would have reason to doubt, since we could never be sure if we did enough or if we did it correctly. This is the religious heritage in which I was raised. But thanks be to God that we are saved by grace through faith and that faith itself is a gift from God (see Eph 2:8), so there is no room for doubt. God secures our salvation, He gives it inestimable value and He brings it to completion in Christ.

There is one thing about our faith that must be made crystal clear before we conclude. As precious as it is, as secure as it is, as God glorifying as it is, it is only as good as its object. D.A. Carson tells a story of two Israelites talking at the well on the morning before the first Passover. One man is quite anxious and asks the other what he thinks of all the plagues. The second man replies that they have been traumatic and frightening, but he has confidence in God and so far everything Moses has said has borne out. The first man, still quite nervous presses. What about this sacrifice of a lamb? And the spreading of its blood on the door posts and frame? He only has his one son. He can’t lose him. How can a lamb’s blood stop the angel of death? It doesn’t make any sense. The second man responds with calmness. Everything Moses has said about the plagues has been true. Everything he has said about God matches what the elders told us from Noah and Abraham and Joseph. I don’t how a lamb’s blood can avert the angel of death, but I will do what God told us to do and trust Him. The first man, still nervous, leaves shaking his head and wringing his hands, saying, I just don’t get it. I’m just not sure. Yet, that evening both men followed Moses’ prescription, sacrifice their family lamb and spread the blood on the door posts and frame.

Then Carson asks this provocative question. Which first born son was saved?
The answer is that both boys were saved. You see it is not about the quality of our faith nor is it about the quantity of our faith. The preciousness of our faith, the genuineness of our faith and the sureness of our faith is found in its object: Jesus Christ.

As I close, ponder the words of Charles Spurgeon: “Consider this, believer. You have no right to heaven in yourself: your right lies in Christ. If you are pardoned, it is through his blood; if you are justified, it is through his righteousness; if you are sanctified, it is because God has made Him your sanctification; if you shall be kept from falling, it will be because you are preserved in Christ Jesus; and if you are perfected at the last, it will be because you are complete in him. Thus Jesus is magnified-for all is in him and by him; thus the inheritance is made certain to us-for it is obtained in him; thus each blessing is the sweeter, and even heaven itself the brighter, because it is Jesus our Beloved ‘in whom’ we have obtained all.”

To God Alone be the Glory

Four Reasons Jesus Chose to Die - John 10:11-18

(Note: audio of this sermon can be found here)

A.W. Tozer, a pastor of a church on Chicago’s Southside during the 1940s and 50s wrote the following: "To be effective the preacher's message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God's present voice to a particular people." And that is my prayer and my hope for us today. That God, through the Spirit would in fact alarm us, so we can run to Him for comfort. That He would arouse us, so we would depend on Him for strength and courage and wisdom. That he would challenge us so we would put aside our idols and our pride, take up our cross and follow Jesus.

As you are turning to John 10, I want to tell you, in broad strokes, where, by God’s grace, we are headed. We are going to be looking at a passage of Scripture from the gospel of John that will be familiar to many of you. And, in my experience, the more familiar the passage, the more danger we are in. Either we tune out or we jump straight to the interpretation and perspective we have always had. We are at risk of shutting out the Holy Spirit and not allowing Him to teach us, to encourage us, to challenge us or to convict us.

In the text that is before us, Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd. This is a great descriptor and I hope all of us who claim the name of Christ carry that image of Jesus around with us. But the conviction that has been placed on me in preparing to look at these verses is that we should see the goodness of the Good Shepherd not so much in his shepherding skills as in his willingness to die for his sheep.

You may ask why focus on Jesus’ death? What about his birth? What about his life? Well, it is in his death that bears God’s just and holy wrath. It is his death that cleanses us from all that we have said and done, from all that we have not said and not done. It is his death that restores the relationship that was broken and fractured in the garden. It is in his death that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to come and dwell with us. It is in his death that Satan, God’s enemy and ours is principally defeated. It is in his death that our death is swallowed up in victory. And, it is in his death that all of God’s promises are anchored and guaranteed.

[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 does not own 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 cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17] For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. [18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

As I consider this familiar passage of scripture, I want you to see a reoccurring thread. Jesus wanted to reiterate to his disciples and to us by extension, that any benefit they gain from their association with Him is profoundly tied to His death. In these eight verses, Jesus stresses four reasons He chose to die. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Jesus presents four connections between His death and other aspects of who he was as the Son of God.

Look again at the text: Here are the four reasons Jesus gives:

1) Jesus died because we are his sheep. vv11-13

2) Jesus died because He knows us. vv14-16

3) Jesus died because the Father loves him v17

4) Jesus died because He has the authority to die (and to live again) v18

I am picking up this sermon in the middle of an exchange between Jesus, his disciples and the rest of his entourage, including some Pharisees. From a bible study perspective, it is typically not a good idea to jump into a passage midstream. However in this particular passage, Jesus helps us out by adjusting both the metaphor and the emphasis. In the first ten verses, He describes himself as the door to the sheepfold and he describes the reality that nobody gets to God except through Him. He literally is the door. In fact anyone who thinks that they’re “in with God” through some other means (works, sacraments, family heritage, ethnicity, you name it) is really a thief and a robber.

However, in verse 11 Jesus changes the imagery. Now he expands his self-portrait to show himself as the Good Shepherd. Let me pause here to say there are a lot of directions one could take with Jesus’ imagery of the Good Shepherd. We could focus on Jesus’ provision for his sheep, even tying back to verse 10. We could concentrate on Jesus leading, guiding and comforting of us, bringing in various aspects of Psalm 23. We could spend time plumbing the depths of Jesus’ seeking, rescuing and restoring the lost sheep as he describes in Luke 15. All of these are true dimensions of who Christ is and shows us once again the multidimensional wonder of our great savior.

But today, based on some specific words in verse 11 and some implications in verses 12 & 13, I would like us to look at Jesus’ protection of his sheep. Jesus is very explicit in verse 11 “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” A shepherd’s life is not in danger while feeding or caring for his sheep. There is little risk in leading or guiding. Even in rescuing and restoring the sense is more of extreme care and compassion. But here Jesus has something else in view. Here the shepherd’s life is on the line.

One has to wonder why. The hired hand doesn’t care. When he sees a threat, he is out of there. Yet the shepherd, the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down his life to save and protect his sheep. Why?

I think verse 14 has our answer for us and it is glorious. We belong to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just lay down his life for just any sheep. He lays down is life for his sheep. Think about the implications of this truth brothers and sisters. Jesus’ death for your sins, his atoning sacrifice, his (can I use a big word?) propitiation of God’s just and holy wrath, was not simply a remote, antiseptic transaction. It was not like me paying my taxes: somewhat reluctantly and not sure exactly what I getting for my investment. No. Jesus died for his own. He died for people who were already his.

I want to push this a little more because it highlights the awesomeness to what God has been orchestrating since the beginning. If the Good Shepherd is willing to die for sheep that already his, his death doesn’t make them his. It may cement his ownership, but it doesn’t establish it. He owned them before he died. And if the owned them before he died, when exactly did his ownership begin? Jot down these verses Eph 1:4 and Tit 1:2. We have always been in Christ’s possession. So much so, that before time began, before Gen 1:1 ever happened, there was an intra-Trinitarian promise that this ownership, this protection would never fail. Jesus, the eternal second person of the Trinity promised and committed to secure your eternal life, your salvation, your sanctification, your glorification, everything that it would take to present you before God’s throne with exceeding joy. And he made this promise before anything but God himself existed.

In light of this, I feel compelled to ask some of the same questions Paul did in Romans 8 and I want to make them personal. If Jesus did all of this for you, if God orchestrated all of this for you, if there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, then why do you think anything can separate you from the love of God in Christ? What could you possibly do or say (or not do or not say) that could exceed the expanse of this love and commitment? Is our view of Jesus really that small? No! This book screams the opposite. The God of the Bible, the Jesus of Bible is so far beyond us that our deepest comprehension of him is just the outskirts of who he is.

I would love to linger here, but there is another reason Jesus chose to lay down his life. As he moves into verses 14 and 15, his emphasis transitions from owning to knowing. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. It would be a mistake, at this point to say the Jesus laid down his life for me because he knew about that microscopically small nugget of goodness inside of me. It is a mistake to say that or think that because when Jesus died, there was no nugget of goodness inside of me and there wasn’t a nugget of goodness inside of you. I hope you have Rom 5:8 underlined or highlighted in your Bibles: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But the implications of these verses go beyond the fact that Jesus knew what we were before he died. Jesus’ emphasis here is on intimacy. He knew us the way close friends or married couples or parents and children know each other. This is a deep, personal knowledge. And to highlight it, Jesus compares it to his relationship with his Father. Since there is no deeper relationship in the entire universe than the Trinity, for Jesus to equate his knowledge of us to his knowledge of the Father is, quite frankly, amazing.

Do we see Jesus death in this light? Honestly, I often view Jesus as the substitute or high preist, which He is, but nothing more. This imagery pushes that envelope. Jesus knows us intimately and because of that pre-existing relationship, he is willing to lay down his life for us. Later in John he will say “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

So here, in two verses, Jesus interconnects the profound love relationship of the Trinity, his deep intimate knowledge of us and his choice to die on our behalf. How can we not worship? How can we doubt His commitment to us? How can we not rest secure in such a loving, sacrificial Savior?

Before I move on to the next reason that Jesus gave up his life, I want to briefly comment on verse 16. Jesus says that he has other sheep, which are not of “this fold”. Does he mean other Jews who are not in Jerusalem and/or geographic Israel? Does he mean the Gentiles who, religiously speaking, are in a totally different flock? Or is he referring to generations of men and women who are separated from the original audience by both time and distance? Most commentaries agree that since Jesus is delivering this self-description in a Jewish setting, his reference is to the other sheep he owns and knows intimately are in the Gentile world. And that, by extension, means you and me. This verse deserves more attention than I can give to it now. It is a huge, ground leveling, gospel expanding verse and we should rejoice that God chose to include it in His holy Word.

Jesus died for because we are his and because he knows us. In verse 17 Jesus moves us into the third reason that He chose to die. Can I say it this way? He died for the love his Father. We have to be careful at this point. I don’t want to imply that the Father didn’t love the Son before the cross or that somehow the fabric of the intra-Trinitarian love would have been ripped apart without the cross. And yet, Jesus declares “the Father loves me, because I lay down my life”. I think it would serve us well and pause a moment and consider this rare glimpse into the love relationship between the Father and the Son. How often do we put the Trinity into an exalted space on the shelf and not press and peer into the snapshots that we are given in Scripture because we don’t want make our brains work?

One thing to notice is that there is a causal connection between the Father’s love for the Son and the Son’s righteous obedience. Does that surprise us? Don’t we, in our own small ways, mirror this? I love my kids, for the most part unconditionally. Yet when they disobey the house rules, there is, in a sense, the wrath of dad. Do I still love them? Absolutely! Has the dynamics of that love relationship changed? I would say yes. And when they obey, maybe even in exemplary way, does my love for them exceed the bounds that it did before? Not really. And yet, has the dynamics of our love relationship changed? Of course it has. Love, by its very nature must be dynamic.

So, in a pure, sinless way, the Trinity exhibits a dynamic love relationship. What kind of God would we have if there was not a rich interaction between the persons of the Trinity? Does the Father love the Son more because He died on the cross? No. And yet is that perfect eternal love now richer and fuller? Does Jesus go to the cross to earn the Father’s love? Not a chance. But isn’t part, maybe a large part, of his motivation to die for us to live out the love of his Father?

You may ask why spend time on some heady topic like love within the Trinity? Here are just a couple of reasons. First, it makes Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf even more secure. We may know that Jesus’ death is not contingent on us or our obedience, but when we see that it is anchored in the perfect love of the Father, we can know that his sacrifice is beyond our ability to destroy. Second, this shows us that even though to us salvation is the most crucial event in our lives, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are working out an even bigger and better plan, including your redemption, the presentation of the church as a spotless bride, the re-creation of the universe and final defeat of death and sin. And it serves as yet another reminder that God is so much bigger than we could ever grasp or even imagine.

Jesus has already laid out already for us that he chose to die because he owns us, because he knows us and because the Father loves him. As we come to the end of this section of John 10, there is a final reason why Jesus chose to die. It is found at the end of verse 17 and on into 18. This reason may be the most assuring and faith building of them all. Jesus emphatically states that “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Simply put, Jesus died because he had the authority to do so.

Think about it. Jesus didn’t have to die. Let me say that again. Jesus didn’t have to die. In fact Jesus says as much “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At one level we know that, don’t we? We know he was sinless. We know that his trial was farce and the charges were trumped up. We know that cross really should have been ours. And yet as we read the last chapters of the gospels, there seems to be this element of Jesus being out of control. Events seem to take on a life of their own. The crowds, the Romans, the Jews all seem to be in control. Everyone except Jesus.

But Jesus words here in John and elsewhere declare to us that he died, not because he was forced to, but because he had the authority to do it. In very really sense he not only permitted himself to die, he authorized it, he ordained it.

We can’t stop there. These verses don’t simply tell us that he had the authority to lay down his life. They also proclaim that he had the authority to take it up again. Do you know what that means? The resurrection was never in doubt! There was not a three judge panel in heaven weighing the merits of his sacrifice. Jesus wasn’t lying in the tomb wondering whether the Father would accept his death or not. Was Jesus death necessary? Absolutely! Were Jesus’ temptations in the garden and in the desert real? Without a doubt! But Jesus’ authority as God gave him the authority take up his life again. And if Jesus has the authority to do this, doesn’t his authority extend to taking up our lives as well?

So, we have four reasons that Jesus chose to die.

1) Jesus died because we are his sheep. vv11-13

2) Jesus died because He knows us. vv14-16

3) Jesus died because the Father loves him v17

4) Jesus died because He has the authority to die (and to live again) v18

But what do we do with these truths? How can we take them with us into the rest of our lives? Here are just a few quick items that I pray the Spirit will press upon your hearts.

First, remember that Jesus was speaking both to build our confidence and to bolster our assurance. We must realize that whatever comes our way, He died for his own, for us who by grace have put our faith and trust in him. The hardships in your life are not a surprise to him. The temptations that seem to derail your walk with Christ are not insurmountable obstacles to him. Remember that he died to secure your eternal redemption.

Second, rest on the reality that Jesus’ death was intentional, purposeful and born out of love. We are too quick to view Jesus’ death as just a point in time event. While it was that, it was (and is) so much more. The Father, Son and Spirit planed your redemption before the world began. They have been acting throughout history to bring the cross and the Christ together. They have been working everyday of your life, first to bring you to faith, and second to build you up in Christlikeness. And they are laboring now toward the restoration of all things. As Paul asks in Romans, if God is doing all this, will He not, along with Christ graciously give us all things? On top of that, if Christ has done all of this, what in all of creation could possibly separate us from the love of God that is in Christ?

Third, we need to rely on the fact that all of this, our salvation, sanctification and glorification, the redemption of all things, the restoration recreation of the universe all hinges on the magnificent and incomprehensible love of God. Jesus’ love for the Father sends him to the Cross. The Father’s love of Christ accepts, approves and is filled out by Jesus loving submission. The love of the Shepherd for his sheep compels him to protect them and preserve them despite the cost to his very life.

Finally, we are both recipients and responders. The Bible is God’s story of creation, redemption and restoration. From Genesis to Revelation, we are simply recipients of God’s unmerited favor. Jesus did the heavy lifting. In reality, He did all the lifting. And yet, God expects a response to his grace. We need to receive it. We need to own it. We ought to revel in it. We ought to run with it. But whatever we do, we dare not reject it.

But I would remiss not to reiterate that the security of Jesus’ sacrificial death only applies to His sheep. If have not surrendered your life to Him, if have not accepted the free gift of his grace, neither I nor the Bible can offer you any assurance. Yet the Bible is clear: today is the day of salvation. If the Spirit is pressing on your heart, if the love of Christ has hemmed you in, if you are experiencing a gut wrenching hunger for this kind of assurance, let go of your tightfisted grip on a self-righteousness that can never save and reach out to embrace the magnificent gospel of grace and the Savior who chose to die so that you could live.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He has laid down his life for us. We are safe, we are secure. We are free to live and serve and die for the one to has our lives in the palm of his hand.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

To God Alone be the GloryA.W. Tozer, a pastor of a church on Chicago’s Southside during the 1940s and 50s wrote the following: "To be effective the preacher's message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God's present voice to a particular people." And that is my prayer and my hope for us today. That God, through the Spirit would in fact alarm us, so we can run to Him for comfort. That He would arouse us, so we would depend on Him for strength and courage and wisdom. That he would challenge us so we would put aside our idols and our pride, take up our cross and follow Jesus.

As you are turning to John 10, I want to tell you, in broad strokes, where, by God’s grace, we are headed. We are going to be looking at a passage of Scripture from the gospel of John that will be familiar to many of you. And, in my experience, the more familiar the passage, the more danger we are in. Either we tune out or we jump straight to the interpretation and perspective we have always had. We are at risk of shutting out the Holy Spirit and not allowing Him to teach us, to encourage us, to challenge us or to convict us.

In the text that is before us, Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd. This is a great descriptor and I hope all of us who claim the name of Christ carry that image of Jesus around with us. But the conviction that has been placed on me in preparing to look at these verses is that we should see the goodness of the Good Shepherd not so much in his shepherding skills as in his willingness to die for his sheep.

You may ask why focus on Jesus’ death? What about his birth? What about his life? Well, it is in his death that bears God’s just and holy wrath. It is his death that cleanses us from all that we have said and done, from all that we have not said and not done. It is his death that restores the relationship that was broken and fractured in the garden. It is in his death that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to come and dwell with us. It is in his death that Satan, God’s enemy and ours is principally defeated. It is in his death that our death is swallowed up in victory. And, it is in his death that all of God’s promises are anchored and guaranteed.

So, please stand with me to read from John 10, verses 11-18,

(read John 10:11-18)

As I consider this familiar passage of scripture, I want you to see a reoccurring thread. Jesus wanted to reiterate to his disciples and to us by extension, that any benefit they gain from their association with Him is profoundly tied to His death. In these eight verses, Jesus stresses four reasons He chose to die. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Jesus presents four connections between His death and other aspects of who he was as the Son of God.

Look again at the text: Here are the four reasons Jesus gives:

1) Jesus died because we are his sheep. vv11-13

2) Jesus died because He knows us. vv14-16

3) Jesus died because the Father loves him v17

4) Jesus died because He has the authority to die (and to live again) v18

I am picking up this sermon in the middle of an exchange between Jesus, his disciples and the rest of his entourage, including some Pharisees. From a bible study perspective, it is typically not a good idea to jump into a passage midstream. However in this particular passage, Jesus helps us out by adjusting both the metaphor and the emphasis. In the first ten verses, He describes himself as the door to the sheepfold and he describes the reality that nobody gets to God except through Him. He literally is the door. In fact anyone who thinks that they’re “in with God” through some other means (works, sacraments, family heritage, ethnicity, you name it) is really a thief and a robber.

However, in verse 11 Jesus changes the imagery. Now he expands his self-portrait to show himself as the Good Shepherd. Let me pause here to say there are a lot of directions one could take with Jesus’ imagery of the Good Shepherd. We could focus on Jesus’ provision for his sheep, even tying back to verse 10. We could concentrate on Jesus leading, guiding and comforting of us, bringing in various aspects of Psalm 23. We could spend time plumbing the depths of Jesus’ seeking, rescuing and restoring the lost sheep as he describes in Luke 15. All of these are true dimensions of who Christ is and shows us once again the multidimensional wonder of our great savior.

But today, based on some specific words in verse 11 and some implications in verses 12 & 13, I would like us to look at Jesus’ protection of his sheep. Jesus is very explicit in verse 11 “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” A shepherd’s life is not in danger while feeding or caring for his sheep. There is little risk in leading or guiding. Even in rescuing and restoring the sense is more of extreme care and compassion. But here Jesus has something else in view. Here the shepherd’s life is on the line.

One has to wonder why. The hired hand doesn’t care. When he sees a threat, he is out of there. Yet the shepherd, the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down his life to save and protect his sheep. Why?

I think verse 14 has our answer for us and it is glorious. We belong to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just lay down his life for just any sheep. He lays down is life for his sheep. Think about the implications of this truth brothers and sisters. Jesus’ death for your sins, his atoning sacrifice, his (can I use a big word?) propitiation of God’s just and holy wrath, was not simply a remote, antiseptic transaction. It was not like me paying my taxes: somewhat reluctantly and not sure exactly what I getting for my investment. No. Jesus died for his own. He died for people who were already his.

I want to push this a little more because it highlights the awesomeness to what God has been orchestrating since the beginning. If the Good Shepherd is willing to die for sheep that already his, his death doesn’t make them his. It may cement his ownership, but it doesn’t establish it. He owned them before he died. And if the owned them before he died, when exactly did his ownership begin? Jot down these verses Eph 1:4 and Tit 1:2. We have always been in Christ’s possession. So much so, that before time began, before Gen 1:1 ever happened, there was an intra-Trinitarian promise that this ownership, this protection would never fail. Jesus, the eternal second person of the Trinity promised and committed to secure your eternal life, your salvation, your sanctification, your glorification, everything that it would take to present you before God’s throne with exceeding joy. And he made this promise before anything but God himself existed.

In light of this, I feel compelled to ask some of the same questions Paul did in Romans 8 and I want to make them personal. If Jesus did all of this for you, if God orchestrated all of this for you, if there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, then why do you think anything can separate you from the love of God in Christ? What could you possibly do or say (or not do or not say) that could exceed the expanse of this love and commitment? Is our view of Jesus really that small? No! This book screams the opposite. The God of the Bible, the Jesus of Bible is so far beyond us that our deepest comprehension of him is just the outskirts of who he is.

I would love to linger here, but there is another reason Jesus chose to lay down his life. As he moves into verses 14 and 15, his emphasis transitions from owning to knowing. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. It would be a mistake, at this point to say the Jesus laid down his life for me because he knew about that microscopically small nugget of goodness inside of me. It is a mistake to say that or think that because when Jesus died, there was no nugget of goodness inside of me and there wasn’t a nugget of goodness inside of you. I hope you have Rom 5:8 underlined or highlighted in your Bibles: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But the implications of these verses go beyond the fact that Jesus knew what we were before he died. Jesus’ emphasis here is on intimacy. He knew us the way close friends or married couples or parents and children know each other. This is a deep, personal knowledge. And to highlight it, Jesus compares it to his relationship with his Father. Since there is no deeper relationship in the entire universe than the Trinity, for Jesus to equate his knowledge of us to his knowledge of the Father is, quite frankly, amazing.

Do we see Jesus death in this light? Honestly, I often view Jesus as the substitute or high preist, which He is, but nothing more. This imagery pushes that envelope. Jesus knows us intimately and because of that pre-existing relationship, he is willing to lay down his life for us. Later in John he will say “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

So here, in two verses, Jesus interconnects the profound love relationship of the Trinity, his deep intimate knowledge of us and his choice to die on our behalf. How can we not worship? How can we doubt His commitment to us? How can we not rest secure in such a loving, sacrificial Savior?

Before I move on to the next reason that Jesus gave up his life, I want to briefly comment on verse 16. Jesus says that he has other sheep, which are not of “this fold”. Does he mean other Jews who are not in Jerusalem and/or geographic Israel? Does he mean the Gentiles who, religiously speaking, are in a totally different flock? Or is he referring to generations of men and women who are separated from the original audience by both time and distance? Most commentaries agree that since Jesus is delivering this self-description in a Jewish setting, his reference is to the other sheep he owns and knows intimately are in the Gentile world. And that, by extension, means you and me. This verse deserves more attention than I can give to it now. It is a huge, ground leveling, gospel expanding verse and we should rejoice that God chose to include it in His holy Word.

Jesus died for because we are his and because he knows us. In verse 17 Jesus moves us into the third reason that He chose to die. Can I say it this way? He died for the love his Father. We have to be careful at this point. I don’t want to imply that the Father didn’t love the Son before the cross or that somehow the fabric of the intra-Trinitarian love would have been ripped apart without the cross. And yet, Jesus declares “the Father loves me, because I lay down my life”. I think it would serve us well and pause a moment and consider this rare glimpse into the love relationship between the Father and the Son. How often do we put the Trinity into an exalted space on the shelf and not press and peer into the snapshots that we are given in Scripture because we don’t want make our brains work?

One thing to notice is that there is a causal connection between the Father’s love for the Son and the Son’s righteous obedience. Does that surprise us? Don’t we, in our own small ways, mirror this? I love my kids, for the most part unconditionally. Yet when they disobey the house rules, there is, in a sense, the wrath of dad. Do I still love them? Absolutely! Has the dynamics of that love relationship changed? I would say yes. And when they obey, maybe even in exemplary way, does my love for them exceed the bounds that it did before? Not really. And yet, has the dynamics of our love relationship changed? Of course it has. Love, by its very nature must be dynamic.

So, in a pure, sinless way, the Trinity exhibits a dynamic love relationship. What kind of God would we have if there was not a rich interaction between the persons of the Trinity? Does the Father love the Son more because He died on the cross? No. And yet is that perfect eternal love now richer and fuller? Does Jesus go to the cross to earn the Father’s love? Not a chance. But isn’t part, maybe a large part, of his motivation to die for us to live out the love of his Father?

You may ask why spend time on some heady topic like love within the Trinity? Here are just a couple of reasons. First, it makes Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf even more secure. We may know that Jesus’ death is not contingent on us or our obedience, but when we see that it is anchored in the perfect love of the Father, we can know that his sacrifice is beyond our ability to destroy. Second, this shows us that even though to us salvation is the most crucial event in our lives, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are working out an even bigger and better plan, including your redemption, the presentation of the church as a spotless bride, the re-creation of the universe and final defeat of death and sin. And it serves as yet another reminder that God is so much bigger than we could ever grasp or even imagine.

Jesus has already laid out already for us that he chose to die because he owns us, because he knows us and because the Father loves him. As we come to the end of this section of John 10, there is a final reason why Jesus chose to die. It is found at the end of verse 17 and on into 18. This reason may be the most assuring and faith building of them all. Jesus emphatically states that “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Simply put, Jesus died because he had the authority to do so.

Think about it. Jesus didn’t have to die. Let me say that again. Jesus didn’t have to die. In fact Jesus says as much “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At one level we know that, don’t we? We know he was sinless. We know that his trial was farce and the charges were trumped up. We know that cross really should have been ours. And yet as we read the last chapters of the gospels, there seems to be this element of Jesus being out of control. Events seem to take on a life of their own. The crowds, the Romans, the Jews all seem to be in control. Everyone except Jesus.

But Jesus words here in John and elsewhere declare to us that he died, not because he was forced to, but because he had the authority to do it. In very really sense he not only permitted himself to die, he authorized it, he ordained it.

We can’t stop there. These verses don’t simply tell us that he had the authority to lay down his life. They also proclaim that he had the authority to take it up again. Do you know what that means? The resurrection was never in doubt! There was not a three judge panel in heaven weighing the merits of his sacrifice. Jesus wasn’t lying in the tomb wondering whether the Father would accept his death or not. Was Jesus death necessary? Absolutely! Were Jesus’ temptations in the garden and in the desert real? Without a doubt! But Jesus’ authority as God gave him the authority take up his life again. And if Jesus has the authority to do this, doesn’t his authority extend to taking up our lives as well?

So, we have four reasons that Jesus chose to die.

1) Jesus died because we are his sheep. vv11-13

2) Jesus died because He knows us. vv14-16

3) Jesus died because the Father loves him v17

4) Jesus died because He has the authority to die (and to live again) v18

But what do we do with these truths? How can we take them with us into the rest of our lives? Here are just a few quick items that I pray the Spirit will press upon your hearts.

First, remember that Jesus was speaking both to build our confidence and to bolster our assurance. We must realize that whatever comes our way, He died for his own, for us who by grace have put our faith and trust in him. The hardships in your life are not a surprise to him. The temptations that seem to derail your walk with Christ are not insurmountable obstacles to him. Remember that he died to secure your eternal redemption.

Second, rest on the reality that Jesus’ death was intentional, purposeful and born out of love. We are too quick to view Jesus’ death as just a point in time event. While it was that, it was (and is) so much more. The Father, Son and Spirit planed your redemption before the world began. They have been acting throughout history to bring the cross and the Christ together. They have been working everyday of your life, first to bring you to faith, and second to build you up in Christlikeness. And they are laboring now toward the restoration of all things. As Paul asks in Romans, if God is doing all this, will He not, along with Christ graciously give us all things? On top of that, if Christ has done all of this, what in all of creation could possibly separate us from the love of God that is in Christ?

Third, we need to rely on the fact that all of this, our salvation, sanctification and glorification, the redemption of all things, the restoration recreation of the universe all hinges on the magnificent and incomprehensible love of God. Jesus’ love for the Father sends him to the Cross. The Father’s love of Christ accepts, approves and is filled out by Jesus loving submission. The love of the Shepherd for his sheep compels him to protect them and preserve them despite the cost to his very life.

Finally, we are both recipients and responders. The Bible is God’s story of creation, redemption and restoration. From Genesis to Revelation, we are simply recipients of God’s unmerited favor. Jesus did the heavy lifting. In reality, He did all the lifting. And yet, God expects a response to his grace. We need to receive it. We need to own it. We ought to revel in it. We ought to run with it. But whatever we do, we dare not reject it.

But I would remiss not to reiterate that the security of Jesus’ sacrificial death only applies to His sheep. If have not surrendered your life to Him, if have not accepted the free gift of his grace, neither I nor the Bible can offer you any assurance. Yet the Bible is clear: today is the day of salvation. If the Spirit is pressing on your heart, if the love of Christ has hemmed you in, if you are experiencing a gut wrenching hunger for this kind of assurance, let go of your tightfisted grip on a self-righteousness that can never save and reach out to embrace the magnificent gospel of grace and the Savior who chose to die so that you could live.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He has laid down his life for us. We are safe, we are secure. We are free to live and serve and die for the one to has our lives in the palm of his hand.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

To God Alone be the Glory