My Dear Shepherds,<\/p>\n\n
When Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” it’s easy to miss just how good <\/em>that is. While God had always been the Good Shepherd of Israel, he had promised,<\/p>\n\n I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. <\/em>(Ezek. 34:23)<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Jesus laid claim to that promise in John 10, adding something new—that he would “lay down his life for the sheep.” The Good Shepherd would become the Lamb. He continued,<\/p>\n\n “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father —and I lay down my life for the sheep.”<\/em> (John 10:14-15)<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n While God had always known his sheep, and his faithful people had known him through his words and deeds, Jesus here promised a new level of knowing<\/em>—of intimate fellowship—between the Lord and his people: “… just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”<\/em> By dying for us and by giving us his Spirit believers are now welcomed into the intimate fellowship of the Triune God! Jesus concluded his prayer in John 17,<\/p>\n\n “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”<\/em> (John 17:26)<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n This Christlike knowing <\/em>comes with the gift of supernatural hearing<\/em>. Jesus said, “He calls<\/em> his own sheep by name and leads them out … his sheep follow him because they know his voice<\/em>” (John 10:3, 4). New birth heals deaf ears. We can know <\/em>and hear <\/em>our Good Shepherd!<\/p>\n\n And that is where pastors come in. We have the extraordinary privilege of speaking for the Good Shepherd. Someone clips a mic on us, and our flock somehow hears the Lord! They know we’re not him<\/em>, of course, but they hear him nonetheless. Recently, when our pastor preached from John 14 on Jesus’ promise of a place prepared for us, Jesus himself reassured me deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n
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