{"id":25429,"date":"2025-08-12T00:45:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=25429"},"modified":"2025-08-12T00:45:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:45:37","slug":"the-good-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2025\/08\/the-good-shepherd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good Shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Posted by permission. Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel<\/a>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sermon preached at Bethel Chapel, Luton, by Mr. B. A. Ramsbottom, on Lord\u2019s day evening, 7th November, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep\u201d\u2014John 10:11<\/em><\/p>\n

This is one of those glorious I ams of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Really, all of them are precious. \u201cI am the Door\u201d; \u201cI am the Resurrection and the Life\u201d; \u201cI am the true Vine.\u201d So we might go on. \u201cI am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.\u201d And here, \u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d \u201cI AM,\u201d as revealed to Moses at the burning bush, is the name of Almighty God, and it can never be given to any other. It speaks of His eternal, everlasting, unchanging character, the great I AM.<\/p>\n

I think if you stop and you look at these various I ams, every single one of them has a very beautiful suitability to our need, as we feel our unworthiness. We feel dead \u2013 \u201cI am the Resurrection and the Life.\u201d We are not so sure of the way \u2013 \u201cI am the Door.\u201d So we might go on. Here, this one which has always been very precious to God\u2019s people, and often very precious to God\u2019s little ones. I think that is because it speaks so much of His love, and His kindness, and His gentleness, and His tenderness, and His care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d Now in seeking to bring this lovely word before you this evening, there seems to me to be a natural, threefold division. First, the Shepherd; second, the sheep; third, the Shepherd dying for the sheep. \u201cI am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d In one place, our Lord Jesus is spoken of as the Chief Shepherd. In another place, He is spoken of as the great Shepherd. But here, the good Shepherd.<\/p>\n

I want to linger a little on this at the beginning, because the goodness of God is one of the great themes of holy Scripture. We have it right through the Old Testament and right through the New. \u201cThe goodness of God endureth continually.\u201d Now not all shepherds were good. There is so much in Ezekiel about the false shepherds, the bad shepherds, who ill-treat the flock, who lead the flock astray, and of course in the New Testament, references to the scribes and Pharisees. They were bad shepherds. But with the Lord Jesus, \u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d The wonderful thing about Him being the good Shepherd is this: that He has a blessed ability to give this goodness. He delights to give this goodness to poor, unworthy sinners who have no goodness of their own.<\/p>\n

That is why I felt I would read those few verses in the well-known Psalm 23. This is David speaking, and in the last verse, what is he speaking about? That he has received goodness. He has received it from the Lord. It has come to him from the good Shepherd. It could not come from anywhere else. \u201cSurely goodness and mercy.\u201d He is so thankful he has received it. It is a wonderful truth. There are some of the Lord\u2019s attributes that He does not really give to other people; they belong to Him and Him alone. But His goodness \u2013 well, what did He say to Moses? \u201cI will make all My goodness pass before thee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoodness, immortal and divine,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The bliss of endless day.\u201d<\/p>\n

So David could conclude this little Psalm, \u201cSurely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d And the Lord is good whatever He does.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood, when He gives, supremely good,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nor less when He denies;<\/p>\n

E\u2019en sorrows, from His gracious hand,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are blessings in disguise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d Now there is so much about the goodness of God revealed in Christ in Scripture. We could spend a lot of time thinking of various references, but there has just been one on my mind which seems to be a very special one: \u201cThe Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him.\u201d \u201cThe Lord is good.\u201d That is a wonderful thing to those of you who are in trouble. \u201cThe Lord is good, a stronghold\u201d to you. \u201cTurn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope.\u201d What a wonderful thing, \u201cHe knoweth them that trust in Him\u201d! Of course, He knows those who do not trust in Him, but those of you wanting to prove that you do trust in Him, you want to know that you trust in Him and to be assured of this: the Lord \u201cknoweth them that trust in Him.\u201d May you and I be favoured to be found amongst them, those who through grace trust in Him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d And the goodness of the good Shepherd is specially known in His loving, tender care for His sheep. It has often been said that when this chapter was first written, it would come very close to Jewish readers. They were all familiar with this. It was a daily sight, the shepherd and how he cared so lovingly and tenderly for his sheep. It would have been something so plain, much more than to us in a different country, a different climate.<\/p>\n

O but the goodness of the Lord Jesus, His watchful care! When His sheep wander, going after them, bringing them back; when they fall, lifting them up; when they are wounded, restoring them; defending them from the wolves and the bears; keeping them by His power; supplying all their needs day by day. This is the special way in which the Lord\u2019s goodness is made known. He is good, but day by day His goodness in caring for His sheep is made known, and it is not something He does one day and then He drops another.<\/p>\n

I think I have told you, I had an old great aunt who came up to Lancashire to live from the south, and she said her old grandfather was the shepherd of the village, and she only remembered him being ill on one occasion, in bed on one occasion, and they could not control him! He was restless. He kept saying, \u201cI must get up. I wonder what is happening to such a sheep,\u201d and there was another one that needed special care. They had no peace till he was back with his little flock. It is no wonder the Lord Jesus once said, \u201cFear not, little flock.\u201d There is nothing to fear if they have a good Shepherd. \u201cFear not, little flock; for it is your Father\u2019s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d One thing that seems to be specially noticeable in the East, and it is mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, is this custom of a good shepherd in the East leading his flock, going before them; not driving them. He goes before and the sheep follow Him. I think some of us at times have found that truth to be precious: \u201cWhen He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him.\u201d The good Shepherd at times puts forth His own sheep. He puts them forth in a way they have never gone before. He puts them forth with some special exercise of spirit. Perhaps some of you are in it now. Sometimes He puts them forth to walk in a difficult way, a pathway of trouble. But this is it: \u201cWhen He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them.\u201d If the Lord is putting you forth at present in some gracious exercise \u2013 seeking His leading, praying for guidance, wanting to follow Him \u2013 be sure of this: if the Lord Jesus is putting you forth, He will not leave you. He will always go before you to lead you aright. \u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d Well, so many beautiful, blessed things might be said about the good Shepherd, and especially, not least, about His goodness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d Now the second thing: the sheep. Now they are not good. Jesus said, \u201cI am the good Shepherd,\u201d and He has His little flock of sheep, His chosen ones, but they are not good. Sheep \u2013 how easily they fall, and when they fall, they cannot get up. How easily they go astray. How easily they wander out of the way. How foolish sheep are. And the word says, \u201cAll we like sheep\u201d \u2013 every one of us, the whole human race \u2013 \u201cAll we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.\u201d So if the Shepherd is good, supremely good, then the sheep are not! What an opposite there is here: the sheep of Christ\u2019s fold, and yet He loves them.<\/p>\n

Always remember one thing: if you ever see some sheep, whether it is a flock together or just one out on the hills or mountains, if you see a sheep, it always belongs to someone. Sheep are creatures that belong to someone. They have an owner \u2013 some of them, many, many miles over the mountains. I remember years ago when I was a boy up in the Lakes, we were talking to a Lakeland shepherd and he said when they did the round-up of the sheep once a year, they found some of their own sheep had wandered twenty miles, but they still belonged to that shepherd; they were still his sheep.<\/p>\n

The shepherd and his sheep. In that very remarkable book by a man named Dr. Thomson, which was written in the 1900\u2019s, The Land and the Book. He was a minister in Israel for thirty years, and in the book he wrote of all the happenings and the habits. He once saw a shepherd and he was leading his flock to a river, and he was leading them to the ford which safely crossed the river. As he watched, what happened? Some of them wanted to get in front; some of them wandered a bit to one side or the other; they tried to cross the river where it was not the ford. The poor shepherd had to leave most of his flock and go after his sheep that had wandered out of the way. He had to go into the water himself and swim and bring them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cProne to wander, Lord, I feel it;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prone to leave the God I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is a wonderful blessing in being a sheep of Christ\u2019s fold! We are not there by nature, not in our experience. In the eternal counsels of God in the covenant of grace, His people always were chosen sheep, but by nature He sees them wandering upon the dark mountains, to use a phrase of Scripture \u2013 wandering upon the dark mountains. And what does He do?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a period known to God<\/p>\n

When all His sheep, redeemed by blood,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shall leave the hateful ways of sin,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Turn to the fold, and enter in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good Shepherd delights to go after the lost sheep. We have it in the parables. He cannot be satisfied till He finds the lost sheep and brings it back with rejoicing to the fold. Now that is it. Surely most graciously- exercised hearers love to hear of the good Shepherd. They love to hear of His little flock, the flock He loves and cares for, but they want to know whether they are one of the flock, and how do I become one of the flock? Well, it is as the Shepherd finds them, and really He teaches them their need, and the great point He teaches them is that they cannot do without Him; they cannot be saved without Him; they cannot be forgiven without Him; they cannot get to heaven without Him.<\/p>\n

Now I wonder how many of you have come to that place, when you feel your vital need of Christ as the great Shepherd to save you, to bless you with what He says here: \u201cI am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.\u201d So every lost sheep is found and every lost sheep is sweetly enabled to go after the Shepherd that found it, and never to leave that Shepherd, to seek to follow Him all the days of its life. There is something very precious in this picture. There is a union here that can never be broken, the Shepherd and His beloved sheep \u2013 so unworthy, but chosen, redeemed by blood, sanctified by the Spirit, \u201csaved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is laid on my spirit just to say a word or two to any boys and girls, any young people here, and you see a beauty in the teaching of the Scriptures about the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being the Shepherd of the sheep. Am I right in saying, what you would really like is this: for the Lord Jesus not just to be the Shepherd of the sheep, but to be your Shepherd? I have pondered this point. There is nothing in Scripture to forbid someone who is concerned, going in prayer to the Lord Jesus and saying, \u201cLord Jesus, wilt Thou be my Shepherd, and do for me everything that a shepherd does for his sheep?\u201d I have thought about it. There is one prayer which says, \u201cLord, be Thou my Helper.\u201d It is a little, simple, nice prayer. \u201cLord, be Thou my Helper.\u201d Well, likewise as you are helped by the Spirit, you can say, \u201cLord, be Thou my Shepherd,\u201d and I do not think the Lord Jesus will be offended. It is the one thing you really want \u2013 the Lord Jesus to look after you.<\/p>\n

It makes me think, I have told you about that little dwarf at one of our chapels. He never spoke a word to any human person, but he never began to eat his breakfast or his dinner without praying, and he prayed out loud, and he always ended like this: \u201cPlease do look after me, Lord; do look after me!\u201d Well, that is what the good Shepherd does. That is the thing we want Him to do for us.<\/p>\n

It brings us to our third point. The Shepherd, the sheep \u2013 \u201cI am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d Now let us be clear: in one sense this is just a personal, well-known reference. There were good shepherds in the East, and they loved their sheep so much that if the wolf came, or the bear, they were even willing in struggling for the safety of a little lamb which had been captured and carried away to lay down their life. That is the natural meaning of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d But really the whole glorious doctrine of the atonement is here, the Lord Jesus dying for sinners. I came across one of the old writers recently and he said, \u201cHave you noticed that so often the Lord Jesus loves to slip something in concerning His approaching sufferings and His approaching death?\u201d Because this is the vital point: if the Lord Jesus says, \u201cI am the good Shepherd,\u201d this is the supreme display of His goodness. His goodness is shown in many ways, but never so much as when He went to the cross to lay down His life that His poor sheep might be redeemed by His death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d If there is an emphasis here in this closing clause, it is the willingness of the Lord Jesus to die. It is not like some martyr\u2019s death. They were brave, but their life was snatched from them. The Lord Jesus willingly went to the cross to die in His people\u2019s place. How clearly He puts it here: \u201cNo man taketh it\u201d \u2013 My life \u2013 \u201cfrom Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.\u201d You remember when He was in the garden and they came to arrest Him, how willing He was to die. He said, \u201cWhom seek ye?\u201d And when they said, \u201cJesus of Nazareth,\u201d He said, \u201cI am He.\u201d They fell prostrate on the floor. \u201cThen asked He them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.\u201d He gave the same glorious answer: \u201cI am He.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt were an easy part<\/p>\n

For Him the cross to fly;<\/p>\n

But love to sinners fills His heart,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And makes Him choose to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is that willingness, that loving willingness.<\/p>\n

And then you remember when He was brought before Pilate, and what Pilate said he could do, and he said, \u201cKnowest Thou not\u201d \u2013 this is Pilate \u2013 \u201cthat I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee?\u201d The Lord Jesus said, \u201cThou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above.\u201d Again He said, \u201cThinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give me more thantwelvelegionsofangels?\u201d Whataneasythingitwouldhavebeenfor the great Shepherd to escape from the cross!<\/p>\n

We sing,<\/p>\n

\u201cBut love to sinners fills His heart,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And makes Him choose to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow willing was Jesus to die,<\/p>\n

That we fellow-sinners might live!<\/p>\n

The life they could not take away,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How ready was Jesus to give!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d So we see the Saviour dying. We see His matchless love. He takes the dying sinner\u2019s place; He suffers in his stead. He bears the wrath of God that His people deserved, that His sheep deserved. \u201cHe is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.\u201d Behold the Man in His silence! But O the agonies He suffered \u2013 the crown of thorns, the cruel nails, the spear, the deeper sorrows of His holy soul, till He bowed His head in death. But this was it: He was shedding His precious blood to make atonement for sin. \u201cThe Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep\u201d \u2013 the supreme display of His goodness and His matchless love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.\u201d But that is not the last word. The last word concerning the good Shepherd does not leave Him in the grave. Listen to those wonderful words of the apostle at the close of the Epistle to the Hebrews. \u201cNow the God of peace\u201d \u2013 listen to it: \u201cNow the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.\u201d And then the application: \u201cMake you perfect\u201d \u2013 this is the result of the good Shepherd giving His life for the sheep, as He rose again triumphant: \u201cMake you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.\u201d And we leave our thoughts on the good Shepherd here: \u201cTo whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This is one of those glorious I ams of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Really, all of them are precious. \u201cI am the Door\u201d; \u201cI am the Resurrection and the Life\u201d; \u201cI am the true Vine.\u201d So we might go on. \u201cI am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.\u201d And here, \u201cI am the good Shepherd.\u201d \u201cI AM,\u201d as revealed to Moses at the burning bush, is the name of Almighty God, and it can never be given to any other. It speaks of His eternal, everlasting, unchanging character, the great I AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":22562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1729],"tags":[1219],"class_list":["post-25429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-benjamin-ramsbottom","tag-spiritual-guidance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25430,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25429\/revisions\/25430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}