Title: Perfect Obedience
Text: John 10: 17-18
Date: February 6, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
John 10: 17: Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18: No man taketh it from 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.
Our Lord Jesus Christ declares that he is the Good Shepherd. And he tells us why?
John 10: 11: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12: But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13: The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
The sheep of God are those the Father gave to the Son in the everlasting covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
1. Some of his sheep were among the nation of Israel--but not all of the nation of Israel were his sheep.
· John 10: 24-30
2. Other of his sheep were scattered among the Gentiles. He was in Jerusalem, speaking to the Jews, but he said,
· John 10: 16
3. But this is true of all of his sheep.
· Isaiah 53: 6
In order to bring all his sheep into his fold, it must be perfect to be accepted of God. God is holy. Every child of God must have perfectly obeyed the Father to be accepted of God.
Proposition: Our Lord Jesus Christ declares plainly that his death at Calvary was the free, voluntary act of his own obedience to his Father’s will, for which his Father loves him.
John 10: 17: Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18: No man taketh it from 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.
The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of himself here not as the eternal Son of God, but as the Good Shepherd, the Mediator, the Surety of his people--the one by whose obedience many shall be made righteous.
Divisions: 1) The Father’s Commandment; 2) The Son’s Obedience 3) The Father's Love to the Son
I. The Father’s Commandment
John 10: 18:…This commandment have I received of my Father.
The Savior laid down his life because it was the eternal purpose and will of his Father.
1 Peter 1: 20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
1. It pleased the Father to bruise him, he hath put him to grief--in the place of those he represented--in order to manifest the perfections of who God is:
Hebrews 2:10: For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
2. In the perfection of the Saviors obedience is manifest the perfections of the nature of God: the holiness of God, the wisdom of God, his goodness, his love, his justice, his grace, his mercy--all that God is. In Christ's willful obedience unto death is the perfect manifestation of God’s character.
II. THE SON'S OBEDIENCE
John 10:17: I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18: No man taketh it from 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.
A. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life voluntarily, as an act of free obedience to his Father.
B. Laying down his life willingly is the Perfection of Holy Obedience contained in the whole law of God which you and I can only obtain by faith in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 10:5: Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
1. The sacrifices of animals involved no "moral act of the Will of a Man". They were animals, not man. Their slaughter was an un-moral, mere physical, slaying--not an act of the will.
Note: The sheep which were slain in ceremony had a two-fold significance. God's elect are his sheep. Yet,
Isaiah 53: 6: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
But Christ is THE WILLING SHEEP, whose perfect, willful obedience makes all God's elect, disobedient sheep perfect:
Isaiah 53: 7: He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
2. Christ laying down his own life is THE MAN--the representative of all his sheep--fulfilling THE "moral act of perfect willing obedience"--the perfect fulfillment of the law of God.
Note: On one hand Christ's obedience unto the death of the shameful cross was a complete surrender of self-will to the will of his Father. But at the same time, doing the will of his Father was the will of himself.
John 14: 30: Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31: But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Christ obedience in laying down his life is the perfection of obedience, the perfect oneness of the Will of God with the will of Man so that his perfect moral act of obedience--is the believer's perfect holiness.
Hebrews 10: 10: By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all]…14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
C. AND HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE, THAT HE MIGHT TAKE IT AGAIN.
John 10:17: I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18:…I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
1. By the Man, Christ Jesus, having power to raise himself from the dead, the Man Christ Jesus is declared to be the Son of God.
Romans 1: 3: Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4: And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
2. He is Lord over all--whether you know him or not!
Romans 14:9: For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
III. THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR HIS SON
John 10: 17: Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.
A. Christ Jesus, as the Surety and Mediator of his people--the Holy One, the Faithful One--is the only one who can say that he of himself merited the love of the Father.
B. Because of this great act of love for his Father and for his sheep--the Father has given his Son everything!
He pleased the Lord--made satisfaction--so that Father smiles upon Christ Jesus his Son with divine delight. The pleasure of the LORD has prospered in the hand of his Son. He has seen the travail of his soul and is satisfied. By his knowledge his righteous servant has justified many. Because he willing "hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
And because the Christ Jesus the Son hath hightly exalted the Father by his willing obedience unto the death of the cross
Philippians 2: 9: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
John 3:35: The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
John 17:2: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Isaiah 53: 12: Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
Application:
1. To every sinner who has yet to believe on Christ--Kiss the Son, bow to him.
The only way of access to God is by the Door Christ Jesus and him crucified. Our only worthiness of the Father’s love and approval is Christ.
John 10: 7: Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep…. 9: I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
2. To you children of God, though the Father may chasten us by his faithful hand--know that his chastening is not in wrath--the curse has been born away--what we suffer at his hand are not the thorns of the curse, but the sweet fragrance of God's love for those perfumed in Christ the Rose of Sharon. Therefore, in the midst of a world that knows you not because it knew him not--remember: 1 Corinthians 6:19: Ye are not your own? 20: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Amen!