Hey guys, my name is Ricky and I'm one of the pastors here at the church. And welcome to Tatooine or Arrakis Sunday in El Paso. If you don't know what that stuff is, that's like those scary sci-fi planets that just— there's just dust and monsters all over the place. That's what El Paso turns into once a year. So if you're new to El Paso, welcome.
If you survive it, Alec will also give you free pizza. No, I'm just kidding. We can say whatever we want about Alec because he's in the new members class. So we can offer anything we would like to. 8 to 12-year-olds, you're in with us.
We had some challenges with teachers and things like that, and a number— some folks were not able to make it. So thanks for being in here. If you're 8 to 12 years old, here's what I need you to do. Give me a thumbs up. Give me a thumbs up.
Give me a thumbs up. Give me a thumbs up. Okay. Here's what I want you to do. I'm going to ask you a few times during the message if what I'm saying makes sense.
If what I'm saying makes sense, give me a thumbs up. If what I'm saying does not make sense, give me a thumbs down and I'll re-explain it or just tell a joke. Okay?
With that, and then last thing for our adults and kids is this. We, when we go to McCalligan Canyon, here's the reality. As Jonathan just referenced, we're gonna have people that are new to our church. People that we have never met before, God willing, and we do not have, we don't have enough greeters and people to make them feel welcome, we need every single person in the church in the Canyon from our church to become a part of the greeting team and welcoming team on Easter, okay? So here's what that means. I want you to look for anyone who you don't know, and either you'll meet them and they'll be coming to the second service or something, which is great, or you'll get to meet somebody who's never interacted with our church before. Look especially for anybody that's kind of looking around like this.
Those are an easy way to tell guests. They're just looking around like this. Anybody looks like that, go find them, greet them, ask them their story, ask them how they found their way to Easter, and maybe even invite them to your community group. Invite them to join us again next Sunday. We need every single person that is able-bodied to help us greet and welcome folks.
And so when you show up on Sunday, I hope you'll show up excited to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, but I also hope you'll show up ready and willing to just be the means of God's grace to people. We have no idea what people are facing as they walk in on Easter Sunday. We have no idea what might bring them to an Easter service. They may be dealing with difficulty or pain or loss or not know where to go or what to do, or they may think they're fine, but God may do something in their heart. And so we want to be ready to be able to be part of God's work.
Amen. I mean, let's do that next Sunday.
And with that, let's open up to John chapter 10 today. This Sunday and next Sunday, we are taking a break from our series in 1 Corinthians to cover, uh, some aspects of who Jesus is that are uniquely relevant as we celebrate his kingship on, uh, Palm Sunday, as we remember Jesus entering Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna, and then as we look next Sunday at the resurrection of Jesus. And the key question is, who is Jesus?
And that's what we're going to be answering the next couple of weeks.
Now we're going to look at John chapter 10, reading verses 7 through 18. Let's remember as we read, this is God's Word. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who who does not own the sheep sees the wolves coming, and he leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them, scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. 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, and I have I must go and find other sheep that are not of this fold, and I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because 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.
This charge I have received from my Father. This is God's Word.
And Lord, give us ears to hear and eyes to see. And I pray especially today, May we see Jesus as the King, as good news. In Your name we pray. Amen.
Well, one phrase I remember hearing over and over as a kid was the ever-popular, "You're not the boss of me." If you're a kid, have you ever said that to your sibling? "You're not the boss of me," right? You're like, "You're not mom." You can't tell me what to do. You can't do that.
You can't tell me what to do, right? My friends would say it to their big sisters who were in charge. My little sisters would say it to me. The worst thing imaginable as a kid is that some other kid is the boss of you, right? And we really don't change that much as we grow up, do we?
We are, after all, Americans. We are— our national identity is defined by casting off the taxes of a distant English monarch. Right? We're like, "Yeah, the Boston Tea Party. That was us." Even though we disguised ourselves so nobody would recognize us.
But that was us. That's the beginning of America. And we are the most rebellious of Americans. Texans. We are the people of the Alamo.
And that— man, that seeps into who we are, right? We— when we see advertising like, "Be your own landlord," we're like, "Yeah, that's right. I don't want to pay rent to a landlord," right? Or, "Be your own boss." We're like, "Yes, I don't want to have this boss. I'm going to be the boss," right?
The last thing we want is for anyone to tell us what to do, what is required of us, what we are compelled to do.
6 · Alcantar poses the central question of the sermon: whether Jesus' kingship is genuinely good news, establishing that Jesus is not a distant or suggesting figure but an involved King who demands comprehensive obedience in every area of life
So against that backdrop, I want to ask a really serious question that we often neglect on Palm Sunday. The question is this: is Palm Sunday actually good news? Because on Palm Sunday, as we read earlier to open the service, the crowds rejoiced, calling Jesus the Son of David, meaning Jesus was the King of Israel. They rejoiced shouting, "Hosanna! The King has come!" But here's my serious question: Is having a king actually good news?
Because here's the reality. Jesus is not an absent king. He's not a distant king. He is an involved king. He dares to tell us what to do, not just in one or two areas of life, not just for a couple hours on Sunday morning.
He dares to tell us what to do in every area of life all the time. He dares to tell us what to do with our sex lives and whether we can divorce someone, and he dares tell us we must forgive even when we've been wronged. He dares tell us what to do with our money. He dares turn our world upside down. And here's the thing about Jesus as the King.
He is not Suggesting things to us. Like, too many people, I think, see Jesus as a great suggester, right? Like somebody like Gandhi or another religious, you know, another kind of figure. It's like, "Oh, their life suggests some wonderful things to me." No way.
Jesus demands you follow.
7 · Alcantar applies the kingship question directly to different life stages in the congregation—children growing up, teenagers heading to college, adults facing marriage and career decisions, retirees entering a new phase—pressing each group to decide whether Jesus will truly be their King in those specific moments
So here's the question. Why is that good news then? Look, maybe if you're a kid, you have to be here because your parents make you come here. But at some point you have to decide if you're going to keep coming. At some point you're going to have to decide not just if Jesus is the King of your family, but whether Jesus is your King.
All right, 8 to 12-year-olds, does that make sense? Give me a thumbs up. You have to decide as you grow up whether Jesus is your King. Or maybe you're a teenager. Maybe you're about to go out to college or go into a career, and you are at that crucial moment where you're deciding, is Jesus really my King?
There are key moments across your life. Maybe if divorce intrudes on you, or the question of divorce is in front of you, will Jesus be your King? Or as you think about your money and your career, is Jesus going to be your King? Or maybe you're in retirement age and you finally get to decide what you want to do. Will Jesus be your king?
8 · Alcantar expounds on John 10:7-9, identifying three offensive elements in Jesus' teaching: He calls us sheep (stupid, weak creatures), He commands us into a pen (limiting our freedom), and He claims to be the only door (demanding we come on His terms alone)
Now, here's the choice we see right up in front of the text, that choice right there. Jesus, you may not have noticed it, but verse 7 says this. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door.
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Now Jesus, right up front, you might think, well, that sounds lovely. You know, these verses, you know, on like a little Precious Moments diorama or a coffee cup, like, oh, I'm the door of the sheep. You know, no, no, no. Jesus is actually being incredibly offensive.
Right after this passage, they get— the whole crowd gets divided and goes, we don't like this. And here's why they don't like it. 3 reasons that Jesus is offensive here. First, He says we are sheep. Right?
Sheep. Like if you watch motivational people that are selling stuff online, they're telling you things like, "You're a lion. There's a lion inside you. There's a tiger inside. You need to unleash it with this workout." You're like, "Yeah, that's right.
There is a tiger," as you drink another Diet Coke, right, on the couch. We respond to complementary images. Jesus chooses essentially the least complementary image for us. You're a sheep. Not known for their speed.
Not known for their intelligence. Not known for their strength. Not known for really anything positive other than looking fluffy. Sheep are infamous in the animal kingdom for being stupid. I was reading this week that sheep sometimes will sit down in a way that they can't get back up from.
And the shepherd has to like roll them over. That's what Jesus says we are. First offensive thing. Second offensive thing. He calls us into the sheepfold.
So shepherds would graze the flocks of sheep during the day and then toward the evening move the sheep into a sheepfold, which is a smaller fenced-in area. So not only is someone telling us what to do, he's basically saying you need to get in the pen. "Get in the pen." You're like, "I don't want to. I want to be free." No.
In the sheepfold. Third offensive thing. He says, notice, you may not have caught this, He says He is the only door to good things and safety and life. He says there's only one way into the sheepfold. That is through Him.
You cannot come on your own terms. You can't run your life and come when you want and how you want. He says he is the only door, the only place, the only way into that safety. He is the shepherd who is in charge.
9 · Alcantar pivots from the offensiveness of Jesus' claims to the sermon's organizing thesis: Jesus is better—better than any alternative, and worth following precisely because He offers what nothing else can
So the question again is this: why would you want to, one, admit you're a sheep, two, admit you're going to live inside the pen, three, and come on Jesus' terms and not your own? Why would you do that? Well, because Jesus in this passage says one clear thing. He is better. Jesus is better.
That following Jesus and allowing him to be your shepherd is the best way of living. It is the only way to truly live. It is better than letting anything else run your life, better than you running your life. That is what Jesus is claiming here. So our question is this: Is it true?
Is Jesus really better? We're going to walk through a couple of points today. First, This is what he claims. He is better by offer, better by what he offers.
10 · Alcantar expounds John 10:10, arguing that Jesus offers not mere safety but abundant life—the deep, overflowing, weighty life the human heart was created to crave
Verse 10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Oh, friends, this is beautiful. The sheep pen brings to mind the image of safety perhaps, but Jesus raises the stakes. John Piper says this, "None of us wants to be merely safe." We were not created merely to be safe. The human heart wants infinitely more than safety. Oh yeah, safety is basic and necessary. We want to be protected from what can destroy us, but we want life, life.
We want more than mere life. We want abundant life. We want overflowing life, deep life, weighty life, joyful life. We don't just want to survive. We want to thrive at every level of our human being.
We were made for this. And Jesus says, "That is what I offer. That life is what I offer." His purpose for coming to earth was that they who follow Him might find life.
11 · Alcantar traces the redemptive-historical arc from Genesis, showing that humanity's rebellion against God's authority in the Garden resulted in death rather than life, establishing a pattern that Jesus came to reverse by offering genuine life
Now, my boys and I are reading a book of the Bible. What are we reading, guys? What book are we reading?
Genesis. Good job, Cohen. We are reading Genesis right now, and the story starts out with lots of life. There's all kinds of trees and good things, and it's a beautiful, glorious thing. All creation given to humanity laid out, but humanity chooses to turn away from life to death.
They turn to sin. They believe the lie of the serpent that if they just eat this fruit, they will be like God. Essentially, What they're saying, Adam and Eve are saying in their hearts, "God will not be the boss of me. We will be our own bosses." And the problem is in that bite, they don't find life, they find death.
And so it is with so much in life. It holds out the offer of life, but when you bite into it, the taste of death is in your mouth. And so Jesus is different. He offers life in 3 ways.
12 · Alcantar unpacks three dimensions of Jesus' offer of life: (1) restored relationship with God now, addressing the soul's emptiness; (2) present peace, hope, and joy that cannot be stolen by life circumstances; (3) eternal life that removes the fear of meaningless death and judgment
First, He offers true life now in relationship with God. What we lost in the garden, that relationship with God, Jesus offers to restore. St. Augustine says famously, "Our souls are restless until we find our rest in Thee." Meaning our restless souls will always be restless until they find their rest in the Lord. Or perhaps to summarize Jesus here, you could say, our souls are lifeless until they find their life in thee.
No matter what else you have in life, you will always carry an emptiness that comes from being divorced or removed from a relationship with the Creator God that you were made for. Jesus offers to give us that life again. Second, Jesus offers true life now flowing from our relationship with God. So as we know God and have a relationship, we experience so many things that we cannot find or truly experience anywhere else. We find and experience a— not often people, when people think of the abundant life, they think of, okay, I'm going to have a Lexus, you know.
Look, here's the reality. When you have cancer, you don't care if you have a Lexus, right? If you're on your deathbed, no one's going, "Well, I did finally achieve the 3,000-square-foot home." Right? Nobody's thinking that.
Like, all these things can be taken away from you, but flowing from life with Jesus are things that cannot be taken away. A peace that cannot be taken away even by cancer and grief and difficulty. A hope that cannot be shaken no matter what the state of the country or the people around you is in. A joy that can't be stolen by any life circumstance. As we live on Jesus' path, it may be hard, as Jesus says in other places, but it is better because there is more life in it than can be found anywhere else.
And third, perhaps what you thought of immediately, he offers this life for eternal— for eternity. This is an eternal life. No more fear that at any moment you could be— you could lose your life and lose everything you have, that your life would be snuffed out and meaningless, that you would then stand before God and face all of your failures for eternity. Jesus offers eternal life. There is nothing else that makes that offer.
There is no one else that can make that offer the way Jesus can. He's better by what he offers.
13 · Alcantar expounds John 10:11, tracing the shepherd metaphor through Old Testament typology (David, God as shepherd) and using Calvin to emphasize that God's willingness to identify as shepherd reveals His extraordinary affection for His people despite their lowly estate
Second, he is better by his identity, by who he is. Look at verse 11. He says this. I am the good shepherd. Now, this is an extraordinary metaphor that we could spend the entire rest of our discussion on, but this metaphor is rich in Old Testament imagery.
It— remember that King David was a shepherd. God did that intentionally to foreshadow this future shepherd. Remember that in other places of the Old Testament, God describes himself as the Shepherd of his people. And yet that metaphor of being a shepherd— well, you might think it's demeaning to be a sheep. Well, think of what it's like for the God of all creation to describe himself as a shepherd.
Because look, I think if you back up and realize, okay, what's the real state of humanity? We are pretty much sheeple, right? We are pretty much sheep. And yet, the Lord calls Himself our Shepherd. John Calvin says this of that metaphor, "This is a homely manner of speaking.
He who does not disdain to stoop so low for our sake must bear a singularly strong affection toward us." Meaning that if we are truly sheep, It must be Christ's affection for us that makes Him our shepherd and makes Him move toward us in the mud and mess of life.
14 · Alcantar illustrates God's affection for His people by recounting his own transformation from a child avoiding sick siblings to a parent unable to stay away from sick children, demonstrating that genuine love compels presence in the midst of suffering
Now, when I was a kid, I did not want to be by anyone who was sick. Okay? Like, I had 3 younger sisters, and so when they were sick, I was out. Right? Like I'll play, you know, whatever with you in the backyard, but as soon as you start vomiting or something, I'm like, nope, we're out.
Or somebody's, you know, have a fever or like, you know, I'm just like, I'm quarantining, self-quarantining myself at some part of the house. Because the last thing I wanted as a kid was to be in the middle of sickness and vomit and fevers and crying. And I saw my parents taking care of them. And I remember thinking, man, That's the worst. And I remember thinking, I hope I never have kids that do this.
You know, I hope I never have kids that get sick because this seems horrible. I could wake up in the morning, I've got a good night's rest, and my parents, their eyes are bloodshot from being up all night. I'm like, not that. Don't want that. And I thought, what could compel somebody to stay up through the night with somebody else?
And then I had my own kids. Right? And where before you could not pay me to be near a sick person, as a parent, You couldn't pay me to be away from my kids when they were sick. Why? Because there is an affection in my heart for them that's like, I'm going to get right into the worst of life with them because I'm their dad.
I love these kids. So it is with the Lord calling himself our shepherd. He moves into the mud and mess of life with us.
15 · Alcantar unpacks four shepherd functions using Laniak's scholarship: (1) shepherds provide by knowing exactly what the flock needs, (2) shepherds remain constantly near their sheep unlike distant managers, (3) shepherds guide by knowing the lay of the land and the flock's capacities better than the sheep themselves, (4) shepherds care intimately, knowing each sheep by name and circumstance
And look at then what he does with this metaphor. Scholar Timothy Laney gives us a few examples of what it would mean to be a shepherd. First, shepherds provide. He says one of the most pressing challenges for shepherds is to provide food and water. A shepherd needs to keep within a 20-mile grazing radius of adequate water source in cold weather and within 10 miles in the summer, meaning shepherds have to know all the time how to provide for their flocks.
And Jesus is saying, I'm that provider. I'm a better provider. He sees— what he's saying is this: he sees our need better than we do. He made us. He gives us not all we want, but all we truly need.
He is aware at all times of what we need, and he provides it. Second, shepherds are always near to their sheep, right? This is real different from the CEO or middle manager of a company clicking a few things on a spreadsheet and sending people to Tulsa, right? It's like, "You go to Tulsa. I'm going to stay here in my nice office." No.
Shephers are in the mud and mess with their sheep. Laneyac again says, "Sheep are typically led right from the front, right there, or occasionally driven from behind, but either way, they're constantly near the sheep." And Jesus, similarly, is constantly near his sheep. He does not look at us from a distance. Remember Christmas.
Remember the good news of Christmas. Jesus is not a distant God. He is a God who has taken on humanity to come and be among us and shepherd his people right from the very midst of them. He is near to us. Third, shepherd's guide.
Lainey goes into how shepherds at all moments need to keep track of, okay, who are the young mothers among the sheep? Who are the young among the sheep? What is their pace? How much can they do? Maybe he has push them because he knows we need to get to a water source before people, before the sheep start to get sick.
Or maybe we need to push through an area with predators even though it's not going to be comfortable. Shepherds have to know at all times what the lay of the land is, where the predators are, where the water is. And they, much more than the sheep, know what to do. The sheep might go, "I would like to stop here." The shepherd's going to go, "No, you wouldn't." You're about to be a wolf lunch if you stop there, right?
Or, "I think we want to go fast." "No, we need to pace ourselves. It's hot. You're not going to make it." "I'm going to make it." "No, you're not.
You're going to pass out, sheep." Right? That's what shepherds do. And similarly, Jesus guides. Isn't that good news?
Because so often in life, we are baffled by life. We don't know what to do. We don't know where to go, right? We think we do only to realize a year later we had no idea where that relationship was going. We had no idea where that job trajectory was going.
We have no idea where that crisis was going to end up, but Jesus does. Jesus knows and Jesus guides. Last, shepherds care. Again, returning to that metaphor, Laniak says this, "Consequently, attentive and careful shepherds became endeared to their flocks." Responsible shepherds know every member of their flocks in terms of their birth circumstances, their history of health, their eating habits, and other idiosyncrasies.
It is not uncommon for shepherds to name each goat and sheep and to call them by name. And one of the most striking characteristics of the shepherd-flock relationship is that control over the flock is exercised simply by the sound of the shepherd's voice. Right? He knows them so intimately and cares for them so intimately, but how much more is that true of Christ and His people? He knows our birth.
He knows our history. He knows our habits. He knows our idiosyncrasies. He knows our name. He knows who we are.
His attention is constantly on us. His heart Whose heart is constantly inclined toward us. That is who Jesus says he is. That is why he is better and worth following.
16 · Alcantar transitions to the third reason Jesus is better—His actions—by raising the trust question: can we really trust Jesus when His way seems harder? He introduces John 10:11's claim that the good shepherd lays down His life, identifying it as both a pattern of self-sacrifice and a decisive moment
Third, Jesus is better by action. Now, perhaps there's a question rightly around kind of the edges of your mind. Can we really trust Jesus? Really though? Really though?
When Jesus calls to live in a countercultural way, can we really trust him? When Jesus' road seems harder than other roads, can we really trust him? And Jesus gives us, well, an even greater reason to trust him when he says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now that means two things. Laying down of his life means a constant pattern of self-sacrifice for the good of the sheep.
17 · Alcantar illustrates the shepherd's constant self-sacrifice using a historical anecdote from Kent Hughes about an Arab shepherd who literally sleeps in the doorway to protect his flock, making his own body the barrier between the sheep and danger
I was reading, I found in a particular commentary a story of a pastor, a scholar named Sir George, who was traveling in the Middle East. And Kent Hughes recalls this story about Sir George. It says Sir George was one day traveling with a guide and came across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him. The shepherd showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night.
It consisted of four walls with a way in. Sir George said to him, 'That is where they go at night?' 'Yes,' said the shepherd, 'and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.' 'But there is no door,' Sir George said. 'I 'I am the door,' the shepherd said. He was not a Christian man, but he was speaking in the language of the New Testament.
He was speaking from the Arab shepherd's standpoint. Sir George looked at him and said, 'What do you mean by the door?' And the shepherd said, 'When the light is gone and all the sheep are inside, I lie in the open space and no sheep No sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body. I am the door. Look, this is who Jesus is for us, friends. It doesn't mean that he occasionally will do something self-sacrificial and then return to his own self-interest apart from us.
It means this, that there is a constant pattern of him laying his life down for the sheep. All right, for the kids in here, you guys tracking with the door? Who's the door? Jesus, right? And where does the shepherd sleep when the sheep are in the pen?
The doorway, right? And what if a wolf comes? Who stops the wolf? The shepherd, right? Jesus stops the wolf, meaning this pattern.
Good job, man. Give me a thumbs up. Kids are tracking. That's awesome.
It means this: that in the difficulty and dangers of our lives, Jesus lays down his life for the sheep. He protects us from ourselves. He protects us from those things outside. Constantly, not just occasionally, but constantly laying his life down for the sheep.
18 · Alcantar introduces the decisive moment of the cross, using a Bob Dylan quotation to establish that true love is demonstrated not by words but by laying down one's life, then pivoting to Isaiah 53 to show Jesus' love proven in His death
And second, this laying of life down for the sheep refers to one decision moment, one decisive moment that we're celebrating this week as we look toward Good Friday, the moment where Jesus would lay his life down decisively for his sheep. Now, I ran across a 2012 interview with Bob Dylan in Rolling Stone, as you often do, and Bob Dylan is talking about his complicated relationship with his fans, and the interviewer says this, "There's the audience, and they really love you." And Bob Dylan said, "Of course, they think they do." They love the music and the songs I play, not me. When the interviewer asked Bob Dylan, "Why do you say that?" He says this, "Because that's the way people are.
People say they love a lot of things, but they really don't. It's just a word that's been overused. When you put your life on the line for somebody, that's love. But you'll never know it until you're in the moment." When someone will die for you, that's love. Do you want to see who Jesus is really like?
Do you want to see if when he says he loves us, if it's just another empty thing that people say to one another in the world around us, or if it's something different? Friends, look at what Jesus does through the lens of Isaiah 53.
19 · Alcantar reads Isaiah 53, highlighting the prophecy of the suffering servant who would bear our griefs and transgressions, then applies it directly to Jesus' crucifixion as the ultimate demonstration of His love—not in words but in the comprehensive sacrifice of His dignity, body, blood, and life to bear the justice we deserved
Isaiah 53 says this of Jesus, foreshadowing him: Surely he has He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Listen.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
You want to know if somebody loves you? Don't listen to what they say. Listen to what they do. Do you want to know if Jesus loves you, Christian, friend, skeptic, doubter? Look to the cross.
Look, on the cross, the shepherd gave himself as a sacrificial lamb that he might bear away the sins of his people, the sheep. That act meant that Jesus the shepherd gave all he had. He gave all his dignity, all his body, all his breath. All His blood, all His bones, His very life. He bore the justice of God that we deserved, laying down His life that we might have life and have it abundantly.
Do you see why Jesus is better? Not because of what He says, "Oh, I'm going to care for you. I'm going to be there for you. I'm going to love you." No, look at what He does.
He lays His life down day after day after day for His people, and on the cross, the cross, he laid his life down once and for all for all his people. That's why he's better.
20 · Alcantar expounds John 10:12-13, identifying three characteristics of false shepherds (hired hands) that Jesus contrasts with Himself: they are in it for what they get out of it (the paycheck, not the sheep), they don't take responsibility for the sheep's problems, and they flee when danger comes
Fourth and last, better by contrast. Look at verse 12. Notice what Jesus does here. He— it's not enough for him to just tell us who he is. He must also tell us who he is not.
Verse 12: He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who doesn't own the sheep, he sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. So Jesus is doing something incredibly insightful. He knows something about us, and he knows this: we have been burned before. We have been failed before.
All of us, look, no matter who you are, whether you're 8 or 12 or 16 or 23 or 40 or 78, you have been failed by people before. People that have told you in your life, "I'll be there for you. I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to be with you. You can trust me." You have been failed by people.
Jesus knows it. And so he has to clearly say, "I'm not them." Look at the characteristics of these other shepherds. First, these other shepherds are just in it for what they get out of it. That's what we're talking about here.
So many times we're burned because people say they love us, they say they care about us, but in reality they're just hired hands. Look, why does a hired hand go to work? For a paycheck. Does the hired hand love the flock? No, they love the paycheck, right?
At the end of the day, they are acting like servants, acting maybe like helpers, but in the end, their interest is not inclined toward the sheep, it's inclined toward the paycheck. And as soon as the paycheck and their life are threatened, they're out. They care about what we give, not about us. Second, other shepherds don't take responsibility for us. Notice that Jesus says the other shepherds, the hired hands, don't care because they don't own the sheep.
Now, that word doesn't mean like a financial ownership, like, well, they have a bill of sale. It means they don't own the sheep. They don't take responsibility for the sheep. They care nothing for the sheep. Their problems are sheep.
Look, to them, the sheep's problems are the sheep's problems. Right? They don't own those problems. Third, other shepherds are nowhere to be found when things get difficult. The abandoning in verses 12 and 13 is terrible.
It's grievous. These shepherds don't want themselves in danger. They don't want to risk themselves, so they flee at trouble. They flee. They say, "I'm going to be there.
Don't worry. I'm going to be there with the flock." And then all of a sudden they are gone.
21 · Alcantar identifies the historical false shepherds Jesus' original audience faced (corrupt Sadducees, self-righteous Pharisees, exploitative tax collectors) and makes a theological claim: disillusionment with false shepherds is good and necessary because it drives us to recognize our need for the true Good Shepherd, Jesus
And here is the point: Jesus knows that his audience has followed and probably been disillusioned as they watch the religious leaders of their day. Jesus is super faithful to call out the corruption of the Sadducees who are collaborating with the Roman government and just in it for power and notoriety. He calls out even the Pharisees who seem like the best But all of a sudden, if you look under the surface, there is that same selfishness and self-righteousness and pulling out of the people what they can get. They know they're— this is the world of tax collectors who wear the badge of the Roman government and are good Jewish boys and yet take advantage of people day after day, making themselves rich. Jesus knows.
But here's the thing. Being disillusioned is good if it is right. Look, I'm going to say that again. Being disillusioned with people and things is good if it is right. It is good for us to see through the false shepherds of our day.
Some things we see as good, some people we see as perfect or ultimate, they're not perfect or ultimate, and we need We need to see that because until we see that they are not who we hope, they are not who we need, then we will never turn and find a better shepherd. We'll just keep following them year after year, disappointed, hurt, lost. Until we see the bankruptcy of the shepherds around us, we can't run to the Good Shepherd, Jesus.
22 · Alcantar applies the contrast to the contemporary moment, diagnosing the cultural addiction to disillusionment stories (political failures, fallen pastors) that leaves people cynical and hopeless
Look, let me just— I'm going to press into this for just a second. We live in an age of disillusionment. Headlines everywhere are about how the government has failed us or a group or a people. These politicians have failed. School boards have failed.
Right? And when those stories run, you know why they keep running? Because they get more clicks than anything else. Right? We're like, "Ah, I can't wait to see the gory details of how that person failed." And in the end, we end up cynical and angry and untrusting of anything, aren't we?
And let me just say this, we in the church are not immune to this either. We— like, I count myself among people who watch in horror as we see a leader or pastor fall and finding myself powerless to stop watching, to stop looking up another story, to stop thinking about the horror of what they've done or the failure that they've wrought upon people. And here's the reality: living in this culture, you end up being good in some ways at spotting bad shepherds, but cynical and cold and hopeless. And rather than looking for a better shepherd, we go, "I just trust no one. I just trust no shepherd." And Jesus knows it.
And He says, "Friends," if He— look, if that's you, He puts His arm, as it were, on your shoulder and said, "Friend, there is another path." Not just cynicism, not just bankrupt hopes, there is a path because there is a better shepherd. A shepherd who will not look to his own interest at the expense of his people. A shepherd who will not leave when things get difficult, but press in all the more. A shepherd who is not in it for the paycheck, but is in it because his heart is inclined toward the sheep.
He wants you to see today There is a better shepherd than you dared imagine, and his name is Jesus.
23 · Alcantar reads John 10:19-21, showing that Jesus' claims divided the original audience into skeptics who thought Him insane or demon-possessed and those who recognized His works as evidence of His identity
So friends, this is the call then at the end of the passage. Look at verse 19. There was again a division among the Jews because of these words, and many of them said, "He has a demon and he is insane." Why listen to him? Isn't it helpful to remember that people have been skeptical about Jesus from the beginning?
It's not like skepticism about Jesus is not like a new thing. People are hearing what Jesus says and they're going like, well, he must be crazy. But others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?
24 · Alcantar applies the C
So as we end today, we see there are really two ways to react to what we've seen about Jesus. The first one is whether Jesus is your shepherd at all in a decisive way. C.S. Lewis famously said that Jesus and somebody who made the claims of Jesus couldn't just be a good teacher, couldn't just be a good suggester. He had to be either a madman or a bad man or a truthful man, right? That's what the crowd is saying.
They're saying either he has a demon and he's just evil, Or he is insane and crazy and mentally ill. Or maybe 3, he's telling the truth.
Look, I want to push on you today. If Palm Sunday for you, when we say Jesus is King, is for you just another day, and you've put Jesus into that box of Well, sure. Yeah. I like Jesus. Here's the thing.
Everybody likes Jesus. Likes what they believe about Jesus, right? In a sense. They like that he went around helping the poor. They like that he went around with some encouraging teachings.
They like this or that. But if you look at Jesus and what he claims in this text, you cannot look at Jesus and go, "Yeah, he's nice." No! He's either satanic or insane or he is your king. King.
Right? That, those are the only options today. So if you've been hanging out in some kind of weird third territory or fourth territory, nope, there is no territory there. But I hope you've seen today he is, well, he's not crazy and he's not evil. He is your King.
I want you to come to him today.
25 · Alcantar turns to believers and asks whether they are living under Jesus' shepherding by posing two concrete questions: Are you in the Word of God listening to the shepherd's voice? Are you in the church, in the fold with the other sheep? He employs self-deprecating humor about March Madness to illustrate the temptation to avoid God's Word
And then let me press further then. If you would say Jesus is your King, Here's the question: if Jesus is your shepherd, are you living like it? If you believe he is the good shepherd, are you letting him shepherd you?
Are you— maybe one question is, are you in the word of God? Like, if you believe Jesus is your shepherd, you need to hear the shepherd's voice. It's no good going like, yes, Jesus, be my shepherd, and he's trying to talk to you, and you're like, "Not now. Not now. March Madness is on.
After— this is a tough season, Jesus, for me to listen to you, but I will return to you somewhere in the Final Four." You know, at least that's my temptation.
Are you in the Word listening to the voice of the shepherd? Second, are you in the church? Are you in the flock? Look, if you are part of Jesus' flock, If you are a sheep in Jesus' fold, be in the fold with the other sheep where there is safety and provision and goodness.
26 · Alcantar presses believers with a third question: Are you willing to stop when the shepherd says stop? He illustrates with a hypothetical sheep wanting to drink from a stream without seeing the hidden wolf, then applies it concretely to sexual sin, anger, grumbling, envy, and bitterness
All right, let me push just a little bit more because this text has been pushing on me all week, and I'm going to return the favor with all of you. Are you willing to stop when the shepherd says stop? That's one way to test whether you really have a shepherd or not. I mean, imagine being a sheep and the sheep is like, look over there, there's a delicious stream, and the shepherd knows now there's a wolf over there too. And the sheep is like, "I don't understand why the shepherd's being so mean.
He doesn't want me to drink this beautiful stream." And the shepherd is going, "Yeah, you're gonna enjoy it for about 2 seconds and then get eaten," right? And yet practically in life, we so often go, "Why would Jesus tell me not to do that? Why would Jesus tell me not to live like this? Why would Jesus not allow me to do blank? Jesus doesn't seem loving if he won't let me do blank." But if you trust him as your shepherd, Then you stop when he says stop.
Stop giving yourself to sexual sin, or stop allowing anger to rule unchecked in your life, or stop grumbling and complaining, or stop living in envy of others, or stop holding on to bitterness. Whatever it is, if Jesus says stop, we got to stop.
27 · Alcantar poses a fourth question: Are you willing to go when the shepherd says go? He applies this to God's call to give away resources, to enter vocational ministry, and to walk through suffering, pressing the congregation to trust that Jesus' call is ultimately for their good because He loves them
And then, are you willing to go when the shepherd says go? Look, if God calls you to something in life, Do you listen? When he calls you to give away your time and money and resources and hopes and even career at times, do you listen to him? When Jesus calls you to go through something difficult, when there is a hard path of illness or grief or loss, or hurt, are you willing to go? Are you willing to believe that if Jesus calls you to something, it is ultimately for your good because He loves you and at the end of it you will find life?
Do you trust Him?
28 · Alcantar concludes with a Calvin quotation that synthesizes the sermon's thesis: God is shepherd only to those who recognize their need, willingly remain in His fold, and surrender to His governance—and our true happiness consists in living under His governing hand and protective shadow
Let me end with this. John Calvin says this in his commentary on the Psalms, which I commend to you. He says this: God is a shepherd only to those who, touched with a sense of their own weakness and poverty, feel their need of his protection, and who willingly abide in his sheepfold and surrender themselves to be governed by him. We ought to bear in mind that our our happiness, our life, if you could say it that way, consists in this, that His hand is stretched forth to govern us, that we live under His shadow, and that His providence keeps watch and ward over our welfare. Amen.
Would you stand and let's pray.
29 · Closing prayer addressing two groups: those sincerely questioning whether Jesus' kingship is worth submitting to, and professing Christians whose lives may not match their confession
Lord, I pray for two particular groups today. First, the person who is sincerely asking the question, is it really worth letting Jesus be my King? Is it really worth letting Him govern my life? Is it really worth letting Him tell me what to do?
Lord, I pray for anyone who is in that place, whether they're a young teen or a 20-something or even somebody who's later on in life. Lord, I pray you'd reveal yourself to them. Lord, I pray that they today would see the beauty, the betterness of you as a shepherd.
And I pray, Lord, that they would— that they would come through the door today, that they would see it as beautiful and good to have a shepherd of their souls watching over them, and that in him they might find life.
And Lord, I pray for all of us who perhaps on Palm Sunday, it is yet another Palm Sunday, yet another day where we celebrate Jesus is King, but perhaps, Lord, our life does not match our confession at times. Lord, I pray that this would be a Sunday in which we rededicate ourselves to being led by a good shepherd. Lord, if you call us to stop today, may we stop. If you call us to go today, may we go. And may we, like Calvin is saying, rejoice and find our happiness that you You keep watch and ward over our lives.
May we rejoice today. Amen.