John: Believe I AmSample

I am the good shepherd | John 10:14

How many people would you say know you? Not just know the basics about you such as your name and where you live and what kind of car you drive but who really knows you? The things you pray for or the things that make you angry? Your greatest joys and also your greatest disappointments?

In John 10, Jesus makes another bold “I am” statement. He says, “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” (John 10:14-15). This word “know” means to know personally, through personal experience. It’s not propositional knowledge. It’s not knowledge about something. It’s relational knowledge. Believe it or not, this is the same kind of knowing expressed in the intimacy of marriage. Fully exposed and fully known physically and emotionally. Jesus knows His sheep. Jesus knows you.

It’s wild to think that Jesus knows us in this way! He knows the hairs on our heads and our thoughts before we even speak them aloud. What’s more, He LOVES US even knowing all of it - even including our greatest failures and insecurities. He knows us more than we know ourselves and He loves us. And maybe that’s the hardest thing for us to grasp. Simply that we are fully known by someone and fully loved by Him.

But that’s not all …Jesus doesn’t just know His sheep, it says that His sheep know Him. (Personally and intimately.) And knowing someone personally takes lots of quality time and intentional effort. Do you know Jesus in this way? Do you know what is near to His heart? What delights Him and what angers Him? This is the kind of intimate relationship all of us have access to when we choose to follow the Good Shepherd but many of us disregard this opportunity. We are invited to know the God of the universe in an intimate way! How could we miss it?!

There are so many things competing for our time, our attention, and our love, promising to satisfy us but here’s the problem, they continue to leave us empty. Or maybe they satisfy us for a bit, just to keep us coming back for more. Our iPhones are the perfect example.

Jesus warns us about all these things, He discusses thieves and robbers in chapter 10. These things that steal and rob our attention and they’re sly. They come in the back door, rather than right up to the gate. And they are out for destruction. But the Good Shepherd has the opposite in mind. He protects at all costs. He leads us (remember Psalm 23) beside still waters and through green pastures. He restores souls and leads us into life abundant.

How do we know? How can we be sure that we can trust Jesus with every part of us? That He’s worth our time and our full hearts. That we can enter into the kind of intimate relationship where we are vulnerable and dependent? I’ll tell you … it’s in the end of verse 15, because Jesus lays down His life for His sheep. Because, in love, Jesus laid down His life for you. You can respond and open your life to Him. In order that you would experience abundant and eternal life here and now. We can trust the God who would willingly give His life to protect and care and guide and lead into the places that He knows are for good.

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for being our Good Shepherd. For knowing all of us and not letting that stop You from loving us fully and inviting us to know You fully… to know your character, Your love, Your guidance, Your peace. God, I want to know You more personally, who You are and what’s near to your heart. So will you reveal to us what might be trying to steal from us or distract us from pursuing You? Even now would You bring it to mind?

Thank You for laying Your life down in order that we might live in You. We love You. It’s in the precious name of Jesus that we are even able to pray. Amen.