By Hope 103.2 NetworkSunday 12 May 2024FaithReading Time: 3 minutes
In life, if you don’t choose your leader, you’re going to be led. But Jesus will never force his leadership onto you. You have to choose him.
Key points
- The expression of the ‘Good Shepherd’ is really about leadership – it teaches us fundamental truths of how a leader should be.
- Jesus said: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11, NIV)
Jesus’ teaching in John 10, about the Good Shepherd and his sheep, is really about leadership: Jesus is telling the Pharisees what real versus corrupt leadership is all about. Jesus says to them,
I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture (John 10:9, NIV).
Jesus’ expression here, about coming in and going out, is a very important one, and we need to understand it.
The model for this phrase of “going out and coming in” is God, who as a faithful shepherd, through Moses and Joshua, brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
This expression has to do with leadership, For example, when Moses is asking God who will succeed him as the leader of the people, he asks God to appoint someone: to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.(Num 27:1517).
That ended up being Joshua. Then, in Moses’ final blessings he says to the Children of Israel that if they obeyed the Lord, You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out (Deuteronomy 28:6). In other words, they would have good leaders who will care for them (See also v.19).
The expression of the ‘Good Shepherd’ is really about leadership – it teaches us fundamental truths of how a leader should be.
1 Sam 18:6 tells us that David was a great leader, and: all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.
A little later, when God calls David’s son Solomon to lead the nation, Solomon’s response in prayer is that he doesn’t have any leadership abilities: Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in (1 Kings 3:7, NKJV).
Jesus has put his leadership credentials on the line
In your life you will always be going out and coming in from different situations. It’s just the rhythm of life. It might be a move from one house to another, or to a new city, or even from one country to another. It might be coming out of one relationship and into another. It could be a new career or a new adventure. And every morning, when you leave the front door of your home and every evening when you return, there is a going out and a coming in.
How can you be sure that you will be safe and blessed in all your times of going out and coming in? It all depends on who your leader is. We all follow someone, or something, as our leader. Jesus has put his leadership credentials on the line:
Jesus said: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11, NIV).
The Lord tells us that all the other leaders are “thieves and robbers” (v.8). You’ll never be safe in your going out and coming in with them.
Will you choose Jesus as the leader of your life? Will you stay with him?
Article supplied with thanks to Dr Eliezer Gonzalez. Dr Eli Gonzalez is the Senior Pastor of Good News Unlimited and the presenter of the Unlimited radio spots, and The Big Question.