CHRIST'S OFFERING UP HIMSELF FOR HIS SHEEP

SATURDAY, 14TH OCTOBER, 2023.

Author: PASTOR DR. SAMUEL AYORINDE

TOPIC:  CHRIST'S OFFERING UP HIMSELF FOR HIS SHEEP

MEMORIZE: “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.” John 10:18.

SCRIPTURE READING: John 10:15-18

“As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 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.”

EXPOSITION:

Christ's offering up himself for his sheep is another proof of his being a good shepherd, and in this he yet more commended his love, John 10:15,17-18. 

He declares his purpose of dying for his flock John 10:15 “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.” I lay down my life for the sheep. He not only ventured his life for them (in such a case, the hope of saving it might balance the fear of losing it), but he actually deposited it, and submitted to a necessity of dying for our redemption--I put it as a pawn or pledge; as purchase-money paid down. Sheep appointed for the slaughter, ready to be sacrificed, were ransomed with the blood of the shepherd. He laid down his life, not only for the good of the sheep, but in their stead. 

Thousands of sheep had been offered in sacrifice for their shepherds, as sin-offerings, but here, by a surprising reverse, the shepherd is sacrificed for the sheep. When David, the shepherd of Israel, was himself guilty, and the destroying angel drew his sword against the flock for his sake, with good reason did he plead, These sheep, what evil have they done? Let thy hand be against me, 2 Samuel 24:17 “And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.”. But the Son of David was sinless and spotless; and his sheep, what evil have they not done? Yet he saith, Let thine hand be against me. Christ here seems to refer to that prophecy, Zec 13:7, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.”; and, though the smiting of the shepherd be for the present the scattering of the flock, it is in order to the gathering of them in. 

PRAYER POINT:  Lord, let not your sacrificial death over me be in vain in Jesus name.

DAILY BIBLE READING IN A YEAR –  Obadiah, Jonah 1 - 4.

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ANCHOR OF LIFE is the daily devotional guide written by PASTOR DR. SAMUEL AYORINDE, General Overseer, Anchor of Life & Redemption Ministry Int’l. It is an extraction of God’s word designed to draw the sincere seekers closer to God on a daily basis through an insightful exposition and analysis of God’s Word. 

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