Good Shepherd Sermon Ideas
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament refer to God as a shepherd. Jesus identifies himself in John 10 as a shepherd who knows and is known by his sheep and is willing to die for them. This sacrificial love is the very heart of the gospel, and it is rightly the focus of sermons, prayers, and songs.
Where does the Bible talk about the Good Shepherd?
Use these prefiltered searches to craft sermons and prayers, offer pastoral care, or plan worship services around the theme of the Good Shepherd.
- Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd
- Psalm 78:52–53, the shepherd leads his sheep
- Isaiah 40:11, feeding like a shepherd
- Isaiah 53:6–7, we are like sheep
- Ezekiel 34:11–13, searching like a shepherd
- Matthew 18:12–14, parable of the lost sheep
- John 10:3–14, Jesus the good shepherd
Sermon ideas about the Good Shepherd
A sermon on the Good Shepherd could point out that in the pastoral ancient Near East, the shepherd was a completely familiar figure, a steward of valuable animals. He fed sheep, watered them, sheared them, and enfolded them in a protective enclosure. Sheep need protection. They are basically defenseless. If attacked, they run, but not as fast as most predators and thieves. They need somebody who has a rod and staff to comfort them.
They also tend to scatter, which is why they need someone to herd them.
In John 10, Jesus says he knows his sheep. In his commentary on the fourth gospel, Raymond Brown remarks that Near Eastern shepherds have long had pet names for some of their sheep—Long Ears or White Nose, for example. Seen in this context, Jesus's claim that he knows his sheep acquires a kind of beauty and intimacy.
Jesus also says that his sheep know his voice. A sermon on the Good Shepherd can note that this too is a familiar Middle Eastern phenomenon. If three or four flocks occupy a sheepfold and the shepherd of one of them calls out his sheep, they will disentangle themselves from the other sheep and flock to their guardian. His voice alone, with its peculiar pitch, timbre, and cadence, will do the trick. His sheep know his voice, and their ears itch to hear it.
Jesus says the "good shepherd" is willing to die for his sheep. The sheep are more than an investment to him. They belong to him, but they also belong to God and so have worth beyond the shepherd's ownership. The Greek kalos ("good") has enough weight that Brown suggests it might be translated as something like "noble" or "model." Jesus is the Noble Shepherd, a martyr beyond any expectation.
As Frederick Dale Bruner comments, Jesus's willingness to lay down his life for his followers is "the center of the center" of the gospel (Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, Eerdmans, 2012, p. 623).
