What does First B Jackson teach about good shepherd?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on the good shepherd starts with John 10 read alongside John 9. Carl opened by showing how the healing of the man born blind in John 9 sets up everything that follows: two opposite responses to Jesus, one of belief and worship, one of hardening, and that division is exactly what chapter 10 addresses. The shepherd walks through the gate, calls his sheep by name, leads them out, and walks ahead of them. Carl pressed the congregation to see that Jesus is still doing precisely this, calling out to anyone who would hear.
Pastor Ray came at the same image from Psalm 23, in a week when the congregation was grieving two deaths. He worked through every word of the opening line slowly, noting that after twenty-two psalms addressing God as king, rock, and shield, David lands on shepherd as one of the most intimate images in the whole collection. The "I shall not want" that follows is not a description of a current feeling but a settled confidence, the posture of someone who knows who is carrying them. Both teachers made the same point: the shepherd's path does not go around the valley of the shadow of death, it goes through it.
Carl anchored the question of how any of this is possible in verses 11-18 of John 10. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep voluntarily and then takes it up again. The word Carl kept returning to was authority, the delegated power to do both. He also read Psalm 23 as a personal anchor that same week, finding himself returning to it in the middle of the night when his own family was anxious. Pastor Ray tied it to Luke 15, where the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep and carries him home on his shoulders rejoicing. Taken together, the teaching at First B Jackson on this topic is consistent: the good shepherd knows his sheep, goes after them when they wander, and gives his life and takes it up again so they can have it abundantly.
Taught from John 10:1-21 · Psalm 23 · John 9 · Luke 15 · Ezekiel 34
The passage taught · John 10:1-21
1 “Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2 But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
4 Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- August 20, 2023 The Good Shepherd Calls You by Name Pastor Carl walks First Baptist Jackson through John 10, where Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd who gathers, protects, and lays down His life to give His sheep a rich and satisfying life.
- June 18, 2023 The Lord Is My Shepherd Pastor Ray walks First B Jackson through Psalm 23, finding comfort in God as shepherd and friend during a week marked by loss and grief in their community.
Mentioned along the way
- July 20, 2025 Acts 20: The Book of Acts Paul races toward Jerusalem, says goodbye to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, and leaves them with a charge to guard the flock and trust God's grace.