Introduction: We have a problem this morning. How many of you have ever raised sheep? How many of you have ever lived near sheep? How many of you know very little at all about sheep? That’s our problem. You see, to really appreciate the point of Jn10, we have to know something about sheep.
To the people Jesus spoke to, sheep were a very common sight, and caring for them was something most everyone knew. They were an important part of 1st century, Middle East living. They provided clothing, meat, milk, and wineskins. A man’s wealth was often measured by the size of his flocks, so they took care of them. And it was natural for Jesus use sheep as an illustration of how He relates to us. Even Jesus Himself was introduced by John the Baptist as the "lamb of God."
Ill - The Camden, Maine, Herald ran 2 photos on the same page: one was a picture of Camden’s town board and town manager; the other was of a flock of sheep. Enter Murphy’s Law. As fate and humor would have it, the captions were accidentally reversed. So, under the picture of the sheep, the caption identified them left to right, as all the town officials; under the photo of the town fathers sitting around a table the caption said, “The Sheep Fold - naive and vulnerable, they huddle for security against the uncertainties of the outside world.”
Anyone who has helped take care of sheep is well aware of the need sheep have for a caretaker. They have no natural defense - no fangs or claws - so they have to be protected.
Ill - P.T. Barnum, the showman, used to enjoy showing an exhibit he called “The Happy Family” There were lions, tigers, and panthers all squatted around a lamb, not one of them touching it. Barnum’s press agent, Dexter Fellows, wrote about a minister who asked Barnum if the exhibit ever had any trouble. Listen to what Barnum said: “Apart from replenishing the lamb now and then, they get along very well together.”
OK. This morning, let’s do some audience participation. To help us all get our minds full of sheep, here’s a multiple choice pop-quiz. How Much Do Ewe Know About Sheep? (on powerpoint)
You can write the answers if you want to, but I think we’ll be OK just doing it out loud. Are you ready?
If sheep aren’t directed to suitable pasture and water, what do they do?
A. Order Chinese carry out
B. Look it up on Google Earth
C. Send around a petition to be given to their shepherd
D. Fail to eat and drink correctly
Which best describes the intelligence of domesticated sheep?
A. Top of the food chain
B. MENSA material
C. Sly as a fox
D. Mutton heads
How do sheep keep cool in the hot summer months?
A. They visit a Bah Bah shop
B. They wear lighter clothing and drink lemonade
C. They roll down the car window
D. They count on their shepherd to shear them at the right time
If a sheep gets separated from its flock, it…
A. Stops and asks for directions (unless it’s a male)
B. Finds a wolf, kills it, and eats it
C. Opens its own show in Branson
D. Most likely will die from predators or exposure
Which of the following situations poses a threat to someone hiking in sheep country?
A. Being trampled by a pack of sheep
B. Being bitten by an angry sheep
C. Being gored to death by a sheep
D. Having to wear itchy wool socks
My apologies to sheep ranchers and shepherds everywhere. I hope you get the point. Sheep aren’t self-sufficient, are they? Sheep are pitifully defenseless. They need help to live, don’t they?
We don’t mind saying that about sheep. Our dignity isn’t at stake when we’re talking about the weaknesses of sheep. But start to compare ourselves to them, start calling us “sheep,” and we have to give up a little dignity.
Let’s talk about where human beings are spiritually. We all have weaknesses to deal with. We all need someone to shepherd us and help us through. If you can’t accept that, then do this: go visit the nursery at Freeman or St. John’s, stop by the intensive care unit, and then go spend some time with some advanced care patients at one of the nursing homes in town. We enter this world helpless, and most of us leave it in a similar way.
But more importantly, we’re out in a spiritual wilderness. Spiritually, we’re just as helpless from the start to the finish, and we need a shepherd. Isaiah 53 says we all, like sheep, have gone astray.
There are shepherds available – lots of them! There are many who will be glad to work you into their flock. There are many who are working hard at gaining your trust. The question you need to ask is, which shepherd can I rely on? Which one can I trust? Because – and this may be a shock - not all of them have your best interests in mind.
That’s why this chapter in John is so significant. It contains one of the best-known I Am statements of Jesus as He says, “I am the Good Shepherd.” Oh, really? He’s not the first person to say, “Trust me. I’ll treat you right.” How can I trust Him? Why should I?
We can trust Jesus to be the best Shepherd because:
I. He Knows Us and is Known By Us
-Ill – In the Middle East, a shepherd would come to the pen where the sheep of the whole town were together in one pen. He’d call, and his sheep would come follow him. The rest wouldn’t. They wouldn’t follow a stranger.
John 10:4-5
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.
The fact that Jesus knows us and we know Him is part of what makes Him the Good Shepherd.
The world is dying for intimacy. One reason there are so many illicit relationships, so many teenage pregnancies, so much spread of disease, is because people are searching for intimacy in one form or another. Genuine closeness and trust and familiarity with someone else is an important part of life. It ought to be in our homes, between spouses - real intimacy - and there ought be a certain degree of it between parents and their kids and between brothers and sisters.
But too often that much-needed factor is missing, and husbands, wives, kids, go searching for it where they shouldn’t. Maybe you’ve messed up that way. Did you really find intimacy?
Intimacy means that we can trust a person. Once we’ve seen him in different settings, spoken with him, seen him react, seen how other people act around him...When we really get to know someone well, then we know if we can trust that person.
That’s why there’s this thing called dating before marriage! Before you make such a strong commitment as physical intimacy, before you hand yourself over to someone in marriage, there needs to be a time of getting to know that person and him getting to know you. There’s no fast track version of this that actually works.
The world says, "skip getting acquainted and go straight to ‘intimacy.’"
Let me ask: “How do you trust someone you don’t really even know?” If your approach to relationships is to get as involved as you can as fast as you can, you’re set for a lot of hurt. Save your most personal self for your husband or wife. God will bless you for it.
How did I get off on this?!!! Here’s how...
Jesus knows us! "The crooked man is an abomination to the Lord, but He is intimate with the upright." (Proverbs 3:32)
"Indeed the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Luke 12:7)
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." (Jeremiah 1:5)
Psalm 139:1-4
O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
Psalm 139:14-16
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
God knows you! Isn’t that great!?... Isn’t that terrible?!
Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give an account.
Ill - When you move, and you’ve had a good doctor where you lived for the past 15 years, you say, “Man, I hate to lose him as a doctor!” Why? Because he knows you!
Jesus knows our needs. He knows when you need help; how much you’re able to be tempted before you give in; your hurts, your joys, strengths, weaknesses, like nobody else. No one is better matched to be your shepherd than Jesus because no one knows you better.
Hebrews 4:15
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one Who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus said, "I know my sheep..." He knows you - all of you. All that’s needed now in your love relationship with Jesus is to know Him! He hasn’t hidden Himself from us. Just the opposite! We can trust Jesus to be our Shepherd because He knows us and He has let Himself be known to us.
II. He Leads Us to Life
Sheep need a shepherd. They have no natural defenses, and being a somewhat domesticated animal, they need someone to lead them to water and food. They fall in behind someone they trust, who will lead them to what they need for life.
23rd Psalm - “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul.” (Matthew 9:36) “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
The people that Jesus looked at had "shepherds" - but they weren’t leading the people to life. They didn’t care about the sheep. Most people are followers of one kind or another. We all have a little of the "herd instinct." We need spiritual leaders.
I find that when a person isn’t following the Good Shepherd, there’s another who’s willing to lead. I’m trying to show that we can trust Jesus to be a Good Shepherd. One way we could do that is to compare Jesus to others. What about those other "Shepherds?" How does Jesus compare to them?
There’s a shepherd like that mentioned in Prov.9 – a shepherdess, really:
Proverbs 9:13-18
The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. "Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!" But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.
Want to know if you can trust a shepherd to lead or not? Where does he lead people? Has he led his flocks to life? There are a lot of people following after anything except Jesus and if you’ll stop and look at them you’ll see they haven’t been led to life.
There’s a flock of children, the next generation, who need someone to lead them to life. Parents, we have an obligation to lead our children in the direction of life. No one else is responsible to do that ahead of us. School teachers - there’s a flock of sheep seeking a leader in our schools. They need someone who will point them the right way. Elders of this church - there’s a congregation of individuals who need someone to lead and direct them in the way they should go.
Jesus came to give life - abundant life (v10) - not just living from day to day, but life to its fullest here, and forever. In a day where there seems to be little chance for peace or peace of mind, I’m glad that I can say that following Jesus is the way to find it.
We can trust Jesus as the Good Shepherd because He leads His followers to life.
III. He Lays Down His Life for Us
The sheep of Palestine were often in danger of hyenas, wolves, even lions and bears. That’s why the typical shepherd carried a rod (club with nails) and a sling. Needless to say, if a shepherd went after one of these, he was placing himself at risk. So one way to measure the worth of a shepherd is to see: is he willing to risk himself for his sheep.
John 10:12-13
The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
A shepherd who doesn’t care, won’t do it. When it comes down to it, when all the facade is removed and things are exposed for what they really are, when a shepherd is called upon to risk his neck for his sheep, it’s revealed whether or not he really cares for the sheep. The hired hand runs, because the sheep aren’t his. He doesn’t really care. “Man, this is the owner’s problem, not mine! Forget this! I’m outta here!”
How much different is Jesus! (I Pt 5:7) "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you!"
3X (v11,15,17) Jesus says, "I lay down my life..." Jesus didn’t risk His life, He (lit) "placed His soul" for His sheep. It wasn’t “possible that He’d be hurt,” it was certain that He would be killed if He did this!
Ill – It’s like a man throwing himself on a live hand grenade to stop the explosion from harming his comrades. It isn’t just possible that he’ll be hurt, it’s certain he’ll be killed! The risk he takes isn’t the risk of dying. That’s a certainty. You know what the real risk is for someone who does that? It’s the risk of dying for people who won’t take that sacrifice and use it for good. That’s the risk that Jesus has taken for you and me.
Now let me ask a question: Would you trust someone who risked his life for you? Someone pulls you from a burning building, or pushes you out of the way of a car and nearly dies because he saved you. Now, would you trust him? If he asked to borrow $20 and promised to pay it back, would you trust him for it? OF COURSE! If someone proves to you that his own life isn’t more valuable to him than you are then surely $20 isn’t more valuable to him!
There may be lots of unfaithfulness. There will be lots of let-downs when it comes to people, but Listen: Jesus Christ laid down His life for you. (1 John 3:16) "This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down His life for us..." Can you trust Someone like that? We can trust the Good Shepherd because He has laid down His life for us.
-Ill - During the Civil War, a farmer named Blake was drafted as a soldier. He was worried about leaving his family, because his wife had died and there would be no one to take care of his children while he was gone. The day before he was to leave for the army, his neighbor Charlie Durham came to visit him. He said, "Blake, I’ve been thinking. You’re needed here at home, so I’ve decided to go in your place." For a few moments he was speechless. The offer seemed too good to be true. He grabbed the hand of the young man and praised God for this one who was willing to go as his substitute. Charlie went to the front lines and performed his duties nobly. Maybe you guessed it already; he was shot and killed in the first battle. When Blake heard the news, he immediately saddled his horse and rode out to the battlefield. After searching for some time, he found the body of his friend. He arranged to have it buried in the churchyard near the spot where they had often stopped to talk after the services. On a piece of marble he carved an inscription with his own hands. It was roughly done, but it was from a man’s heart. It simply said, HE DIED FOR ME.
Conclusion
Lots of shepherds would like for you to be a part of their flocks. But there’s only One Who bears the name Good Shepherd. There’s only One Who knows us like He does, only One who leads us to real life, only One who laid down His life for us.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me. Oh, yeah, that’s from that Psalm that starts out by saying, “The Lord is my Shepherd…”
Philip Keller, in his book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, writes this about us and the Shepherd:
Do I really belong to Him?
Do I really recognize His right to me?
Do I respond to His authority and acknowledge His ownership?
Do I find freedom and complete fulfillment in this arrangement?
Do I sense a purpose and deep contentment because I am under His direction?
Do I know rest and repose, beside a definite sense of exciting adventure, in belonging to Him?
Before I can say He is my shepherd, I need answers to these questions.
You need to answer them this morning.
