This message was going to be about the thief that comes to try to steal us from our faith, but instead, it took a side track and explored what we need to do be the good sheep in Jesus' parable.
This message based on John 10:1-10. To read it now, click here. To give you a little background on the scripture this morning, chapter 10 is a continuation of the story in Chapter 9. In chapter 9, Jesus and his disciples come across a man that has been blind since birth. The disciples asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither, this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” With that, Jesus proceeds to heal the man. The Pharisees hear the story, and they send for the man so they can question him. But they don’t know what to think about his testimony. So they send for his parents, to see if they can shed some light on this. “Is this your son? Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” Can you imagine what must have been going through their minds? Everything from amazement that their son can now see, to fear of the Pharisees, who had already decided that anyone who acknowledged Jesus was Christ would be put out of the synagogue. I wonder if the parents even knew that the son could see when they were summoned to talk to the Pharisees. It doesn’t say anything in the text. I think this was the first they heard of it, here in this court like setting. I think they were being questioned about something they knew nothing about. And the excitement they must have felt, the longing to see their son, to see if it were true. The Pharisees talk to the man again. They finally throw him out. Jesus hears of this and goes to talk to him. It is during this discussion that the parable of the shepherd and his flock is told. The first part of this parable, gives some guidance on how to distinguish between good shepherds and bad shepherds. Sheep spent most of the time out in the fields. When they were in from the fields, they were kept in a sheep pen. Sometimes this was a cave, with the sheep kept inside the cave, or usually a fence, made of piled up stones or branches, with an opening for getting in or out on one side – no door. If there was one flock of sheep in the pen, the shepherd would stand guard at the opening. If there were more then one flock, then a gatekeeper would generally stay their. George Adam Smith, a 19th Century scholar, tells of traveling one day in the holy land and coming across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him and the man showed him the fold or the pen where the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Smith asked him, “This is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said Smith. “I am the door,” said the shepherd. He was not a Christian and wasn’t speaking in the language of the New Testament. He was speaking in the language of an Arab shepherd. Smith looked and him and asked, “What do you mean you are the door?” “When the light has gone,” said the shepherd, “and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door." So when Jesus says that he is the gate for the sheep, this is the image he is referring to. Something interesting, if there were more than one flock, and a shepherd would be ready to leave, he would just call his sheep, they would know his voice, and they would come out. The other flocks would stay, they wouldn’t follow the voice of someone they didn’t know. Jesus tells us in verse 14, “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” He gives us a contrast between the good shepherd and the hired hand. Jesus is the good shepherd, he will lay down his life for the flock, and he did, at the crucifixion, which was a voluntary sacrifice for his sheep. Voluntary in that he accepted it, he didn’t run away like a hired hand might have. He deeply cares for his sheep, and he was prepared to die for them. This is the contrast here between Jesus, the good shepherd, and the bad shepherding of the Pharisees, as seen in their attitude toward the blind man, they didn’t really care about the man. One key as to whether an idea in Scripture is important, is how many times the idea is repeated. God doesn’t want us to miss the important stuff, so it’s repeated more than once, the really important stuff is repeated over and over, just to make sure we don’t miss it. This analogy of the Shepherd is not new here in John. In fact, in all, the term shepherd is used 67 times in the bible. The term sheep is used 223 times. Not all the usages are in this context, but I think you get the idea that this is an important idea to grasp. Let me give you a few examples from the gospels:
The Old Testament has some similar passages as well, Genesis chapter 49 and Psalm 23 both show God as the shepherd of Israel. Ezekiel chapter 34 talks to the leaders of Israel, and uses this analogy of the good shepherd taking care of his flock. In all of these examples, believers are referred to as the sheep. If that is the case, if we are like sheep, how can we be good sheep. What can we learn from this analogy? It’s really not that flattering that we’re compared to sheep, they’re really quite helpless, and not very bright. But if we look into it further, we can come up with things that might help us in our desire to be good sheep. I have to admit, my first impression about sheep was that sheep are pretty dumb animals, God doesn’t want us to be that dumb, does he? But you have to admit, when it comes to Christian understanding, there is an aweful lot that we don’t know, a lot that we don’t understand, a lot that we must take on faith, believing in what we don’t know. Ok, so we can be like dumb sheep in that we don’t have to understand everything God is doing, we can proceed with faith, knowing that he has the best intentions in mind for us. Faith that our shepherd is with us and will guide us. In looking at the relationship between sheep and the shepherd, the sheep have total trust in the shepherd. They seem to know and to understand that the shepherd is in control, and they are content to follow his lead, usually anyway, once in a while one might wander off. For us to be good sheep, we must submit to our shepherd’s control. We should have total trust in him. How many times do we complain about things that happen to us? How many times do we get frustrated because we don’t understand what God is doing? When we do that, we aren’t being good sheep. We need to have total trust, blind trust, knowing that our shepherd is with us and that he will take care of us. We often think of what we must do, what God wants us to do, placing an emphasis on our doing. We must remember that God is completely sovereign. He is completely in control. We don’t have to worry. He is on the job. We don’t have to worry about not doing something required. It’s done. Jesus did it for us, it’s covered, it’s taken care of. We just have to place ourselves in God’s care and under his sovereign control, like the sheep accepts the care and control of the shepherd. What else can we get from this analogy of sheep. Sheep are totally defenseless animals. Their primary threat was from wolves. The shepherds of bible times didn’t have tight pens with high walls to protect the sheep. When they were out in the pasture, they were wide open, with no fence at all. Without the watchful eye of the shepherd, they were a pretty easy target for wolves. The sheep were utterly defenseless against the wolves. Their only defense was to make enough noise during the attack that the shepherd would come running and save him. Well, what can learn from this? We’ve got it together. We’re in control of our destiny. We’re not at all helpless. Are we? Or are we? When it comes right down to it, we have an enemy that we are totally defenseless against. Satan and his host of fallen angels will do anything they can to prevent us from developing the kind of relationship with God that will save us for eternity. We are totally defenseless against Satan’s attacks. God will protect us from these attacks, if we let him, but we have to stay close to him. If we get to thinking we can handle it on our own, we’re in big trouble. Apart from God, we are an easy target for Satan’s temptations. Just as the sheep can’t fight back against the wolf, we can’t defend ourselves against Satan. Like the sheep, we need to stay close to the shepherd for protection. We need to trust in God as sheep trust in their shepherd. So the key question is, do you know your Shepherd? Do you know the one who has laid down his life, who is the gate to the sheep pen, who will freely direct your path and guide you to green pastures? Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” Do you know Him?
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