The Good Shepherd

Intro

Hypocrisy

A police officer pulled a driver aside and asked for his license and registration. “What’s wrong, officer,” the driver asked. “I didn’t go through any red lights, and I certainly wasn’t speeding.”

“No, you weren’t,” said the officer, “but I saw you waving your fist as you swerved around the lady driving in the left lane, and I further observed your flushed and angry face as you shouted at the driver of the Toyota Camry who cut you off, and how you pounded your steering wheel when the traffic came to a stop near the bridge.”

“Is that a crime, officer?” “No, but when I saw the ‘Jesus loves you and so do I’ bumper sticker on the car, I figured this car had to be stolen.”

I’m sure many of us have have experiences, or heard unbelieving friends and family claim the biggest hurdle to them and faith in Jesus is never Jesus, but rather the people who claim to follow Jesus!

The problem pervades the church, and is perhaps the greatest cause of pastoral and church congregantal problem, than any other!

Mark Twain said it this way, “We're all like the moon, we have a dark side we don't want anyone to see”

Hypocrisy is the root of almost all chruch hurt we come across, where people who are supposed to be emulating Jesus to the world, don’t

Not only that, but many of those people who claim to follow Jesus are the most egregious sinners and perpetrators of evil

I think all of us here would hopefully want to be people fully committed to following Jesus!

Yet, we know that we can never perfectly make that a reality, we can imperfectly strive for it

Last week we spoke of how God shows himself as our Shepherd in Psalm 23, but today we have to look at the dark underbelly of the people that claim to follow God

God people have always been a wicked and rebellion people, well because all people are wicked and rebellious people!

There’s good news and bad news

The good news is that God abhors hypocrisy and evil leaders, particularly of his people, even more than we can fathom, and they will be dealt with!

The bad news?

Far more often than we realize it, we are actually those very perpetrators that we admonish!

All it takes is a slightly loose tongue to tell a little too much in prayer meetings, or a little bit too much pride since you are an important and esteemed member of the church!

Then, we start not doing the things that God wants us to do

Paul spoke of this struggle in Romans 7:15 “15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” Romans 7:17 “17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.” Romans 7:21 “21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.”

Paul knows the struggle, and knows that the struggle with our own sinfulness is a lifelong process!

So how does Paul speak to how to fix this?

Paul says it all relies on Jesus!

Romans 7:24–25 “24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.”

So if we want to see who the Good Shepherd is, we might have to look at what Bad Shepherd do to make them bad Shepherds!

But we also need to look at what Jesus reveals to us as the standard, the good shepherd,

Since we should never build our lives upon something we should not do, but rather upon what we should emulate

With that being said, what we need to know today from these passages is this:

IF YOU DO NOT SURRENTER TO THE GOOD SHEPHERD, YOU WILL STAY A SELFISH SHEPHERD

Point #1: Walk the Walk & Talk the Talk

So let’s first look at this passage in Ezekiel

Ezekiel is one of the most interesting prophets, he is in exile, but the temple of God is still standing strong in Jerusalem, it’s not been destroyed yet

Ezekiel is taken prisoner (2 Kings 24 speaks about this), and he is sitting in a glorified refugee camp, and on his 30th birthday God appears to him

Ezekiel becomes a prophet for God doing all sorts of wild and crazy prophet stuff

He built a model of Jerusalem and playacted the seige of Babylon upon it, he had to lay on his side for over a year, while eating food cooked on human dung!

So like most prophets, Ezekiel was telling the people that God was coming to judge them for their wickedness, but no one would listen to him

After 33 chapters of crazy street preaching, calling out for people to repent, and people not caring, and God even given him a vision of evil done in the temple,

where the priest in Jerusalem had done wickedness and were sacrificing to pagan gods inside the very temple of God!

Instead of repenting from partial judgment, they went all in, said that God had abandoned them and started to worship demons, in fact the Babylonian Sun God tammuz!

Then chapt 34 is the first chapter of hope for the people, because it is God promising to deal with the wickedness that is so indwelt in the people

In fact, it is perhaps Ezekiel 36, that becomes one of the most well known parts of this crazy prophet’s message

Ezekiel 36:26–28 “26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances. 28 You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

So God knows that this is a big problem, and the hard hearts is the thing that needs to be addressed more than anything else, and he will!

So when we look at Ez. 34 we get some very harsh words

Prophecy against the shepherds of Israel!???

But I thought God was the Shepherd of Israel? He is

Throughout the years of Israel, the rulers, and priests were viewed as shepherds in their role of spiritually guiding the people

In fact, we continue this today, the term pastor is actually a latin word that means: shepherd!

So a shepherd is supposed to be a leader of the Sheep, however, we know that we are ultimately simply sheep leading other sheep!

Jesus is called the cheif shepherd, the head shepherd, the overshepherd!

So what charges are brought against these exalted sheep, whom God trusted to lead his flock into godliness?

They feed themselves instead of the flock of sheep!

The next verses outline that more, they eat the fat, where the wool, butcher the gattened animals, but do not tend to the flock

So they want all the perks, all the glory, but none of the mundane!

In essence, they want to appear like good shepherds, preaching and teaching and offering sacrifices, but when a member comes to them for a need, or counsel they are too busy to lift a finger

This is why God speaks verse 4, you have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, sought the lost

Were the shepherds also doctors? No!

This is about soul care, which is why today we realize that there are three main areas that a pastor in a church must accomplish

The preaching of the word

The pastoring of the flock

The leading of the flock

Yet, these shepherds could not be bothered to do more than sermon prep, they had no time for soul care for their sheep

Also think about it, these are people who had been attacked by Babylon, did not have copies of Scripture, and relied solely upon the priest to lead them

They are coming to the priest because they are struggling with how to follow God in the day to day things

These are faithful people that are following God in an unfaithful time, and they are met with silence, hurdles to overcome, and general indifference

Afterall, these are the same shepherds of the people who honor God with their lips in the day at the temple, then profane him with their actions in secret rooms in the temple at night

God furthermore goes on to continually list their damnable wickedness

Not only did they not seek the sheep or help, but when the sheep came to get help they were treated with violence and cruelty

That word ‘ruled’ also means ‘treaded’, you have ‘treaded’ over them as if they were worthless

‘Violence’ & ‘cruelty’

It is using your God given power against one who resist your word

It is then using your power and position to be cruel, to crush their very souls

God loves these sheep, his people, they have always been part of a true flock that follows God even when the world is stacked against them!

These sheep that God loved, and entrusted to these wicked shepherds, they were scattered (quite literally in Ezekiel from exile, and metaphorically as well!)

They were killed by wild animals, scattered all over and no one even batted an eye for these defenseless sheep!

These shepherds who are actually just sheep themselves not only go and take all resources from the sheep they are to be leading, but then destroy the resources God gives

God hates hypocrites, the hypocrites drink from the water of the living water of God found in Scripture, and ultimately in Jesus, but then they muddy it and ruin for those who follow them!

God is saying he knows that most of his sheep are struggling to learn about him because they are eating trampled and dirtied versions of the lifegiving truth found in the Scriptures

These sheep have bullied and forced the true sheep into a scattered reality

God has had enough!

This is what Adonai YHWH, the personal God, the almighty God, the one whom has the very power to claim our very souls

Sworn upon God living, and God is eternal, so this is a promise that will be fulfilled!

Because of the wickedness above, God says he is against he Shepherds

Can you think of any more terrifying words to be said, that the God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and your very soul and life is against you!

God will take back control of the lost sheep, and rescue them from the very ones who were supposed to be their shepherds

God will go and search for the lost sheep, and find and rescue them!

We see this in Jesus don’t we! He leaves the 99 to find the 1!

We see Paul say it this way, Romans 5:8 “8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God will take them to good pasture, which reminds us of Psalm 23:2 “2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters.”

In fact Ezekiel says bring them to good pasture, give them grazing places, rich pasture, he will let us lie down!

Anthithetical to the rage we should feel against the shepherds, we see this beautiful verse, Ezekiel 34:16 “16 I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak, but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will shepherd them with justice.”

Do you feel the indignation and anger that God has towards these shepherds?

I do

Have you experienced hurt and neglect by these Shepherds?

I have

Because here is the thing, we become these shepherds ourselves

All the shepherds are in fact sheep, that’s why they are called the ‘fat sheep’, or as Jesus will say, ‘goats’

Matthew 25:31–34 CSB

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Matthew 25:41 “41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!”

We have the propensity to be goats far more than we do sheep

Every time we are hypocrites, doing what we should not do, knowing what we should do, we show the fact that we are the very problem we hate

You and are the false shepherds, we burn people to the church, we harm the image of God, we become ammunition for the unbelievers to scoff at the church

We become the reddit post about another post of deconversion

We must walk the walk and talk the talk

If we want to put an end to the wickedness of the wicked shepherds, the only thing we can do is deal with our own wicked hearts first

So how is this accomplished?

This is done by the power of God in our life, it is the giving of a new heart as Ezekiel speaks of in a few chapters

It is not grunting and trying harder, no it is letting ourselves rest in our Good Shepherd!

We must surrender to the Good Shepherd, and yeild to his leading, and that is what we spoke of in length last week in light of Psalm 23.

IF YOU DO NOT SURRENTER TO THE GOOD SHEPHERD, YOU WILL STAY A SELFISH SHEPHERD

The only way for you and I to not be part of the problem, is to allow ourselves to be part of the good flock of God, and to follow his leading

Point #2: The Good Shepherd is our Antidote

The good shepherd is promised in Ezekiel, a shepherd who will save the flock!

Afterall, it says God will judge the sheep from the fat sheep, and that good sheep will be from the servant David who will shepherd them and be their shepherd!

Then God will bring them peace and give them rest, and we will be the flock and he will be our God

So then we open to John 10 and see these words pop off the page!

John 10:11–18 (CSB)

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me,

15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

16 But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.

17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

The only antidote to our poisoned hearts is the Good Shepherd, Jesus

He loves us so much that he gives us new hearts that heed his voice and call, and goes so far to show us that love by his death on the cross

If you’ve ever wondered why Jesus’ resurrection is important, it’s because it shows Jesus’ power to execute what he foretold as the truth

There are plenty of religious leaders who have died, but none came back to life!

Jesus takes no shortcuts with accomplishing the feat of becoming, and showing his worthiness of being our Good Shepherd

He enters through the gate, showing he is a legitimate shepherd

The gatekeeper acknoledges him as the shepherd, as do the sheep when they hear Jesus’ voice

With both the gatekeepers and the sheep hearing Jesus’ voice and accepting him, it helps show that he is not a robber

He is not like those wicked shepherds from Ezekiel 34, he is a good and trustworthy shepherd

Those that came before were theives and robbers, stealing and robbing the sheep blind from their food, water and hindering their realtionship with God

Jesus also shows that he is the gate in which the true flock of God is built around and upon

Jesus is also the gate because his death and resurrection are the gateway into the fold of God!

There are plenty of false shepherds, hired hands, theives that climb in, and they wreak havoc, God hates them for it

No our Good Shepherd enters by the gate, because he is the gate, and he entered in by his own blood, the cost of becoming the Gate and the Good Shepherd

He does not run when enemies abound, he does not abandon when life is hard, he does not steal and trample and break down the broken, no he says come to me you weary sheep and I will give you rest!

The rest our poisoned souls need comes from the Lamb who was slain for our salvation

Hebrews 9:11–12 CSB

11 But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

Our poisonous hearts are made new by the calling of the Shepherd on our lives and we come out as we hear his voice, along with all our brothers and sisters from the ages and from the nations!

Our heart transformation and cure from our poison comes not from us trying hard, but from heeding the voice of the Good Shepherd, and where he leads us to!

It is a voice that calls us to surrender our very lives, so that we might experience new life, and be healed of our selfish shepherding ways

Point #3: The Good Shepherd has the Right & Power to Cure our Self-Centered Self-Righteousness

Jesus lays his life down for us, and he takes it up for us

He lays down his life so the wolves are defeated, and so Jesus lays down his life for us, so we might be united with him!

We sing songs about the power of the blood, the forgiveness that comes with it, the washing and new creation that we desperately need, and we need all those things

You know what is interesting about sheep, their blood is used as anti-venom, and we know that Satan is continually called ‘that great serpant of old’ throughout Scriptures

The blood of a lamb can overcome the bite of a poisonous snake!

I’m reminded of another story of how Eskimo’s kill wolves

They will take a knife and coat it in animal blood, over and over again until there is a nice blood popsicle

They will take the hilt and put it into the ground, and leave it there, and a wolf will smell the blood and come up and start to lick

As the wolf licks and licks, eventually the blade is revealed, and the wolf is no longer drinking the frozen blood but his own!

The wolf’s insatiable appetite for blood, causes the wolf to not notice that it is his own blood he is now fervishly drinking, and by sunrise, the wolf is dead next to the knife by its own hand

It reminds me of how Satan thought it was a great victory when the wolves of the pharisees and Romans crucified Jesus, how they humiliated and mocked and beat him

Yet, this very demonic frenzy was the very act that would open the gateway to the fold of God, and the cure of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life

By Satan moving to kill Jesus, he only made the perfect anti-venom to his demonic snake venom that courses through our veins naturally

By Satan moving to kill Jesus, he simply started licking a hidden blade underneath blood, which led to his own demise!

Jesus and God the Father work to bring about our redemption, and our deliverance from wicked shepherds, and even our own wicked selves

IF YOU DO NOT SURRENTER TO THE GOOD SHEPHERD, YOU WILL STAY A SELFISH SHEPHERD

APPLICATION:

Friends, this passage is so rich in beauty and there is so much more we could talk on this topic

Our God is the Good Shepherd, and his name is Jesus!

Since God is our Good Shepherd, it also means that he hates the wicked shepherds, he is against them!

Friends, do not take lightly that great warning, of God being against you for being a wicked shepherd!

No you and I, we need to be cleansed by the blood of the lamb, and healed by the guidance of the Good Shepherd, every day of our lives

Our sin is far worse than we realize, and far more prevelant that we care to admit!

We see this based on an honest look at our thoughts, words, and deeds, they are full of hypocrital thinking, speaking, and living

We nned to come to Jesus, our Good Shepherd to find the rest, the restoration of our very needy souls

To wash in the waters of his blood, to relearn the broken theology in corrected ways

To undo the damage that other sheep have committed against us, and our Savior comes to mend

To clean our minds of the smut that we’ve filled it with, to renew our hearts for the anger we have towards others

We need the Good Shepherd, no matter how long you have been following him!

Perhaps you are unsure of where you stand with the Good Shepherd, well now is the time to heed his voice!

He calls out to you, offering forgiveness of sins, peace beyond comprehension, restored relationship with God,

and he deals with that deadly poison of selfishness which you can no more seperate from yourself than you can seperate your oxygen from your blood!

What do you have to wait for, what could possible be better than having your two greatest needs met and dealt with in one person

Your need to be made right with God, and the solution to the poison of sin that corrupts you are found in the anti-venom of the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd

So whether you have been a Christian for decades, or are making a decision today, we all deeply need the same solution, a God who is our Good Shepherd, to heal and to guide

Because:

IF YOU DO NOT SURRENTER TO THE GOOD SHEPHERD, YOU WILL STAY A SELFISH SHEPHERD

Benediction

Psalm 23 KJV 1900

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.