The Good Shepherd

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Recap

This week, as we continue to study these seven “I Am” statements of Christ, we first need to go back over what we have already learned.

First, we looked at Jesus’s claim to be the “Bread of Life”. To better understand this claim, we looked at the entire scenario, which spanned over the course of two days. During the first day, Jesus found himself surrounded by people that desired to hear what Jesus had to say, that word of His teachings and miracles had preceded Him and the people wanted to witness this.

But as the day grew late, the people were hungry and Jesus miraculously feed 5000 people with just a small boys lunch. While every single person ate until they were physically satisfied that night, the next day came and they still wanted more, so they sought out Jesus, just to have their bellies full once more.

It was at this time when Jesus told these people that He was the bread of life, not speaking anything about supplying the people with physical bread, but that ultimate satisfaction can only come from Him.

Jesus was telling us here that the void left in our hearts when sin entered in the world can only be filled by Him, that He is the only way we can have full and complete satisfaction.

Two weeks ago, we moved from the bread of life to Jesus claiming to be the Light of the World.

To paint a better picture of what is going on in this encounter is that Jesus was confronted by a woman that was caught in sin, and in this confrontation, the religious people, people that thought of themselves as being full of knowledge, fully understanding the law of Moses, had forgotten their own sins and faults.

These people were too focused on other peoples shortcomings, forgetting that they too were full of sin. Jesus never dismissed this woman’s sin, but rather confronted it with full and complete grace, telling her to go and sin no more.

The main point of this part of scripture is that through Jesus, our sins will become exposed, revealing to us the darkest parts of our hearts. This is not to condemn us, but rather to help us, showing us our faults and failures to help us grow in God.

Last week, we found Jesus healing a blind man.

The whole situation originally started when the disciples saw this man that was born blind, and wondered among themselves about who’s sin caused this man’s sufferings, his or his parents.

This was a common Jewish belief, that all suffering is caused by sin, so naturally, seeing someone that was born in suffering stoked their curiosity.

But after Jesus healed this man, the Jewish leaders saw this man, and confronted Jesus, claiming that Jesus had broken the Law of the Sabbath by healing this man.

It was at this point that Jesus had shown them their own failures in leading the Jewish people, starting by telling them that He was the door to the sheep. Basically telling the people that access to the father could only come through Him.

I am the Good Shepherd

This week, we find that Jesus’s next “I Am” statement is directly linked with the same conflict, and because of this, there are some overlap in the scriptures we will use today. First, I want to read John 10: 7-18;

John 10:7–18 NKJV

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Now, to me, the question that I had to ask myself is why are these two statements so closely linked, and the answer that I saw in these statements is the way in which the sheep, or Israel in this case, was cared for.

Again, being the door speaks to access, the only way to enter in the fold, was through the door keeper, a hired man that protected the sheep from thieves and predators, and any person that entered through any other way was considered there for one purpose, to steal, kill and destroy.

This was said to highlight the stark difference between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, which is something that we find in Ezekiel 34: 1-6

Ezekiel 34:1–6 NKJV

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”

While this was one of our passages of scriptures last week, I feel that it is important for us to go back over in detail over what is found in this passage.

To start with, in verse 2, we find Ezekiel speaking on behalf of God saying woe to the shepherds who feed themselves. When I look at this, all I see are people who are selfish, only looking after themselves.

The other day, I saw a video where this pastor had pretty much held the entire congregation hostage.

This must had been some kind of conference or something, but this pastor stood up and instructed the ushers to close the doors to the church, and as they closed the doors, he said that there was 1000 people in the audience and 1000 watching online, and if everyone gave $20, he would have $40,000.

Now, to be completely clear, I don’t fully understand why he was wanting all that money, and it could be completely understandable needs, but, Jesus isn’t in the business of making, or even needing money.

Yes, He will use people’s wealth to make things happen, but more often then not, he will use small amounts of something, to do bigger then life things, so to hold a congregation hostage for something as trivial as wealth is completely unbiblical.

The more I think on it, all that comes to mind is when Jesus came to the Temple in Matthew 21, where the Temple basically became a market place. This isn’t what God intended the Church to be.

This type of selfishness is the core principle to the prosperity teachings, teaching that God will give you all that you desire, forgetting the fact that God would instead change our desires to line up with his word.

Christianity isn’t about us, but instead about God. The Jewish leaders had forgotten about this and became self centered.

The next thing we find in Ezekiel is found in verse 4, where we see how the so called shepherds didn’t have a heart for the people that they were to serve.

Pastors are called to do more then to just preach a service, they are called to have a heart for the people around them.

Could you imagine going to a church only to find the pastor there, rushing through service, only shaking hands out of duty, not out of a since of love?

This was the state of the hearts of the Jewish leadership, forgetting about the troubles of the people around them, only again, focusing on their selves.

The last thing found in an irresponsible shepherd is their lack in the desire to protect the flock.

Starting in Verse 5, we are told about how due to these failures of the shepherd, the flock gets scattered and have become prey.

Just the other day, Meg and I were getting our taxes done and we struck up a conversation with the accountant, and as normal parents do, we immediately started talking about our kids and the need to care for and pay attention to the children and what would happen if they were left alone.

Kids without guidance in life would go crazy.

These are the characteristics of the irresponsible shepherd, which describe the Israelites exactly.

But what about the good Shepherd? In John 10: 11-16 we read this;

John 10:11–16 NKJV

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

What we find here is Jesus telling the world that He is the Shepherd of Israel, that the people who were in charge, the Jewish leaders, were just hirelings because they fled, allowing the predators to cause the sheep to scatter in the world.

To make it even more clear that Jesus is the true shepherd, he tells them that a good shepherd is willing to lay down his life for the sheep.

A good example of a good shepherd would be David, who as a young boy, would chase down lions and bears for his flock.

Could you imagine facing down a bear at such a young age. What about a mountain lion? I know of grown adults that are scared of these animals, but for a boy to bravely fight these animals reminds us of the true nature of a good shepherd.

But there is more to a good shepherd then just what is found here. If we move on in the book of Ezekiel 34: 11-16 we find Ezekiel showing us what the Good shepherd will do.

Ezekiel 34:11–16 NKJV

‘For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord God. “I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.”

There are a few things here that we can break down and understand about a good shepherd.

First, we see in verse 11 that the good shepherd will seek out the lost and scattered sheep.

This reminds me so much of the parable of the lost sheep found in Luke 15.

Jesus seeks out the lost where the hireling has no care at all for the sheep, it’s just a job to them.

I remember a story that Meg had told me about a pastor that we knew, this pastor, knowing that one of his congregation members was going through a hard time, saw this man leave service.

Instead of staying and preaching his message, he left the congregation, who was in good hands, to seek out the one that was struggling.

Jesus seeks out those who are lost, calling them back into the fold.

But not only will he seek out the lost, He feeds his sheep.

We went over this in detail just a few weeks ago, where Jesus is the Bread of Life, the only thing that can bring about true satisfaction.

The last thing that we see in this is that the sheep can find rest that only comes from a since of safety.

Have you ever tried to rest in the middle of a storm? Jesus was able to, but he knew of his safety.

For us, when life is uncertain, normally the first thing to go is our rest, we start to lose sleep, loosing rest.

I have told you this story before, but when you have an example that speaks to the kind of safety and comfort that only Jesus could bring, I have nothing better.

A wise lady that I used to go to church with once faced a dangerous open heart surgery, one that had quite the list of risks involved. When the pastor at that time spoke with her about all this, he openly asked if she was worried or nervous. All she said was that if she didn’t wake up, she would be in heaven, and if she did, it all worked. This lady never woke up from the operation.

The point being made here is that when we place our trust in Jesus, when we allow Him to be our shepherd, it doesn’t matter what life comes our way, we will find peace and comfort.

Closing

As we close our study today, I want us to look at one more thing that is said in John 10: 14

John 10:14 NKJV

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

The question that I want to leave you with is simple, does Jesus know you as one of His sheep? And the second is like it, Do you know Jesus as our shepherd?