3.5.36 8.3.2025 The Church is a Flock, Jesus is the Shepherd Psalm 23, John 10.1-18
Jesus and His Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Entice: I know you know these words. I have most often spoken from them in times of loss and mourning.
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Engage: This Psalm profoundly expresses our deep, spiritual, human need for the nurture of a loving shepherd.
Expand: The Psalm expresses needs, and hopes, and anticipates provision. Jesus specifically and personally meets those needs, fulfills those hopes, and provides what we need.
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing 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; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Excite: The flock grows and shrinks. Sheep are added and others depart. Some die, others grow and thrive. Through it all
Explore:
The Shepherd who calls us is the Shepherd who leads us.
The Shepherd who calls us is the Shepherd who leads us.
Expand: For Jesus our shepherd
Body of Sermon:
1 It is Personal
1 It is Personal
1.1 The need addressed.
1.1 The need addressed.
1.2 The solution offered.
1.2 The solution offered.
Incarnation means the presence of God.
Incarnation means the presence of God.
Incarnation means the participation of God.
Incarnation means the participation of God.
The Shepherd envisioned in the Psalm is made actual in the enfleshment of Jesus.
Next we note of His leadership that
2 It is Specific.
2 It is Specific.
2.1 What Jesus offers.
2.1 What Jesus offers.
Love
Goodness
Guidance
Protection
2.2 What Imposters impose.
2.2 What Imposters impose.
Chaos
Danger
Abandonment
Finally, Jesus approach to leading and feeding us is…
3 It is Purposeful
3 It is Purposeful
3.1 He lays down His life.
3.1 He lays down His life.
3.2 He knows His own.
3.2 He knows His own.
3.3 One Flock, one Shepherd.
3.3 One Flock, one Shepherd.
Shut Down
There is quite a bit of literature regarding sheep, shepherding, and the cultural role of being a shepherd. Social and cultural background information is vital for understanding Biblical texts. In this case the literature is informative, helpful, insightful and wholly insufficient for describing Jesus’ relationship to His flock.
Human shepherds are always aspiring to an ideal that they cannot meet.
Human shepherds are always aspiring to an ideal that they cannot meet.
This is why the negative examples in Jesus’ words make so much sense. Hired hands who were probably always undependable.
They were mostly fleeing, robbing, cowardly, and uninvested
Bad Shepherds were likely the rule, rather than the exception.
Bad Shepherds were likely the rule, rather than the exception.
This image is powerful because it is what most humans experience. Loneliness and abandonment at the worst time.
Jesus inhabits the metaphor to its fullest possible extent. He carried no shepherds rod nor did He lean upon a shepherds staff. He did carry a cross that one time…
