I AM The Good Shepherd
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Tension of growing up on a cattle ranch.
Spend a lot of time among the cattle, especially when it came time for processing.
This animal that I had spent hours feeding, watering, and caring for…was going to become next month’s steak.
Why we didn’t name them!
The reality for us as humans. Your food came from somewhere.
For us who raised your hamburgers… a special care.
This is why when I see the occasional news story about someone raising animals who are neglected…
A good caretaker will seek to alleviate needless suffering. Even when that requires personal sacrifice.
What God is calling out in Ezekiel 34.
The “shepherds” were the religious teachers, the priests.
Rather than feeding and protecting the people, they used them for their own advantage.
You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
Instead, God sets Himself as the right kind of shepherd.
As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
And specifically, God will send a descendant to shepherd them:
And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.
God sets an expectation that a good shepherd will come. A descendant of David.
A Shepherd who will call us His own.
The Good Shepherd is worthy to be followed.
And Jesus reveals Himself as that Good Shepherd.
Experience Life
Experience Life
vv. 10-11
As we looked at last Sunday afternoon, Jesus sets himself up as the door.
The design of the remote pens for the sheep.
To know the characteristics of the good shepherd, contrast with the theif.
Steal. Kill. Destroy.
The invitation of the good shepherd is to have abundant life.
Abundant, more than enough or expected or anticipated.
In 1930, the rain just stopped. Sept. 14, 1930 - first “black blizzard.”
A decade of drought. 1931, just a year in, crops failing and dust storms were regular.
In 1935, following the “black sunday” storm on april 14, the term was coined, “dust Bowl.”
That day started much like today. The wind had died, warm temps, and a peaceful day at church.
Mid-afternoon, the temps plummeted. And that cold front brought a mountain of black grit, 1,000 feet high, moving at 60 mph.
The thief of drought didn’t just show up for a night.
It came to steal, topsoil, the foundation of the farmer’s life.
It came to kill, choking crops, cattle, and human lives.
It came to destroy, homes, finances, and the hopes and dreams of it’s victims.
This is how our lives can be when the thief comes.
Anxiety steals your desire to live your life to the fullest.
Sin kills your desire to grow in your faith.
Worldly concerns destroy your service to and worship with the church.
So I am thankful that when these things arise, I am reminded of the rest of this verse.
Jesus came not to take, but to give.
The thief came to take abundance, but Jesus came to give abundantly.
In 1939, abundant rains finally fell.
Life was turned around. Crops returned. Animals thrived. People again had hope.
Maybe your life fills like its been in a black blizzard.
There is life in Jesus.
He paid for it by laying down His life.
The sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient and abundant.
Experience Protection
Experience Protection
vv. 12-15
We move from contrasting the thief and the good shepherd to the hired hand and the good shepherd.
The hired hand is there because of the contract, the shepherd has a connection.
When the threat comes, the hired hand flees!
Yet, the shepherd fights on behalf of the sheep.
Going back to the shepherd coming from the line of David.
David, who saw the sheep of Israel afraid of a predator, Goliath and the Philistines.
David, instead of cowering in fear, knew that he had protected scared sheep before.
So he stepped up and won the battle, not by sword or spear:
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
Jesus is the greater David.
Rather than cowering from the cross…
Jesus chose the cross.
And if He has already died for you, He will stay with you and protect you from the evil one.
He can keep you from being scattered and devoured.
Experience Faith
Experience Faith
vv. 16-18
Great news for us!
His immediate audience, that “pen,” is that of the Jews.
Yet, he declares that for many, if not all of us, there are those who would follow that are Gentiles!
And so we can also hear His voice.
We are all saved by the Good Shepherd in the same way:
Jesus chose to become the atoning sacrifice.
To atone, to pay the debt and make the relationship right.
Chris Cargile. Borrowed money for pizza.
Weird because building and an endowed chair literally with his last name.
Anyway… he borrowed like $7 for a pizza. Still owes me. But from that day forward, changed the friendship.
Now he would duck when he saw me. Turn around.
Debt creates a barrier.
Sin creates a debt barrier.
So when Jesus comes along and chooses to lay down His life to pay our debt…we can be restored.
Through Jesus, we experience saving faith.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The experience of rain that next morning.
Fresh air, dust knocked out, humidity returned.
But, just because the rain had fallen, not everything was healed.
It would take time.
Time for the fields to grow, for the cattle to regain weight, for the financial ruin to turn around.
Yes, there was hope in the today, but there was even greater hope in the future.
Jesus is your Shepherd today and for eternity.
