HE IS THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
-{Psalm 23}
-I have been in vocational ministry now over 17 1/2 years. I have taken on various roles in those years, but the majority of them has been in leading and teaching. The Bible uses several different titles to refer to the role of leading a church, one of which is the word pastor which more literally means shepherd, caring for the flock of God.
-The Bible often refers to God’s people as sheep, so it would make sense for someone who tends to the flock to be called a shepherd. But the funny thing is, the earthly pastor/shepherd is himself a sheep. So, even though he is a shepherd of some sort, he is limited. He can only do so much. That means the flock / the congregation needs a greater shepherd, a supreme shepherd—a good shepherd who will ultimately and eternally care for the sheep. And we have that in Christ. I may be A shepherd, but He is THE Shepherd. And it’s a good thing too, because if everything depended on us little shepherds, the church would be in a mess.
-Sheep are pretty helpless animals and they need someone to take care of them, and we have that in Christ. And there is a Psalm that describes our relationship with the Shepherd and what it is that He provides for the sheep. We look at Psalm 23 and we automatically think of funerals because that’s normally when it is read, and it talks of God caring for and shepherding our souls during the darkest times (which a funeral normally is). But this is something that we need to be reminded of in every situation. The Lord is our Shepherd, in bad or good, in trial or triumph. And we need to depend on that Shepherd for all our needs.
-David is writing this psalm from experience. He had lots of troubles in life (be it running from Saul or from Absalom or whatever). And yet, David never lost faith because he knew he had a Shepherd who would care for him. And I want us leaving here today with a greater knowledge of our Good Shepherd and what our relationship is to Him and what it is He does for us.
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.
-There are several different aspects of God’s relationship with us that I want to touch upon; first I want us to consider:
1) The Shepherd’s personal possession
1) The Shepherd’s personal possession
-The Psalm begins telling us that the Lord/Yahweh is our Shepherd. And ultimately now we know that it is specifically Jesus is our Shepherd. Jesus Himself uses this picture.
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,
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
-I want you to notice something about our psalm and about what I read from John. The psalm starts out Yahweh is MY shepherd. And Jesus refers to people as MY sheep. This indicates to us personal relationship. In order to have that personal relationship you need to believe that Jesus died and rose again to save you from your sins. And when you do, you personally belong to Him. You are HIS sheep. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that we have been bought with a price, and now we belong to Him. We are HIS personal possession.
-The gospel of John told us that this Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep and He personally knows them. Shepherds in Jesus’ day intimately knew their sheep. He knew which ones were his. But Jesus also said that they know Him and hear His voice and follow Him.
-What would happen quite often in Jesus’ day is that several shepherds would bring their flocks to a certain feeding area, and as the shepherds socialized the flocks would intermingle. Now, I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t tell one sheep from another, so how in the world would you tell the difference between yours and somebody else’s sheep. The shepherd knew those who were his, and the sheep knew their shepherd and would recognize his voice. So, as the shepherd left, he would give out his call to his sheep and the sheep would follow him.
-Here’s the point—our shepherd knows each of us on a personal level. We are not just another face in the crowd. We are not another cog in the machine. He knows us personally by name and that is the way He relates to us if we are His sheep by grace through faith. Don’t ever think that God has lost you somewhere in the hustle and bustle of the universe. He sees you. He knows you. And if you know Him, you will hear His voice. There is another aspect I want you to look at...
2) The Shepherd’s perfect provision
2) The Shepherd’s perfect provision
-In v. 1 is says THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT; or it might be better said: I SHALL NOT BE IN WANT. When the Lord is our Shepherd we will not have lack in what we need. And even though the English translation uses the word WANT what it is talking about is what we NEED. God’s sheep will not lack in anything that is necessary when they look to and lean on and trust in the shepherd.
-Now, David is not saying that the sheep won’t fall on lean times. David is saying that no matter what, we will find sufficiency and satisfaction in God and in Him alone. As Jesus quotes from the Old Testament, man does not live by bread alone. Man is more than just his or her physical cravings and desires. There is also the whole spiritual aspect of things. You might get all your fill of physical things but still be completely lacking because you have no satisfaction of the soul. God takes care of us physically, but even more important than that, God takes care of us spiritually.
-The Psalmist tells us:
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
-When you know and are personally intimate with God and you find your delight in Him, then you find the filling you are looking for, because God provides Himself. Ultimately, whatever it is you think you are craving for and longing for can ultimately be fulfilled by God through faith in Christ.
-Yes, there are a lot of physical aspects that God will take care of as well, but ultimately our true satisfaction is found when God provides Himself. And when we seek our satisfaction in Him alone, then everything else falls into place. Jesus has something to say about that in the Sermon on the Mount. He said not to worry about where you’re going to get food and drink and clothing. Don’t be anxious about that. And then He says:
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
-When you seek out God in everything, when He is center, when His priorities are your priorities, when His will trumps your will, when His plan is more important than your plan, then you find out that He actually is all that you need and you can trust Him to provide for all the other stuff. Again, this is not some sort of “come to Jesus and you will never have hard times” kind of teaching. But when God is your all-in-all, everything is put in its proper perspective and you can rest in Him knowing He will take care of you.
-There was a story about a substitute Sunday School teacher asked her class one day, “How many of you can quote Psalm 23?” Several of the children raised their hands, including a little girl who was only about four years old. The teacher was surprised that someone so young would know Psalm 23 so she asked her to recite it for the class. The little girl stood up and said, “The Lord is my shepherd. That’s all I want.” She had the words mixed up but understood the message perfectly.
-And as the psalm goes on, it gives us a picture of this provision. In v. 2 it says HE MAKES ME LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES. if a sheep is hungry it will not lie down, it will wander around looking for food, but when a sheep has all it needs it will lie down in rest. So, here is a picture that God Himself is the provision and gives the provision, and the sheep is satisfied in Him, so they are able to lie down in green pastures and rest. If the sheep didn’t have all it needed, it wouldn’t lie down. But our good shepherd makes us lie down.
-And v. 2 doesn’t stop there. It tells us HE LEADS ME BESIDE STILL WATERS. Sheep are afraid of turbulent water, and they don’t like stagnant water either. Sheep are finicky, hence why they make such a good picture for humans. But what the shepherd would do is he would dig out a place by the side of a stream into which water will run and form a little still pond from which the sheep can drink—water that was still but not stagnant. Again, wonderful metaphors that show us God provides for us and we are satisfied and find our rest in Him.
-Jesus stated it another way:
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
-The question is are you satisfied with God’s provision—His provision of Himself, His provision of salvation, His provision of spiritual rest? Or is your soul restless and you have wearied yourself searching in the world but still finding no satisfaction? If that is you, come to the Good Shepherd and see how He will provide. But the psalm continues to describe what He does for us...
3) The Shepherd’s refreshing revival
3) The Shepherd’s refreshing revival
-The first part of v. 3 tells us that HE RESTORES MY SOUL. That word for restores means that God does something to repair and revive us. God takes the turmoil and whatever is just not right within us and He puts it back the way it should be. God can take a broken soul that is wearied from spiritual warfare, wearied from worldly temptations, wearied from cultural persecutions, wearied from being in a sin-filled body in a sin-filled world, and He can restore it and refresh it and revive it and repair it. God is the eternal handyman that is able to patch us up when our souls seem like they are beyond repair.
-There was a running joke in our house that I am no handyman, although I’ve gotten a little better over the years. If something goes wrong or gets broken or there is a decent-sized project that needs doing around the house we usually wait until my father-in-law comes into town (who can build or fix just about anything). I’ve learned a lot from him over the years. But if there is something that even he can’t fix or do, then it’s time to turn it over to the professionals, because there is no way I’d probably be able to do it. If something is in disrepair in the house or in a vehicle, we have to turn it over to someone who can fix it.
-Where do we go when our souls are out of whack? Where do we go when there is something spiritually going on that is way beyond us and our own small human abilities? We go to the Good Shepherd. He can patch us up and send us on our way.
-I don’t think that it is a mere coincidence or happenstance that Psalm 22 and Psalm 23 are right next to each other. In Psalm 22 we have the cry of one who feels forsaken by a God who does not seem to respond. And Jesus Himself used this Psalm to describe His travail on the cross.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
-But it is exactly because Jesus went through that forsaken-ness on the cross that we are able to then cling to the wonderful words and promises of Psalm 23. I want to read a long portion of an article by John Piper that really brings it all into perspective for us. John Piper writes:
There was a moment, at the crux of history, when God was God-forsaken. To we who are not God, and who are only able to experience a few dimensions of reality, this is mysterious. But it was not a mystery; it was horrifyingly real. God the Son, the eternal delight of the Father, the radiance of the Father’s glory, the exact imprint of the Father’s nature, and the Father’s earthly visible image (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15) became in that incomprehensively dark moment unholy sin — our unholy sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). And while that moment lasted, the holy Father and the Holy Spirit could not abide the holy Son made unholy. God became the object of God’s wrath. A terrible, once-for-all-time fissure rent open between the Father and Son.
For Jesus, it was a truly hellish moment, which is why, in the words of R.C. Sproul, Jesus’s Psalm 22:1 scream “was the scream of the damned. For us.” Out of a love for us we have hardly begun to fathom, he took upon himself our damnable curse, becoming the propitiation for our sins (Galatians 3:13; 1 John 4:10). And he did it for us so that our curse would be eternally removed and we might become the objects of God’s eternal mercy, clothed forever with the holiness and righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Psalm 22 does far more than give us words to pray during our seasons of spiritual desolation. It gives us words to grasp the desolation God the Son experienced to purchase our peace and restoration.
This restoration, the great messianic restoration, is what made David sing for joy in Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd, having laid his life down for the sheep (John 10:11), gives his sheep eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will be able to snatch them out of his hand (John 10:28).
No one. Not “death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” the great Shepherd of the sheep — even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Romans 8:38–39; Hebrews 13:20; Psalm 23:4).
-What an amazing thought. Jesus was wrecked so we could be restored. Do you think that your life is shattered and no one can pick up the pieces? Do you feel like Humpty Dumpty, you’ve had a great fall and no one can put your life back together again? Let me tell you to run to the Good Shepherd. Don’t walk to Him, don’t take a leisurely jog toward Him, but run to Him with wild abandon and He will patch you up.
4) The Shepherd’s righteous road
4) The Shepherd’s righteous road
-At the end of v. 3 David writes, HE LEADS ME IN PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE. In sheep country, ancient shepherds found pasture land that would make good food for his flocks. Eventually other shepherds would hear about the find and they started taking their flocks there also. Eventually a path would be worn through the brush and grass leading to this land. The shepherds would learn which path lead to the right place, and which did not, and this knowledge was handed down over generations.
-The world and the flesh and the devil offer many paths. It could be materialism, immorality, greed, selfishness, and a million other paths that all lead to destruction and death. But any path that does not lead to Jesus is the wrong path and we need to avoid those paths at all costs. The path of righteousness that we are led on will lead to Jesus. This is true for finding salvation for our souls and is also true for us as believers who have a tendency to wander off the path. Jesus warned us:
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
-The path of righteousness is exclusive and the majority of the world is going down the wrong path. Left to my own devices, I’d pick the wrong path. That is why it is so important that it says that HE LEADS ME to that right path. We can’t find it on our own.
-But praise this Good Shepherd that He doesn’t just let us wander around on our own. He leads us in the right way. He leads us by His Word. He leads us by His Spirit. He leads us by godly counsel. He leads us by our circumstances through the opening and closing of doors as He sees fit.
-The question is are you lead-able? Have you positioned yourself to be led in the paths of righteousness? Or are you now going down a path of your own choosing under your own power? Maybe you know you are going down the wrong path, but you do not know how to get to the right path. Isaiah tells us:
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
CONCLUSION
-There is so much good stuff here, and I barely got through half of the psalm, so we’re just going to have to pick this back up next week.
-But I want you to leave here encouraged today because our Good Shepherd knows you personally, He knows you by name. He provides you with all you need (not all you want). He revives your broken spirit. He leads you down the right road…if you you know Him. If you don’t know Him, then believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today.
-Christian, maybe you need to be tended to by the Good Shepherd. Come to the altar in prayer and let Him pastor you through whatever it is you are going through.
