Threads Of Hope Part V (The Good Shepherd)

The Good Shepherd – Part 5
Ezekiel 34:11 – 24; John 10

We have been taking a look at the book of Ezekiel and even though it mostly relates to Israel and Jerusalem, we asked the question, how would this book be relevant for us today?  What can we learn since “all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness?”  The book was written over a 20-year period while the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity and God asks Ezekiel to do some strange things to illustrate how the Israelites had departed from Him and of the discipline to come and the destruction of Jerusalem.  “Sin is a serious matter and bears consequences.”  We have discovered that God is loving, patient, and just, but God will discipline his people in order to bring them back into a loving relationship with Him.  God gave Ezekiel an illustration of a young girl that had been abandoned and left for dead, and how He nurtured her back to health and gave her all she needed until she became of age and then took her as his wife relating to Israel; and how that she had prostituted herself with other gods and nations.

Last week, Ezekiel addressed the surrounding nations in chapters 25 – 32.  God’s concern was not just for his chosen people, the Israelites, but his concern was for the whole world.  Even though God had a covenant relationship with Israel, God’s intentions were to bless the whole world through the Israelites as God would bring forth His revelation and His Son through the lineage of Abraham to save the whole world.  (Gen. 12) The nations surrounding Israel heard from God concerning some of the issues that God has with them.  If you will notice, the issues that God has with the surrounding nations are basic to human nature: pride, revenge, gloating, etc.  Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  We need to be on guard against our surrounding environment shaping us rather than God’s Word.  

In Ezekiel 33, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to Ezekiel and said, “the city has fallen!”  Sure enough, just as Ezekiel had prophesied, the city of Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed.  But in Ezekiel 34, once again, Ezekiel begins to prophesy concerning Israel.  But this time it is different.  It is a prophetic word concerning Israel’s future and their redemption and the redemption for all of mankind.  Ezekiel 34:11 – 24; 36:24 - 27. In this prophecy, we find Ezekiel making reference to a shepherd referring to the Good Shepherd of Jesus Christ.  So, this morning, let’s take a look at this good Shepherd. 

John 10:11 – 15, 27 - 30 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.  27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”

1. Nature of Sheep

• Dirty - Their wool gets dirty, and they can’t do anything about it.  They become weighted down from their environment and can’t clean themselves up.

• Defenseless - Sheep have no means to protect themselves.

• Dependent - Sheep require more attention than any animal.

• Dumb – Sheep, if left to themselves, will destroy themselves.

Sheep are not particularly bright animals. Sheep follow the crowd and don’t think of the consequences.  It is not that they occasionally wander off, it is their pattern. It is predictable and expected. They are easily distracted and easily led astray. 

A story ran in the Washington Post in 2005 sharing about shepherds in Gevas, Turkey who watched in shock as hundreds of their sheep followed each other over a cliff. First, one sheep wandered away and fell over, and eventually, the entire flock followed it. In the end, more than 400 sheep died in the plunge. There were 1,100 others that followed, but they survived because their fall was broken by the first ones that went over. 

Long ago, the prophet Isaiah recognized that the human condition was much like these sheep, for he wrote: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way . . .” (Isaiah 53:6a). We have followed our own instincts, and sometimes the crowd instead of the Shepherd and the result is destruction 

I’Ching Thomas shares about observing some sheep. He writes: “A few years ago while traveling across to Europe in a ferry, we found our bus parked next to a truck. It was one of those trucks where there are two levels of storage space for live animals. This time, it was loaded with sheep. There must have been at least a hundred sheep crammed into that vehicle, all on their way to the slaughterhouse. As I observed the animals, they were behaving rather amusingly — some were sticking out their noses sniffing away, while others were trying to peek out curiously as they experienced the new smells, sights, and sounds that were quite different from their usual farmstead. Little did they know they were on their way to be “butchered!” He goes on to make an application: “While we might laugh at the silliness of the sheep, it is also a vivid illustration of our human state. On a daily basis, we are offered joyrides that promise pleasure and adventure, opportunities that seem to realize our ambition for recognition, power, material wealth, intimacy, and even meaning. At every turn, we are led by advertisers to believe that their products or services can satisfy our thirst for excitement and thrill. Unknowingly, we accept invitations for rides which take us on roads that could result in our slow spiritual deaths. Sadly, we are not often aware of the looming danger as we are too preoccupied with taking in the new experience and novelty. By the time we arrive at the slaughterhouse, it would be too late for us to escape our end.” 

But there are some good things about sheep also. They can learn to follow the true Shepherd. They learn to recognize his voice. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). And when they get to know his voice, they follow him and will not follow a stranger. It is the loving attention and care of the Shepherd that develops trust and draws them to him. 

1. Nature of the Good Shepherd 

1. Redemption - The Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life

"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep (puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary). A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs from it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He’s only in it for the money. The sheep don’t matter to him.   And as we know, Jesus died in our place – not as a martyr or because he was murdered – but because He willingly took our place as our substitute as the required payment for the penalty of our sins.

1. Relationship - The Good Shepherd Knows His Sheep

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 10:15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.   He knows (ginosko) His Sheep - This is not book knowledge, but personal knowledge. Jesus knows you and wants you to know Him. He knows everything about you – good, the bad and the ugly – and He loves you anyway. You matter to Him.  Just as a shepherd knows the individual bleats and bahs of his sheep, the Good Shepherd knows every detail about us.  A good shepherd:

1) provides - He knows our basic needs.

2) pilots - He knows our need for direction.

3) protects - He knows our need for security.

4)  pursues - He knows our need for compassion.

I am impressed by the love of a Shepherd for his sheep. He calls them each by name. He knows each one intimately and cares for them. He goes and searches for the wandering ones. Even those we think of as hopeless sinners are still sheep, even though they may have strayed and become lost. Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). The lost are still sheep by nature — God’s creation — and the good Shepherd is still seeking them. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:35-36). The True Shepherd has compassion. He does not drive the sheep, he leads them. He looks after their wounds. He brings them to places of renewal where they can be refreshed. He provides pasture and water for them. 

Jesus says that He is the gate for the sheep. At first this sounds like a confusing double metaphor until you understand that in biblical times the shepherd would take the sheep to a cave or lead them into a sheepfold that was created by thick briars on all sides. Both the cave and the briars had an opening where the sheep could go in and out. The only problem was that predators could go in as well. So, the shepherd would lay down in the opening at night and literally become the gate. Nothing could go in or out without going through him. It could be a dangerous position to be in. He would literally lay down his life for the sheep, and many shepherds lost their lives in this way from an attack of predators. The whole life of the shepherd is lived to do good to the sheep. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). 

Jesus, the good Shepherd, came to give us life.  It is unfortunate that we have reduced the Christian life to a moral code. There is a moral code, but it is so much more than that. It misses the point when we present the Christian life as a set of rules, or a body of doctrine. It is tragic when we reduce the Christian life to some kind of formula. It totally misses the point that the Christian life is a relationship. It means loving our Shepherd; following him; listening to his voice and trusting him. 

What Jesus did say was, “Follow me.” Those are some simple and yet most difficult words ever spoken in the history of the world. It is one thing to confess your sins and ask Christ to come into your life (and that is a very necessary thing), but it is quite another thing to actually follow Jesus, day by day, hour by hour. Becoming a Christian is not just a crisis event; it is an ongoing relationship with God that results in a new way of living. 

If there is anything the story of the Shepherd and the sheep tells us, it is that the Christian life is not about going through a few steps so we can avoid hell and get to heaven; it is about a relationship that takes place between the Shepherd and his sheep. It is not about getting into the fold, for that is never mentioned, it is about following the Shepherd.

Story: A famous actor was once the guest of honor at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favorite excerpts from various literary works. An old preacher, who happened to be there, asked the actor to recite the 23rd Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would recite it also. The actor’s recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis for which he received a lengthy standing ovation. The preacher voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his dictation was anything but polished. But when he finished there was neither applause nor a dry eye in the room. After the gala had concluded, someone asked the actor what made the difference in the Psalm. He replied, “I know the Psalm, but he knows the Good Shepherd.”

1. Benefits of Following Shepherd

1. Eternal life – 

2. Never perish – John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

3. Never separated – Romans 8:35 - 39

It is a reciprocal relationship – He knows the sheep and the sheep know the shepherd. They know His voice, His touch, His compassion, His love, and His discipline – and we experience His leading every day. Do you know this relationship?

---