[Machine transcription]
Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. Hallelujah.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints, St. Peter says,
You were straying like sheep,
but have now returned to the shepherd
and overseer of your souls.
This picture of the shepherd with his sheep would have been very common in the
ancient world, especially in Israel, especially around Jerusalem.
The hills around Jerusalem
Jerusalem were covered, or maybe dotted, with flocks of sheep here and there, and the shepherds
looking after them.
Everywhere you go in Israel, this is the situation, especially in the more arid and dry places.
The shepherds would take out their flocks to help them find something to eat.
When we were there, we were driving from Jericho up to Jerusalem in the hills, and we stopped
and you could see this overview and you could see this picture, I mean this kind of panorama
and there over here was a flock with a shepherd and over here was a flock with a shepherd
and we got back in the bus and we were driving down the street and we drove right by, there
was, there it was, we pulled over and there on the side of the hill right there before
us was a flock with their shepherd looking after them and the sheep dogs were there resting
in the corner and the sheep were grazing and they would graze and look up at the shepherd
and grazed a little bit more. And the shepherd took, he kind of took a few steps this way,
and the sheep looked up, and they took a few steps this way, and they ate a little bit more.
Then the shepherd walked up the hill a little bit this way, and the sheep kind of followed after him
like this. One went a little too far, and the shepherd threw a rock at him, and he kind of
scurried back down into the flock. And it was an amazing thing to see. In fact, we were watching
this unfold before us, and I said, this is just like being there in the Bible, looking at the
shepherd looking after his flock, and just as I had that thought, this shepherd pulled
out his cell phone out of his jeans pocket and checked Facebook and probably updated
it.
Here’s another boss of foolish American tourists watching, it was one of those moments.
But this is all over in Israel, there is the shepherd and there is the flock.
Now, the people who knew this would know that sheep are not the most profoundly intelligent
of animals.
In fact, the people who know sheep tell me that sheep are pretty dumb.
In fact, that might be the first point of the sermon here, that if someone were to call
you a sheep, or someone call you a lamb, it wouldn’t necessarily be a compliment.
Sheep aren’t strong, they can’t overpower anyone, they’re not fast, they don’t have
that sharp teeth or pointy claws, they’re not that smart to be able to outsmart someone
coming to get them.
In fact, their eyesight’s not that good, their smelling’s not that good, and even
their hearing is not that good, not like a dog that can hear really high pitches or
something like this. In fact, this is why sheep without a shepherd are in utter danger.
That’s the saying. It comes up multiple times in the Bible where it says that if you
strike the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered. This is why it’s so precarious that one sheep
is lost in the wilderness, if the shepherd doesn’t find that sheep, that sheep is finished,
it’s over, it’s done for. The one thing, though, that sheep apparently are good at
is in distinguishing voices. They have a particular kind of hearing that they are
very accomplished at, that they can recognize the voice of their shepherd amongst the voices
of all other people, all other shepherds. In fact the picture that Jesus is
working on in this particular text is in the ancient world the shepherd would
take his flock and he’d call them and they’d lead them out and they would go
out to the wilderness to find something to eat and something to drink and he’d
stay out with them all day and then at night he would bring them back to town
to the village and there was a big sort of community pin where all the flocks
would gather, where all the sheep would be put in there.
And so you think maybe a flock has 20 or 30 or 40 sheep, but now there’s 10 or 20 flocks
all together, thousands of sheep in this pen.
And they hire the high school kid to stay up all night and watch to make sure nothing
bad happens to the sheep overnight.
And then in the morning, the shepherd would come back into the middle of all of these
sheep all around, and he would call them each by name.
Fred, and George, and Susie, and whatever the sheep’s name were, he would call them,
and the sheep, and so you’ve got to imagine all the shepherds all there at the same time,
all calling their sheep, and the sheep could hear and know, there’s my shepherd, and
they would go and gather to them, and so the shepherds would lead their little flock out,
and take them out to get something to eat, and something to drink, and to graze all day.
Now that’s the picture.
And Jesus in this text says, I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me,
and I call them by name, and they follow me.
That is just about the only thing a sheep is good at.
But look, that’s all it needs.
The life of the sheep depends on the shepherd.
So if you can hear the voice of your Shepherd, if you can hear the voice of the One who is
committed to protecting you and keeping you and you follow Him, then you have everything.
This is the beauty of the Psalm 23, which is today’s Psalm, the Lord is my Shepherd,
I shall not want.
The King of love, my Shepherd is.
His goodness faileth never.
However, if we have the Good Shepherd, then we have life.
We have peace.
We have protection.
We have provision.
We have, in fact, as Jesus says it here, he says, we have abundant life because the Lord
is our shepherd.
This is what it means.
Now think about this.
This is what it means then to be a Christian, to listen, or maybe better, it’s to hear
the voice of Jesus. Our chief Christian activity, if you were just to say, what is
it that a Christian does? You would answer simply this way, a Christian hears
Jesus. A Christian listens to God. A Christian knows the voice of their
Savior. We might not be strong, we might not be fast, we might not have sharp
claws. We might not be the Lord’s flock of warhorses, rather his flock of sheep.
But if he’s our shepherd, then all is well. And we take the insult as our greatest compliment.
But look, it’s not only that sheep are humble animals, but it’s also for us to note this
warning that shepherds are also humble people. Shepherding is a humble vocation.
Remember, just as a couple of biblical examples, remember when Samuel was sent
by the Lord to the house of Jesse, and he said, one of the children of Jesse will
be the king. And so he says to Jesse, bring me your boys, and he brings him the
boys. Here’s the oldest, obviously he’ll be the king. And Samuel says, no, it’s not
him, and the next, and the next, and the next, and he goes through all seven of his sons,
and he says, no, none of these, don’t you have another?
And he says, well, there’s one other, the youngest, the eighth boy, but he’s the smallest,
he’s the weakest, he’s the one watching the sheep.
Or remember the story of Joseph, when his eleven, or his ten brothers, Benjamin hadn’t
been born yet, when his 10 brothers, who were not loved by their father, were sent to watch
the sheep while he was able to stay home. In other words, watching the sheep was the
humble job. Or even Cain and Abel. Remember, Cain inherited his father Adam’s business.
He was a farmer. And Abel, the younger son, had to be out watching the sheep as the rancher.
So, shepherding is a humble work, it’s a humble calling, and yet the Lord Jesus says
that He is our Good Shepherd. There’s a humility that He takes on to do the work,
and it just really keeps coming. It’s not only the humility of being our shepherd,
but Jesus astonishes us by saying that he’s the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.
Can you imagine that? The sheep are supposed to provide the life of the shepherd, but not this
shepherd. He gives his life for us. He humbles himself to the point of death, even death on the
In fact, the humility of Jesus is this, that even though He is the Good Shepherd, He for
us is the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Shepherd is the sheep who bears our sins, carries our sorrows, and suffers and bleeds
and dies for us. There’s a particular text in Micah. It’s the Christmas text, at least
that’s what we normally think of it, but I think this text is why we hear about Jesus
shepherding us in the season of Easter. Micah chapter 5, verse 2, But you, Bethlehem, Epaphrathah,
though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall
come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth are from of old,
from everlasting. Therefore he shall give them up until the time that she who is
in labor has given birth. Then the remnant of his brethren shall return to
the children of Israel, and he, are you ready, and he shall stand and feed his
flock.” That standing is the standing of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. He
will stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of
the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide. For now he shall be great to
the ends of the earth, and this one shall be peace.” Dear Saints, you have a good
shepherd, Jesus, who has died for you to rescue you from the mouth of the wolf
and the lion. He leads you to the green pastures of his word. He has you by the
still waters of his mercy and his love, and you will dwell with him in his house
forever. For even now Jesus has risen for this, that he will stand and feed his
flock. God be praised. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard
your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is risen. He has
risen indeed. Alleluia.
