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So we we’re gathered here this afternoon and I’ve called this the good shepherd. Uh so um the reason I wrote this sermon,
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it was um just a few weeks ago uh was my wife and I were visiting somebody who
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was passing away and um when people are passing away um they tend to remember
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the things of their youth very much. Um things from their childhood become very important to them and uh more than
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anything else people want to have good or restored relationships. um relationships with their children,
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with their parents sometimes if they’re still alive. Um but people are not so concerned about their finances as
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opposed to their personal relationships as they’re facing their maker and uh meeting their maker. And so out of that
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experience, I thought, well, this person really enjoyed the 23rd Psalm. And uh I
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would read the 23rd Psalm with this person. And every time I read it, I just had to pause and think that um I’ve read
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this 23rd Psalm so many times that I’m I’m kind of so familiar with the text and my eyes kind of like glance over it
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now, like a stone just skipping off the water. And it’s time to me to time for me to slow down and to dig a little bit
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deeper into what the 23rd Psalm is all about. So I actually wrote three sermons on the 23rd Psalm, but the third one
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kind of evolved into this one, which is um the 23rd Psalm talks about the Lord is my shepherd. And this is the logical
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continuation of that and it’s that Jesus is our good shepherd. So I want to talk
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today about when Jesus says I am the good shepherd and John 10:11 what that means for us today. And so, um, I think
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this is important, um, because we all face life’s important questions from time to time, uh, particularly when
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we’re saying goodbye to loved ones. Uh, but also for young people, the question is, who is your shepherd and whose voice
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are you listening to? And, uh, which which voice and set of principles is guiding your life um, as we go through
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our journey um, on this world. So, as as we begin, invite you to bow your heads with me and invite the presence of the
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Holy Spirit. So, shall we pray? Our dear heavenly father, we thank you for the blessings we have shared so far this on
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this Sabbath day. Father, we thank you for um the physical food you’ve blessed us with. Lord, in a world of want and a
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world of hunger, we thank you that we have full stomachs and a warm building. And uh Lord, we thank you for these
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physical blessings, but more than that, Lord, um we ask for spiritual manner,
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not just physical manner. So now Lord, as we spend some time uh dwelling on and chewing over this teaching of Jesus in
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John 11, I’m asking Father that the same spirit who inspired John to write these words uh will descend upon us each and
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everyone and will guide us and convict us of how we are to respond to the call
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to follow Jesus as not only the good shepherd but the only shepherd in our lives. So Lord, please speak through me
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and for me and may you be glorified in all that is said and done today. Okay. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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All right. So, there’s our journey this afternoon. We’re going to first look at the bad shepherds, then we’re going to
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look at the beloved sheep, then we’re going to look at the good shepherd. So, that’s the journey we’re going to go on this afternoon. And then we’re going to
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come to our conclusions. And um we’re going to start out um well, introduction. I guess that’s where we’re
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going to start. But we’re going to start out um by comparing Psalm the 23rd Psalm and the first verse and John 10:11. So
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on the on the left hand side the left hand column it says there I’ve quote I’ve translated there psalm 23rd 23rd
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psalm the first verse says the lord is my shepherd and the rest of the psal that verse says I shall not want very
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very famous psalm this is a psalm that you read for people when they’re passing away it’s a psalm for people who are
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grieving it’s a psalm for someone that’s just received a cancer diagnosis it’s a psalm that we read when people are
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walking through the valley of the shadow of death and and they want the assurance that God is with them. And so I put it
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up there in Hebrew, um Roy Yahweh, there it is in the top left quadrant there. But the psalm starts out with um uh the
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Lord or I am. Uh so the great I am is my shepherd. And then on the right hand
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side of the screen there, you have Jesus claiming this identity for himself. John 10:1, we read there, I am the good
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shepherd. And you got it up above. says ego amy. Then you’ve got the the Greek there. I I am the good shepherd. Now, I
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just want you to think about this for a minute. Um if if the Sanpoint um if the Sanpoint um uh town had a private soccer
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club and they were to announce next week that Lionel Messi had signed a two-year
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contract with Sandpoint, can you imagine the Can you imagine the reverberations around Northern Idaho?
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Like if the manager of Sanpoint Soccer Club were to say Lionel Messi, probably the greatest player that’s ever lived in
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soccer, he’s now the striker for Sandpoint Community Soccer Club. Like the world would be shocked like how does
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Lionel Messi become the striker for Sanpoint Community Soccer Club and
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people would ask all kinds of questions and suddenly all around the world little boys would be wearing shirts that says
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Sanpoint Community Soccer Club and you’d have sports journalists camped out here and there’d be new hotels built and
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you’d have 60,000 people turning up to every game every weekend and everybody would want to know about Lionel Messi
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and why he chose Sandpoint to be the the club in the next two years of his life. And this is really akin to what Psalm 23
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is saying. So when we normally say the 23rd Psalm, this is how it goes. We say, “The Lord
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is my shepherd. I shall not want.” Is that right? I mean, we set we say it
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like we’re we’re starting a funeral. Like, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
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not want.” Nobody ever sounds excited to say, “Yahweh, Jehovah is my shepherd. I
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shall not want. But when you think about it, um you know the the the the charact
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the nature of this flock, the quality of the flock depends on the character of the shepherd. Um I don’t know if ever
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you’ve raised sheep in your life, but on our farm in Ireland, um my uncle had a lot of sheep. And I soon discovered that
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in order to have a healthy flock, you got to have a caring shepherd because sheep cannot look after themselves.
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Sheep have all manner of of um of uh diseases and rashes and ticks and animal
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and little bugs that kind of work their way up into their nostrils. They lay eggs. They lay lavi up in the nostrils
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and they hatch in the in the no nasal passages. It’s like having living creatures in your sinuses. And the sheep
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will literally beat their head out on a tree trying to get rid of that annoying feature in the in their nasal passages.
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And so in order to have a healthy flock, you’ve got to have a good shepherd. And a good shepherd always leads his
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sheep to new pastures every day because sheep, like humans, are creatures of of habit. The sheep will literally walk the
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same path every single day unless the shepherd takes them in another direction.
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And the sheep will liter as they walk the same direction path every day, that little path in the grass becomes a
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track. And over the space of year, it becomes a ravine. Then it becomes filled with their droppings. Then they start to
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get intestinal problems and bugs and worms and so forth. The sheep have a unique ability to destroy their
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pastures. And that is why the shepherd has to lead them every day beside different pastures so they can be a
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healthy flock. The shepherd has to anoint the sheep’s head with oil on a daily basis. And some people today they
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use a mixture of tar and other things um to actually kill off and it’s like a
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coating on their head that stops the bugs getting into their nasal passages. So sheep require constant attention from
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the shepherd. And if the shepherd thinks it doesn’t matter about my sheep, they’re all going to end up in the slaughter house anyway. Then the
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shepherd’s not going to look after those sheep and you’re going to get a sorrylooking flock. But in order to have
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a healthy flock, you have to have a good shepherd. If you have a bad shepherd,
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the flock suffers. You have a good shepherd, then the flock is is is is a
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blessing. You know, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen when sheep are contented, but uh when when sheep are content or
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content content, happy when you I’m not sure about the pronunciation here in
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America. I’m going to use when when the sheep are happy, they lie down.
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He makes me how does the psalm goes? He makes me um lie down. So when a sheep
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lies down, it lies down on it facing sitting upright. And if the sheep is
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full, it lies down and it rolls on its side. And when the sheep rolls on its side, um they lose their ability to to
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grip the the ground because they’ve only got hooves. And if they’re not careful, they roll on their back. And when a
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sheep rolls on its back, the the the gases build up in the stomach and the sheep can no longer roll. It can’t can’t
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write itself up again. And so when when a sheep is is content and it lies on its
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side, it can roll over and then before you know it, it’s lying on its back and its legs are in the air and the blood
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leaves the legs and the the juices build up in the intestines and the sheep will be dead in a matter of hours.
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And so that’s why the shepherd has to look for every sheep every day. Where is every sheep in my flock? And when a
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shepherd finds a sheep that’s on its back, which is an easy prey for the predators, the sheep the shepherd has to
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come and turn it up so it’s the right way up. But because there is no blood in the in the legs, they can’t stand. So
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the sheep the shepherd has to stand over the sheep with the sheep’s head like that, standing over the sheep, and he’s massaging the legs of the sheep, trying
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to get the blood back into the legs, and eventually that sheep can walk again. And so shepherds have an intimate
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relationship with their sheep. Uh when when the when the shepherd um examines the sheep um they they do it in a
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variety of ways but um a shepherd’s thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. The shepherd’s rod is like a knob carry. Do
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you know what a knob carrier is? Like so in South Africa you see these a lot. Little boy shepherds have them. Knob
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carry is about this long and it’s and it’s the root of a tree and one end is like a bulb of wood at one end and
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they’ve polished that off and the shepherd boys they can throw those things like an arrow. and and the heavy
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end, it’s called a knob carry, will smack into um a sheep and know that it tells the sheep, “Get back with the
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flock.” That that rod is an extension of the will of the shepherd. It symbolizes
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his authority. If a predator is coming up to the flock, the shepherd will throw his rod at that at that sheep, at the
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predator with that that thick bulb of wood. They’re normally made out of ironwood, these knob carries. Um but
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that will drive many predators away. And so the rod is an expression of the the it’s the revealing of the will of the
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shepherd in the same way that the Bible is God’s revealed will for us. Whereas the staff is completely different. Uh my
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uncle used to do the the euing pens on the farmers in island and they would have an old you know shepherd’s rod. And
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the reason you have a set of shepherd’s rod is two reasons. One is um that the rod that the the circle that is there at
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the top because in lamming season you don’t want to touch a lamb before the mother has bonded with the lamb. And
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when you have 50 sheep all yuwing in giving birth in a hall the size of this
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um the lambs get mixed up. So the shepherd has to lift up a lamb with that
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crook and carry it back to its mother without touching the lamb itself. That’s why you have the crook at the end of the
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shepherd’s rod there. And that means that the the mother will bond with the lamb. Whereas if you pick up the lamb
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and can and take it to its mother, the mother will reject it. So the shepherd can’t touch those babies, those lambs
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and and uses the the shepherd’s crook in order to do that. And the other end of the shepherd’s crook is is very sharp.
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And the reason it’s sharp is that the the um the role of the shepherd is to
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inspect the inspect the sheep almost on a daily basis. So, um, there are some
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parts of the world where people sit next to each other and they kind of comb through each other’s hair for the knits. Yes,
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you you’ve seen that. Yes. Maybe you do it at home, but you want to admit it. I don’t know. But, um, what a shepherd
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will do is when when the sheep’s hair grows long, the the end of the rod is very sharp and he kind of pierces down
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through the wool and pulls it to one side so he can see the flesh underneath. And it’s got to be sharp to get down
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through all that thick wool. And once he goes down to the flesh, he kind of wiggles the rod around and creates a hole in the wool and he can see, okay,
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the flesh is good here. And if if there’s if there’s a cut there, if there’s some lavi down there, then he
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will deal with it as as needed. And so the shepherd’s rod and and thy staff, they comfort me. The only way the
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shepherd the sheep can remain healthy is if the shepherd has a rod to reveal his will to the sheep. Like you throw it at
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the sheep and hit it and bring the sheep back to the flock. Um or to drive off a predator. And he has a staff because
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with the crook on the staff means that he can reunite the babies with their mothers. And he can also give give a
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deep inspection of every single sheep and their body and make sure they don’t have um all kinds of infestations on
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their skin. And that’s why thy rod and thy staff they comfort me because that is that shows the care of the shepherd
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for the sheep. And so if the Bible is like the parallel to the rod because this reveals the will of God. um the the
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the the shepherd’s staff is is really like the Holy Spirit because when when you’re walking with a flock of sheep, if
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you have a sick sheep and and that sick sheep doesn’t know quite where to go or
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is stumbling or is falling behind, a shepherd will often walk alongside or just behind that sheep and he will just
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rest the sharp end of the of the rod on the back of the sheep. Wherever that
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sheep goes, the she the shepherd’s rod is rested on that sheep. There’s a living connection between the shepherd
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and the sheep. And for that ailing sheep, it’s comforting to know that the shepherd is still with me. And the
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shepherd can just kind of push it with on its shoulders this way or that way. And that ailing sheep knows which way to
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go. And so in a sense, if the Bible is like the shepherd’s staff, the Holy Spirit is like the shepherd’s rod. We
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have a daily connection with our heavenly father. So um we live we don’t live in a an agrarian society anymore.
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Um but this the psalmist says Yahweh is my shepherd. And you think Yahweh Jehovah that is the creator of the
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universe who made all things in the universe who spoke the galaxies into existence. He’s my shepherd. It’s not
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just like that guy down the road. It’s like the creator of all things, the maker of all things is my personal
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shepherd. That means he inspects me every day. Search me and you see if there be any wicked way of me, says the
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psalmist. because I can’t search for my myself for myself. My my my human heart is deceitful above all else. And so when
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the psalmist says Jehovah is my shepherd, this is like this the Sanpoint soccer team saying Lionel Messi is now
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our striker. Like the world sits in disbelief like really like the creator of the universe is your shepherd. Like
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he cares for you. He feeds you. He watches over you. He sets you on your feet again. He he heals the wounds on
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your body that you can’t heal for yourself. He guides you into the sheepfold every night. He’s the creator
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of the universe. He’s your shepherd. So instead of saying the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. It’s like
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hallelujah. The creator of the universe is my shepherd. Like who have you got for your shepherd? Leon Messi. Ah, he’s
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nobody. The creator of the universe. He’s my shepherd. The one who cares for me personally, who knows every inch of
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my body, who knows my history, who knows where I was born, who unites me with my parents, the one who guides me with his
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rod day by day. that guy, the creator of the universe, the that that person in my life is the creator of the universe.
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Hallelujah. So the next time you say the Lord is my shepherd, say it with a bit of oomph and a bit of joy, okay? Because
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Jehovah God is my shepherd and he takes care of this miserable sheep.
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And then Jesus says, I am that good shepherd. So in order to know about the good
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shepherd, we need to know about the bad shepherds because good is a comparative.
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So let’s look for a moment at the bad shepherd, shall we? And if you open your Bibles to we’re not going to look at
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John 10. We’re going to look at John nine. Now all the texts are going to be on the screen,
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but I’m going to assume you’re relatively familiar with the story of John 9. It’s a story of the man who was born blind from birth. Are you familiar
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with that story? And Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd in John 10:11.”
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But that comes immediately after um immediately after the discussion of the
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man born blind from birth. And if you look in your Bibles um at John 9:49, it says, “Jesus said to
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them to the Pharisees, if you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say we see, your sin remains.”
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And then chapter 10 and verse one says, “Very truly I tell you,” then he goes on to the story about the describing
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himself as the good shepherd. If you didn’t have a chapter division in there, you would rightfully assume that this is
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all one discussion by Jesus. But because they put a chapter division in there, we cut off the discussion of the good
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shepherd from what’s just gone before. So, we’re going to start out by looking at the story of the man who was born
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blind from birth. Now the Old Testament prophesied that the spiritual leaders of
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God’s people would be bad shepherds. That they would treat God’s people in a cruel manner. They would abuse them.
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They would take advantage of them. They would use them for their personal benefit and they would not serve the
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needs of the flock. And we see this particular prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 34. And in Ezekiel chapter 34, uh there
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are two screens for this verses 2-5. This is the prophecy um from Ezekiel
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that God’s people would be cursed not by good shepherds but by having selfish
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self-centered shepherds or bad shepherds. And so the prophecy goes like this. It says mortal prophesy against
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the shepherds of Israel. That is God is speaking against the leaders of his people. He says, “Prophesy and say to
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them to the shepherds, that is to the spiritual leaders, thus saith the Lord God, ah, you shepherds of Israel who’ve
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been feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed the flock or the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves
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with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the sheep? You’ve not strengthened the weak. You’ve
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not healed the sick. You’ve not bound up the injured. You’ve not brought back the stray. You’ve not sought the lost. but
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with force and harshness you have ruled over them. And the prophecy goes on to say, so now talking about God’s people,
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Ezekiel says, they were scattered because there was no shepherd and scattered they became food for all the
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wild animals. My sheep were scattered. They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were
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scattered over all the face of the earth with no one to search or seek for them.
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It’s a terrible picture of God’s people as a flock living under bad shepherds.
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And there’s a problem with these shepherds because rather than caring for the flock, the shepherds are caring for
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themselves. And they’re using the wool and the fat and the meat of the sheep um for their
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own benefit. And they’re not concerned about looking for the lost sheep. And because of this um it says that God’s
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people are scattered over the mountains. They are as sheep without a shepherd, which is how Jesus later describes it in
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the gospels. And as a result of this scattering, foreign nations by the time of Christ have plundered Israel and the
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flock was scattered. So in response to this prophecy that there will be bad shepherds among God’s people, you know,
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the Waldensians in their creed, the the um they have their own creed. You can see it online actually. There’s a phrase
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in the the Waldensian creed speaking about the papal priests. It says they care not for the flock only for their
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fleece. Like you don’t care about us as individuals. You just keep demanding
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money. And so the Waldens that that I’ve read,
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you can read it for yourself, but that one phrase sticks in my mind. They care not for the flock only for the fleece is
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what the Waldeni said about the papal priests. And this is what Ezekiel is saying here about the spiritual leaders
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of Israel. So in response, Ezekiel goes on to say that God makes three promises to his sheep, to his scattered sheep.
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The first promise is here in Ezekiel 34:10. And it says this, “Thus thus sayaith the Lord God, I am against the
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shepherds, that is these bad shepherds, and I’ll demand my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding of to
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their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I, that is God speaking, will rescue my sheep
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from their mouths so that they may not be food for them.” So the first promise from God is that he’s going to judge the
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bad shepherds. God is going to intervene. God sees when the people are abused by their spiritual leaders and
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God is going to intervene on behalf of Israel and he’s going to act against those bad shepherds. The second promise
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from God is verses 11 and 12 which says this. For thus sayaith the Lord God, I
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myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. Isn’t that beautiful? Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek
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and to save that which was lost. As shepherds seek out their flocks, when they are among their scattered sheep, so
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I will seek out my sheep. I’ll rescue them from all the places to which they’ve been scattered on a day of
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clouds and thick darkness.” So the first promise is that God will judge these bad shepherds. The second promise is that
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God would seek out and restore his scattered flock.
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I will sk I will rescue them from it says all the places to which they’ve been scattered.
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All the places. No matter which place you may have gone to, there’s a good shepherd who’s come
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in looking for you. No matter how low or broken or chaotic
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life may appear, there is a good shepherd who promises to rescue you from whichever place you may have found
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yourself today. No matter where you’ve got lost, no matter if you’re lying on your back and your feets are in the air and the gastric juices are building up
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like those trapped sheep and you know that life is fading away on you or maybe you wander away from the Lord as a young
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person and you’re away from him today. There’s a sense of alienation between you and God. The promise from God is I
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will rescue my sheep from all the places which they’ve been scattered. That’s an expression of God’s grace.
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Just as the good sewer, the sewer in Mark 4, he scatters seed not just on the good soil, but he also scatters seed on
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the rocky roads, the hard roads and on the rocky soil and on the soil full of weeds. Like he doesn’t just sew seed in
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the good soil. He hopes for harvest in every kind of human heart.
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And today this passage tells me that Conrad, wherever you may go spiritually or emotionally in life, there is a good
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shepherd who’s going to come looking for you. And he’s not concerned about where you
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are. He’s concerned about how he’s going to restore you. He knows where you are and he’s going to come and find you, but
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he’s going to bring you back to where you need to be. The third promise we find here is in Ezekiel 34:23-24.
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And this is the promise that one day there’ll be a good shepherd. That God would appoint a new shepherd over his
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people. The text says this, “I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall
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feed them and be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God. And my servant David shall be prince among
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them. I the Lord have spoken. So there are three promises from God in response
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to these bad shepherds. The first, God will judge the bad shepherds. The second, God will seek out and restore
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his scattered flock regardless of where life has taken them. And thirdly, God would appoint a new shepherd who would
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faithfully feed the flock. I mean, they say the gospel is not in
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the Old Testament, but I think it’s there. It really is there. And some of us may
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be sitting here today as a uh well-fed sheep in green pastures. And some of us may be sitting here today maybe kind of
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feeling a bit spiritually lost, maybe alienated, maybe far from God. And as we see in this story, it’s not that we go
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running to God. It’s that God comes running after us. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God came
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looking for them in the Garden of Eden. He didn’t wait for them to come to him. And the good shepherd knows that his
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sheep is lost and he goes looking for that sheep wherever that sheep has fallen into hard times. So, if you come
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back to John 9 in your Bibles, we’re not going to go through all the texts here today, but um after healing the man or
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John chapter 9, the first few verses tells the story of Jesus healing a man who was blind from birth. And Jesus does
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this. Um, he finds the man and he spits into the ground and with his spittle he turns the dust into kind of mud or clay
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or mud, let’s say. Then he puts it on the man’s eyes and he tells him to go and wash in the pool of Silomme. And as
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he does, the blind man can now see. And he returns to the crowd in the temple. And this causes astonishment to
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everybody in the temple. They’re wondering, “How did this happen?” And because they don’t know the they the
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answers to this miracle because this was a man blind from birth. They say, “Okay, let’s bring this man to the shepherds
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that we have and the the shepherds that they have are the Pharisees,
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the bad shepherds, you might say. And the Pharisees, they first of all,
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there are three interviews in this chapter. First of all, they interview the blind man himself in verses 13-1 17.
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The man can now see and uh the man tells them what’s happened.” And so the Pharisees were divided among themselves.
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Why are they divided? Because Jesus, horror of horror, had broken three of their rules on how to keep the Sabbath.
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The first rule he broken was that he had made mud on the Sabbath. You weren’t allowed to do that. That was work. The
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second thing is he’d put the mud on the man’s eyes. That was an act of healing. That was also not allowed on the
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Sabbath. And the third thing is um he’d actually healed the man’s eyes and that was also not allowed on the Sabbath
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because this man was blind from birth. This was not an acute emergency. He could have waited to Sunday to be
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healed. Yes, we find that later in Mark 3. You know, why heal a man with a withered
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hand on a Sabbath? He could wait till tomorrow. And so Jesus had broken three of the
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rules. Now, where are these rules coming from? So the Jews believed, and I’m pretty sure I’ve told you this before,
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but the Jews believed that when God gave Moses the Torah, that’s Genesis through Deuteronomy, he also gave him the oral
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interpretation of the Torah, that became known as the oral Torah. So this is the written Torah. Genesis, Exodus,
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Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And with that, we have the interpretation, which is the oral Torah. And through
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every generation of Jews from Moses down to time of Christ, they believe that there were rabbis who debated the
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meaning of the oral Torah. And so by the time of Jesus, you have um you have the Mishna and which is dozens of books of
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rules of how to keep the ten commandments. I mean if you go to Andrew University
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and you look in the Talmud which is a collection of all the oral traditions of the Jews, it’s vast, multiple volumes on
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multiple shelves. And um you pray you never get a question on the Talmud because it’s a lot of work
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to look through all that stuff. But this was their church manual.
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They had the underlying text was the Torah and then the rules on how to apply it
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was known as the oral Torah. And we have the word of God. Then the rules on how to apply it at a church level are known
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as the church manual.
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I’m not criticizing the church manual. I’m just saying that’s what we have.
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And so this man had broken the rules of the oral Torah like some people today break some people’s interpretations of
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the church manual. And rather than recognizing that God has
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worked a powerful miracle in this blind man’s life, the Pharisees are angry that
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he’s been healed on the Sabbath day. They’re not angry that he’s being healed. Angry that the healing broke the
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Sabbath day rules. Now the second interview that comes along in this chapter is where the Pharisees then uh
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decide to interview the man’s parents and the man’s parents are just terrified. They don’t want to have this
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interview with these church leaders with these administrators. Why? Well, the answer is quite simple. The the
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Pharisees had already agreed that if anybody expressed faith in Jesus the Messiah, then those people were to be thrown out of the synagogue. They were
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to be cancelled from active participation in the life of the local church. They were cut off from their
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retirement. If you didn’t have a child, let’s say the widow of Naine, she was going to be supported from the poor fund
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now that her her son was dead. And so people did not want to be thrown out of the synagogue. It was like losing your
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social securityities. We said last night, Medicaid and medical all in one go. And so the the parents are terrified
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and uh they’re terrified. They’re brought before these religious administrators and um they’re terrified
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of the cancel culture that goes along with expressing faith in Jesus. Because back then, truth speakers in the temple
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were to be banned. Cancel culture was the only way for those power- hungry Pharisees to squash those who are
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faithful to Christ. Human rules, such as the oral traditions of the Jews or the church manual of today, were exalted
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over the word of God. Now, you may say, “You’re being rather extreme here, Pastor Vine, but let me tell you this.
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There are parts of the world today where the church manual is sacred scripture.”
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I mean really you you go around the world there are parts of the world today where the church manual is elevated to
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level of sacred scripture and the church manual says in the beginning if you look read the preamble to it that these
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things are guidelines and suggestive but you can go to parts of the world say
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where the manual almost is more important than the word of God itself and if we’re going to resolve a problem
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we look at what the manual says not what the teachings of Christ are on problem resolution. Now, the parents were
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terrified of what would happen if they spoke openly. So, they simply said in a
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terrified way to those power-hungry administrators, “You better ask the man again what happened. He’s of age.” See,
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they’ve already lost their blind son’s income as a beggar. Now, they are terrified of of the personal cost of
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speaking truth to these bad shepherds. They’re not going to lose any more to this miracle of Jesus. So, they deflect
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and they say, “You better ask this man. He’s old enough to answer for himself. So then you come to the third interview
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and the Pharisees interview the healed man himself. And what they say to him is
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in John 9:24 they say to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man that
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is Jesus is a sinner.” And they’re paraphrasing what Joshua said to Achen outside the walls of Jericho after the
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um the failure to capture Ai in Joshua chapter 7. It says, ‘ Then Joshua said to Achen, “My son, give glory to the
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Lord God of Israel and make confession to him.” Now the implication of what the Pharisees are saying when they say,
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“Give glory to God.” By implication, they’re saying, “You have made a terrible mistake in believing anything
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good about this man, Jesus.” Like, “You made a terrible mistake. He’s
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not who you think he is. We know who we think we know who we think he is, but you’re you’re you’re verging going down
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the wrong path here. It’s time for you formerly blind man now that you can see. We know you can see but it’s time to
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confess your mistake as Achen was being challenged back in Joshua 7. And the healed man responds
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with a statement of faith. He says, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know that though I was blind,
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now I see.” So they were concerned about the letter of the law and exclusing their exclusive
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rights to interpret the oral Torah or the church manual of its time. He was
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focused on celebrating God’s work in his life. We see the divide here between a theoretical faith and an experiential
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faith. One kills life, the other gives meaning to life. And so the man answers
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them again. Says he answered them, “I’ve told you already.” Because they want to know exactly what happened. He said, ‘I
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told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his
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disciples? By implication, I’m now his disciple. Do you want him to become his disciples as
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well? Then they reviled him saying, uh, you are his disciple, but we we are
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disciples of Moses. The Pharisees respond that you can be a disciple of
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Moses or you can be disciple of Jesus, but you can’t be a disciple of both. And
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as everybody recognized that God had spoken through Moses, and as everybody recognized that the Pharisees were the
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ones who were uniquely placed to interpret the laws of Moses, that meant that no man could come to God except
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through the Pharisees interpretation of the scriptures. They had a very powerful position in Jewish religious life. So
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we’re disciples of Moses. We’re experts on the law of Moses. We know the oral Torres. We know the traditions of the
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Jews. And so we’re disciples of Jesus of Moses. this Jesus guy, we don’t know about him, but we know that God spoke
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through Moses and um as God speaks through Moses and therefore no man can
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come to God except through us because we’re the ones who interpret the writings of Moses. We control the means
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and mechanisms of salvation or you can just follow Jesus.
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They answered him, you were born entirely in sins and you trying to teach us. and they drove him
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out. Now, the interview ends with the Pharisees condemning the healed man as
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one born in sin, unworthy of salvation. And they say to him, “You’re trying to
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teach us.” That is, members are never to question their spiritual leaders. Members are
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never to call for reform among their spiritual leaders. Members are never to rebuke leaders for their sins or
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spiritual corruption. members should never speak out about open heresy and uh
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or failure to contend for the faith that was entrusted to the saints. The straight testimony of reproofs and
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warnings of lay decision is never to be preached in our pulpits. We don’t know are God’s people. We are his remnant.
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Therefore, we can do no wrong. How dare a mere member speak truth to the me to the leaders? How dare a preacher suggest
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that people are obedient to Jesus and not to administrators? And their response to this formerly blind man is
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to drive him out, dysfellowship him, ban him. Bad shepherds. And of course, I’m
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speaking about what happened 2,000 years ago here.
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So that dwell for minutes on the beloved sheep, shall we? Because caught between the bad shepherds and the good shepherd,
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you have this beloved sheep, this man who was born blind from birth. Now the
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truth about it is uh this man who was born blind from birth. He kind of represents all of us in in life because
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we’re all born into born into a fallen world and we thus have very limited spiritual perception. This man
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represents fallen humanity languishing in the darkness of sin without the hope of salvation. The disciples wanted to
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know if this man was blind because he was a sinner or because his parents had been sinners. But Jesus answered that
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that he was blind in order that God’s works might be revealed in him. That is sometimes we go through suffering not
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for a reason that we can comprehend but God is working out a greater purpose than we can see.
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You know we often say why do bad things happen to good people? The answer is there are no good people. We’re all
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sinners in need of salvation. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. So the question why do bad things happen to
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good people makes no sense from a from a biblical perspective. All have fallen sinned and fallen short of the glory of
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God. But beyond that it is also true that sometimes God allows us to go through a furnace experience a a
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wilderness experience a trying experience because God wants to be glorified in ways that we cannot begin
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to imagine. And that’s when we are invited not to uh
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you know as as Job’s wife says curse God and die but we’re invited to a deep level of trust when we go through a
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crisis in life. God is inviting us to trust him even more because it’s in the bad the hard times of life that God is
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often doing his his deepest work of transformation in our characters. And there are times, as Jesus says here,
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that sometimes God allows me or you or any of us to go through a difficult chapter of life, not for our benefit,
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but so that God might be glorified in places we can’t begin to imagine.
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That’s how Jesus describes this man’s suffering. Chapter 9:es 1, there’s a
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picture of it there, but chapter 9:es 1 and verse 6 describes what Jesus
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actually did for the man. says, “As he walked along, he saw a man blind from
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birth. And when he said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and
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spread the mud on the man’s eyes.” You see, the blind man in this story was not brought to Jesus. Jesus saw the blind
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man and take took the initiative and moved to heal him of his blindness. Jesus does this because he’s just
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declared in verse 5 that I am the light of the world. In this story, Jesus as
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the good shepherd, he goes looking for this man in his blindness and he touches the man personally and he heals him.
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Jesus didn’t wait for an affirmation of faith from this blind man. Rather, he
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found his lost sheep. And Jesus still comes looking for those
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lost sheep. And he doesn’t wait in advance for an affirmation of faith
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because part of the gospel is not that we go looking for God but that God comes looking for us.
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Theologians call it prevenient grace but that this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
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world. 2 Timothy 1:9. And so uh the idea that we don’t have to come to God
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looking for salvation. God is looking for us in order to bring his salvation to us.
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So if you have a child here today who’s maybe wandered away from the faith and you’re saying Lord I wish pray prayed
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that person would come back to the faith. No be praying that Jesus the good shepherd would today be out looking for
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that lost sheep. I ask for him to be sending his spirit to move upon their hearts to win them again for his
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kingdom. Part of the gospel is that the good shepherd is looking for his lost sheep today. He’s not waiting by the
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sheepfold for the lost sheep to somehow find their own way home. Jesus goes looking for this man and he heals this
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man long before this man ever comes to faith in Jesus. And when we see this fivepart one, yeah, five-part process by
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which this man comes to Jesus. So I put up there on the verse on the left and the spiritual journey on the right. So
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the first thing that the man says about Jesus in verse 11, he says, “The man called Jesus made mud.” So at the start
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of this man’s spiritual journey, Jesus is just a man. And then in verse 17, he speaks to the
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Pharisees and Jesus has gone up in his estimation and now he says he is a prophet.
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So Jesus has gone from being a man to being a prophet in this man’s estimation. And then in verse 30, he
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says to the Pharisees, he opened my eyes. That is he has the ability to work miracles. That Jesus miraculously opened
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my eyes and I’m starting to identify as a disciple because you what do you want to become his disciples also? as even
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though I don’t understand everything, I’m starting to see, I don’t see everything clearly, but I’m now starting
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to identify as his disciple. So, he’s gone from saying Jesus is a man to Jesus is a prophet to Jesus has the ability to
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miraculously heal me. Then he says, if this man were not from God in verse 33,
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he says he could do nothing. So now the man affirms that Jesus is sent from God.
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So he’s on a spiritual journey here. And then finally in verse 38 it says he said Lord or Adonai that’s the New Testament
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way of saying Yahweh like the Lord is my shepherd from Psalm 23. He said Adonai I
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believe and he worshiped him and he comes to the stage where Jesus he recognizes that Jesus is divine. Now in
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this story here Jesus is active in this man’s life even before verse 11. The
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healing takes place in verses 1 and verse 6. So Jesus is active in this
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man’s life before the man even knows that Jesus exists. And the man goes on a spiritual journey from saying Jesus is a
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man to Jesus is a prophet to Jesus has the ability to do miracles in my life to Jesus is clearly sent from God to Jesus
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is God himself. And at each stage of this journey you sense that the Holy
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Spirit is leading this man through the process. And we want people to come to church the
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finished product saying Jesus is God. without giving people the time and the space to make the same spiritual journey
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as did this blind man. Jesus was active in this man’s life. And
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the man didn’t know anything about Jesus. And then finally this man goes he does
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his eyes aren’t just open but he goes on a voyage of discovery and increasing understanding and clearer clearer
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spiritual sight through this chapter till finally he adi admits that Jesus is God.
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I want to encourage us as a congregation to give people time and space to grow
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and not to expect people to be the finished product when they come into the church and to give our teenagers the right to
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say today that Jesus is a man and pray that tomorrow they’ll recognize him as a prophet and to ask that God will work a
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miracle in their life so they recognize his hand in their life then to pray that they’ll recognize that he is sent from
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God and if like the Pharisees we want to cut them off and the knees young people in their faith when they’re only at
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stage one or stage two or stage three or stage four, maybe they’ll never get to stage five. This man battled through the
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opposition from the church leaders of his day and from the rejection by his family and being thrown out of the
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church as they drove him out. Um he was canceled, he was dysfellowshipped, his family disowned him, the religious
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leaders criticized him ruthlessly. He went through all that nonsense before he could say, “I believe.”
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So give grace and space to people to grow. Recognize where they are and help them
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in the next stage of the growth process because we can all grow in our faith. And don’t say to people, well, you know,
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I’ve been working with the Lord for 50 years and you’re brand new. You’ve never read a Bible before. And why don’t you understand the way things I do? Well,
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they won’t. In 50 years time, maybe they’ll catch up. But let’s give people grace and space
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and time to grow in their understanding. It’s clear in this story that God is working on this man’s heart and it’s
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entirely between him and the Lord. The disciples say nothing to him. Jesus says nothing to him until his final verses 38
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and 39 there. When I was in AFM, we put together what we call the E scale. This
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was for Muslims becoming Christians. And we we we kind of did interviews. We discussed with former Muslims, how was
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it that you became a follower of Jesus? And we wanted to boil it down to something very simple so our missionaries could remember. And one of
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my colleagues actually wrote this out. We did the study and he did some more study then we evaluated and so forth.
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And we called it the E scale. This is how Muslims become Christians. The first is they have an encounter with Jesus.
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Then there’s an eval that’s often a dream, a vision or a healing. And then there’s an evaluation. And evaluation is
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done by asking questions of living Christians. But the process starts with an encounter with Jesus. Number one.
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Then there’s an evaluation of what it means to follow Jesus. Then there’s entrance into the body of Christ. That’s
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often secret. Then there’s embracing the teachings of Jesus more and more in your life. Then finally, there is embodiment
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that you’re you’re you’re fully embodying the teachings of Christ in every stage of your life. And this is what we’ve been seeing in Muslims when I
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was an AFM for in many parts of the world. This five-stage process. And I would say that for many people today,
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it’s very, very similar. There’s an encounter with the living God. There’s a period of evaluation weighing things up
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that could last 20, 30, 40 years. Then you have a decision to enter the body of Christ. Then you embrace the teachings
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of Jesus and your identity as being a member of the body of Christ. And finally, there’s embodiment and that
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you’re living the teachings of Christ in every aspect of your life. Now, this story of the of this beloved sheep, this
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blind man whom Jesus heals, it illustrates that when we choose for
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Jesus, we often pay a profound personal price. In this passage here, following Jesus
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for this blind man caused divisions within his community. His his families denied him. He was
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canceled by those religious leaders in authority. He lost his previous income. and he could no longer beg as a blind
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man and he was cast out of the social security system. That was the price this man paid to
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follow Jesus. And even though we celebrate him coming to faith, we should also recognize that
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coming to faith for this man also was a profoundly costly journey. His parents,
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oh, we don’t want to know about him. You better go and ask him. The religious leaders, you think you’re going to teach us, get out of here. I’m going to drive
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you out of the synagogue. You can’t come to church on the Sabbath. you can’t participate in life for the church anymore. We’re disciples of Moses, don’t
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you know? And the oral Torah or the church manual says, you can’t question us because we’re the experts on the law.
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This man paid a terrible price for following Jesus. But the coming of Jesus
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in this chapter as the light of the world has two effects in the world. Firstly, it brings salvation to the
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blind and it brings the shadow of judgment on those who refuse to see the light. Perhaps in all matters uh what
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what what matters most is that we say this one thing I do know I was blind but now I see.
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So then we come to the good shepherd himself in this story. We’ve looked so far at the bad shepherds. We’ve looked
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at the beloved sheep and some some of his journey. Let’s take a look at the good shepherd for a few moments. And at
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the Pharisees, they were the recognized public shepherds of Israel. They’d been unfaithful in their trust. They had just
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cast out from the fold a man who expressed faith in the Messiah. So now the Messiah comes to reveal himself and
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win back for his fold the man who the bad shepherds are just driven out. And so the good shepherd now reveals himself
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to this formerly blind man. And the story of John uh chapter 10, there are
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five things it reveals about the the good shepherd. And again, I put them in charts because it’s easier for me to
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think like this. But in verses 1 and two, Jesus says this, “Very truly I tell
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you, anyone uh who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in it by another way, is a thief and a bandit.
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The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” So what this verse tells us is that Jesus enters his
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task as the good shepherd in a proper way because he’s sent by his father
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and he’s unlike the bandits. Now the uh the the the phr the word bandit there
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the only other place that appears in the gospels is uh John 18 uh verse 40 says
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now barab barabus was a bandit and he was a murderer and he took part in an
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insurrection and the word barabus means son of the father. So when Jesus went on trial and Pilate said to the people make
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a choice. You are the son of the father or the son of the father. Make your choice. A false messiah or a true
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messiah. But band barabus is a bandit. Like he he killed for his own glory.
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Whereas Jesus died for the benefit of the sheep. And so Jesus enters into the task of the good shepherd properly
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because he’s he’s not self-appointed like the Pharisees, the bad shepherds of the day. He’s sent by his heavenly
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father. He then says the sha the gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice. That is many
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in the time of Christ refused to listen to his teachings particularly among the bad shepherds both then and that happens
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today. But the common people heard him with delight. We read in Mark 12:37 and with the blind people they say Lord I
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believe. And Jesus says all that the father gives to me will come to me. And so the the gatekeeper opens the gate for
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him and the sheep hear his voice. The next thing is verse 3B says he calls his
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own sheep by name. Now when you have sheep, you call them all by name. Some sheep are called longlegs. Some become
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called blacknose. Some sheep are called crooked ear. Um some sheep have had a few teeth knocked out. You know, every
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sheep in a flock has a name. If ever you’ve kept sheep, then you’ll know this. And every sheep has unique
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features. And a shepherd can call his sheep by name. And in Wales, when we have the sheep dog competitions and you
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have a uh the flock, the shepherd will tell the dog to single out a certain sheep just with whistles. I mean, the
49:30
the the link between the shepherd and the sheep dog and the flock is really intimate. It’s something that outsiders
49:36
have no idea of the intimacy of the knowledge between the sheep, the sheep dog and and the shepherds themselves.
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And when when a shepherd um has a flock, um he uh still these days they put a
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plastic tag on the ear, but even when I was growing up, you would you would cut a mark into the ear of the sheep.
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And that that was like the brand for the sheep. That meant the sheep belonged to you. And to do that, you got to put the
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sheep its head on a block of wood. And then you have to with a with a with a hammer and chisel or a knife, you got to
50:05
carve a deep shape into the ear. And it’s going to it’s going to bleed. And um but then you know that that sheet
50:11
belongs to you and it’s a very personal experience. When I was in Sri Lanka after the
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tsunami in 20056 um I was busy writing proposals for Adra
50:22
and um people were just throwing money at us back then after the tsunami because everybody was virtue signaling
50:28
and they just put everybody was offering stuff that really we didn’t need. But um the British government called through to
50:34
Adrader in the UK and said we need two proposals for livestock re lives livelihood um reinvigoration in the next
50:40
hour like you’re kidding me and they said what’s the format and it was like a 30-page format.
50:47
So I type pretty fast I you know I’m talking to people I’m typing with my hands so I type very fast. So they
50:52
called me from London they said we need two proposals on life on livelihood re reinvigoration for the survivors of the
50:58
tsunami. You got an hour to do it. I said what’s the budget? so many million pounds. I said, “That’s a lot of money and that’s not much time.” They said,
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“Well, the money’s there. All you got to do is to write something half decent.” So, I sat there and thought, “Well, what are we going to do?” And then I
51:10
realized, okay, everybody’s got cattle and the cattle were wiped away by the tsunami. So, let’s just buy cattle for
51:15
them. So, I proposed that we were going to supply, I think it was like 5,000 female headed households with a water
51:21
buffalo and a bunch of um clay pots so they could make Kurds again because Kurds and honey is a big Sri Lankan
51:27
delicacy. And I didn’t think for a minute where I was going to find 5,000 milking buffalo from, but I put it in
51:33
the proposal and it got funded. And I it was with a certain amount of
51:40
horror that the country director called me a few days later and said, “Connie,” he said, “Where did you plan to get those 5,000 buffalo from?” I said, “I
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don’t know. I was told to write a proposal.” I did. Well, we got these millions of pounds. You need to find 5,000 buffalo. I don’t know where to
51:53
find 5,000 buffalo. Do you know where to find 5,000 water buffalo? when everybody’s trying to keep their water buffalo because they give milk every day
51:59
and they it’s like goats milk. It’s very rich stuff. So, um we hired these guys
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to scour the nation of Sri Lanka begging and congoling people to hand over their water buffalo. And we found almost all
52:11
the buffalo. We marched them south. We put them into trucks, marched them to the south coast, which was the worst hit. And then this volunteer from London
52:18
came in. She came to my office in her high heels and her long nails and she
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said, “I’ve come to volunteer.” I looked at her with like, “Are you sure you want to volunteer here?” She said, “Yeah, I
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want to volunteer here.” She said, “I’ll do anything you want me to do.” I said, “Did you say anything that we need?” She said, “I’ll do anything you need.” I
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said, “Well, I got a job just for you.” I said, “But um if I were you, I’d change your shoes.” And she says, “No,
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no, my shoes are fine.” All right. So, we we put her in a car. I went down with her to the south coast of Sri Lanka, and
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there we had hundreds of water buffalo in these fields. And I said, “We we’ve just split a tree there.” There’s a
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split in the tree. And uh with these two guys here, they’ll drag a water buffalo’s head through the split in the
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tree and tie it down. And you’re going to take this this like hole punch like they use for punching leather. And
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you’re going to take that thick leathery ear. You’re going to punch a hole in that ear and there’s the veins in his
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ear. There’ll be blood everywhere if you get the wrong spot. And then you’re going to put a plastic tag on it because not only we giving them a new water
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buffalo, but we’re also linking them to a veterary insurance service so if the animal gets sick, it gets healed. And um
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she said, “Are you sure that’s what you want me to do?” I said, “Yeah, that’s what we need to do right now.” So the
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first world to Buffalo, she’d never probably seen a cow in her life before. And she stood there in her high heels
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and I thought, “She’s going to lose those high heels pretty quick.” So the ground was all churned up and she stood there and she got this this um this hole
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punch, this big steel thing. And she kind of tries to squeeze it and there’s nothing happening. And then the buffalo
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starts bellowing. Then all of a sudden the buffalo kind of rears up on its hind legs and it rips out the ropes holding
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it down and it smashes down on its back right beside her and she’s shrieking in horror. And I just said, “Yeah, that’s
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just how you do it. You got like a thousand more buffalo to do. Just keep up the good work here.”
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And uh she got most of it done. I mean I mean she she changed her shoes, she lost her nails and she dressed sensibly after
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that. But it was it was an eyeopening experience for her. But a shepherd knows
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his sheep not not just as a number, but he knows him by name. And when we pick up our cross and follow
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Jesus, he knows us by name. Isaiah 43 is a passage we often read to people. It’s
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a great pastoral visit passage. When you go to a hospital, but now thus saith the
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Lord, he who created you, oh Jacob, or they say your name is Johnny. Oh Johnny, he who formed you, oh Johnny, do not be
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afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I’ll
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be with you. And through the rivers and the chemotherapy, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the
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fire, you shall not be burnt and the flames shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the holy one of
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Israel. Verse four, you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you.
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And so the good shepherd calls each one of us by name. Your name is not just
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what an aspiration and breath. It’s really a summary of all the experiences you’ve gone through in life. The good
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shepherd knows what we’ve been through and he knows us by name. We’re not just a number to him and um he knows us
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personally. Verse three says he leads them out. Now the characteristic of the good shepherd here, see for the bad
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shepherds life consisted of following the rules. For the good shepherd life
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consists of following the master in loving obedience. I want to encourage you today. Being a
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Christian is not about following rules. It’s about following the master and then being obedient to him because we love
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him because only he can walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death. Only he knows where the green
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pastures and the still waters really are. And so we’re going to trust him to do what is good for us in a way that the
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bad shepherds cannot do for us. Jesus invited Philip in John 1:43 said follow
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me. So the essence of living is a life is a living relationship with our heavenly savior. Then verse 4B it says
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the sheep follow him and they know his voice. That is the good shepherd
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promises to his sheep um speaks to his sheep through the promise of the Holy Spirit who will quote John 16:13 guide
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you into all truth. And so the sheep follow the good shepherd because they love him because they trust him and they
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yield the rule of their lives to him because they trust him. So if I ask you today um whose voice are
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you following in life, Fox or CNN,
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Twitter or YouTube, Charlie Kirk, I don’t know any modern political
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celebrities out there, take your pick. There are prominent voices on the right. There are prominent voices on the left. There are prominent voices in your local
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church and in the global church. But beyond anything else, I want to encourage you today to learn to listen to the voice of the good shepherd.
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And the job of a pastor is to help the members recognize the voice of the good shepherd in their life. And the p the
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job of the pastor and the elders is to encourage obedience on the part of the members, not to the leaders of the
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church, but to the good shepherd himself. We’re to follow the good shepherd. We’re disciples of Jesus, not of any celebrity
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preacher or or church administrator or political pundit. And what are the blessings in this chapter of following
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the good shepherd? There are certain blessings here. John 10:9-10. Jesus says this. The first blessing is this. He
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says, ‘I am the gate whoever enters by me will be saved and will come out and go in and find pasture. The thief comes
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only to steal and kill and destroy. That’s Barabbus. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. So the
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first benefit that Jesus speaks of here, there are many in this verse, but just one we’ll pick up on here this afternoon. The first benefits of
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following the good shepherd is that you will be saved. That Jesus himself is a gate for our salvation. There is no
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other gates to eternal life. As he said in John 14:16, John 14:6, I am that
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phrase again. I am. He’s not just say I am the way. It’s I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one cometh to
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the father except through me. So Jesus is teaching here that salvation is only
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found through the good shepherd. Salvation does not come through the bad shepherds. The Pharisees have not
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entered by the gate. They were not fulfilling their roles as good shepherds. They were destroying the pastures and polluting the wellsp
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springsings of the water of life for God’s flock. And false shepherds have been a curse on humanity almost from the
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time of the garden of Eden. As Sister Dwight discusses in Zar of ages, she says this, “In all ages, philosophers
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and teachers have been presenting to the world theories by which to satisfy the soul’s need. Every heathen nation has
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had its great teachers and religious systems, offering some other means of redemption than Christ, turning the eyes
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of men away from the father’s face, and filling their hearts with fear of him who has given them his only only
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blessing. The trend of their work is to rob God that of that which is his own, both by creation and by redemption. And
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these false teachers rob man as well. Millions of human beings are bound under
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false religions and in the bondage of slavish fear of stoalid indifference toiling like beasts of burden bereft of
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hope or joy or aspiration here with only a dull fear of the hereafter. She goes
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on to say there it is the gospel of the grace of God that alone can uplift the soul. The contemplation of the love of
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God manifested in his son will stir the heart and arouse the powers of the soul as nothing else can. God came. Christ
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came that he might recreate the image of God in man. That’s the purpose of creation. We read elsewhere. And whoever
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turns men away from Christ is turning them away from the source of true development. He is defrauding them of
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the hope and purpose and glory of life. He is a thief and he is a robber.
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I noticed more in America than in Britain because you have presidential politics here. In America, we vote for
1:00:02
party which is much more boring. But here in America, we have presidential politics. And on both sides of the
1:00:07
aisle, people get really excited every presidential election time. Have you noticed that? People wear they wear the
1:00:14
caps, they wear the blazers, the t-shirts, they give out literature, they post stuff on social media, they go to
1:00:19
these rallies, they cheer because there’s some human messiah promising good for at least two years before the
1:00:25
midterms. And people get really excited because we’re going to get two years of undoing
1:00:30
all the wickedness of the last four years. and we’re going to get two years to impose our agenda before we lose the
1:00:36
house in the midterms. That’s how it generally works the American political system. People, we we in America get so
1:00:42
caught up in those who offer temporary salvation for two years.
1:00:47
And yet as Christians, we barely show any enthusiasm for following the good shepherd who can bring eternal life.
1:00:55
And what are we enthusi enthusiastic about? What are we talking with other people about? Do we um do we have you
1:01:02
know bumper stickers are kind of a well-known thing in America but you know people have their you know Hillary
1:01:08
Clinton, Donald Trump bumper stickers and so forth. You know where they stand on issues but do people know um that we
1:01:13
are followers of Christ? Do we manage to live lives where our neighbors would have no idea that I was
1:01:19
a Christian? Sometimes the only person knows you have sent the Adventist is your dog because they know on Sabbath
1:01:24
morning they’re not going out for a walk. That’s true for many dogs case. Many
1:01:29
dogs on Sabbath morning don’t get out of bed in the morning because they know the family won’t be here till the evening.
1:01:36
Sometimes the only witness to the fact you’re in Adventist is your animal. And what does it mean that Christ is
1:01:42
both the door and the shepherd? Sister White describes it thus
1:01:47
which she did. Trying to find it. My slides got mixed up here. Well, I don’t have the slide,
1:01:54
but she says this in Zarges. Christ is both the door and the shepherd. He enters in by himself. It is through his
1:02:00
own sacrifice that he becomes the shepherd of the sheep. So the second benefit of following the good shepherd
1:02:06
is you experience life to the full. That is going out finding pastures and coming
1:02:12
in. That is God meeting all of our needs. When the when the 23rd Psalm says
1:02:18
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And then he leads me by still waters and green pastures. Do you know
1:02:25
that um the best time to water your flock is when they’re eating the dew on the ground?
1:02:31
Because when sheep um drink from puddles, they get liver fluke and other diseases. And sheep will nibble anything
1:02:38
they find during the day. So a good shepherd will lead his flock out early in the morning and he makes sure they’re
1:02:44
eating the grass that is wet with dew before the sun gets up and he doesn’t really take them by rivers. Um, but
1:02:51
because because the dew is fresh and clean and late at night, the shepherd will lead the sheep out again and
1:02:56
they’re going to graze on wet grass because that’s how the sheep get their their their moisture for the day. If you
1:03:02
if you don’t do that to the sheep, then when you when you walk with the sheep through the day, they’re going to be drinking from any stream or any puddle
1:03:09
they come across. And sheep are very very susceptible to liver fluke and other terrible diseases, nematodeses,
1:03:15
and various things like that. And so the second benefit of following Jesus is that we can trust him to lead
1:03:22
us to um that which only does us good spiritually in life. God meets our
1:03:28
needs. The sheep are under the good shepherd’s care and they grow through the nourishment that he provides. The
1:03:33
sheep are not safe because the walls of the fold are high because wolves and sheep’s clothing can sometimes get in.
1:03:39
They’re only safe when they stick close to the good shepherd because only he can fight off the satanic forces that would
1:03:45
hurt the flock. And the third benefit is that everybody can enter the good shepherd’s flock. Nobody is excluded
1:03:52
from the possibility of entering the good shepherd’s flock. Jesus says in John 10:16 in this passage, he says, “If
1:03:58
I other sheep that do not belong to this fold, I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will
1:04:04
be one flock and one shepherd.” Now, this is an interesting point here because he says, “I have other sheep
1:04:10
that do not belong to this fold.” That means he’s talking about the people of Israel. But at the end of that saying,
1:04:16
he doesn’t use the word fold. He uses the word flock. What’s the difference between a fold and a flock? The fold is
1:04:23
literally the place where you keep the sheep. It’s like a an enclosure. It’s like a pen, the sheep pen. But the flock
1:04:29
is the group of sheep themselves. Now, the King James, which I love the King James, but it translates this verse
1:04:35
here. It says, “So there’ll be one fold and one shepherd.” And the Greek is,
1:04:40
“There’ll be one flock and one shepherd.” Now that phrase onefold, one shepherd
1:04:47
has been used by the papacy over the centuries to say there is one fold and it’s the Catholic Church. And if you’re
1:04:53
in that fold, you’re going to be safe. But Jesus doesn’t say that in this passage. So you want kind of correct the
1:04:58
King James if you have it in your hands there because the text says there’ll be one flock and one shepherd. The fold is
1:05:05
the physical enclosure like a denominational boundary. But Jesus doesn’t say there’ll be one flock and
1:05:11
one shepherd. that is all my sheep will be in one denomination. He says there’s going to be one flock and one shepherd
1:05:18
and what how would you become part of his flock is if you listen to his voice
1:05:24
we can become part of the flock of God today. That flock of God
1:05:30
it does transcend denominational boundaries over the from Adam to today. There have not been seventh Adventists
1:05:36
in every century. Clearly we all know that. So got Jesus says there’s going to be
1:05:42
one flock and the flock is defined by the fact that they listen to the voice of the good shepherd.
1:05:49
So I want to challenge you today as we saw um earlier this morning in in the sermon there that satis says not one in
1:05:55
20 will be saved that we need to be listening for the good shepherd’s voice. If I want to not just be in the fold you
1:06:02
may be in the fold here this afternoon but that’s not going to save you. What matters is if you’re in the flock. The
1:06:08
flock is defined as those who listen to the voice of the good shepherd.
1:06:13
So starts to tune out the other voices and listen to the voice of the good
1:06:19
shepherd. I visited an elderly gentleman last week. Visit him in the evening with my wife and he he described his morning
1:06:26
routine. He gets up and he goes to the wire at 10 to 5 in the morning and he does an hour of exercises. Then he goes
1:06:31
to the ser. Then he comes home and does his Sabbath school lesson. And then he does a Bible study. And then he does
1:06:37
reading in the chapter of Desire of Ages. Then by 11:00 he goes back to bed again. I thought what a lovely
1:06:43
existence. What a lovely existence. His whole life is focused on hearing the
1:06:48
voice of Jesus. He keeps his mind sharp in order that he may understand the word
1:06:53
of God when he reads it. His focus is on listening to the voice of the good shepherd, a precious brother in a church
1:07:00
up there in Berian Springs. And so the third benefit that Jesus offers is that anyone who hears his voice will be
1:07:07
counted in that flock, that saved flock rather than be defined by any denominational boundaries. He goes on to
1:07:14
say um the good shepherd I am once again the good shepherd the good shepherd lays
1:07:20
down his life for the sheep and how those blessings won for us of being
1:07:26
belonging to the flock of Christ was because the shephering is a hard profession and Jesus is here predicting
1:07:33
his death on Calvary his love for his own sheep that will lead him to sacrifice himself for them because the
1:07:39
sheep are under attack and the shepherd acts on their behalf for their deliverance. Thus proving that he is not
1:07:45
a hired hand. He’s not a bandit. He’s not a thief. But he is the good shepherd. The good shepherd is the good
1:07:51
shepherd precisely because he laid down his life for his sheep and therefore his
1:07:56
sheep can trust him. In his self-sacrifice, Jesus modeled God-fearing leadership for
1:08:03
us today. The aim of many leaders today in our world is personal glorification.
1:08:08
They don’t truly love the flock or the nation, but they view the the nation or the flock as the means for their own
1:08:14
self- advancement and personal satis satisfaction. And inevitably, when leaders look at the people in this way,
1:08:20
the flock will suffer. But that’s the leadership of the hirling, not of a good shepherd. Leadership can follow one of
1:08:27
two routes. Either it is directed to the advancement of the leader or it’s directed to the benefit of those who are
1:08:33
following. The former is the way of our world, but it leads to the spiritual death of the
1:08:39
leader. The latter, where you lead on behalf of the flock, and for their benefit, is the way of Jesus, and it
1:08:46
leads to life for the flock. And so, we follow the good shepherd today because
1:08:51
his his his leadership is not designed to uh give him power and glory. His
1:08:57
leadership is designed in order that we might receive the gift of eternal life. So what do we say in conclusions today
1:09:03
as we think about Jesus the good shepherd we come back to um there he is
1:09:09
there laying down his life for the for the flock. So we come to our conclusions we come back to this opening slide that
1:09:15
I had up there. The Lord is my shepherd. Yahweh is my shepherd. Lionel Messi is
1:09:22
the striker for the standpoint community social soccer club. The whole world would take note.
1:09:28
But even more importantly, Jehovah, the creator of the universe, uh the creator, the wonderful counsel, the mighty God,
1:09:35
the everlasting father, the prince of peace is my personal shepherd. He knows
1:09:40
everything about me and he does everything for me. I have everything to speak to boast about. I’m not going to
1:09:46
boast in myself, but I’m going to boast in the one in whom I whom the one whom I follow and the one whom I know, and that
1:09:52
is my savior. Are you proud of the fact that Jesus is your good shepherd? that Yahweh is my shepherd. And Jesus goes on
1:09:59
to say parallels that in John 10:11. I am the promised good shepherd. I am uh
1:10:05
the creator. I am your redeemer. I am the one who will seek out and seek seek
1:10:11
out and find my lost sheep. I am the one who will rebuke those bad shepherds. I am the one who will lay down my life for
1:10:18
my sheep. I am the good shepherd. And so I want to challenge you today. The next time you read John uh Psalm 23:1, you’re
1:10:26
not going to say, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” You say, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not
1:10:32
want.” The creator of the universe looks after me. He knows what I need. Knows where I’ve been. He knows every inch of
1:10:38
my body. He searches me. He sees if there be any wicked way in me. And he and he leads me in ways of everlasting
1:10:43
life. And he fixes the wounds I cannot fix for myself. And he takes care of those bugs in my nose. and he puts the
1:10:49
healing oil on my face. My good shepherd does everything for me. There is nothing in my life that is not hidden from him.
1:10:55
And because of that, I’m going to be a healthy sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. The creator of
1:11:00
the universe is my personal shepherd. That means he takes care of me.
1:11:06
What a wonderful thing. It’s not the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. No, that is not how we should be saying
1:11:13
it. It’s like the Lord is my shepherd should be on our bumper stickers. It should be on our t-shirts. It should be on our caps that we are proud of the
1:11:19
fact that the creator of the universe who speaks universes into existence knows us by name and every day he
1:11:25
inspects us and does everything that is necessary for our eternal life. Praise the Lord. The great I am is our personal
1:11:32
shepherd. So I chose to follow the good shepherd when I was 13. I was baptized at the age of 14 and all his promises
1:11:39
have come true in my life. He is my shepherd and he is my good shepherd and he laid down his life for me. That means
1:11:46
I know I can trust me. And now he’s gone before me to prepare a home for me in heaven above. The parable of the 10
1:11:51
virgins as we saw this morning. So, uh, last this January, I was with my wife in
1:11:58
Florida. We went to a church. We did a winter retreat with them. We spent four days down there. And, um, it was nice
1:12:04
down in Florida after Michigan, I must say. And, um, so we spent four days. And
1:12:10
part of that process, I said, um, I think it would be nice if everybody here, uh, were to learn to to, um, tell
1:12:17
their personal testimony because when people follow the good shepherd,
1:12:23
they’re often dead scared about saying anything about it to anybody because everybody says, “What am I going to say?” So we said, “Okay, let’s just go
1:12:30
through a simple exercise.” And a personal testimony just sounds something like this. We said, “Okay, everybody
1:12:36
learn this. You say, “There was a time in my life when I was.” And everybody learned that there was a time in my life
1:12:41
when I was. Then we said, “Think of three adjectives that describe your life before you met the good shepherd. Angry,
1:12:48
bitter, lost, um, depressed, disillusioned, without
1:12:54
hope.” They all they all wrote down their three things. Then we said, “Now tell the person next to you, there was a time in my life when I was angry,
1:13:01
bitter, depressed.” And then the middle of the test testimony is like this. But then I met Jesus and the two Fs. He
1:13:09
forgave me and I chose to follow him. He forgave me and I chose to follow him. So
1:13:14
there was a time in my life when I was angry, bitter and depressed. But then I met Jesus and he forgave me and I chose
1:13:21
to follow him. Then the rest of the testimony is and now my life is you add in three adjectives there.
1:13:28
peaceful, hopeful, calm, reconciled, whatever you want to
1:13:35
say, whatever is your personal story. And we said to everybody, now memorize this testimony. There was in my a time
1:13:40
in my life when I was angry, sad, and depressed, but then I met Jesus and he forgave me and I chose to follow him. And now my life is peaceful, calm, and
1:13:49
hopeful. That takes 15 seconds to give that testimony. And then you end up with a single sentence, a question that says
1:13:55
this. Do you have a story like that? And that question, do you have a story like that? Invites them into a spiritual
1:14:02
conversation. Yes or no, you have a good basis for a conversation at that moment onwards. And
1:14:09
so I’ll encourage you today not just to follow the good shepherd, but to let
1:14:15
people know that you follow the good shepherd. To let your following of the good shepherd be the topic of your
1:14:21
conversation with other people. You know, we’ve got NFL coming up and then we’ve got summer sports coming up and
1:14:27
we’ve got all kinds of things coming up and we’re consumers by the froth of the
1:14:32
meaninglessness of modern consumer society. But there’s a whole nation out there
1:14:38
dying for something more meaningful and more worthwhile than just Super Bowl or downhill skiing or whatever the thing
1:14:44
the thing of the day may be today, the World Series, I don’t know. I want to encourage you today to not just follow
1:14:51
the good shepherd. Not just to turn away from bad shepherds as well, but to follow the good
1:14:57
shepherd, but also to let people know what the good shepherd means for you and
1:15:02
to prepare your testimony and to share it this week. Pray that someone will give you somebody you can share your
1:15:08
testimony with. And when you end with that question, do you have a story like this? You’re inviting them to a
1:15:14
meaningful discussion about the most important things in their lives. and was you know because the thing that
1:15:20
there says the purpose of SPoint church is to make disciples who make disciples of Jesus Christ. You may have a good
1:15:27
shepherd but only sheep can breed. You can only get lambs if the sheep
1:15:33
breed. The shepherd can’t make more lambs come along. The sheep have to breed.
1:15:40
And so if we’re going to be a multiplying church, multiplying congregation, a growing flock, then we
1:15:46
have to be multiplying ourselves. And uh multiplying
1:15:52
um means growth. It means new disciples like this man born in blindness. It means giving time and space for people
1:15:58
like that blind man to grow in grace and understanding and truth and not condemning them for not being the finished product from day one. It means
1:16:06
stepping out in faith and saying, “Jehovah is my shepherd. The creator of the universe is my shepherd. I’m not
1:16:12
worried about tomorrow because the good shepherd, he’s going to lead me through whatever comes my way.” So, I want to
1:16:18
encourage you today, prepare your testimony. And there was a time in my life when I was A, B, and C. But then I
1:16:25
met Jesus and he forgave me and I chose to follow him. The two Fs in the middle, that’s how you remember it. And now my life is X, A, B, and C or X, Y, and Z.
1:16:32
Do you have a story like that? and start multiplying as parts members of the flock of Christ.
1:16:39
If we don’t multiply ourselves, if we don’t speak ourselves in standpoint, the Adventists in Ghana or Indonesia aren’t
1:16:46
going to do it for us. It’s our job to multiply disciples for Jesus here in
1:16:51
Northwest Idaho. Nobody else’s. But if you’re proud of the fact that’s
1:16:57
that’s a good pride that Jehovah is your shepherd and he’s going to lead you by still
1:17:02
waters and green pastures and yay though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil for
1:17:07
you are with us your rod and they staff they comfort us. If you’re grateful for what God has done
1:17:12
for you and you have a story to tell of his goodness that’s a great place to start the multiplication of disciples
1:17:19
which is the mission statement of this church here in Sanpoint. So may God bless us as we follow the good shepherd.
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May God bless us as we seek to multiply and grow his flock. And so that more and more people here in San Point will know
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and follow and recognize the good shepherd for themselves. And when he comes again, he’s going to be taking
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them to dwell in the courts of heaven above. Let’s close this with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank
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you for our time here so far today. Lord, I thank you that though there are bad shepherds, there is a good shepherd.
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and that that good shepherd comes looking for his sheep. I thank you, Father, that the good shepherd came to
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seek and to save that which was lost. I thank you, Father, that the good shepherd promises to feed his sheep. I
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thank you, Father, that the good shepherd promises to bind up the brokenhearted and to set the prisoners free and to proclaim good news to the
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poor. And I thank you, Father, that Jesus is that good shepherd. And today, Lord, I ask that we will each learn to
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recognize in a new and unmistakable way the voice of the good shepherd in our lives. Lord, um give us the courage to
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switch off the voices of this world. May we turn away from the the um the opinion makers, the influences on social media.
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And I ask, Lord, that our minds will be filled primarily with the teachings and words of the good shepherd. And Jesus,
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as we open our ears and our hearts to you, we humbly ask that you will speak to us and guide us along life’s narrow
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way. This is our prayer in your holy name’s sake. Amen.