As a child I had many interesting visits to people’s houses because my dad was a minister. Many times people would invite us over for Sunday dinner and usually the food selection of that meal was not extreme or exotic. I remember once going to a particular elderly couple’s house for Sunday dinner and the food selection was barbequed goat. I had never had goat and could tell my Dad’s facial expression that he had not either. He sternly let me know not to say anything or make any faces that looked contrary. I will never forget that while we were eating my younger brother really enjoyed his meal. He loved barbequed goat. What made things worse is the fact they had the window open and you could her the bleating of the other goats in the yard. I remember when the folks hosting us were not watching my dad would scoop some of his goat and put it in my brother’s plate. My brother would happily eat it up. I dutifully ate my goat but said nothing about my Dad emptying his plate in my brother’s plate when no one was watching because I knew that it would be instant death for me if I did.
SHEEP/GOATS
The Bible talks a little about goats and sheep and the fact that God would rather us behave like sheep than goats.
Matthew 25: 32-33
32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats ; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left
Jesus for some reason equates the evil people at the end of the age that will be judged with goats. The reason He does this the fact that goats gave shepherds fits in the ancient world.
If a goat got into a flock of sheep it would lead the sheep astray because a goat will not listen to a Shepherd.
Sheep are very dumb animals that are easily lead astray but goats are very stubborn and want to go on their own.
God wants people that are more like Sheep.
This theme is found in our OT and our NT. The Psalms teach that God was the Shepherd that lead Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness.
We see it in David the King as a Shepherd that took on Goliath. The king of Israel was supposed to be Shepherd.
We read this idea in the passage found in John 10
I want to look at this passage and read this passage as it would have been heard by its original audience.
Jesus the good Shepherd
John 10: 1-15
1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. 7 So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 "I am the door ; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy ; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 11 "I am the good shepherd ; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father ; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
In this passage we see Jesus use multiple images to describe His role as the Shepherd of Israel and ultimately the Good Shepherd of the world.
The image that Jesus paints for us is the idea of the sheep pen. From ancient sources we know that shepherds would put all their sheep into one giant pen.
So the picture you need to form in your mind is many shepherds bringing their flocks to one pen.
At night these shepherds would sleep at the entrance of the pen to protect their sheep.
In the morning the shepherds would walk out in different directions and call their sheep.
A fascinating thing would happen all of the sheep would find their shepherd by following the voice of the Shepherd.
Only the voice of their shepherd is what they would follow. It is said that a sheep would become so fixated on the voice of their shepherd that when a shepherd was killed in an accident they would have to slaughter the sheep because they would not follow anyone else.
Jesus says this specifically that the sheep do not hear the voice of a stranger.
Now think of Jesus words.
The sheep have bad eyesight but good hearing and can fixate on one voice. They hear the voice of the shepherd and they travel in one line single file to the shepherd.
A goat will not do this, a goat will wander off.
They say in the Middle East today you can go and find Bedouin Shepherds in Palestine and watch this very thing happen.
Much of the time of the Shepherd is spend chasing the goats and getting them in line because the sheep will inadvertently follow a goat into danger.
Jesus wants us to understand that he wants to be sheep that follow but more importantly to hear his voice.
1) We must get so in tune with Jesus’ teaching that He is who we follow.
How do we do this, read the Scripture.
Learn the Bible so much that Jesus teaching resonates in our ears.
The bible should shape every facet of our lives.
The government, the arts, sports, academics, our entire beings should be saturated in God’s word.
We should know God’s word so well that when we hear things contrary to God’s word we know it. When we hear false teaching, false teaching that comes from those in sheep’s clothing we will know it.
In Matthew 7:15 Jesus warns us:
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Jesus tells us to beware of those that would come into a flock, just like a fellow sheep and teach false doctrine.
A wolf was the biggest concern for a Shepherd and Jesus lets us know that He is the type of Shepherd that would lay down His life for His sheep.
He wants to keep his sheep pure and then turns around and appoints leaders such as apostles, elders, and evangelists to do the same. We are to be willing to do devote ourselves to digesting the Scripture to the point that we know when we hear Jesus voice over that of the spirit of this age.
Recently a friend of mine pointed out the way many people see the bible today. Many see the Bible as something that we use as a type of idol. Just put Bible verses on a T shirt or a building and it makes things okay. Those words are meant to be put into the practice and find their place in our hearts and minds.
My boss told me that his son had to miss Church last Sunday because he had a travel baseball game. He said he felt terrible the entire time he was there. Then he said the irony of the entire episode was that the other team had the Bible verse Philippians 4:13 on their jersey.
He thought it was funny that here we were playing a ball game in the middle of their worship service but everything is okay because we put a Bible verse on our jersey.
Something there just doesn’t compute, it doesn’t add up.
It basically shows the disconnect that has happened in our communities, the political correctness that is killing us – we need to hear the voice of our master of our shepherd.
We need to get back in touch with the Bible until is exudes out of every fiber of our being.
2) Jesus also tells us that a good Shepherd is willing to lay down his life for the Sheep.
This is the type of God that we serve.
One that created us in the first place but has also humbled Himself by taking on flesh and gave up His glory to enter into our fallen world and die for the very beings He created.
The very beings that rebelled against Him, He now willingly lays down His life for His sheep.
This is the type of God we serve, the type that will rigorously defend us.
We see this very image play out in the OT.
When Saul is King – Goliath and the Phillistines are challenging God’s people.
The book of Samuel tells us the that the King of Israel is supposed to be the shepherd of Israel but Saul is not acting like a shepherd.
Saul is so scared that he will not even go in the valley to confront Goliath. Saul is heads taller than all of the other Israelites but it too chicken to face Goliath.
1 Samuel 17 tells us that Saul is afraid of Goliath and it is into this situation a young shepherd boy walks.
In 1 Samuel 17 David stands before Saul and asks permission to fight Goliath. When Saul asks David what credentials he brings to this fight, David takes a shot at the king by explaining that as a shepherd he had protect his sheep.
David protected his sheep so much that when a lion and bear both attached his flock he went and hunted them down and killed them. Not only did David protect his flock but he went looking for a wild animal that just had the audacity to attack his flock.
This is the type of Shepherd that Jesus is. Jesus went into the wilderness and faced Satan in the Temptation on our behalf and then went outside the city walls of Jerusalem and took on the curse that we deserved.
Jesus went out and conquered the two enemies that were laying outside the sheep fold of sin and death and destroyed them.
As we work out this image of the shepherd I want to turn to a passage that is so often quoted but I want you to see if from the perspective of Jesus as our Good Shepherd.
Psalm 231 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures ; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul ; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies ; You have anointed my head with oil ; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
There is so much meaning packed into this passage that we sometime miss what God is telling us.
1st of all we learn another attribute of God that comes out in the first verse.
3. God will supply all of our needs is we follow Him.This is not health and wealth Gospel but it means God will supply just enough.
Israel in the wilderness was lead by God and He gave them what they needed each day in the desert. Just enough Manna for that day. Not extra but just enough.
We are to rely on God to give us just what we need. We are told to seek His Kingdom First and all these things will be added to us. God will give us just what we need.
We think of extravagance in the West but in ancient Israel they just relied on God for daily sustenance and didn’t expect anything else. That is exactly what the shepherd provided for his sheep.
The sheep did not want because the shepherd lead them to what they needed, food and water.
Green Pastures:
When we read this passage we think about the green pasture land of Ireland. We think of a lush green field.
This would be in the arid land of Israel and there would be no green pastures like this for David’s sheep. Instead you witness a phenomenon in Israel that brings this about.
The land and terrain there would be rocky but imbedded in that rock would be dormant grasses. The warm moist air from the Mediterranean would blow across that rock and night and in the morning there would be enough moisture for this grass to sprout. By afternoon that grass is scorched.
The green pastures the Psalmist speaks of is just enough for the day. The shepherd will lead his flock to just enough grass for that day and you were not promised anything else. Just that day is all.
That is so hard for us to see things that way. To slow down and take things just one day at a time. We have people that plan out the next two years on their planner but God is saying slow down and depend on Him to provide one day at a time.
Still Waters:
Sheep had to drink twice per day or they would die.
In Israel there were types of water and some was good for drinking and some was very dangerous.
In a desert area water was important.
Sheep had to drink twice per day and a good shepherd had to know where to find good water.
In the desert one could find dry creek beds called wadis. In the winter wadis could flood quickly.
Melting snow or rain in the mountains to the North could cause a torrent of water to come flowing down a wadi. Many times a wadi would have pools of still water in the bottom but these were dangerous.
A good shepherd would find still water that was safe.
God wants us to trust in Him to take us where we need to go and to nourish our soul on the living water that Jesus provides.
Paths of righteousness – literally right paths, or straight paths – pathways the lead sheep away from danger and to water.
The right path was one that lead to the food and water and away from danger. One would find these sheep paths all over the hillside but a good shepherd knew how to pick the right path.
WE read in the New Testament that John the Baptist came to make the way straight for the coming Christ.
The Early Church in Acts was called the WAY
Jesus says that the path to everlasting life is straight and narrow.
We are called to a path and a journey. God has a plan for your life in that you follow him on that straight path. A path that leads to Him. We are always walking and our destination is Him.
Valley of the shadow of deathValley of the shadow of Darkness is literally what this says in Hebrews.
The Hebrew people called the shadow of Darkness the dusk of the evening when the sun would start to set and deep dark shadows would form in the valleys.
This was the most dangerous time for sheep. This would be the time that sheep, because of their poor eyesight would fall and into a crevice or hole. They would listen for their shepherd’s voice and walk blindly into danger.
An amazing thing would happen at this time. The shepherd knew the danger and it would be at this time the shepherd would stop leading the flock but walk amidst the flock.
The image David is giving us is that when things get tough and dangerous, God is closer to us than ever.
It is at times of agony and grief that God is at the closest.
Think about Israel’s history. When was God the closest? In the wilderness when things were tough.
40 years of wandering they meet God
Elijah 40 days of wilderness travel and meets God in a cave
Jesus goes to draw closer to God in the wilderness.
It is at the shadows of darkness that when things are dangerous and that is when God is closest to us.
Hebrews 4: 15
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus is a Savior that has been there with us. He knows what it is like when things are tough and we are lonely. He suffered more than we could imagine and now sits at the right hand of God.
Our Shepherd knows what it is like and is among us wanting us to hear His voice.
The question is , Will we heed His voice? Will we turn to God and listen to His Word, His plan for our lives, His sustaining love that is going to take care of what we need.
Jesus the good shepherd is calling us will we listen?
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