Aber cu 20 02-15 john 10 - jesus good shepherd
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•485 views
Slides that accompanied Aber C U meeting on John 10 - Jesus the Good Shepherd on 20-02-15
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (20)
Similar to Aber cu 20 02-15 john 10 - jesus good shepherd
Similar to Aber cu 20 02-15 john 10 - jesus good shepherd (20)
More from Grace (Rural Wales) Partnership - Y Grwp
More from Grace (Rural Wales) Partnership - Y Grwp (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Aber cu 20 02-15 john 10 - jesus good shepherd
- 1. Jesus – the Good Shepherd ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. John 10:14-16
- 2. Meet Jesus – the Good Shepherd ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. John 10:14-16
- 3. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context
- 4. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context – Blind man in John 9
- 5. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context – Blind man in John 9 – Specified target here, v. 1
- 6. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context – Blind man in John 9 – Specified target here, v. 1 – Long-standing Biblical issue: false shepherds
- 7. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context – Blind man in John 9 – Specified target here, v. 1 – Long-standing Biblical issue: false shepherds “You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.” Ezekiel 34:4
- 8. Other OT context • Bad shepherds in Israel – Ezekiel 34 – Isaiah 56:9-12 – Jeremiah 23:1-4; 25:32-38 – Zechariah 11 • God the Good Shepherd – Psalm 80:1 – Isaiah 40:11 – Psalm 23
- 9. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 “‘Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.’”
- 11. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 – The mode of entry test, vv. 1-2
- 12. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 – The mode of entry test, vv. 1-2 – The mode of operation test, vv. 3-4
- 13. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 – The mode of entry test, vv. 1-2 – The mode of operation test, vv. 3-4 “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
- 14. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 – The mode of entry test, vv. 1-2 – The mode of operation test, vv. 3-4 – The ovine recognition test, v. 5
- 15. “ … the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.’”
- 16. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 “Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.”
- 17. John 10:7-18 Therefore Jesus said again, ‘Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
- 18. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 – Jesus protects, vv. 7-10 “‘Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
- 19. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 – Jesus protects, vv. 7-10 – Jesus sacrifices Himself, vv. 11-13 & 17-18 “‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.1 2 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
- 20. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 – Jesus protects, vv. 7-10 – Jesus sacrifices Himself, vv. 11-13 & 17-18 – Jesus mends up the world’s brokenness, vv. 14-16 “‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
- 21. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 • Two views of this Jesus, vv. 19-21 v. 19 “The Jews who heard these words were again divided.”
- 22. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 • Two views of this Jesus, vv. 19-21 ‘Jesus is mad’, vv. 19-20 “The Jews who heard these words were again divided. 20 Many of them said, ‘He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?’”
- 23. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 • Two views of this Jesus, vv. 19-21 ‘Jesus is mad’, vv. 19-20 ‘Jesus is Messiah’, v. 21 “‘These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”
- 24. John 10 – Jesus the Good Shepherd • The context • I’m tellin’ ya, vv. 1-5 • They don’t get it, v. 6 • So, I’m tellin’ ya AGAIN, vv. 7-18 • Two views of this Jesus, vv. 19-21 • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- There is nothing in this world so blooming helpless as a sheep without a shepherd And there are two disastrous extra features that make the situation all the more tragic. Firstly, most sheep have absolutely no IDEA of how much they absolutely DO need a shepherd Secondly, there are some really dodgy shepherds out there who are to be avidly avoided. Ask me how I know … I am a minister in Llandeilo and a rural chaplain across the heart of Wales. We keep beef cattle and pedigree sheep on our hill farm in Cwmdu north of Llandeilo and I am found in at least three livestock markets each week. It’s that time of year again, I’ve left the lambing shed to be with you tonight and I’ll do the late check when I’ve driven back home tonight. But I inhabit a rather different farming context from the one the Lord was commenting in John 10 … so we’ll have to be careful, but I’ll comment on similarities and differences along the way.
- Let’s make sure we’re actually getting our stuff out of the book here by checking the context of what Jesus is saying first of all …
- Some people reckon there’s a big break between John 9 & 10. There’s really not. In John 9 Jesus heals a blind man – He’s not the NHS, He doesn’t do health care, He does ‘signs’ of the Kingdom that SAY something. So of all the blind people in Palestine’s dusty desert climate who were blind, why does He heal this one? The healed man – who as a result of Jesus’s help can now see clearly – gets roughly treated by …? The religious leaders! Moreover, they throw that man out of the synagogue … to be socially ostracised, to face the financial penalty of that … and so on. What John writes next is that many thieves and robbers destroy the sheep, while the Good Shepherd leads His own out of the sheep pen and into His own flock then feeds and nourishes them so that they will have life in all its fulness. And, as if the bare juxtaposition of 10:1-18 with the end of ch. 9 is not enough to make the point about dodgy shepherds and their treatment of God’s flock, John reports the continuing uncertainty of ‘the Jews’ over the healing of the blind man in 10:19-21 … to tie the two passages together. But there’s more in the context …
- Now, against that background, John make it very clear who Jesus has in His sights. Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν Jesus points with His finger and says ‘Ever so seriously, I’m telling YOU!’ Who? Look back at the end of John 9 … “35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ 36 ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ 37 Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ 38 Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him. 39 Jesus said,[a] ‘For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’ 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’ 41 Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” Jesus is now teaching about the quality shepherding He’s here to offer God’s flock, but He does so in stark contrast to the dodgy shepherding of those who are out for themselves, treating the flock of God badly and just brutalising and exploiting His flock. This is NOT just some pretty picture of lambs and daffodils! Jesus is teaching about the importance of finding yourself in a flock with a great shepherd, and warning off from the dodgy models of shepherding that were currently on offer in Israel. Specifically He points this teaching at the Pharisees … long robes, prestige in the market places, fat salaries … living by exploitation of God’s flock. But there’s more …
- There is a long standing Biblical theology of bad shepherding that is the over-arching context to these verses. By far the most important OT context passage would be Ezekiel 34. There the Lord berates ‘the shepherds of Israel’, the religious leaders of Ezekiel’s day, for slaughtering the choice animals, clothing THEMSELVES with the fleece of the sheep’s backs and utterly failing to look after the flock …
- Ezek. 34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: “This is what the SovereignLord says: woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. 7 ‘“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. 11 ‘“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. Look at v. 4 – and WHAT have these Pharisees just done with this blind man who now sees?
- So, the Good Shepherd calls His flock by name and He goes IN FRONT leading them out. Here we don’t work like that … a man has a dog and a stick here …
- So, please meet Bronwen … Bronwen is a ci coch cymreig – old Welsh breed of herding dog. This was Bron working for me this morning. The way she works is she’s terrifying to sheep (and cattle) – she gets behind them and they just want to get away from her. She’s a dog. Next best thing to wolf. But the good shepherd is associated in the sheep’s mind with food and care and attention, and the sheep purse Him. I believe I have told you a parable …
- Now, bearing that in mind, these Palestinian sheep do not live as our sheep within enclosures formed by posts and mesh fencing … they are lead around open ground by a shepherd during the day, much as they are in the Balkans where my second son Ben is serving the Lord … and are then returned to a protected area for safe-keeping each night. A watchman is posted and the shepherd goes home for his tea. Each morning the shepherd gets his breakfast, packs his sandwiches and rocks up at the sheep pen … And then what? Do you expect him to furtively sneak around the back and pop his leg over the wall? You do not! “anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” What is Jesus on about? So far, John’s Gospel has shown Jesus appearing on the scene in first century Palestine acting like the One Who was prophesied in centuries of Bible writing and doing the sort of things you would expect God come in the flesh to redeem and rescue and shepherd God’s people to be able to do. We’ve seen that. He’s been open and honest and utterly non-manipulative, non-materialistic and non-self serving about it. He has NEVER looked like He was in it for what He could get out of it! How has He come in? Point made? Not quite. There are others who have snuck in around the back: “… climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” The thief is like a burglar – creeps in by stealth and exploits the flock The robber is like a smash and grab merchant – who profits from exploiting the flock openly, violently … in full view. But the major distinction here’s between the good shepherd and the felon who comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy. You need to distinguish clearly in this way between true and false shepherds, between true and false religion. Chalk and cheese. Why am I making this point? Because when I set out in Christian ministry the big challenge was reaching the unchurched. Now the big challenge is the de-churched. NOT that they haven’t seen something CALLED Christianity. NOT that they haven’t seen churches. NOT that they haven’t encountered accurate presentations of Biblical Christian truth and experience, but that they haven’t seen them faithfully embodied … enfleshed. Watch out. Don’t judge Jesus by people who functionally, actually, aren’t the business! Where are they coming from? Then secondly …
- So these five verses are all about ways to test whether a person CLAIMING to be a good shepherd actually IS a good shepherd, or a felon … and you can tell by the way they are around sheep. So. I walk into a French sheep market in the hills south of Poitier in August last year and there are French farmers all around who’ve never met me, whose rural French culture is alien to mine and whose Patois is nothing I ever learned at school. We are in the mart, we are amongst sheep, we are checking the beasts and helping handle them as they are moving around, catching escapees, opening and closing gates as appropriate to the purpose of the people sorting those and IMMEDIATELY these utter strangers to us know we are shepherds, know we are familiar with sheep and that we can handle them efficiently and without stress and effort … and in no time ‘vous etes Simon? Le Gallois?’ And straight away they were opening their homes and welcoming us to their tables, and … You see it with Jesus. He is good around sheep, He handles sheep well without shouting or sweating or stress …
- Now we are immediately into the situation where the relationship between Jesus the Good Shepherd and His sheep is apparent. It is ALL about recognition and relationship … a relationship of recognition, confidence of care, closeness and trust. You are going to think I’m nuts but my sheep know me.
- So these five verses are all about ways to test whether a person CLAIMING to be a good shepherd actually IS a good shepherd, or a felon … the Good Shepherd does good shepherding not hurting or panicking or stressing out of sheep … they are SAFE with Him but never without Him … And they KNOW it. Let’s get this straight … and I’ll show you a photo to demonstrate …
- This year’s lamb out of a ewe Caleb was given by a much-loved elderly farmer … a poorly, weakly triplet that the old boy didn’t fancy the trouble of rearing himself and Caleb reared it lovingly and cared for it in such a way that the thing will go anywhere with him and do anything for him. It’s all about the relationship. It’s all about the commitment. It’s all about nurture and loving and caring. He warmed it when it was cold. He fed it when it was hungry. He stroked it and cuddled it when it had no Mam to lick it. It is HIS sheep. It follows him around! It knows his voice when he calls out its name. Now, he has got a calf that was special to him at a very important time, which he also hand reared on a bottle. That calf is now an in-calf heifer (am I losing you?) and she’s due to calve in March/ April. He can do ANYTHING with her. I can do NOTHING with her! She is a cantankerous, awkward, pain in the neck to me. She won’t follow me because she thinks I’m a stranger … if only some Christians were so discerning! I think the point is made, I don’t intend to flog it. But did these people listening to Jesus get the point?
- Two things here … Not παραβολη but παροιμία This word rendered ‘figure of speech’ occurs again in 16:25 & 29 but never in the Synoptic Gospels. And the term παραβολη – so familiar from the Synoptics – never occurs in John. Both words translate the Heb word maashal and all three words can refer to an extraordinarily large range of literary forms including proverbs, parables, pithy maxims, similes, allegories, fables, riddles, taunts … lots of things. But not necessarily explanations. They are there to make you ponder, think and unpack it for yourself. And when He did use this proverb or figure of speech with them … NOT everybody GOT IT! ἐκεῖνοι δὲ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τίνα ἦν ἃ ἐλάλει αὐτοῖς They did not KNOW or UNDERSTAND what He said to them. They didn’t get it HIS sheep KNOW His voice. Have you been through an events week here and you’d quite like to, but you just HAVEN’T got it? Well, I’d like you to get it as well. It’s perfectly simple … You and I have done stuff we really shouldn’t have done and God is going to catch up with us both about it. Either we will have turned from living in sinful rebellion against living God’s way and trusted ourselves over to Him to walk in His ways, or we will not have done. If you have, you are part of His flock and all He says about that in this chapter counts for you. If you haven’t, you are still living with your original choices and the consequence is that you are NOT part of His flock, He is NOT your shepherd yet, and if you persist in your choices He is going to be your judge. Now. We’re all grown ups here. You decide what you want. It’s simple. Do you understand? Who do you want to line up with tonight? God’s flock or the Pharisees? They don’t get it. So Jesus comes at the nurture thing by another route …
- As we were saying earlier, a sheep left to its own devices is not a noble but a vulnerable creature Parasites Predators Provisions have to be laid in. Protection is the pre-requisite of sheep husbandry. There have been plenty coming along before Jesus saying ‘I’m the One, follow me!’ (v. 8) But they are FALSE Messiahs, FAILED Saviours. You need Jesus – not some fake. Jesus is the Gate. Years ago – dodgy person in house – lay across kids door all night. (Stuff re. watchman lying across the entrance) But Jesus is talking about entering the safe and protected environment of His flock by the only way a sheep can … entering through Jesus Who is the Gate. There is only one way into the sheep pen, otherwise it’s not going to be called a sheep pen! “… whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.” The sheep’s fundamental need is safe pasture! And once part of this flock, having come in the only way which is through Jesus? Saved Enter and exit to find food when they need it Life One of the most important verses to remember when we’re thinking of right and wrong shepherding and faith and preaching and … wotnot, is v. 10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Sometimes faithful following of Jesus is challenging. He takes us through some very heavy rock-fields to find the very best pasture. But He has come that His flock may have life, and more than that, have this life TO THE FULL. Jesus protects that for His following flock.
- And the Good Shepherd sacrifices Himself. I know farmers as a whole get bad press – mainly from people with their own personal agendas. But I really do have to say this. You would not believe the personal risks I have seen myself and others take in order to do good to their livestock. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep? Maybe not. But the Good Shepherd certainly does. Again, there’s the negative contrast with the hired hand, the career-shepherd whose only in the job for the pay check. So I sat in the back of a ministers conference with a young man who was a church planter supported by a neighbouring congregation whose elders had a deadening, ridiculous, church killing view of what a minister should do and who were about to chop off half of his salary … ‘Look around this room. How many of these guys would be doing this is they weren’t getting paid to be doing it?’ No wonder we have a problem with the de-churched. This shepherd is not in it for the cash. Neither should His under shepherds be. When they are, dreadful shepherding results. And when danger comes to the flock … that man runs. Let me assure you, I know of what I speak. Jesus sacrifices Himself. If His flock need the penalty of their sin paid He pays it Himself. His blood was poured out onto the dust at Calvary.
- And His ministry mends not breaks down. Please will you read v. 16 Church should never be made up of the people you’d have chosen, it exists for the benefit of outsiders. I am wary, dubious, SUSPICIOUS of doing church as ‘cool’ and one people group … ‘come to Jesus ‘cos He’s cool’ …is no Gospel! But there’s something much bigger here than this. What is God doing in the world? What is the eternal plan and purpose of God, using Jesus, His life, rejection, suffering, death and resurrection? (Eph. 1:10) And here’s how Jesus does it – through this Gospel … Read v. 16 God is mending, reuniting after the Fall and the brokenness that results from selfish human choice as He brings all people and all things together again under the headship of Christ. He doesn’t do it with an AK47 or a knife and a hammer in the desert. He does it with the preaching of the Gospel, with His sheep recognising His voice and following His call and gathering together as His flock, to walk in His way to His pastures. One flock. One shepherd. But – notice - merely religious people don’t want THIS Jesus!
- This room for all I know may be divided here. The religious people heard His teaching, saw He wasn’t just ploughing their furrow, and the call of the Good Shepherd divided folks. And it was His words that – when heard – did the dividing thing! It’s been events week – and Jesus taught us what to expect. (Parable of the Soils). It’s up to you. When the room is divided, where do you stand?
- It is now 39 years since I stood in a slightly whacky Christian meeting in the shire hall in Hereford amongst young men whose company was pretty new to me but who I wanted to impress with my toughness, adaptability and resilience, arrogantly explaining all that I saw in terms of mass psychosis and hysteria. As far as I was concerned His followers were crazy and as for Jesus, He ran that bunch a close second. And then mercifully and graciously He spoke to me. I kid you not. I really wasn’t feeling very pleased about it! What He said let me know He knew all I was thinking. And then like an overwhelming wave a powerful sense of His presence left me blubbing as I lost arrogance for conviction of my sin and quickly threw myself on the mercy of God. He’s not mad. That night … Let me tell you Jesus isn’t mad. He’s been my faithful Shepherd and friend almost 40 years. He has carried me through life threatening, heart breaking awful moments. And let me tell you something I am absolutely sure of, even though my current role is still sometimes dangerous and demanding … My shepherd will carry me home. Some of that crowd thought that Jesus was mad. And mebbe you think I’m mad too?! Let me tell you, I get tested and tried and I’m saner than you might think – but if you think I’m mad, it is ever so likely, you’re writing Jesus off as crazy then, too! Opinion gets divided by the Good Shepherd of souls … some in that crowd say that Jesus is mad – they tend to be amongst the overtly religious and respectable people … But the other view amongst that group there is this …
- The famous prophecies of Isaiah foresaw a time when the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Saviour would come and shepherd God’s flock and in Isaia 35 we read this: “ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” John has unfolded to us as we’ve read through John’s Gospel a Jesus Who does the signs of the Messiah spread out in the prophets. And these people refer here to what ‘s just happened in John chapter 9 and they see that far from being oppressed by an evil spirit, what Christ’s done’s the work of the One Who is singularly anointed with the Holy Spirit.
- So now then, Who is Jesus to you? No-one is going to bludgeon, browbeat or coerce you. We are Christians in this room here tonight! The power of Christ’s Kingdom is that of ideas and of His Word. We don’t do Kolashnikovs or barrel bombs dropped from aircraft. God’s Kingdom makes progress by the preaching of His Word – He speaks and the job is done. But please let’s ask you to get this clear before you leave here. Opinion will be divided in the room. Jesus is here, now, to shepherd the sheep that until now possibly hasn’t realised that it needed His protection, His provision, His gift of life. He is the best shepherd a person could EVER have. Did you hear His voice? His sheep do. Will you follow Him out to find pasture? His sheep do. I’m not asking if you’re ready to become religious – the people that He’s teaching about here are very religious and skilled at the art of turning people from ‘religion’! I’m asking if you’ll be a follower of Jesus, the pasture finding, flock-building, Creation mending, sheep protecting Good Shepherd of John 10 And I’m asking you to come and get that sorted with me here and now. The commercial shepherd lays down the sheep’s life for himself. The good shepherd lays down His own life for the sheep. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Follow Him now.