This is written in the context of my own congregation.
10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the
sheep pen 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 recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the
Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 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.[a] 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.
The picture of the shepherd and his
sheep assumes a Middle Eastern understanding of shepherding and draws on Old
Testaments traditions.
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God was shepherd of Israel
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Spiritual and political leaders of Israel were also shepherds of God’s
people
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And then in this parable Jesus presents himself as the
only good shepherd.
At night, Sheep were often gathered
into a sheepfold to protect them from thieves, weather and other wild animals.
A sheep fold could have been a
cave, shed or a pen made with low stone walls topped by thorny branches.
Whatever the sheepfold was, there
was always an opening, and the shepherd would sleep across the gateway to
protect the sheep.
The sheep know their shepherds
voice. The shepherd would spend a lot of time with them. They would sing, talk
and play music to them. The sheep trusted their shepherd so much that if
someone else tried to lead them, they wouldn’t go because they didn’t know the
person’s voice.
Picture a young child for a moment,
say maybe 3 or 4. You take them to a mall and they stay with you at the
beginning until their little legs become tired and they start to lag behind.
The adult who is with that child will either ‘say come on Junior, keep going’
and the child will continue following, or the adult might take the child’s hand
and guide them. That child is feeling confident and trusts the adult because
they know their voice, they know their guidance, and they feel safe.
This is kind of like the sheep,
they become so engrained with the shepherds precesne and voice there is a deep
trust.
The Shepherd
In the parable Jesus talks about
two types of shepherd.
The first is the Good Shepherd. A Good
shepherd never drives his sheep – so he is never behind the sheep, but he leads
them. He walks in front of them and they follow him because they recognise is
voice and they trust him. He has put many hours into gaining their trust. He
even sleeps in the gateway so that they are protected; he gives up comfort to
be with his sheep – that’s dedication right there!
A shepherd would also name each of
their sheep and the sheep would know it’s name, so when the shepherd called out
to it, it would come. Get a stranger to call out the name and they won’t come.
The second type of Shepherd is the
bad shepherd. I guess it’s self explanatory really. He would be opposite to the
Good Shepherd – He wouldn’t care if one sheep went missing. He would probably
do his job and go home rather than spend time with his sheep teaching them to
follow his voice.
So if we bring this story into our
context today – picture yourself as a sheep. It’s pretty much what we are, we
follow something right?
We are the Sheep, We are called by
name (Actually what does your name mean? Maybe we don’t
know why our parents gave us our name but we can believe they are God given.
My name was given to me by my Mum
who was adamant I was going to be a Suzanne whether I was a boy or girl because
my aunty passed away a year before I was born. As I have grown up I have
learned a lot about who my aunty was and I have a lot of her similarities. It’s
an honour to have her name sake, but interestingly enough, when I trace my name
back, it turns out it is in the bible, there was a Susanna who ministered to
Christ. I like that! Names are a fascinating thing.
Our name is special – it might not
seem like it if it’s a common name, but actually if we really look at it, how
many of those other people with our name are just like us? None!
I remember when Malachi was born.
We had chosen his name, and I always thought it was an uncommon name but when
we told people his name I had a number of people say to me “What a cool name, I
know two other Malachi’s too…” It kid of burst my bubble for a bit, but when I
think about it – there is no other Malachi like my Malachi.
We are unique and called by God, by
our name. He even has our name written on the palm of his hand! We are that
special to him!
The shepherds relationship with his
sheep was special.
Psalm 139 says:
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from
afar.
3 You discern my going out and my
lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are
there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my
mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the
depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
What a picture! Because if we are
the sheep that is our shepherd!
I guess I don’t need to ask the
question - Who is our Shepherd? Who is the Good Shepherd?
Jesus is our Shepherd, we follow
him and he calls us by name. We know that with all our hearts but how often do
we fight that?
Think of the story of the lost
sheep for a moment – Obviously 99 sheep followed their shepherd but one went
away from his shepherd, what happened? The man went looking for it?
Have we strayed away from the
flock? Have we strayed away from the good that Jesus has for us. I know I would
prefer to be in the flock with the gentle singing and talking of Jesus calling
me. At least I know if I stray he will come and find me – do you agree? Do you
feel that way too?
I want to bring your attention to
verse 9:
If we imagine our Christian
world and the things we are called to, as the sheep pens, then when he calls us
to something we can trust his voice and enter the gate. We don’t have to do
anything except walk through that gate and we need to follow him when it’s time
to move on.
Jesus is our
shepherd, we can imagine ourselves living in a fenced of area for our safety
while we live out the calling he has for us at that point – for example one
sheep pen might be to work a job outside of our comfort zone. Another sheep pen
might be to talk in public, and another might be as simple as taking some
baking to someone w might not necessarily know, hey it might even be to talk to
someone who has hurt us!
What sheep pen is
God leading you to this year? Maybe it’s happening now, maybe you don’t know
yet – but do you trust him enough to know it will be good?
We can trust him
with our entire being because he loves and cares for us. He would do anything
to keep us safe.
We can go into
whatever it is knowing that God is with us because of his soft gentle whisper calling
us by name to something.
Jesus is also the
gate. He is 100% committed to us, he laid down his entire life for us so why
would we not want to follow?
Verse 10 says
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.
Who is the thief?
We instantly think
– Satan right? And that is right but what about life in general?
Things like money,
gaming, bad relationships, gossip, - anything that is not of God – is a thief. Sometimes
it’s so easy to live life according to our own will, we know what God is
calling us to but we don’t go, we follow our own voice rather than God’s voice.
And we can often separate ourselves from rest of the flock. We need the
encouragement and love from the rest of those who are in the sheep pen with us.
So, this morning
let’s be reminded of a few important things here:
We are sheep, we
follow someone but who is that someone? Is it Jesus, the Good shepherd or is it
wandering off on our own path, not listening to the shepherd?
Jesus loves us.
Just like the Good shepherd he laid down his life for each of us, he gave us a
name and calls us because he wants us. He wants us to follow him, so he can
protect us and loves us. He is the gate that protects us from evil. And he came
to give us full life, he doesn’t want us to pick a pen that has a bad shepherd
that doesn’t care for us or protect us, he doesn’t want our lives to go to the
thief to be stolen, killed and destroyed, he wants to give us full life.
There are going to
be times when God calls us to a sheep pen and we might not like it. There are
going to be times where it feels like Jesus has walked away from the pen not
protecting us or calling us – or maybe we have wandered off like the lost sheep
or maybe we feel like he isn’t calling
us but in actual fact – he has left all the other sheep to look for this one.
We are important enough for him to walk away from his hundreds to find the one
lost sheep. – he is calling us.
We might not like
the thing he wants us to do but he knows the reason for it but Do we trust him
enough to be our shepherd who will look after us? Or are we going to allow the
thief/bad shepherd to guide us instead?
I know which one I
want to be. I know the challenge that comes with fully trusting and following
him, but when I look back all the times I have trusted him and done what he has
asked, my life has been filled with far more joy than the times when I have wandered
off in my own direction.
We have a choice to
make this year.
What’s it going to
be?
Follow the Good
Shepherd and have a full life of joy or is wandering off on our own opening
ourselves up to be destroyed by the thief because we are protected by our
shepherd?