Saturday, June 4, 2011

May 22nd, 2011



Text: John 10:1-10
Jesus Is Our Good Shepherd
I. The Sheep Recognize The Shepherd’s Voice.
II. The Shepherd Opens The Gate To Life
In the name of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, dear fellow redeemed children of God,
Well, we’re still here. If we are still here, then yesterday was not the end of the world, nor was it the supposed “snatching up” of believers that some misguided spiritual guides say will usher in the end of the world. Some of you might know that a man by the name of Harold Camping had said that he had figured out by studying the Bible that the world was going to end yesterday. Mr. Camping now joins a long list of false teachers, some Christian, others non Christian, who have said that they knew something that God in His wisdom has hidden from our eyes. Still Harold Camping was right about one thing, this wicked world is going to end. On that day and as we wait for that day to come, sheep like us will need a Good Shepherd to guide us and protect us. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I The Sheep recognize the Shepherd’s voice. II. The Shepherd opens the gate to life.
Did you ever find yourself locked out of your own house? Maybe you had to boost yourself or one of the kids through a window. Even though it is your own house, it feels kind of funny doesn’t it? You try to do it quickly so that the neighbors or a policeman driving by won’t see. The owner of a house usually comes in through the door and not through a window. Those who come through the window are usually not the legitimate owners. In Jesus’ day there were spiritual leaders who were trying to take some the sheep belonged to the Good Shepherd. Imagine coming home and finding someone crawling through your window to steal what belonged to you. That’s what Jesus the Good Shepherd found. There were so called spiritual leaders who were passing themselves off as the Good Shepherd. Yet they were not coming to the sheep the way that matched what God’s Word says. They were climbing over the fence. AI tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber.”
“The man who enters by the gate is the Shepherd of the Sheep.” Jesus came the way God’s Word said he would. He fit all of the prophecies. God’s Word’s said, “A virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son and will call his name Immanuel.” Jesus was born of a virgin girl in Bethlehem just like the prophets said. God gave a job description of the Good Shepherd through Isaiah, “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Jesus fit that description to a T. Jesus spoke of God’s forgiveness and love to the brokenhearted. He helped and healed the outcasts.
The Good Shepherd was there. But there were also the bad shepherds climbing over the gate them as wolves to steal souls away from their true Shepherd. In John chapter 9, Jesus had just healed a blind man. Near the end of that chapter we see that the man=s spiritual sight had also been restored. When Jesus asked, ADo you believe in the Son of man?@ The man who was healed replied, ALord, I believe.@ Yet the false shepherds came charging in, AThis man is not from God.@ After arguing with the man who had been healed they threw him out of the synagogue and accused him of being spiritually blind. Finally when these false shepherds confronted the Good Shepherd, Jesus told them plainly that they were the ones who were spiritually blind. The Pharisees of Jesus= day tried to steal the people by fear and intimidation. They robbed the people of the sure hope of forgiveness by piling many, many manmade commandments on them. Jesus said that many of their forefathers did the same thing, “All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers.”

On some days, it seems like Satan has an army of false shepherds, snapping at the heals of his sheep. Today those false shepherds might urge us to Ado what feels good.@ No matter what the Aold dusty book@ called the Bible says about it. There have been times when we have listened to and followed these false shepherds that we see in our world everywhere from beer commercials to books. What foolish and sinful sheep we are. But Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Fellow sheep, let’s to the voice of the shepherd.
AThe watchman opens the gate for the shepherd and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.@ When I was a little boy and our family went to the County Fair, I used to like to go through the cattle barns to look at all the cows. Each stall in the cattle barn had the animals name written on a sign. But the owners of those animals didn’t have to look at those signs. They knew each one of their animals. The farmer knew that this one was “Daisy@ and that she gets scared by thunder. They knew that that one over there was AClover@ and that she was so sick last month they had to call the vet. Just as the farmers know each one of their animals by name so our Good Shepherd calls each one of his sheep by name. Even with so many people in this world, you are not just a number to the Jesus. He knows your name. He knows if you were sick last month. He knows the things that are frightening you. He knows the temptations you are struggling with. His voice brings peace and comfort to our ears and to our hearts. Jesus is our Good shepherd and the sheep recognize Jesus’ voice. When we are tired out, His voice says, “Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy ladened and I will give to rest.”
When past sins torment us, the voice of the Shepherd calms us, “Take heart, your sins are forgiven.”
For safety=s sake, the shepherds would meet and bring all of the sheep together into one pen for the night. Then in the morning they would separate get their own sheep back by walking to the gate and calling out names. The sheep all knew the voice of their shepherd and when they heard their name called they would follow the shepherd out into the pasture for the day. AWhen he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger=s voice.@
It was interesting to hear the radio dj’s talk about Harold Camping’s prediction of the end of the world. Sadly many mocked not only Harold Camping but also mocked God and joked about heaven and hell Two voices stick in my mind. One said, “If it’s Saturday, I don’t have enough time to make up for all the bad things I’ve done.” Another said, “I’m in pretty good shape, I’ve been pretty good, but my dog is in trouble.” Did you notice that? Their admission to heaven centered on what they had done. If our getting into heaven depends on what we have done we are in bad trouble. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” But there is a gate to life. It is Jesus the Good Shepherd. He leads the sheep to life.
The Good Shepherd may not have chalkdust or a smart board clicker in His hand but this shepherd has a teacher’s heart. AJesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand.@ Many of the people Jesus was talking to did not understand what he was saying. So Jesus changed His picture from the Shepherd to the “gate.” ATherefore Jesus said again, AI tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.@ Jesus is the way to heaven. Jesus said, AI am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.@

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.@ Jesus left his throne in heaven to give us life by his keeping the commandments in our place and laying down his life again in our place on the cross. What a wonderful picture of the shepherd being the gate to life for His sheep.
Have you found yourself wishing more and more that Camping was right and that the end of the world was today? Are there days when you feel pretty defeated or lifeless? Are there days when you wonder where your Good Shepherd is? Are you feeling that way today? Know that you Good Shepherd has not left you. He is there leading you through life. Just like a shepherd he is there in front of you clearly out the thorn branches and fallen trees of life out of your way. I would imagine that the sheep never knew what how scraped up the shepherds hands and feet got as he cleared the way for them. You and I might never know all the dangers and problems our Good Shepherd has cleared out of our path. Yet we know what are on his hands and feet- nail holes from the cross. The timing of the end of the world is in his hands too. He’ll do it all right at just the right time. After all, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Amen.

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