This sermon was delivered to Holy Trinity in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 22nd April 2018; Holy Trinity is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
Acts 4:5-12 Psalm 23 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18
“Please be seated.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. Amen. (Psalms. 19:14).
Introduction
In today’s gospel reading today, we find the reference to sheep 6 times in only 7 verses. … So have a guess what todays sermon is about. Have a guess! … I did a sermon of these verses 9 years ago and as I went through the passage, I wrote as I found. … In the end there was hundreds of reference to sheep … I mean, sheep everywhere so I swore I would not do that again. …
Yet here I am today with that same reading … and my first reaction was, “I’m no gonny dae it” … and then I did what most good Christians would do … I threw it aside and said, “ack I will look at that later”. … We are all human … but later I thought “instead of focusing on the sheep, why not focus on the shepherd”, and that is what I have done, and I sincerely hope you relate more to the shepherd than the sheep, and in doing so we will cover a lot of ground, so hang on.
What is a Shepherd?
Anyway, we are here in Ayr … and Ayr is a market town close to a countryside full of sheep … looked after by shepherds … and if I was to ask you, what does a typical shepherd look like? … I am sure you would say that they are pretty normal human beings like us, wearing the same cloths as we would wear, if we worked in fields all day, in all weathers.
This is a strange question with an obvious answer, but this was not the case back in the day, because at the time of Jesus, shepherds were very poor, and dare I say, pitiful creatures. They were treated as outcasts, the scum of the earth; … and so was anyone associated with them.
There were in fact nobodies, nobody wanted them, they smelled, and they certainly were not welcome in any church; ... yet, it is amazing that God the Father choose lowly shepherds to be the first to witness the birth of Jesus. … So not only was Jesus birth humble in a manger, but the witnesses to his birth were lowly Shepherds who lived in the fields, and not the higher echelons of society. ...
The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep.
And this humility brings us to our Gospel reading this morning wherein verse 11 Jesus says, but "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, ... and you know, after what I have just said, Jesus is now comparing or relating himself to these poor unclean outcasts ... recognising the good work they do for the sheep, and saying, I am the “shepherd of mankind”. … When Jesus recruited Peter, he said, “I will make you fishers of men” … but here, Jesus is going a massive stage further by implying that he “will even lay down is life for them”.
And did you notice also, that Jesus said it three times in this short passage … in verses 11, 15 and 17 … that he will lay down His life for us. … Jesus wants us to hear that because he really does loves us ... and that he also wants us to know that His death will not be a victory for His enemies; ... his death will be, or was a voluntary sacrifice to save us from ourselves, and restore our relationship with God.
And voluntary it was, because we read of occasions in the gospels where Jesus avoided capture and execution … Jesus knew how to escape … but when his "hour had come", he willing submitted his life for us as act of obedience. … Some people think it was Judas, or Caiaphas or Pilate who decided the time or the events of his death … but we know from the bible that it was God the father himself.
A hireling will shoot the Craw at the first sign of danger.
Next … verse 12 goes on to say, "But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. In verse 12 here, Jesus starts comparing himself with the hired hands, and by doing so he subtly attacks by implication, the so called religious leaders of the day, the Scribes and Pharisees … who as we know, were more concerned in their own importance rather than committing themselves to God.
These Scribes and Pharisees were arrogant, supercilious people, always looking down and belittling the people … using and abusing their authority to their own ends … and to what extent we can only guess … but Jesus knew what they were up to, and they knew that Jesus knew, and that is why they hated him; because he was exposing them for what they really were.
... And I am sorry to say that there are people like this in the Christian church today, in all of its various sects … in fact in all other religions too; men and women whose concern is not the welfare of the people, as they project their own promotion and self-image as we all well aware.
And this theme continues into verse 13 to back this up, it reads, "The hirelings flee, because they are hireling, and care not for the sheep". So by this definition almost, a hired hand will never sacrifice their life for sheep belonging to somebody else. ... It is not because they don’t do their job properly, they do … yes they do, but only to a extent; … they look after the sheep until danger presents itself … and then … their for the off.
Psalm 23
Psalm 23, (probably the most popular of Psalms), starts by saying, “the Lord is MY shepherd”, the good shepherd “whom we shall not want”, where Jesus seems to do everything for us. … For example, Jesus “leads them” ... (or us, whom we call Lord) … “to greener pastures and still waters”. … Jesus alone “restores our soul”, and “He leads us in the paths of righteousness”. …
And then in verse 4, there is the protection of his sheep again ... "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". … Notice the psalmist has no fear here … because he knows this Good Shepherd is with him and watching over him every step of the way.
Verse 5 goes on to say, "Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anoints my head with oil; my cup runneth over". …Think about this one, a table prepared for us personally, a table prepared and furnished with riches … in the very presence of our enemies.
Think deeply on that one, in front of our enemies we are presented as being protected and provided by the Lord. … And are they are not going to be jealous? … Come on, it is no wonder our enemies hate us; being presented with that … and it has happened to us all. … All of us have at some moment in time has someone taken a dislike to us for no apparent reason. ... And when this happens, we normal assume we have done something wrong, and act defensively; … whereas most hatred stems from jealousy. … Is it because our enemies can see this table, even though for some reason we cannot? ...
I will leave that one with you ... but Psalm 23 has a brilliant ending, it finishes by saying … that goodness and mercy will follow us all our lives, and … and when we are finished … we will dwell in the house of the Lords forever. … Is that not brilliant?
I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.
Anyway, returning to John 10 … verse 14, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep ... and my sheep know me. …
This is getting deeper now … because Jesus is clearly alluding to the personal relationship we must have with him … and this harkens back to verses 3, 4 and 5 which we did not read, where Jesus spoke about the sheep recognising and responding to His voice … in the exact same way he responds to his Father, implying that we need to establish a relationship with him … and yes it is difficult, but we must learn to hear his voice.
My Sheep know me and follow me.
Next, in verse 16 Jesus continues, to speak of ‘other sheep’ from another ‘sheep pen.’ … "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring … and they (too) shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd”.
To understand the meaning of this verse we need to understand the context in which it was spoken. … Jesus here was in Jerusalem … speaking to the crowd, people who had just witnessed the healing of the man born blind … people who included Jews, their Pharisee leaders, and some gentiles. … So Jesus here is making a direct reference to other sheep from another sheep pen meaning the Gentiles, which indirectly means us. Jesus came first to the Jews, but he is clearly making a reference to the fact that the gospel will be taken outside of Israel, to “Samaria and then to the ends of the earth”, as we all know.
Verses 17 and 18 finishes off by saying "Therefore, my Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again ... No man can take it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father”. … In these two authoritive verses, Jesus is again telling us that he will lay his life down for us ... but this time he adds that “He will also lift it up”, ... and this then is a clear reference to the resurrection.
Jesus wanted them, and us, to understand that the cross will be no accident, but part of the divine plan as a means of our salvation; … the cross was no defeat for Christ, and the resurrection was no afterthought by God because it could only be done by the sinless son of God ... and that is why he obediently went to the cross and fulfilled the will of his Father; … to restore man’s relationship with God.
Satan by Contrast.
Now this has been a long difficult passage to give a clear exposition ... but to hit this message home, I will now show you the enemy’s take on this ... and it is quite shocking by contrast, because Satan is known for his deception, and unlike the Good shepherd … Satan does not want any relationship with us at all, and this may surprise you, but let me explain. ...
... God wants our attention, and in particular he wants us to have a relationship with him, but Satan does not. ... Satan couldn’t care less about us ... the devil is not the slightest bit interested in us … he only uses us to get at God the Father. … He does not even want our allegiance as is commonly portrayed by the Satanists ... because an allegiance would implies a relationship, … and a relationship is about … give and take, … and we all know Satan isn’t into giving … Satan is only into taking for himself, he will give only, to allow him to take more.
Our gospel reading this morning started at verse 11, but verse 10 by the way said, "The enemy comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: and that I am come so that they, (or us), might have life, and that life be more abundant". … Satan only wants to steal from us, and by doing that, our lives are destroyed. …
Satan is only interested in himself ... and he would never trust any of us to follow him, even if we tried. … He only wants to consume us ... he wants us only for his benefit, to be used and abused. … He wants everything we have, and when he has taken it all ... we will be thrown away or discarded. ... Do you know anyone with similar traits to that? We are familiar with the term “user” or a “drain” … but I feel those term are descriptively so weak.
But what stops Satan and these people from destroying us; well I have said repeatedly ... our only protection is our relationship with the Good Shepherd himself, Jesus Christ our Lord who defeats him time and time again. … I therefore cannot emphasise enough our relationship with Jesus as the Lamb of God who took away sins of the world … so that we may be able to hear his voice … and answer His call. He alone is the only Shepherd worth getting to know? … Amen.
Let us pray,
Father, we thank you again for Jesus, that he is our Good Shepherd and that he wants a relationship with us. Father we want that relationship too, so please teach us how to do that, how speak to you … and learn to recognise your voice.
… Encourage us Father to want to talk with you, and even to look forward to our time we spend with you each day. Father, allow us to hear your voice, allow us to listen when you tell us you love us … allow us to listen when you warn us … and allow us to listen when there is something you want us to do. … Father we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
