FOUR GREAT SAYINGS OF JESUS III
A Series of Devotional Sermons
Third Great Saying . . . “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and, my sheep know me.” John 10:14
On my visit to the Holy Land in 1974, one of the sights which I beheld as I rode on a bus from town to town and village to village was the picturesque settings in which I saw herds of sheep grazing.
Not much has changed in the rural areas of Palestine since the days when Jesus walked along those country roads. Of course, the big difference between his day and ours is the mode of travel. I rode in an air-conditioned tour bus. Jesus walked.
The mention of travel mode brings to mind a humorous story told by Dr. Frank Harrington, long-time pastor of Peachtree Road Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. He was my favorite TV preacher prior to his untimely death a number of years ago.
Dr. Harrington told about the experience of one of his elders whose son attended the University of Georgia. It seems that, before the son left home to go to Athens, the father said to the son, “Son, I tell you what. When you come home for the Christmas holidays, if you have done two things that I want you to do, I will give you a brand-new sports car.”
“Wow”, said the son, “whatever you say, Dad!” “Okay, here’s what I want you to do: Make the Dean’s list and cut your hair short; if you do, I’ll give you the keys to a brand-new sports car.”
At the end of the first semester, the son came home for the holidays – having made the dean’s list, but still with long hair. Smiling broadly, the son handed his dad the letter of congratulations on making the dean’s list.
“That’s great,” replied his father, “but what are you going to do about your long hair?”
“Well, dad, it’s like this. After I got to the university, I enrolled in a Bible study, and I figured you’d be mighty proud of me for that. But, you know, dad, I learned from reading my Bible that Jesus had long hair, so I decided it would be okay for me to have long hair.”
“You know, son, I am very proud that you enrolled in a Bible study and I’m so glad that you did your Bible readings; but you didn’t read far enough, because the Bible says that Jesus walked everywhere He went!”
As Jesus walked along the hot, dusty roads of Palestine, He observed flocks of sheep tended by their shepherds.
There is so much in the Bible – Old and New Testaments – that refer to sheep and shepherds. For example, how would we have made it through life without the 23rd Psalm?
The life of David would have lost so much of its glow had it not been for the fact that he was a shepherd lad when Samuel discovered David to be God’s choice to become the greatest king Israel ever had. “Oh,” said his father and older brothers to the prophet, “he’s just a shepherd lad.”
As a matter of fact, a real shepherd in those days was born to be a shepherd. He was sent out with the flock as soon as he was old enough to go; he grew into the calling of being a shepherd.; the sheep became his friends and his companions; and it became second nature to him to think of them before he thought of himself. Such a shepherd was said to be a good shepherd.
But the false shepherd came into the job, not as a calling, but as a means of making money. He was in it simply and solely for the pay he could get out of it. He might even have been a man who had taken to the hills to get out of town. He had no sense of the responsibility of his job. Any shepherd who was in it for his own sake rather than for the sake of the sheep was a bad shepherd.
This contrast between the good and bad shepherd was no doubt what Jesus had in mind when He said, “I am the good shepherd.”
As the good shepherd, Jesus was saying to all who follow Him that He was born into this world for a purpose . . . He was sent to be the shepherd of God’s flock . . . He grew into the calling of being the kind of shepherd who would lay down His life for the sheep . . . His sheep would become his friends and do whatever He asked . . . His sheep would become His companions who would be with Him forever . . . there would never be a time when the well-being of His sheep would be anything less than His major concern – even though they walk through the valley of the shadow!
Not only is Jesus the good shepherd of all those who trust Him enough to follow Him, the part of this great saying that really appeals to me is the second part, where He said, “I know my sheep.”
Contemplate for a moment what it means for the Great Shepherd to “know” His sheep.
We must understand, of course, that when Jesus talks about the shepherd, He is using that analogy as a reference to Himself; and when He talks about sheep, the analogy has to do with people - which tells us that any reference by Jesus to “my” sheep is a reference to those of us who belong to Him by virtue of our trust in Him.
What this tells me is that He knows me! He knows you! He knows everything about you and me – who we are, where we are, what we do and how we live. He knows all about us – individually!
I am a unique individual created in the image of God; and with Jesus as my Savior, I am a very important person - known by Him – and loved by Him. Just as surely as the good shepherd in that touching story of the ninety and nine loved all his sheep – each one of them – to the extent that He was willing to risk his life to find and bring safely home the one that was lost, Jesus loves you and me – each and every one of us.
He knows us so well that: He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us . . . He watches over us and protects us from harm or danger . . . He supplies our every need, even in ways that we cannot imagine . . . none of us has anything to fear, even in times of uncertainty.
Yes, Jesus is the good shepherd – the great shepherd of the sheep – and He knows His sheep; but the third part of this third great saying is where the challenge lies for those of us who are represented by the sheep analogy; Jesus concludes this third great saying with the phrase: “and they know me.”
The great shepherd knows His sheep. That is something that we can count on. He knows His sheep. To use Old Testament terminology, if we are indeed the sheep of His pasture, then there should be no doubt that we know Him whom to know is life eternal.
Do we know Him? You see, that is the question each one of us must answer; and it is a question that only you and I as individuals can answer. I think that most, if not all of us, can without hesitation say yes, we know Him.
I can say that I know Him in my head. I have head knowledge about Him; and most folks know about Jesus. They will go so far as to agree that He was a great teacher. Remember when Nicodemus came to Him at night and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no man could do the miracles that you do except God be with Him.”
That encounter alone tells me that there was a rabbi named Jesus who amazed even His critics by the miracles He wrought. Yet, it was not to impress people with His power that Jesus came and ministered on this earth. The reason He came is clearly stated by Him when He went on to say to Nicodemus - in answer to the ruler’s question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” – “You must be born again.”
Jesus was telling this very intelligent and highly respected executive that it is one thing to acknowledge the man sent from God as a great teacher, but an entirely different thing to see Him as the Messiah – the One sent from God to perform the greatest of all miracles – the regeneration of man’s spiritual being – not a matter of the head, but a matter of the heart!
Someone once said that only eighteen inches separates a man from being born again; that is the distance from the head to the heart.
Yes, we stand in awe, as did Nicodemus, of the miracle worker from Nazareth; but the awesomeness of His coming was His dying on the Cross - followed by His resurrection.
Thus, the miracle of all miracles is that whosoever believes in Him, receives Him into their life, and confesses Him as Lord and Savior shall be saved - shall experiences regeneration which Jesus likened unto a new birth; and the icing on the cake of regeneration is resurrection.
The miracle of resurrection to a new life in Christ occurs only in the lives of those who know Him. Yes, the Lord is my shepherd. He knows me and I know Him; I shall follow Him all the days of my life; and I shall dwell with Him in the House of the Lord forever. Amen.
