The Shepherd’s Voice
John 10:11-18
Paonia United Methodist Church
May 11, 2003
A young wife called a newspaper office and asked for the food editor.
"Would you please help me?" she asked.
"I’m cooking a special dinner tonight for my husband’s boss and his wife.
I’ve never cooked a big dinner before, and I want everything to be perfect.
I bought a nine-pound turkey.
Could you tell me how long to cook it in my new
microwave?"
"Just a minute," the food editor said, as he turned to check his reference book.
"Oh, thank you," she said. "You’ve been a big help. Good-bye!"
How would you like to be there for that dinner?
Mmmmmmmm!
So, where do you think our young wife went wrong?
She heard the words, but missed the point entirely.
It doesn’t take too much to guess what the results look like.
The sad part, is that there are plenty of people who carry this same principle
Into their spiritual lives.
They hear the words, the words even make sense…
But they miss the point completely.
This morning’s Scripture occurs in such a context.
John 10
11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns 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. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
The Gospel of John has one basic theme.
John constantly desires that men understand that Jesus is God.
He is concerned with the deity of Christ,
that He is God in a human body.
So repeatedly through the gospel of John,
John records the various times that Jesus made
the claim to be God.
So many times these claims come in the form of parables that are confusing and
take a tremendous amount oif insight to understand.
Thankfully, morning’s text is not quite so difficult.
In fact, it is pretty straightforward.
Jesus claims to be the “good shepherd,
And goes on to describe his extraordinarily personal
And loving responsibilities as such.
Now as straight forward as it is,
I think that it would still help to take a look at what it would mean to be a
shepherd in Jesus day.
Shepherding in the mid-east at the time of Jesus
Would have been very different than it is in other parts of the world today.
Sheep were kept by their owners for years and years,
they were not animals slaughtered for their meat,
but rather providers of wool.
Shepherds led their animals - they did not drive them,
and they stayed with their flock both by day and by night,
protecting them with their rod, a short knobbed club,
from wild animals and robbers - of which there were many;
and they retrieved them from dangerous situations with their staff,
a long pole with a crook in the end that could go around the
animal’s body and drag it to safety.
As I have said the shepherds kept their animals for many years –
and so they came to know them very well
and the sheep in turn knew them very well.
Why is this significant?
Well, I want you to notice several things…
Did you notice that the sheep have done nothing to earn the love of the shepherd?
Did you notice that the Shepherd does not just go looking for the ones that
he likes, or the ones that are somehow more deserving than another?
No, that is just not the way of the shepherd.
The shepherd rescues the lost sheep just because it is lost.
That’s what shepherds do.
They protect the sheep.
And as the shepherd protects his sheep and goes searching for the lost,
Christ came to redeem the lost,
And restore and protect God’s church.
As revolutionary as this message was to those who heard it for the first time,
It should not be unfamiliar to us.
For those of us who have heard the shepherd’s voice speaking to us
For years and years,
This message intimately familiar.
We know his voice.
The parable is not a parable,
But a spiritual reality in our lives.
We can look back and see where we have gone astray,
And recognize where God has intervened and pulled us back again and again.
You see, the sheep recognize the Master’s voice…
They know one another…
They have a deeply intimate and personal relationship.
I don’t know how to share it with you and better
Than to share with you about my own deep and personal relationship
With the shepherd and the rocky wilderness he pulled from.
People of God,
I grew up in the church,
I ushered, I acolyted, maybe I even prayed occasionally…
But, for one reason or another, it never really meant that
Much to me.
In my later teen years, I became a very depressed and angry youth.
I rebelled, as many kids do.
By the time I started college, I had managed to become
A full blown alcoholic and drug user.
I became completely lost in my sin.
There was nothing left of what my
parents had taught me.
I was gone.
When I sit and read about the good shepherd coming and looking
For his lost sheep… it is not just a story… it is not just some fairy tale image…
It is my life story. Its about who God is and what God does.
It is an intimately personal story about the depth of God’s love.
The good shepherd came looking for his lost sheep.
The shepherd came to me at the lowest point in my life…
I was in utter despair of what my so called life had become.
And, it was in this pit of despair that the shepherd found me…
And I recognized his voice.
The angels sang my name that day.
I have heard the heavenly chorus sing...
There is nothing in the world like it.
If you haven’t heard it, just you wait…
there is no way to describe it.
Jesus picked me up and carried me back to sanity.
And then he made his rounds… and he got my friends too.
My best friend was serving in South Korea in the Marine Corps.
I got a letter from him in the mail about a week later.
He received Christ the same night I did on the opposite
Side of the world.
And God didn’t stop there.
The drunk in room 212 at the University of Toledo became the
The evangelist in 212.
The Good Shepherd started making his rounds.
When people would ask me why I had changed so dramatically,
I shared the gospel with them.
The next time I hear the heavenly chorus,
I will have my friends with me.
But, the truly amazing part of the story I did not get until years later.
In seminary, I was asked to write a spiritual autobiography.
As I sat to write it, I began with the story about the day when
Jesus, the good shepherd, found me.
And, as I sat an wrote,
God brought back a memory to me.
It was a very old memory.
There was no way I could have remembered it on my own.
He brought back to me the memory of me riding in the back of
Mom and Dad’s station wagon reading one of those little Bible tracks that
people occasionally leave around.
I couldn’t have been much more than 6 or 7 at the time because I needed
My brother’s help to understand the words.
But, what I remember is that I prayed the sinner’s prayer that day.
When I had this memory come back to me,
I heard God speak to my heart…
“I knew you then.”
These stories,
These amazing stories that God has given us in his Word
Are meant to be personal.
When we read them, we should hear his voice speaking
To us through the power of his Spirit.
Its true, anyone can read commentary and get the literal translation…
But the literal translation is as complete a translation as the woman
Who understood she only needed to microwave the turkey for one minute.
The words may be the same,
But without God’s spirit, the translation is lost.
Now, I know that this is Mother’s Day.
And some of you have to be wondering why I would use such a text
On this day that we honor the gift God has given us in our Mother’s.
Well. I would just like to take a second to mention Mom here.
In fairness, I need to mention Dad too.
Both of them stood by me, loved me, took care of me when
I was impossible to deal with.
Dad stood like the mighty Oak.
Unbendable. Unbreakable. Unwavering.
Mom, on the other hand, mom spent a lot of time on her knees.
She did a lot of praying.
Mother’s, I would offer to you today that you have a special line to God.
When you pray for your kids, I believe that God hears those prayers
above all others.
It may take time, but let me reassure you today,
He hears you.
We even find in Scripture that Mary had a special place in Jesus’ heart.
At the wedding in Cana, recorded in the second chapter of John,
Mary approached Jesus when the party had run out of wine.
Jesus responded, “woman, why do you involve me, my time has not yet come?”
What the Scripture doesn’t record was her responding,
“Because I’m your mother and I said so!”
We know that he responded to her wishes because he loved and honored her.
Mothers, you are special to God.
Finally, I would like to end with an invitation.
If you do not know the shepherd’s voice,
There is no reason to leave here today without hearing him.
It is possible to spend every Sunday of your life in the church,
Know the Bible backwards and forwards,
Learn everything there is to know about religion,
And still not know the shepherd.
I share this short story with you by permission.
Just this week, another long standing member came to me and said,
“I see something in the people around me that I do not have.
I want the peace that they have. I have heard you preach on it.
What do I need to do?”
That person left the church knowing the shepherd.
Do not leave with half hearted answers.
Otherwise, you will have the same success in your spiritual life
As the woman who micro waved her 9 pound turkey for one minute.
Believing Jesus to be the Son of God and claiming him to be your shepherd
And your savior are two different things.
Believing him to be the Son of God is merely recognizing a fact.
The devil himself knows who Jesus is.
Claiming him to be your savior invites a relationship with the shepherd.
And from that point forward, the shepherd will recognize you
As one of his own.
People of God,
Do you know your shepherd’s voice?
Do you want to?
Let us pray…
