Talking about discipleship=process/change
- Humorous ‘Changing a light bulb’ religiously
- We’re talking about a different type of change; fundamental, inside out, thru friendship with Jesus
- When you’ve met Jesus, everything changes
o His teaching challenges your understanding
o His compassion softens your heart
o He turns your world upside down… and then you realize right side up for the first time.
- While…want to begin with the very essence of Christ’s ministry… to hear his own words… Declare the kingdom of God…
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36)
In these words… we come to know the very heart and posture of Jesus… compassion… strongest word of its type in Greek, formed from the word which means ‘bowels’—Used only by Jesus
There’s a simple but poignant statement that’s often repeated today “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
‘Harassed and Helpless’
Bewildered, distressed—beat up, uncared for, wearied by a journey that seems to have no end
Religious leaders bewildering men with subtle arguments of the law that kept them from God rather than … weighed them down
Dejected—laid prostrate… can mean either in drunkenness or wounds.
SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD—hits home? Decent minds navigate earthly life reasonably well… souls in their eternal light… must reach safe pasture amidst distractions and dangers we don’t know how to recognize, let alone overcome.
GOD’S HEART… God’s heart comes alive in the very history of this phrase…
- Over 200x… shepherd/shepherding
- Abraham, Jacob, Moses… all shepherds… David
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them… For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness… I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…(Ezekiel 34:2-6)
We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…(Isaiah 53:6)
So God Himself will take up the shepherds role
But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you will come a ruler
Who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. (Matthew 2:6)
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Jesus describes himself, in John 10…
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The 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. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…” (John 10:11-14)
- Here his revelation as the good and great shepherd communicates profound commitment… in contrast to hired hands.
1. He finds us…astray and alone.
- For the shepherd the thought of one sheep… astray and alone, would consume his heart and mind
o Speaks to every one of us… at a deep level Talking with a friend yesterday… lost a parent… concerned for a pet
• Normal/natural… our existence is marked by being known… presences of others.
Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundredsheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:1-7)
- Count their sheep daily
- The shepherd was personally responsible for the sheep. These shepherds were experts at tracking and could follow the straying sheep’s footprints for miles across the hills. There was not a shepherd for whom it was not all in the day’s work to risk his life for his sheep.
- Many flocks were communal flocks, belonging, not to individuals, but to villages. There would be two or three shepherds in charge. Those whose flocks were safe would arrive home on time and bring news that one shepherd was still out on the mountain side searching for a sheep which was lost. The whole village would be upon the watch, and when, in the distance, they saw the shepherd striding home with the lost sheep across his shoulders, there would rise from the whole community a shout of joy and of thanksgiving.
- Bring home ‘carrying over his shoulders, w/legs crossed over his chest
o God knows we can’t make our own way home.
- That’s the picture Jesus drew of God; that, said Jesus, is what God is like
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
And carries them close to his heart;
He gently leads those that have young.
(Isaiah 40:11)
2. He protects us… against the dangers of this world.
- The shepherd in Judaea had a hard and dangerous task. Pasture was scarce. The narrow central plateau was only a few miles wide, and then it plunged down to the wild cliffs and the terrible devastation of the desert. There were no restraining walls and the sheep would wander. George Adam Smith wrote of the shepherd, “On some high moor across which at night the hyaenas howl, when you meet him, sleepless, far-sighted, weather beaten, armed, leaning on his staff and looking out over his scattered sheep, every one of them on his heart, you understand why the shepherd of Judaea sprang to the front in his people’s history; why they gave his name to the king and made him the symbol of providence; why Christ took him as the type of self-sacrifice.
o Shepherd sees what the sheep cannot… dangers
o ILLUS: Pilot flying over car trying to pass
o Nor did his labours always end with sunset. Often he had to guard the fold through the dark hours from the attack of wild beasts, or the wily attempts of the prowling thief
- In fact, Jesus describes himself as the Door in relationship to sheep.
o 6” opening
- Do we leave such imagery for children…?
3. He guides us… to pastures that provide life, both now and forever.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
For his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
Through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
For you are with me;
Your rod and your staff,
The comfort me.
(Psalm 23:1-4 A psalm of David)
- Shepherd has a goal… pastures that give life
For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25)
DO YOU KNOW THE GREAT SHEPHERD… THE OVERSEER OF YOUR SOUL?
The Shepherd’s Voice
A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep. But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days. When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter. At last he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal. The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened. The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door. It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master. “His sheep knows him,” said the judge. “Case dismissed!”
