Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Good Shepherd*

*John 10:1-5, 10-13*

*30 July 2006*

*Vestavia Hills** Baptist Church*

* *

You can learn a lot about the city you are in by reading the want ads.

If you had never been to Birmingham before and read today’s want ads you would discover that Birmingham has a large teaching hospital and medical community.

You would discover that there is a healthy banking community – mortgage brokers, loan officers, accountants are needed everywhere.

You would think the economy is good because of the great need of more truck drivers – goods need to be delivered everywhere.

Truck driving is a very stable job.

People are buying.

Big ticket items are doing well.

Real estate in Birmingham bucks the national trend – no slowing down here.

Automobiles … must be doing okay because it seems like every dealership needs more sales personnel, no experience necessary.

I was looking the classifieds because I was trying to find how many job openings there were for *shepherds, that’s right,* shepherds, people who take care of sheep.

Not unexpectedly, *I didn’t find any want ads for shepherds.*

*Why?* Simple answer.

*This is not sheep country*.

For the most part sheep are on dinner plates or petting zoos.

Probably very few of us in this room know anyone who is a shepherd or have spent much time around sheep.

So, for us, *when we hear the statement Jesus made, */I am the good shepherd.

(John 10:11),”/ there is a little *“disconnect*” with what Jesus said.

We *better understand* Jesus when he said, I am the *bread of life*, *I am the light of the world*, - bread and light are part of our lives.

But sheep?

We don’t *know much about sheep* and so, we have a lack of *appreciation and understanding* about what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the good shepherd.”

* *

*Not so for those who heard these words from Jesus’ lips.*

They knew about sheep.

They knew about shepherds.

Their *cousins*, *uncles*, *fathers* tended sheep.

Sheep were part of *everyday life*, they even played a major role in their *religious celebrations *and worship services.

Sheep were also a *major part of every local* *economy; they were a commodity* and personal wealth was sometimes measured by how many sheep you had.

Sheep, not bank accounts or securities was one measure of financial success in Jesus’ day.

So then, how do we, people who don’t know much about sheep, understand what Jesus was talking about?*/ /*Answers are found in learning about shepherds and sheep.

*SHEPHERDS*

When you read the Bible you realize it is filled with stories about shepherds and sheep.

Many Bible characters owned or took care of sheep … people like Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David.

Tending sheep was not just a male occupation; women also took care of sheep.

Rachel, the wife of Jacob, Genesis 29 tells us, was a shepherdess.

In addition, perhaps the most loved and known section of the Bible, Psalm 23, is about sheep and shepherds.

You know how it goes, /“The Lord is my shepherd …”/

 

Jesus, in his last public sermon before his death, - picks up on the biblical theme of shepherds and sheep in the passage we have read.

In His sermon, Jesus makes an important distinction about the difference between good shepherds and bad shepherds, just like we make a distinction between good *leaders* and bad leaders, *bosses, employee, representatives, teachers, coaches.*

*/ /*

The first distinction between good and bad shepherds Jesus makes is:

*1.

A good shepherd cares for and protects his sheep.

*

In Jesus day the welfare of the sheep was in the hands of the shepherd; everything from food, to shelter, to protection.

And a good shepherd took those responsibilities seriously!

They were constantly attentive to the sheep and to their needs.

This wasn’t easy.

*Andre Dubus* in an autobiographical essay entitled, “Out Like a Lamb,” found in his book Broken Vessels, (Broken Vessels Boston: David R. Godine, 1991), recounts a year that his family lived in a mansion they rented in New Hampshire at a bargain rate in return for keeping an eye on eight pedigreed sheep the owner kept for breeding.

They didn't have to feed them; all they had to do was catch them when they escaped from their pen and put them back inside.

This happened fairly often.

At first, it was an amusing diversion; then it became irritating, and worse: He writes, *‘our tackling became angry, and some of us punched the sheep in the jaw as we lay on top of them.’*

The punching became habitual, part of the pursuit.

One of them died; cause unknown.

One time, all the sheep got out together, and in trying to keep them away from the owner's roses, Dubus fired a load of birdshot in their direction.

Nothing serious, just a bunch of BBs.

Another one died.

He writes, *Luckily, the year ran out before the flock* …

 

Dubus turned this experience into a meditation on the relationship of Christ to humanity; up to then, he’d always taken the pastoral parables to mean that as his sheep, ‘we were sweet and lovable ....

But he writes, “after a few weeks in that New Hampshire house, I saw that Christ’s analogy meant something entirely different.

We were stupid helpless brutes, and without constant watching, we would foolishly destroy ourselves'" (xiv-xv).

Philip Keller in his classic book, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm, backs Dubas’ experience./“Left to themselves, sheep will follow the same trails until they develop a rut and then they won’t leave the rut.” /Does that sound like any of us? /“They will graze the same hills until they turn to waste.

Sheep pollute their own ground until it is corrupt with disease and parasites.

They are stubborn, but easily frightened.

Even a small rabbit can stampede a herd of sheep.

They require more attention than any class of livestock.

They simply cannot take care of themselves.

They are almost blind.

They can only see about 15 yards clearly.

They have little or no means of self-defense, except to run.

Sheep have no homing instincts at all.

A dog, cat, or bird can find its way home sometimes, but a sheep when it is lost, is lost.

Until the shepherd goes to look for it, it won’t be a part of the flock.”

/

 

So the Bible compares us to sheep!

So much for our self esteem or positive self image!

/All we like sheep have gone astray,/ the prophet Isaiah wrote.

How do shepherds care and protect such foolish and helpless animals?

Shepherds had a /staff/, a short wooden club which had a lump of wood at the end often studded with nails.

It usually had a slit in the handle at the top, through which a thong passed; and by the thong the staff swung at the shepherd’s belt.

His staff was the weapon with which he defended himself and his flock against prowling beasts and robbers.

They had a /rod/, which was like the shepherd’s crook.

With it they could catch and pull back any sheep which was moving to stray away.

At the end of the day, when the sheep were going into the fold, the shepherd held his rod across the entrance, quite close to the ground; and every sheep had to pass under it (/Ezek/ 20:37; /Lev/ 27:32); and, as each sheep passed under, the shepherd cleaned their nose and ears with a rag and examined it to see if it had received any kind of injury throughout the day.

What a picture of God’s care and protection.

No wonder the Psalmist proclaimed, /“The Lord is MY GOOD shepherd; I have everything I need …// //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, they comfort me./

Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, cares about everyone of us and he is attentive to us, no matter who we are, no matter what we are going through; whether we have *lost our spouse* through death or divorce, or we are *facing an uncertain future* because the company is downsizing, or we have just received a *bad report* from the *doctor*; or the school counselor, or police; or *struggling* with what to do about a *relationship* or a *new mom or dad* and you are exhausted.

Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd knows what we are up against; he examines us and he knows what we need and will take care of us.

A second distinction between good and bad shepherds is that, if necessary …

*2.

A good shepherd willingly sacrifices himself for the sheep.*

Being a shepherd was a dangerous job in Jesus’ day.

It required courage.

Sheep had natural predators like foxes and leopards and there were always rustlers ready to steal them away.

Robbery was a common occurrence, and stories of desperate fights with wild animals and even murder at the hands of thieves would have been well known.

Jesus said the hired hand runs away at the first sign of danger but a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

In fact, *four times Jesus repeats that the ultimate test of a good shepherd was his willingness to sacrifice himself for the sheep.*

The implication was obvious.

Jesus would demonstrate that he was *The* Good Shepherd in laying down his life for the sheep.

He took on the powers of sin and death and hell for us and he was not taken to his death kicking, screaming, trying to escape.

He said in /v//17 //No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

/Jesus willingly laid it down so that sin and death and hell would be defeated and that we might have, as He said in /v10/ – the fullness of life.

So a good shepherd cares, protects, pursues, and gives his life for the sheep.