The Lord Is My Shepherd
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | April 21, 2024
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Read John 10:11 – 18 (NIV)
Our New Testament lesson found in the Gospel of John points us back to our Old Testament reading from the Book of Psalms… a psalm that is probably the most easily recognizable of all the psalms… and the psalm that actually starts with the title of our sermon for today: THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD.
This simple but impactful statement is confirmed through the words of Jesus, found in both verses 11 and 14 of our text for today where Jesus declares… “I am the Good Shepherd…”
The Good Shepherd… the One who lays down His life for His sheep… the One who knows and is known by His sheep… the One of whom we can proclaim…
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
Now, just to give us some context… it is the shepherd who makes provision for the sheep… who offers protection to the sheep… and who extends His presence to the sheep… simply put, it is the shepherd who tends to all the needs of the sheep… because left to their own devices, the sheep would be in a world of trouble.
But, why is that, Pastor Heidi? [Well, I am so glad you asked!]
In general, sheep are helpless… some people go so far as to say that sheep are dumb.
They cannot find food and water on their own. They often wander away from the flock and become lost. And, if they fall onto their backs, they have no way to get themselves back up on their feet… this is a phenomenon referred to as a cast sheep… and without a shepherd to set the sheep back up on their feet, the sheep will die.
The sheep have no means of protecting themselves… so they will run when they are threatened by a coyote, wolf, or any animal that tries to harm them. But they are also a danger to themselves, as they are known to blindly follow after one another, even to the point of death.
Clearly, sheep need someone to take care of them and that is where the shepherd comes in… to do for the sheep what the sheep cannot do for themselves… not so unlike us.
Which is why, throughout the Bible, we find references made to God's children as sheep and the Lord as our shepherd… because we, too, need someone to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves… we need the Good Shepherd’s promise of provision, protection, and presence.
As the psalmist makes clear… the Shepherd provides a pasture where His sheep can find peace and quiet to restore their souls… the Shepherd gives guidance and direction so His sheep can navigate their way through even the darkest of valleys and the most difficult of times… and the Shepherd prepares a banquet for His sheep… anointing their heads with oil like the special guests that they are…
The psalmist leaves us with the image of the Shepherd as the ever-gracious host… assuring us that His goodness and mercy… His unconditional love will follow His sheep all the days of their lives… in other words, forever… which is exactly how long His sheep will be able to dwell in the house of the Lord.
But the psalmist is not the only one who paints this picture of shepherd and sheep for us…
The prophet Isaiah explains how God loves and protects his children, saying, "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).
Isaiah goes on to explain later, our need for a Shepherd and a Savior, declaring, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
And in the book of Ezekiel (34:11 – 13) we find:
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 will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.The Good Shepherd always wants what is best for His sheep… providing all that we, His sheep, need… bringing us back when we go astray... rescuing us and protecting us from harm when we find ourselves in danger... and picking us up when we fall down.
And lest there be any doubt that we are the sheep, we need look no further than Psalm 100 (3), which reads, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”
All of which brings us back to our New Testament lesson for this morning… where the text helps us to see what it is that sets Jesus apart as the Good Shepherd…
It is the Good Shepherd who puts the sheep before Himself. He is willing to sacrifice Himself, if necessary… conversely, a hired hand is not nearly so committed or dedicated. If a hired hand sees danger on the horizon… he (or she) will likely turn tail and run for the hills… leaving the flock to fend for themselves.
Not so with Jesus… we have the assurance that He will be with us “always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
And while the hired hand has no ties and no loyalty to the sheep… for Jesus, the Good Shepherd, it is all about the relationship. He knows His sheep and just as importantly… His sheep know Him.
In fact, just a few verses before we get to our text in John 10, Jesus explains that, “his sheep follow him because they know his voice” (v. 4b).
So, let me pose a question or two for us to consider this morning… Whose voice is it that we are listening to? And who is it that we are following?
Are we simply listening to the voices that speak the loudest and the longest within our families and amongst our colleagues and coworkers or on social media or other news outlets?
Are we “following” those same folks on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tox and X (the platform formerly known as Twitter)?
Or are we looking to Scripture so we can honestly “hear” the voice of Jesus? Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us so we can follow where Jesus leads us?
One thing we need to keep in mind as we ponder these questions is that there are many false prophets out there… folks who try to talk a good game… who are willing to say whatever will make other people feel good… but who can ultimately lead us astray if we are not careful.
Jesus was very clear that He came to lay down His life, not just for some… but for all. That is why we read in verse 16 of the text, “I 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.”
Contrary to what some people may try to lead us to believe… there is no one group that has a monopoly on Jesus… no one group that can lay sole claim to the promise of salvation that Jesus offers… no one group that has exclusive VIP access to Him… as far as Jesus is concerned, we are all VIPs.
Need I remind us of what it says in John 3:16?
“For God so loved THE WORLD… that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
As the Life Application Study Bible explains in the commentary on today’s text:
Jesus came to save Gentiles as well as Jews. This is an insight into his worldwide mission – to die for the sins of the world. People tend to want to restrict God’s blessings to their own group, but Jesus refuses to be limited by the fences we build (LASB, 2005, p. 1761).And at the risk of offending someone, might I add that Jesus not only refuses to be limited by the fences that we build… He refuses to be limited by the walls that we build as well.
Unfortunately, we are living in a world that continues to erect barrier after barrier to segregate, marginalize, and compartmentalize individuals and entire groups of people… but that is the exact opposite of what Jesus came to do… and the exact opposite of who Jesus calls us to be as His followers…
Listen to Jesus’ prayer that is recorded in John 17 (11 – 12, 20 – 23). It is a prayer that speaks to His desire for us to live as one:
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled…Nowhere in that prayer do we find anything that would begin to justify the separation and division that characterizes so much of the world that we are living in today.
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Nowhere in that prayer do we find a call for us to establish in-groups and out-groups… creating lines of demarcation between people.
And nowhere in that prayer do we find anything that resembles exclusionary rites being granted to one group over another.
No… on the contrary… what we find in Jesus’ prayer is something that should inspire us in our desire to be the church… and that is the call to unity… that we may be one just as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one.
It doesn’t seem like rocket science… but sadly, we have created a complicated and complex system that feels like it may be impossible for us to dismantle. But let us not give up hope… because just as Jesus told the disciples, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
No matter how dark and dreary the world may seem… we can still be beacons of light as we follow Jesus and allow His Light to shine in us and through us.
But how do we do that?
By showing kindness and compassion to others… blessing others even as we have been blessed… by making it our mission to live out the Great Commandment to love God with every fiber of our being… and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves… and by following what Jesus said in John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
At the end of the day, it comes back to the questions I posed earlier, who are we listening to and who are we following?
My hope and prayer is that we will always listen to Jesus’ voice and follow the One who truly is the Good Shepherd… and when we commit to doing that, each of us should be able to declare without hesitation or reservation…
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD.
And it is with that thought in mind, I want to invite us to stand and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us #558.
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