CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD
SCRIPTURE: JOHN 10:11- I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR MY SHEEP.
1. ANONYMOUS- Many people use mighty thin thread when mending their ways.
2. Professor and evangelist Drummond once described a man going into one of our after meetings and saying he wanted to become a Christian.
"Well, my friend, what is the trouble?"
He doesn't like to tell. He is greatly agitated. Finally he says, "The fact is, I have overdrawn my account" -- a polite way of saying he has been stealing.
"Did you take your employer's money?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"I don't know. I have never kept account of it."
"Well, you have an idea you stole $1,500 last year?"
"I am afraid it is that much."
"Now, look here, sir, I don't believe in sudden work; don't steal more than a thousand dollars this next year, and the next year not more than five hundred, and in the course of the next few years you will get so that you won't steal any. If your employer catches you, tell him you are being converted; and you will get so that you won't steal any by and by."
My friends, the thing is a perfect farce! "Let him that stole, steal no more," that is what the Bible says. It is right about face.
John 1(NKJV)
JOHN 10: 1-18- Jesus the True Shepherd
10:1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
Jesus the Good Shepherd
7Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8All who ever came before Me[a] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
17“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
EZEkiel 34 New English Translation (NET Bible)
A Prophecy Against False Shepherds
34The word of the Lord came to me: 2“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them—to the shepherds: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep! 4You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled over them. 5They were scattered because they had no shepherd, and they became food for every wild beast. 6My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over the entire face of the earth with no one looking or searching for them.
7“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, my sheep have become prey and have become food for all the wild beasts. There was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my flock, but fed themselves and did not feed my sheep, 9Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from their hand. I will no longer let them be shepherds; the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore. I will rescue my sheep from their mouth, so that they will no longer be food for them.
IN CONTRAST TO THE FALSE SHEPHERDS, WHICH HE USES AS FOILS, HE DESCRIBES THE ATTITUDE OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD: EZE: 34:11“‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. 12As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy, dark day. 13I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land. 14In a good pasture I will feed them; the mountain heights of Israel will be their pasture. There they will lie down in a lush pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord. 16I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them—with judgment!
17“‘As for you, my sheep, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats. 18Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must trample the rest of your pastures with your feet? When you drink clean water, must you muddy the rest of the water by trampling it with your feet? 19As for my sheep, they must eat what you trampled with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet!
20“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says to them: Look, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because you push with your side and your shoulder, and thrust your horns at all the weak sheep until you scatter them abroad, 22I will save my sheep; they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.
23I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them—namely, my servant David. He will feed them and will be their shepherd. 24I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken! (DAVID WRITES THE 23 PSALM, PERHAPS MOST READ POEM IN SCRIPTURE.)
WHAT IS THE FATHER’S ATTITUDE WHEN WE REPENT AND RETURN TO HIM?
Luke 15:11-32New King James Version (NKJV)
The Parable of the Lost Son
11Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
20“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring[a] out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FATHER: FORGIVING, CARING, PROTECTING, PROVIDING, SENSITIVE, GENEROUS, KIND, LOVING!
CONTRAST THE OLDER SON WHO WOULD NOT JOIN IN THE FESTIVITIES: Why?
A. JEALOUS THAT FATHER SHOWED SUCH LOVE FOR HIS BROTHER, WHO WENT ASTRAY. (Egotistic, narcissistic, arrogant.)
B. DID NOT APPRECIATE THE VALUE OF SAVING 1 LOST SOUL.
C. SAVED BY WORKS.
D. DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH THE SPILLED BLOOD OF OUR TRUE AND GOOD SHEPHERD, JESUS! UNFORGIVING. (FORGIVE US AS WE FORGIVE OTHERS.)
E. ACCUSATIVE, SELF-RIGHTEOUS.
F. HE, UNKNOWINGLY WAS, NOW, THE LOST SON!
G. In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church's integrity problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior." He goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation."
APPEAL: IF YOU HAVE NOT GIVEN YOUR LIFE TO JESUS (OR) IF YOU HAVE GONE ASTRAY AFTER FOLLOWING OUR SAVIOR, I INVITE YOU NOW TO ASK FOR JESUS’ FORGIVENESS AND FOR FULL CONVERSION, WHICH WILL BRING PEACE AND JOY TO YOUR ONCE CONVICTED HEART! WILL YOU BOW YOUR HEAD WITH ME AS WE PRAY.