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I Am the
Good Shepherd
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Fifth in a Lenten series entitled, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”
The Eight “I Ams” of Jesus from John’s Gospel
Scripture - John, 10:11
Jesus said, “I am the
good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now 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. Wolf attacks the flock and scatters
it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand, cares nothing for the sheep.
“I am the good
shepherd,” says Jesus. “I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father
knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have
other sheep that are not of this, well, it’s called sheep pen, let me say
‘fold.’ I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice and there shall
be one flock and one shepherd.”
Our youngest
granddaughter was born in a winter ice storm. And when it came time to go home,
they asked me to drive the car with the mama and the baby, home. And I said,
“Why me?” And my son said that I had more experience driving on ice than he did.
Besides, these days when the father goes through birth, through the birth with
the mother, my observation is sometimes the father comes out in worse shape than
the mother does. So I drove new baby girl Jessie home, on ice, in an ice storm.
Now, ah, precious cargo, nobody likes to drive on ice that I know of. Jessie
doesn’t remember one millisecond of any of that. I’ll never forget it, not one
of those 20 miles that it took to get there. And I kept saying to myself,
“Remember that on ice you turn into the slide, not away from it.” Piloting the
most precious package I would ever carry in a car, in an ice storm. I kept
praying, “Lord, keep me alert and cool.” Wasn’t hard to keep cool in an ice
storm. I breathed a big sigh of relief when at last we pulled into the driveway
and then the garage at my son’s home. Later on, I held that little one in my
arms and rocked her. That’s one of the most precious moments of life, when you
can take a little baby and rock them. And then placing her in my lap, big eyes
looking up at me, I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if she could
stay this way?” And then a part of me realized, if she did, all of us would
think it was a tragedy. As I looked into her eyes, I knew something she did not
know. I knew that being human and growing up is not for sissies. She did not
know about failure, and cancer, and arthritis, and Alzheimer’s. She did not know
about war and conflict. She did not know about competition for making her
grades, or making the team, or getting into the university of her choice, or
getting along with friends or spouse. Growing up as a human being is not for
sissies. It takes a great deal of courage to be in our kind of world as we grow
up in it. But sooner or later, the come, the day will come and has come, when
Jessie will know that no longer will everything fit like it did when she was
first there, born. You remember how it is? If you cry, you get fed. And when
you’re finished, you can either coo or sleep. It’s a neat arrangement. And then
there comes that time when the arrangement isn’t anymore. And things don’t
always fit. You see, Jessie will come to the time, and has come to the time when
she realizes she needs a shepherd, a leader, a guide, a friend. And when Jesus
said, “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus was saying “I am all of those things and
more.” And you may remember that a couple of years ago, I took off a Sunday,
Shirley and I did, so that we could be there for her, she was stretching toward
the 4th grade, so I could be there for her, Shirley could, for her
baptism. It was the first step toward choosing a shepherd.
You will choose a
shepherd. It’s not as if you will go through only as a leader, you will follow
someone or something, usually the pressures of the world. Jesus countered that
by saying, “I am the good shepherd.” Take a look quickly at the flock and I deal
with this in passing, just in case you missed it. Jesus said in verse 16, “I
have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they too
will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. If you
want to be part of the Lord Jesus’ flock, you’d better get used to difference.
You may like just to be around people who are just like you are, but if you are,
you are gonna be in a flock other than the Lord’s. There’s an old story, used to
be told about a group in a city I lived in, who thought they were the only ones
who would get to heaven. And that when they died and got to heaven, there was a
great wall and somebody being shown around by St. Peter for the first time,
would say “What’s, what’s behind that wall?” And St. Peter would say, “Those are
the folks who think they’re the only ones here. But they’re the losers,” said
St. Peter, “cause the wall’s so high, they miss all of the beauty, all around.”
Jesus’ flock is made of
very different people. And that’s the beauty of it. “Other sheep I have that are
not of this fold.”
Next thing you need to
pin down is that a shepherd is a guide. Inevitably, chief function of a shepherd
is to lead. And it seems to me there are four guidance systems I’ve mentioned to
you before, inner guidance systems that you have or could have. The first one
everybody has and that’s the one they’re born with. It includes your DNA, your
family system, your personality type. It includes all of the emotional tutoring
you get out of your family, your giftedness, your talent, and the result is that
if all we do is react to every circumstance out of what we are born with, we
just kind of go through life reacting to what happens out there and we have no
overcoming of what’s out there by what’s in here.
The second inner
guidance system is the guidance system of the learner, of learning, of learning
about ourselves and of how we can have some control over what happens to us. In
psychology, for example, they call this C and B. C stands for cognitive, that is
how we think. B stands for behavior, how we behave, and the whole idea behind C
and B is that you can control some things if your life by how you think about it
and how you behave. The trouble, the limitations of that, and it has much truth
in it, and the truth is, a mature person uses that every day. The limitations
are obvious. If all you’re doing is controlling life with how you think and how
you behave, you’re leaving out completely your emotions which can overcome how
you think and behave in a heartbeat.
The third of those inner
guidance systems is relationships. While we’re in such an important time,
basketball season wise, and have you noticed some of the interviews of some of
star players, and they will say of their coach, “He is the most, or she is the
most important person in my life. I have learned more from that person than
anybody.” Now, parents should perhaps be the key relationship, but often that
doesn’t happen and a coach steps in. Think about the relationships you had in
life, and likely you would name two or three that have really made a difference
in your life. Relationships, the inner guidance system of who we relate to.
The fourth is spiritual.
You see, the limitations of a relational guidance system, we are limited to who
we relate to. But spiritually, all of a sudden, all of eternity is out before
us. And Jesus came in this guidance system to say, “I’m the good shepherd. I
know about the other three and I can relate to you on that basis because I was a
human being myself. But it’s the spiritual inner guidance system that is finally
going to make all of the difference. When we learn how to read the spirit’s
nudges and the spirit’s call and the spirit’s purpose and the salvation of our
Lord Jesus Christ in our behalf.
Look also, when you look
at the good shepherd, at ownership. Jesus says, “The good shepherd lays down his
life for the sheep.” The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. Sees
the wolf coming, runs away. The wolf attacks, flock scatters. The man runs away
because he’s a hired hand and he cares nothing for the sheep. But I am the good
shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep.” There is an immense relationship
between salvation and ownership, between relationships and ownership. Barbara
Brown Taylor wrote about when her husband Ed and his friend Tommy Brannon went
duck hunting. Let me say here that duck hunters are a rare breed. They deserve
some kind of special blessing. I have a son who is one and they get up at an
hour only God knows about. And they go out and hunt in terrible weather and if
it’s good, they hate it. I mean, the worse the weather, you see, the lower the
ducks have to fly, and they just love it as they are freezing to death, saying,
“I’m really having a good time now.” Well, Ed and Tommy had been hunting all day
and sharing the responsibilities of the joys and the misses. Pulled into the
launch place, pulled the bow up on the shore, were making a trek to the car with
guns and decoys. Went back for the second load and the boat was gone. They
looked at the river and there it was, floating away. They ran along beside the
shore, hoping the boat would turn back. Instead, it went from 5 yards to 10
yards, to 20, and the more it got to the middle of the river, the faster it
went. It was very clear that one of them was going to have to strip down, hit
that icy water and swim out to the boat and bring it in. They looked at each
other, the moment of truth. And finally Tommy Brannon said, “It’s my boat, isn’t
it?” Ed said, “It is.” Stripped down, dove into that cold water, swam to the
boat, climbed aboard, brought it to the shore again, freezing to death. What
would make a man dive into freezing cold water to retrieve a boat? Obvious, he
owned it. It was his boat.
And when you own
something, it makes all kinds of difference. If you will accept this in a
relational way, the good shepherd owns his flock. He’s not a hired hand. And if
a wolf comes, he’s gonna stay with the flock. Gonna stay with his sheep. You
see, there’s an ownership factor in faith where the Lord owns you and you own
the Lord. There is a bonding, there is an intimacy that happens in all of that,
and notice that the shepherd knows the sheep by name. Look at verse 14, “I am
the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, as the Father knows me
and I know the Father. You may remember the story about the American tourist who
was a Christian, went to the Holy Land, finally found a guide that would take
him out to see a shepherd and the sheep. He’d always wanted to see a real
shepherd and a real flock. Finally found one in a far end of a dusty road.
Through, through the interpreter, he asked lots of questions, like “How long
have you been a shepherd? How long do you stay out here all by yourself?” Then
he asked, typical American question, “How many sheep do you have?” And the
answer came back, “I have no idea.” “So how do you know when one is missing?”
And the answer came, “Oh, no problem. I know them all by name.” I wonder what he
named the sheep. Did he name one of them Bossy? How about Peg-Leg, who fell in a
hole and limps ever since? And how about Houdini, who is always finding a way to
escape? Or Wanderer, a little lamb who is always wandering away from the flock?
How about Rebel who never follows the rules? Or Quiet One who never lets out a
bleat? Or Mama? She has birthed more lambs than anyone.
What would the Lord call
you? What name? And is it even possible that the Lord would have a name for you
that you’re not quite there yet, but you’re getting there, like Patient or
Forgiving or Committing. You’re not there yet maybe, but you’re getting there.
The Scripture sums it up with these words. Listen to them. “The Lord knows them
that are his and he calls them by name.” And right now, he’s calling you. Just
as sure as the world he’s here. And the good shepherd is walking up and down the
pews of this place but he’s stopping right in front of you and he’s calling you
by name. Will you listen?
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