Sermon Tone Analysis

DO YOU KNOW THE SHEPHERD?

John 10:11-18, 27-30

The time was the late 1800s.

It was a time before most of our modern forms of entertainment - before movies, before television, before the internet, even before radio.

Entertainment consisted of traveling groups of actors who went from town to town.

One such actor went into a small mid-western town.

The town hall was packed, the audience was wildly enthusiastic as the orator recited passages from great plays, poems, and literature.

At the end of the performance, they shouted for more.

The actor agreed to take a few requests.

Immediately, a hand shot up.

The hand belonged to an older man with a weather-beaten face and clothes that were clean but definitely patched and had seen better days.

"Would you… could you…do the 23rd Psalm, please?" he asked.

The actor thought for a minute, then said, "I’ll do it on one condition.

After I have finished, you will come up and recite it, also."

Puzzled, the old man agreed.

The orator began, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…."

As he went, he infused the words will all the tricks of his art.

One by one, the phrases known and loved by all rolled off his tongue.

"He leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul…Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."

When all the words of the great beloved Psalm were delivered with great art, the audience gave the actor yet another enthusiastic ovation.

Then the man who had requested the Psalm came up.

His face was not handsome, and his voice was thick and uncultured.

Yet, as he began to speak, his face took on a glow of joy, and the love almost leaped from his mouth with the words.

When he concluded, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in house of the Lord forever." the only sound in the hall was the rustle of handkerchiefs as they brushed away tears.

The silence was finally broken when the actor stepped forward and said, "Now you know why I wanted him to follow me.

It's just as I thought.

You see, I know the Psalm, but he, he knows the Shepherd.

This may or may not be a true story.

I read it somewhere.

But if it isn't, it should be.

It contains some truths and highlights some questions that maybe we should be asking ourselves.

Do we know the Psalm - can we quote all the right scripture verses, the Lord's Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, and John 3:16 from memory?

Do we know all the right answers to various theological and moral questions?

I hope so, because it is important that we do.

But there is a deeper question: Do you truly know the Shepherd?

If you have the word with you, turn to our text for today's message: John 10:11-18, 27-30.

(Read text)

Today's text tells us who that Shepherd is.

Five times in those verses, Jesus refers to Himself as either the Shepherd or the Good Shepherd.

The rest of the verses are spent distinguishing the shepherd from the hired hand and emphasizing again and again that Jesus will lay down His life for His sheep.

"No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

This commandment, I have received of my Father."

When we focus on Jesus, one of the most beloved images we get is of Him as the Good Shepherd.

The point of this passage is that there is a great deal of love that exists on the part of the Shepherd for His sheep.

There is a willingness to do whatever is necessary so that the sheep will survive and prosper.

A good shepherd doesn't beat his sheep with a whip, like a lion-tamer, or an electric cattle prod.

The good shepherd leads his flock with gentleness, mostly just by his voice, although occasionally he must use the shepherd's crook.

Most important, the shepherd will face dangers for his sheep that they are not able to handle on their own, if necessary going so far as to lay down his life to protect them.

This is the image Jesus in conveying in our text for today.

He leads us with gentleness and love, although occasionally the scriptures tell us that He does need to rebuke and discipline us, even that is with gentleness and in love.

As the Good Shepherd, He did lay down His life for us to pay the penalty that we should have paid but cannot.

Not only did He lay down His life for us, but he took it up again, just as He said He would.

He has provided the only way for us to be cleansed of our sins, be reconciled with God, and given the hope of eternal life.

Do you know this Shepherd?

It's fairly plain that we live in a world that doesn't.

Do our neighbors, the people we work with know the Shepherd?

Many of them might say, "Jesus was a great teacher.

The Sermon on the Mount sure contains some of the finest moral teaching ever."

Or, "Yes, Jesus was a good man, with compassion for the sick and the poor and those that society didn’t treat very nicely."

Well, yes, all those statements are true, but they don't convey the whole truth.

Although the final call is always God's to make, the chances are when someone says those things about Jesus and His teachings, there is a strong likelihood that they are acquainted with the Psalm, may even be knowledgeable about some of the teachings of Jesus, but don't truly know the Shepherd!

Do you truly know the Shepherd?

It's possible to be like Apollos in the18th chapter of Acts.

"He was a learned man," the Bible tells us, "with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.

He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately."

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Knowledgeable, well-taught, fervent, accurate when he taught about Jesus.

We could use more like him, couldn't we?

Maybe we could all be a little more like him.

But then we are told there is a gap in his knowledge, and Aquila and Priscilla invited him to their home and explained the way of God to him more adequately.

(Let's just read that in Acts 18:24-28)

It is possible to be well-taught, fervent, accurate, and thoroughly acquainted with the scriptures, and still not know the Shepherd.

For us, too, there is more than simply getting the facts right, or even to speak with great fervor.

We must know the Shepherd, not just as a great teacher or a good and compassionate man, but as Lord of our lives.

Do you know that Shepherd?

The first problem with simply saying that Jesus was a great teacher or a kind and compassionate man is that when we speak of him that way, we are thinking of him merely as a historical personage who lived and died in the first century A. D.

The Bible teaches that there is more to the story.

After He died, remember, He took His life up again.

He was around for another 40 days, appearing to many and giving further teachings to his disciples, but Jesus then ascended into heaven.

Put it another way: how do you think of Jesus right now? Do you picture Him as He is described in Acts, sitting at the right hand of the Father?

Or perhaps you think of Him the way He is described in the book of Hebrews, "a priest forever on the order of Medchizedeck," even now interceding in the heavenly tabernacle for those who follow Him.

Or maybe you picture Him the way He is described in the book of Revelation, receiving the praise and adoration of the angels and the saints who have gone on before, even now preparing to return at the head of a heavenly host.

All of those are scriptural pictures, but there is another one which sums it up best for me.

In the words of the hymn, "I serve a risen master, He's in the world today.

I know that He is living, whatever men may say, He lives within my heart."

Jesus was not anything.

Jesus is.

He indeed lives.

Do you know the living Shepherd?

There's an accusation often leveled against churches.

We are accused of being "so bound up in the Bible, so much a people of the Book," that we are guilty of Bibliolatry.

And that is possible to do, and I wonder if there is not some small grain of truth in it.

You see, the Bible has a purpose.

That purpose is not so that we can study it as a mere intellectual exercise, although there is a lot in the Bible that demands our best efforts to understand and comprehend.

The more we read and study the scriptures, the more we are compelled to admire their beauty and their unity of purpose and teaching.

We don't study the Bible merely to memorize certain key passages and concepts, although memorization is good and has a definite place in our lives.

We don't study the Bible merely so that we can enrich our prayer life, although that is a good thing which frequently happens.

We don't study the Bible just so that we are able to refute the views of other Christians on a particular theological point.

The purpose of the Bible is to record the self-revelation that God has entrusted to the human race, and to record both the history and the nature of God's dealings with us.