So Jesus and John would say I am the good shepherd And the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep The hired hand is not the shepherd And does not own the sheep So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. So Jesus is defining himself as one who so loves his sheep that he gives his life for the sheep. And more than that, that he's a protector of the sheep, that he's passionate for us.
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Later in John, he would say that his sheep know his voice. So not only is he a protector, but he has a relationship with each one of us. An intimate fellowship.
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The Lord is my shepherd. That he had this intimate relationship with the shepherd, the king of kings. That was a metaphor, actually. A shepherd was another metaphor for calling someone who was a king. You would call him the shepherd. The one who has authority. And then he would say something about the shepherd that there was no lack. That when he had authority, everything was looked after. That he had this incredible power to provide for his sheep all that they needed to prosper.
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To make any sheep lie down in green pastures, the shepherd has to be very, very skilled. Because sheep do not want to lie down in any pasture. And so, for a sheep to lie down, there's four kind of conditions that need to be addressed. First, the shepherd needs to make sure that there's no fear. That if there's any fear at all, those sheep are going to stand straight up and there's going to be no rest.
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Jesus would say, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And so for him, his trait is to somehow have that encounter with us so that he can take whatever our fears are and minister to them. Help us in the midst of it. Find truth. Find comfort. Find help. That he steps in to minister to that need so we can have peace instead of anxiety.
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You can invite him by the power of the Holy Spirit to change those things in you. And that's the role of the good shepherd, you see. It's not the role of the sheep to do this. It's not your role. It's his role. Come to me, all who are... Our role is to come to him. And his role is to minister to us in such a way that we can find rest.
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Notice that the shepherd's role isn't to point out all our flaws and all of our things that are less than. No, no, no. The shepherd loves us. He lays down his life for us. And so we can go into the very presence of Jesus Christ through faith and have him do this kind of ministry to us.
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Where are you weary? And where are you heavy laden? Come into the presence of Jesus and ask him, invite him to give you rest. And then watch as he begins to minister to you and around you so that you can finally find rest.
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There's something happens when you finally find rest, when he intervenes and he begins to do in you and around you all the things necessary for you to find rest. All of a sudden, he takes you to those still waters and he restores your soul.
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The process of restoration of a soul is drinking up the water. You're thirsty. But a sheep will only drink when it's still. And there's a biblical metaphor for that as well. well. But Jesus says, from me come streams of living water.
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As our hearts filled with gratitude and thanksgiving for the Good Shepherd and how he has dealt with all the things that are undoing us, that heart full of praise restores us. It restores our relationship with the Lord and with one another.
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When you know somebody loves you and cares for you, you listen to them. And so now you're ready to listen. He's ready to be led. He knows that he's a good leader, this Lord. And so he leans in and he begins to hear the plans that the Lord has for his life.
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When we know the Good Shepherd, and we've allowed him to minister to us, and we see the goodness of his life for us on the cross, his perfection, his holiness, his kindness, his goodness, in the nitty -gritty of our life being worked out as we pray and see his handiwork, something changes. And we want him to have joy when he looks down at our life. The orientation of our life is no longer about us. It's about him.
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We come to worship, not necessarily for what we get out of it. We come because he's commanded us to worship together. We persevere in this thing called church because he says, love one another as I have loved you. And how can we do that if we don't know each other?
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Sometimes we walk down the darkest valley. And it seems like our prayers aren't answered. Sometimes this happens personally, too. We have all prayed prayers for people when they die. We love. And sometimes it's in a time of betrayal. And someone we thought we knew who they were, weren't. Sometimes that darkness can so overwhelm us. And we wonder, oh, good shepherd, where are you?
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Isn't it true that our prayers are most sincere, most heartfelt when we're in that dark valley? When we need compassion, we need him, we long for him. We don't know how we're going to go through that day where mom is being placed in the earth. Dad, spouse, and yet, if you reflect, there was a presence with you.
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That's what our shepherd does. There are things that can only happen in that dark place. James would say this, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you endure trials of various kinds because it's through those that our characters formed and we are completed. It's in these places of our deepest darkness where God draws near to us.
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Where faith is no longer an abstraction, an intellectual assertion, but a lived relationship with the King of Kings. And he proves faithful to his word, working all things together for good.
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We begin to know that when we get weary and heavy laden, we run to him, and allowing him to minister to us through his word and his presence in our quiet times, in our worship, in community. We run to him because we know that he is good and his steadfast love endures forever.
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We have a destiny. That one day that dark valley, that if the Lord tarries, we all walk through, we can have assurance that he's with us, and that he's prepared a place for us. That no eye has seen or ear has heard or heart has imagined what our Good Shepherd has prepared as a cherished one, part of his family.
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Healed people. Heal people. Forgiven people. Forgive people. Loved people. Love people. And so Jesus says, draw near to God. Love him. Draw near. And he draws near to you. And in that interchange, you are changed.
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We begin to be a people who when people come into our presence experience rest we don't judge them we love them we listen to them we care for them we have a heart of the Savior for them we help to deal with their fears and the friction and the fleas and the flies the same way the Lord deals with ours in our presence they begin to hear the stories of the Lord and how he has rescued us time and time again.
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All these traits become ours when we let the good father Jesus Christ close to us so will you let him will you let him be your shepherd will you come to him when you're weary and heavy laden will you pour out your heart to him knowing that he loves you and knowing that his ministry to you is to deal with the fear and the friction and the flies and the fleas he wants you to have a first -hand real account of his deep love for you.
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Jesus would say the gospel is call on my name and I will save you it's so simple that even the smallest child can get it and yet when we get it and it gets us when we realize it's not this intellectual proposition beyond our understanding but it's like a child who skins their knees knows good enough to go and find mom or dad if we will do the same we'll find time and time again that he will.
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