Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Last year, the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, wrote in an annual letter to shareholders that Amazon will keep growing because customers are divinely discontent.
Bezos believes, we will never be fully satisfied.
That we will always want more.
That we will always think there is something that is better.
Bezos believes he knows us. And I think, in part, he’s right.
Today is a day in the Church that should fully satisfy us and leave us with wanting only one thing and that is to hear more and more and believe more fully of this one truth:
Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
That is the only thing we need to know – and yet we are too often not fully satisfied with this, or want something better.
The CEO thinks our discontent comes from the divine, from God, but we know better. God, the CEO and also Creator of the all things visible and invisible reveals our discontent comes from the demons and a sinful heart.
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
I lack nothing I need. We should know that.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He laid down His life for us and even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we should fear no evil.
We should always think that is the best thing we can hear and be reminded of.
My sheep hear my voice and I came to give them life and have it abundantly.
We should be fully satisfied with His voice and that promise no matter what our eyes are seeing around us or what our body is feeling inside of us.
We should. We should. We should.
And yet, we need this Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday, and really we need every Sunday. to remind us what we should be and in also showing us in who we still are as sinful, unsatisfied, sheep.
Good Shepherd Sunday teaches us that Jesus is our Shepherd and that we are His sheep.
That is saying a lot.
It is saying that He gives His voice,
that He leads you, not by force, but by example and love and convincing.
It says that that He provides for you,
that He protects you,
that He seeks until He finds you.
It says that He lays down His life for you and that He takes His life up again to continue to protect you and give you His voice and feed you and provide for you.
We were all reminded once again this week that the world still knows what a hero is. When a gunman opened fire on a classroom at UNC-Charlotte on Tuesday, one student, Riley Howell, charged at him and knocked him down.
Howell was shot point blank and died, but he died so that others wouldn’t die. He died to save others.
Riley Howell is a hero, the world confesses, and we agree.
And we have more to say. Like, Jesus is our hero, who died to save us. And more than that, He lives again to save us, and protect, and provide for us, and give us His voice.
Jesus is our Good Shepherd. And we are His sheep.
That means we need Him – always need Him.
You are sheep.
You can’t provide for yourself.
You are defenseless.
You wander away.
You go astray.
You need Him to feed you and wash you and teach you and lead you
You can’t make it on your own.
You aren’t wise on your own.
You don’t live a holy life on your own.
You can’t answer for the cruelty and the evil and violence in this world, on your own.
You are a sheep. You need a Shepherd to speak to you and lead you by example and love and convincing.
You need His voice constantly saying, follow me, love me, trust me, hear me, pray to me.
Do good to others, even your enemies.
Love those around you as you have been loved.
Forgive as you have been forgiven.
Be reconciled with each other.
Be a peacemaker.
Care for those who can’t care for themselves.
Be patient with those who go astray.
Sacrifice for your husband or wife.
Receive children in Jesus’ name.
Honor your Father and mother.
Work hard.
Speak well of others.
Live a sexually pure and decent life.
Be patient when you are suffering. And suffer with hope in God and love for others.
There is one flock. Love Jesus, your Shepherd and the love the flock He has.
My wife designed and painted this banner and there’s all sorts of different sheep on it, there’s all sorts of different people in Christ’s one church.
I especially loved the two sheep butting heads with each other.
You can’t think of any Christians who fight with each other, can you?
It’s so good be reminded when we are those sheep butting heads with each other, that we are still in this one flock together united by this One Shepherd.
John 10 reveals this very complex life that is lived as Christ’s sheep. To say there are dangers out there is a bit of understatements.
There thieves, robbers, who are trying to break in and steal us.
There are strangers outside of the flock, whose voice we shouldn’t know, but they lure away with false promises.
There are hired hands who are happy to look after the sheep as long as there is no real threat of danger, but who flee when the wolf comes because they care, truly care, nothing for the sheep.
And there is the wolf who both scatters us away from the flock and the Shepherd, and seeks to devour us.
The command for you to listen to Christ’s voice and allow Him to wash you and feed you and protect in the Christian Church under faithful under-shepherds is not a childish command.
Stay in the flock. Love the voice of your Shepherd. Don’t forget how prone you are to wander away.
There are real dangers out there.
Be satisfied with this one promises in the midst of those dangers.
Jesus is your Good Shepherd.
He’s so good.
He’s so powerful.
He’s so good He laid down His life as He took on our sin and the wolves strong so that we might be protected from what we deserve.
He’s so powerful, He had authority to take His life back and be raised.
He’s so good, He’s still coming to His sheep with His voice. Leading them. Calling them. Saying your name. Saying, come follow me, even we walk through the valley of the shadow of death because
the Good Shepherd is also so powerful that you should fear no evil. Wolves and strangers and robbers and thieves cannot touch you because they would have to go through Him.
You are safe within Him.
You have entered the green pastures through the door of Jesus Christ, and there is no other way in.
Be content that He is your shepherd.
Listen to His voice and follow Him.
He is leading you to still waters and His goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.
Be satisfied with that! And, dear sheep, there are times you are deeply satisfied with that comfort and truth!
If the beginning of the sermon was meant to remind you of your sinful dissatisfaction as Christ’s sheep.
Then the end of this sermon will be a reminder that in Christ, by faith, you are satisfied. And you and I can testify somewhat to that.
We have seen satisfaction and trust of Christ’s flock in their Shepherd through dark times.
Through death and sicknesses and murder and hospitalizations that last months not days and weeks.
Through divorces and bad doctors reports and job loss.
Through profound and through being deeply sinned against and pain and depression.
Through families warring or falling apart.
Through these times, we have been and/or have continued to believe in the goodness of our Good Shepherd.
It is these times when through tears Christ’s sheep, confessing their great weakness, but His great strength,
confess with their lips because they really do believe with their heart that they are satisfied with the only thing that will satisfy: Jesus is the good shepherd and He calls us His sheep.
Jesus laid down his life, takes it up again still bearing His scars, see His hands and His side and nothing can get to us,
not that is not also for our eternal good.
God gives us words from things like Psalm 23 so they might pour forth from our broken hearts through our lips and confess only by his stripes do we have healing.
And so that we might confess and believe that it is especially in the midst of our enemies, that He prepares a table for us.
Take and eat and take and drink and be deeply satisfied.