The Good Shepherd

Hey, man, now you feel the heat, right? If you feel the heat say amen All right. Well, let's see a little heat in there. Okay. Hey, listen, I hope you're having a great time to your family this this Christmas season I love the Christmas season I love the month of December and November and December are my favorite times of the year and it's just a great joy for me to be able to explain to my children the greatness of the coming of Messiah and the truth that surrounds us You know, I have great joy Every other year to take one of my children with me to Israel and to let them see the shepherd fields They're in Bethlehem to understand what those shepherd fields would have looked like During the time that Messiah was born and whether those are the fields or not the shepherds were in we don't necessarily know I know that over the last Seven eight years things have changed They got that big wall now going right through the middle of the shepherd fields for we first used to go there They were completely open and you could see shepherds out there with their sheep And you can begin to visualize what it must have been like for those shepherds there on the hillside Awaiting the coming of Messiah and the glory of the Lord shining all around them that night The Eve or that night that Christ was born what a great joy it is to be able to explain to your children the essence The essence of Messiah who he is What he did our whole life should be consumed with Christ Unfortunately, our life is consumed with other things but it should be consumed with Christ in his gospel and our prayer that throughout this month of December as you study the promises and prophecies of the coming Messiah that you'd understand the significance of his coming and how it relates To you and your family so important.

I can't think of a greater legacy to leave with your children than the truth You can leave the money They're just gonna spend it probably unwisely Okay, you can leave them your house your cars all those material things, but if you don't leave them the truth Don't leave them the truth Then the opportunity to pass a godly legacy down from generation to generation Will be at stake and that's the essence of of our existence So somehow explain to our children and our children's children the truth of Jesus Christ our Lord I think of my parents and what they passed down to me I want to do likewise with my children and I trust you want to do with yours as well So today we're studying the the promise and the prophecy of the coming Shepherd, you know, the Bible describes Christ in in many ways many titles and When you think about it, there are a numerous amount of titles that describe him In fact, what I want you to do this morning is I want you to give me some titles of Christ in the scriptures For instance Christ is called our advocate.

All right, he's called the Alpha and the Omega He is called the chief Cornerstone. All right. He's called many things You give me some of the titles that are dearest to you About the Messiah just shout him out God with us Emmanuel How wonderful okay, okay one at a time. Well, yeah, you guys gonna overwhelm me wonderful counselor mighty God the land Faithful and true you gotta yell it really loud so you can overcome the voice of somebody else Savior of the world Bright and Morning Star Son of Man Prince of Peace Son of God He's a stumbling block that's right bread of life King of Kings Emmanuel someone said Lord of Lords, right?

See there are many titles that describe the Messiah titles that help us understand the essence of Who he is and what he did Probably the the most dearest title is Shepherd To understand the essence of his shepherding ministry John 10. He says I am the Shepherd called good the Good Shepherd That's our Lord And that's the that's the title of today's lesson when it comes to our Jesse tree devotional and looking at the promise of the coming Messiah and what he will do for his people He will shepherd them Let me talk to you first of all about the prediction about the coming of the Shepherd turn back with me if you would to Ezekiel chapter 34 Ezekiel chapter 34 and there's a promise a prediction of the coming Shepherd That would do for Israel What the under shepherds the leaders of Israel were unable to accomplish for God's people?

Ezekiel chapter 34 verse number one then the word of the Lord came to me saying Son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel prophesy and say to those shepherds thus says the Lord God Woe shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves Should not the shepherds feed the flock You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock Those who are sickly you have not strengthened the diseased you have not healed the broken You have not bound up the scattered you have not brought back nor have you sought for the loss But with force and with severity you have dominated them And they were scattered for lack of a shepherd and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill and my flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth And there was no one to search or seek for them Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the Lord as I live because the Lord God Surely because my flock has become a prey My flock has even become food for all the beasts the field for lack of a shepherd and my shepherds did not search for my Flock but rather the shepherds fed themselves and do not feed my flock Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God behold I am against the shepherds and I shall demand my sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore But I will deliver my flock from their mouth that they may not be food for them then verse number 23 Then I will set over them one shepherd my servant David and he will feed them He will feed them himself and be their shepherd and I the Lord will be their God and my servant David will be Prince among them I the Lord have spoken God has said I will raise up my shepherd and My shepherd will be the servant my servant David that is he will be in the line of the Messiah From from the line of David he will be the Messiah over in Ezekiel 37 the vision of the dry bones God says this in verse 24 and my servant David will be king over them and they will have one shepherd and they will walk in my ordinances and keep my statutes and Observe them and they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob my servant in which your fathers lived and they will live On it they and their sons and their sons sons forever and David my servant shall be their prince Forever all that speaks of the coming shepherd The one shepherd the Messiah who will rule and reign over his people over in the book of Zephaniah I'm sorry, Zechariah Zechariah chapter 13.

Listen to what the Lord God says He says the wake o sword against my shepherd and against the man My associate declares the Lord of hosts.

This is a prophecy about the coming Prince of Peace This is the prophecy of the coming shepherd God says Against the man.

This is not an ordinary man. This is an extraordinary man. This is a mighty man It's a word used of the mighty God when describes his power in essence And then it says against my associate the word associate means my equal There is one who is equal in nature who is my shepherd who will come and he will shepherd my people He will be the one to draw my people together There was a prediction about the coming shepherd The shepherd would be the Messiah the Jews understood the essence of the shepherding ministry of the coming Messiah in Ezekiel chapter 34 the indictment against the leaders of Israel strong because they did not take care of the flock of God So God says because you didn't care for my people.

I will send one who will Who will care for them who will nurture them who will watch over them? Who will love them? my shepherd the Messiah You know when you think about it God refers To his children Israel as his flock when Christ said that he was the Good Shepherd and We are the sheep the the the analogy is is fabulous Because it surely helps us understand our our condition the prophet Isaiah said and Isaiah 53 all we like sheep have gone astray Each has turned to his own way and yet the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all we are like sheep and We need to understand a little bit about Sheep, so we can understand the ministry of the shepherd You know sheep need full-time supervision.

I don't know if you know that or not most animals You can put in a fence and you can put some water in a bucket and give them some food to eat And you know they can pretty much take care of themselves over time a sheep They cannot do that They can't make it unless someone cares for them daily They'll die why? because sheep are untrainable Did you know that? You can't train sheep They don't remember What you taught them you can't you can't punish them and expect them to learn from from that punishment You can't reward them expect them to learn from that reward They are untrainable What was the last time you saw a sheep at a circus you know?

or on TV That show pet star you don't see any sheep on that They can't be trained Because they can't remember anything from day to day They need full-time supervision Sheep Need full-time supervision Because they're afraid to drink from running water Did you know that you can lead a sheep to a spring and that spring has running water? But they won't drink from it. They're afraid and That's why the shepherd has a crook and that's why he has a rod So you can build up rocks in that stream to cause there to be a calm pool of water So that sheep will drink they'll die of dehydration Rather than drink from running water You also need to understand that sheep need full-time supervision Because they have a natural tendency to follow a leader Can't drive sheep You can't Attempt to Move them by standing behind them and yelling and screaming and hitting them They don't they don't work that way you you have to you have to lead them and therefore They need to follow a leader because if a sheep gets lost Because he can't remember he cannot find its way home They've had a dog that got lost and came back home Remember story a long time ago.

We had a cat and the cat was gone for like a whole week and So my wife was upset so she went out and bought another cat Lo and behold the next couple days the old cat came home again now I got two cats You know those kind of things happen You know and and yet they can find their way home because they have a memory Sheep do not if they get lost they're lost for good. They're not coming back So they need someone to follow the full-time Supervision Sheep because When they fall on their spine They don't have any ability to get back up again If a sheep falls over and lands on its back it cannot get back up again someone must Set it a right so that it can stand once again and sheep need full-time supervision because they can't carry heavy loads You know you sheeps not like a donkey It's not like a horse where you carry water on its back and you can go and take long trips No, you can't do that.

They have very weak backs And so therefore the shepherd has to be able to move from place to place and lead them to a place where they can drink Throughout the day because he can't carry enough water to cause them to drink So he has to be able to move them to a place there They can eat and they can drink all in one day because they can't carry anything Sheep are absolutely defenseless They lack an angry growl They lack the kind of teeth that have the kind of bite that will run someone off They they have little spindly legs that really can't do much and and their hooves are basically good for nothing except for standing up See and so they need full-time supervision.

They need full-time supervision because when you put them into a fold If if a sheep is hungry, he will not or she will not lie down If they're hungry, they will not lie down If there is any kind of any kind of fly Around them. They will not lie down You ever ever been to the beach and there's a whole bunch of flies You're you're kind of laying on sand and all these flies You just can't you know have any peace because there's flies all around well think of the sheep They won't lie down if there are flies around them.

They will not lie down if they are hungry They will not lie down if there's any kind of friction between them and the shepherd or between them another sheep They will not lie down and So that shepherd needs to tend to them at a full-time level in order to care for them Do you know sheep don't clean themselves? They don't they can't Most dogs lick themselves cats lick themselves. They clean themselves. They they have a way even birds can go to a get a birdbath I mean they they know what to do sheep.

Don't they don't they don't clean themselves. They're just gonna always remain dirty Unless the shepherd cleans them see That's just the nature of sheep And so the analogy becomes very real to us because as sheep we are basically untrainable We basically are lost when we get out there we can't find our way back home. We need someone to lead us home We are absolutely defenseless Against the wiles of the devil and if God doesn't provide for us the kind of protection that we need we will succumb to his temptation We are just like sheep and we need to be led and Christ is that great shepherd that great shepherd of the flock That Ken's and Tenzin and cares for his people in order for them to understand his great love for them But there was this prediction about the coming shepherd all Israel would know read the Old Testament There's that constant analogy between the shepherd and the sheep.

It's all throughout the Psalms David the great shepherd of Israel Moses was the great shepherd of Israel the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob were shepherds of sheep Why? Because of the great promise of the coming Messiah Which leads us to number two the presentation of that shepherd the presentation of the shepherd The presentation of course is the Bethlehem, right?

Remember when the match I came to Jerusalem and they and they asked that where is he who was born king of the Jews? And Herod was the king. I'm the king. There's another king. Huh? There's only one beat only be one king in Israel. I'm the guy sweet So he sends for the scribes the Pharisees the scholars of the day He says to them. Is there gonna be a king a king? That's gonna the rise in Israel And the scribes say well, there's a promise of the coming Messiah And the king says well, where's that the lesson in the book of Micah?

fifth chapter second verse There it says these words And you Bethlehem land of Judah are by no means least among the leaders of Judah for out of you shall come forth a ruler Who will shepherd?

my people Israel the scribes knew that a shepherd was coming to rule Israel They knew it was found in Micah chapter 5 verse number 2. They knew where he was gonna be born it was gonna be born in Bethlehem so why is it they didn't take the five mile five mile journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to see if The shepherd was there on that eve of his birth when the shepherds Had the glory of the Lord shine all around them. Remember that we ask ourselves. Why is it the Lord would appear to shepherds? First why is it they would be the ones who would receive the great angelic announcement?

Why is it they would be the ones to be first at? the place of the birth And we say well, it's it's because shepherds are a lowly class of people and they are and Christ would save the meek and the lowly But it goes way beyond that he appeared to shepherds first Symbolically because he would become that great shepherd of the sheep He he would he would even in the his own announcement to to to Bethlehem and into the nation of Israel He would announce the very essence of his coming by going to shepherds because he himself was that chief shepherd And the ironic thing about it is is that he would be born in Bethlehem the place which is called Migdol Adair In the Old Testament the tower of the flock because it was there the tower of the flock where they would raise The sheep that would be slaughtered on Passover So not only would the shepherd be born in Bethlehem, but the lamb would be born in Bethlehem.

He was both the shepherd and the lamb both in one And so that presentation came in a very significant way Peter even himself would refer to Christ as that chief Shepherd in 1st Peter chapter 5 in 1st Peter chapter 2 he'd refer to him as the shepherd of our souls And so the presentation of the shepherd when Christ and John 10 said I am the good shepherd He was declaring that he was the Messiah He was the promised Messiah to Israel all throughout the Old Testament The coming of the chief shepherd this one who would care for the flock of Israel who would care Excuse me intend God's people Christ says I'm the one I am the good shepherd which leads us to the perfection of that shepherd The perfection of that shepherd I am the good shepherd a go a me speaking of the fact that he is the great I am Referring all the way back to the book of Exodus.

He was declaring that the good shepherd literally is God himself in the flesh He says I am the good shepherd the shepherd called good Colossus in the Greek Which is in essence the character of the one? himself and That character describes the perfection of this great shepherd of our souls He is God in the flesh Who attend and care for his people which takes you all the way back to Zechariah chapter? 13 to explain to you that when God the Father said awake My people Israel because I will raise up my shepherd.

He is the mighty man. He is my associate He is my equal that is he is equal to me in nature So Christ when he gets up and says look I am the good step Leads us to the passion of the shepherd the passion of the shepherd he says These words in John chapter 10 and verse 11 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep That phrase to lay down is a phrase characteristic of John and his epistles Gospel it speaks of the the voluntary essence of his life He was going to lay it down on his own initiative over in verse number 15 It says even as the father knows me, and I know the father and I laid down my life for the sheep Verse 17 for this reason the father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it again.

Excuse me No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative John 15 13 Christ says greater love hath no man than this that a man Laid down his life For his friend That's the passion of the shepherd He came to lay his life down He came to die in your place He came to take upon himself the penalty.

Do you he becomes your great substitute? which is the fulfillment of Genesis chapter 22 we look back as and we talked about the prophecy of Abraham and Isaac and the lamb where Christ said I would provide myself as a Lamb and Christ says I laid down my life for the sheep I laid down my life and I'll take it up again.

No one takes it away from me. I'm gonna lay it down. I Determine when I die, I determine when I take my life back up again He says I am going to lay down my life for you. That's my passion. He came to die He came to bear your sin and my sin. That's the passion of the shepherd Not only does he come to take care of his people he comes to take care of them Not only temporarily but ultimately eternally he comes to lay himself down for those Who cannot pay the price of their sin? He is that great shepherd the good shepherd who died for you and me So we've seen the prediction of the shepherd or about the shepherd we've seen the presentation of the shepherd the perfection of the shepherd the passion of the shepherd and now the protection of the shepherd John 10 verse number 7 Christ says I am The door of the sheep you know because Shepherds couldn't make their way back to the village a lot of times They had to make their own fold.

So what they would do it would build up rocks and and use some mud to Keep the sheep together and then the entryway they would lie down in front of the entryway They would be the door and as they would bring the sheep into the fold He the shepherd would inspect each and every Sheep You know sheep just need a little pat on the head each day and they'll be just fine That's all they need Just a little touch from the shepherd and they're fine and That shepherd would guide them into that fold that he would make for them and he would examine each of them to see if there Was any bruises or marks upon them that he would have to anoint that he would protect them and he would let them Into that fold and then he would lay down in front of that fold to protect them see Because he was the great protector of their lives And Christ is I in the door.

I am that door. I am that one who lays down my life I am the one who lays down in front of that gate I am the one that allows you entry into my fold and I will protect you while you're there That's the essence of our eternal security. That's the essence of what God does for his people And then I want you to notice the provision of the shepherd psalm 23 Psalm 23, you know that song very well, but it's that great Shepherd psalm which speaks of his great provision it says The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want This is the provision of the shepherd He provides for your every need He provides for you in such a way that you no longer want anything else see the great thing about God is that he is so in tune with all of our needs that he knows exactly how to take care of us so our Longings will be taken care of. I am the good shepherd and Because the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack anything anything He makes me lie down in green pastures, I shall not lack any provision I Shall not lack any peace why because he leaves me beside quiet waters.

I Shall not lack restoration or encouragement when I faint or fail why because he restores my soul I Shall not lack guidance. I shall not lack fellowship. Why because he guides me in the paths of righteousness. I Shall not lack courage when my way is dark because even though I walk through the valley the shadow of death I fear no evil. I Shall not lack companionship. Why because thou art with me. I will never lack Excuse me comfort because they rod and I staff they comfort me I will never lack protection because thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies I will not lack power because thou hast anointed my head with oil I shall not lack abundance because my cup overflows I shall not lack God's perpetual presence because surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And I shall not lack security because I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever Everything you need God gives He ultimately gives the greatest of all needs the forgiveness of sins Because he becomes our substitute That's the goodness of the shepherd that's his protection that's his provision for us as Our shepherd he provides for our every need and lastly.

I want you to notice with me the promise of the shepherd The promise Of the shepherd, you know, we're prone to wander aren't we?

All we like sheep have gone astray we were prone to stray away And without that shepherd the guardian of our soul Protecting us and in providing for us and in watching over us to lead us To love us To lay down his life for us We have nothing But listen to these words in Revelation chapter 7 Revelation 7 verse number 17 When the Lord God speaks To John the Apostle Helps him understand the greatness of eternity For this reason verse number 15 There before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple He who sits on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them They shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore Neither shall they so the Sun beat down on them nor any heat For the land in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd And shall guide them to springs of the water of life and God shall wipe every tear from their eye Our Lord God says that the land in the center of his people is their shepherd Their guide their protector The promise that God gives his people is his perpetual presence throughout all eternity To lead us and guide us It's just not a one-time kind of operation.

It's it's a continual thing It's a it's a lifelong thing because the essence of God is that he's a shepherd And as a shepherd he protects he provides he he watches over he feeds he leads because that's what shepherds do and The great promise of the shepherd is that throughout all eternity that will be his ministry to us And I'm wondering this morning if you understand the goodness of the shepherd. I wonder if you understand How it is? That you can dwell in the house of the Lord forever I Wonder if you've come to realize that he is the feeder of your life the protector of your life That's who God is that's his promise and As a child of his one of his sheep.

I need God to watch over me day by day I need God to to lead me and guide me every moment of every day Because I can't make it without him. I'd be lost without my shepherd And I wonder if you can say today the Lord is my shepherd Not that he is a shepherd, but that he's my shepherd That he is the one who laid down his life for me He is the one who became my substitute. He is the one who died in my place Therefore I'm able to live with him forever. I can be a part of his flock because I know him personally.

I Hope that's your that's your desire today If you don't know him and that you might come to saving grace this morning by realizing that Jesus Christ is that great shepherd Of your soul, let's pray together father we thank you for today The opportunity you give us to live for you And our prayer Lord is that we as your people Would honor and glorify your great and precious name You truly are the great shepherd of our souls You truly are the chief shepherd of our lives The right of Hebrews calls you the great shepherd who who rose again from the dead We thank you Lord That we can call you our very own shepherd If someone's here today and they are unable to do so I pray God that you would show them How you are the only one who can clean their lives?

Sheep can't clean themselves. They have to be cleaned by the shepherd. We can't save ourselves. We have to be saved By the Savior of our soul Thank you Lord for this day in Jesus name. Amen You