Good Shepherd

Who could tell me what next Saturday is? Family Fest.

Family Fest. We're looking forward to that. I hope you will come and

join us. I've seen the list

of the desserts. I don't know why they felt I should see that, but it

was important. Anyway, people are

ready. They're getting excited. Bring the kids. They're gonna have a great time. We got

some gift bags for them, just some Just some things. And speaking of a God

who has already provided, I am so grateful for the teachers that

God has provided in this house. I'm thankful for the pastors that

God has provided in this house. And this morning we have one who is

coming in, Pastor Jonathan. When I think of Pastor Jonathan,

this one right here, he is a

beautiful shepherd in this house. He is a

gifted psalmist. Amen. An

anointed musician. His love for the Word

challenges me, and I'm grateful for what he

carries. So welcome, Pastor Jonathan. Thank you.

Thank you. I also told Pastor

Barbie, who said similar things first service, that in

addition to all those things, I was also words of affirmation.

So just thank you for that. Thank you for the repeat.

Good morning, church. Good morning, church.

Good morning. Not that crazy. Calm

down. I'm just kidding. Oh, okay.

Hone it in. Focus. So we are

continuing our Behold series today. You know what? Stop.

Let me pray. That's the best thing to do.

Father God,

what a gift to behold your Son Jesus.

You have given us the gift of grace to open our eyes to him

as our Lord and Savior, as our Good Shepherd.

And Holy Spirit, we just pray that you would

Continue to lead this fellowship

into the hearing and following of your voice

in all things, Father. We love your word and we love

you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Thank you, Michael. So

we're continuing our Behold series today, and, um, in my study for this

teaching I got really fascinated with this word behold, and I looked

it up in scripture, and it occurs over 1,000

times in scripture, about 922 times in the Old

Testament, 147 times in the New Testament.

And I didn't go through and hand count all of them. You know, this is

Google. All right. So, but give or take, depending on your translation, about

that many times. And when this word behold is used in

scripture, It means pay close

and careful attention to what's about to be said

or done. Okay? And there are a few instances of this word,

uh, that carries an even deeper weight and depth to it. It

means pay careful attention to what is about to be said

and let it move you to action. Let it

move you to make a conclusion. in your life

about what you are hearing or witnessing. I was at a wedding

yesterday, a very lovely wedding, and I think we can see this kind of beholding

I'm talking about in the moment that the bride walks into

the room or the space— it was outdoors— and the whole

congregation stands to their feet so they can behold this

bride, have a better view. But when everybody is looking at the

bride, my favorite place to look is the

groom. Beholding his bride.

Because you can see as they're

paying careful attention to each other that they're being

stirred and moved in their spirits, moved

to tears, but also moved closer in this

covenant commitment with each other. And

that is my hope for all of us during these series, that we would pay

careful attention to all these truths about Jesus.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the Prince of Peace, the King of

Kings, the Lamb of God, the Wonderful Counselor, the Light of the

World. And not just that we would take notice, but

behold him in a way that causes us to

move and be changed and be held

by the truths of who we know him to be. And we'll be

spending most of our time in the Gospel of John today. So I want to

show you 2 examples from the book of ways we can be moved

when we behold Christ. And if you want to go ahead and turn to John

John 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, we'll get there in a minute. But this is John

John 1:35–37

1:35-37.

The next day, again, John the Baptist was standing with 2 of

his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by,

and he said, behold the Lamb of God! And then 2

disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus.

So they were moved to action by what they beheld.

Secondly, this is in the negative sense.

John 19:14-15. Now it was the day of

John 19:14–15

preparation of the Passover. It was about the 6th

hour when he, Pilate, said to the Jews, behold your

king. And they cried out, away with him!

Away with him, crucify him. This is,

of course, movement in the wrong direction. Do we all agree?

Okay. John is very clear which way he intends his

gospel to be, to move us and

change us. This is John 20:30-31.

John 20:30–31

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which

are not written in this book. But these are written,

and anything in parentheses here is what I've added just for helpful context or

perspective, for us to behold so that you may believe, which is to be

moved in your spirit, to believe that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his

name. Be changed here and be

held in eternity in his presence.

The Good Shepherd I Am statement occurs in John chapter 10,

John 10 · chapter mention

Fun fact for all the Bible nerds in here. Pastor Justin, you listening?

I'm all ears. John chapter 10 comes right

John 10 · chapter mention

after John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

Okay, but

what I mean by that is there is no break in time between the

events of chapter 9 to chapter 10. It's one

Continuous conversation. So let's start in verse

35 of John 9 and read together because I believe

it presents the first obstacle we face in truly

beholding Christ. John 9, verse 35.

John 9:35

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he

said, do you believe in the Son of Man? And he

answered, and who is he, sir, that I might believe in him? Jesus said

to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to

you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him.

And Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world, that those

who do not see may see, and those who see may

become blind. Some

of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we

also blind? And Jesus said to them, If you

were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you

say, we see, your guilt remains.

Very truly I tell you, Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep

pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way

is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate

is the shepherd of the sheep. So in this story, Jesus has

physically healed a man who was born blind,

okay? This man was thrown out of the synagogue for his witness

and testimony about Jesus, and then he encounters Jesus

again and he's healed spiritually. Then in chapter 10, you

have Jesus rebuking the Pharisees, the

self-proclaimed shepherds of Israel, because they were

not shepherding well. And all of this is a

confirmation of the prophecy spoken in Ezekiel

34. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds

of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

Woe to you, shepherds of Israel, who only take care of yourselves!

Should not shepherds take care of their flock? You eat the

curds, clothe yourselves with the wool, and slaughter the choice

animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not

strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up

the injured. You have not brought back the strays

or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly.

And brutally. For this is what the Sovereign Lord

says: I myself will search for

my sheep and look after them. I

myself will search for my sheep and look after them.

Now it says in Mark 6 when Jesus is moved

to compassion when he sees the people. So that's an example of beholding

and being moved. He sees the people. He's moved to compassion because they

were like sheep without a shepherd. Has anyone ever seen

what a sheep without a shepherd looks like? Okay, one

person. Cool. Well, here you go. Boom!

Rock and roll! Listen,

they need some work done, right? They need some tending

to. Now, when I think about who

I was when the grace of God opened my eyes to behold

Jesus, I needed a lot of work done. I

needed some tending to, right? And when I think about how

far he's brought me now, guess what? I still need a lot of

work done. Still need a lot of tending to. We

never lose our need to be

led and tended to by the Good Shepherd. Amen.

In this picture, the sheep's vision is impaired. The wool

is literally over its eyes. This sheep—

that's where it comes from, I think. I don't know.

The sheep is going to require shearing to have its

eyes open to see properly. Like

John 9 says of the Pharisees— connect this— They

It is the spiritual blindness, blindness to

our fallen condition, that keeps us from

truly beholding Christ who is right in front of

us. And if we move through the parts of

John 9 together, we can see this really incredible picture of

blind eyes being opened to seeing Christ as Lord and

Savior. Each one of these verses I'm about to show you is the blind man

being questioned By the Pharisees. See if you can catch the

progression here. John, starting with John 9:11. He

John 9:11

replied, the man they call Jesus made some

mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to

Siloam and wash, so I went and washed, and then

I could see. Fast forward to John 9:17, he's

John 9:17

questioned again. Then they turned again to the blind man. What have you to

say about him? It was your eyes he opened. And the man

replied, he is a prophet.

John 9:32-33. The man answered, now that is

John 9:32–33

remarkable. You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly

person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the

eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God,

he could do nothing. And then finally, the verse we looked at, John

John 9:38

9:38. This is his interchange with Jesus. That man said, Lord,

I believe, and he worshiped him. So

this guy went from acknowledging Jesus as a man

to then acknowledging Jesus as a prophet, to then

acknowledging Jesus as, well, I think he's from the Lord, to going, oh,

this is my Lord and Savior in front of me. And we

see people get stuck at these various places of blindness all the time.

Anybody heard like, I believe in Jesus, like the historical evidence of

Jesus? Somebody say that. Or they might go one step further and

they go, I believe that he was a real man and a real wise man.

And there are things about his teaching that would be beneficial for us, but

not in, uh, totality. Um, but knowing him in those

ways is not enough to move a person

to joyful obedience. And the security in our

salvation, knowing him as Lord and Savior

of our lives, as the Good Shepherd of our lives, is what

moves us and changes us and holds us.

You know what I learned? That sheep do not like to be

sheared. They don't like the process at all.

It's uncomfortable for them because the shepherd will like turn them

upside down. Turn their whole world upside down, you know, and

hold them down. But you know, the shepherd's voice is a

calming thing to a sheep,

and he will work with this patient precision to tend to their

needs. When my son started getting haircuts for the first time, he

was so scared of the electric clippers, like so

like freaking out and resistant to them. So he couldn't really— he got

something like a haircut, but the guy had to use regular scissors. He

couldn't get the cool hard part and all that stuff. And I remember I

used to have to encourage him, buddy, just, just keep your

eyes on me, and remind him he could trust me

not to let anything happen to him. And over time,

as he continued, as we came back again and again, continued

being in obedience to my voice, he began to trust the

process more and more and become less resistant to

what his father was saying is best for him.

I wasn't going to put him in a situation that wasn't ultimately

good for him. Jesus will not do this, or will

do the exact same as well. When we are obedient to his voice in

scripture, God will prove himself faithful and

trustworthy time and time again.

But I have found that the trusting God part

When it comes to healing our blindness and our blind spots,

that's pretty hard. Anybody else?

I once heard a teacher suggest that this blind man was

likely completely used to being scoffed at and

spit on. We remember the Pharisee said he was born

this way because of sin in his life, and we can see in other

places in scripture such as Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Isaiah

and Job that spitting on or near someone was a sign of

humiliation and rejection and required

cleansing. Matthew 26 tells us that Jesus was spit

on. And like, I don't know if that's true or not, but even

still, can you imagine that blind man

if he had been spit at, spit on or near his whole life?

That moment of trusting Jesus when he heard that spit.

again. And that moment of trusting Jesus when he rubbed that mud on his eyes

and the faith it must have taken for him to move to that pool

and be cleansed and healed. And I

was thinking about that moment. It's so simple.

Jesus has miraculous ways of

opening blind eyes. With

faith and simple means.

Sometimes we make it too difficult.

Sometimes faith and just simple people. My

eyes were opened to Jesus because a friend

had the faith to invite me to a Bible study.

It was that simple.

He had come to know Jesus as the good shepherd of his life, and he

wanted me to know him that way too.

Let us not forget, guys, how Jesus has called and

equipped his church to share the good news of the

gospel, to share how we behold him

as the good shepherd so that the world will be moved. Acts

26, I am sending you to them to open their

eyes and turn them from darkness to light And from the

power of Satan to God, so that they may

receive forgiveness of sins and a place

among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Behold, be moved, be changed, be

held. Now let's continue our reading starting

with verse 3 of chapter 10. This discusses our

movement towards Christ after beholding, and what I

feel like often Hinders us. The

gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them,

and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But

they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they

will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not

understand what he was telling them. Surprise, surprise.

Therefore Jesus said again, very truly I tell you, I am the

gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are

thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They

will come in and go out and find pasture. The

thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I

have come that they may have life and have it to the

full. Amen. I love the

scriptures. Now, often in these Middle Eastern

shepherding villages, the shepherds would bring— the

individual shepherds would bring all of their flocks into a single pen or

enclosure at nighttime, and a shepherd or an

undershepherd would be appointed to lay in the doorway

And they were responsible for making sure that no predator got in

to harm the sheep or making sure that the only voices

that got in there are ones that were supposed to be there and care for

the sheep. And in the morning when each shepherd would come to gather

their sheep, they would either call out their name.

What would you name a sheep? Kevin.

Kevin. Okay. Come here, little Kevin. Yeah. And, uh,

they would either call them by name or use a, just a unique call that

they, that only those sheep recognized and they were conditioned to follow.

There have been a few nights here where, uh, we get out of a midweek

service a little bit late and I go to pick up my kids, but

because all the parents forgot their kids, the children's ministry take them onto the

playground. This is a lesson like, go pick up your kids quickly,

right? So, I go out there and I call their

name, Levi, Michaela, and there's just screaming going on, right?

There is like rarely a better feeling in life than when

your child hears you call their name and they

come that first time. Amazing. It is a miracle.

It is a miracle. The other thing I thought about is like even when you're

at, uh, walking through like a parking lot or something and you just reach out

your hand and they grab it without you looking? Makes you feel

like Thor in The Avengers, right?

You get the hammer. Equal to

that proud feeling when your child

responds to your voice and obeys is the feeling

of blind rage that raises up

inside you when he hears your voice. I

said he. That was Targeted.

He or she— Oh,

he or she hears your voice, looks you in your eye,

gets distracted by some other voice or some other thing, and then does

the exact opposite of what you asked.

Sin. Sin is real.

Kids have it too. Whether we admit it or

not. Sin

hinders our movement towards Christ. The

weight of sin hinders our movement towards Christ and

Christlikeness, not responding to the calls of

God's voice in our life. The

defining markers in John 10 of his sheep are

this: He knows their name. They

know his voice, and they follow his voice when

they— when he calls. The defining markers of

his sheep are that he knows their name, they know

his voice, and they follow his voice when he calls.

Here is a picture of a sheep who has stopped

responding to the voice of a shepherd.

Now this sheep is named Barack. Does anybody remember him from the news

a few years ago? No. No? Okay.

So he was a runaway sheep that was found with 77

pounds of dirty,

unkempt, matted wool all over his body.

And there are videos of him when he gets to the rescue and he gets

off the trailer. He's just so Um, restricted

in his movement. It's so awkward. He's restricted

by all of the weight that he is carrying that he was never meant to

carry. Despite his

large appearance, they found that when they cut his wool and sheared him,

he was actually extremely malnourished underneath.

The pastures and water sources he was eating and drinking from

were not actually able to satisfy him. and

sustain him adequately. Now, Jesus is telling us in this

passage that we will encounter voices

whose goal is to lead us to pastures that do not satisfy

if we're not careful, pastures that keep us malnourished and

bound up in our sin and immaturity. We are to

train our ears to respond to his voice only

and be satisfied in him alone. C.S. Lewis said, the

voice of God daily calls to us,

calls to us to abandon sins and seek the kingdom of

God wholeheartedly. We have been

trying to teach our children self-control and

regulating their own food intake, and

there's nothing that will ruin the progression of that system more than dropping

them off at their grandparents' house. Amen.

That is your job. Yes, it is. It's time for

y'all to have fun. My wife and picked up our— my wife and I

picked up our kids a few weeks ago, and I shouldn't name him

all the time. That's the thing. It's, it's Levi, man. Pray for us, okay?

I love him. I asked him about his night, and he

said, man, I ate all my dinner I had 3

bowls of Goldfish, a Nutty Buddy, cookies, and all

kinds of other nonsense. No nutritional value at all,

just temporary satisfaction and a long-term tummy ache.

And I asked him, how in the world were you able to get all that

food? And he said, I just kept telling my Nana I was hungry.

There's a whole other sermon in there, probably.

He stopped listening and following the voice

that knew what was best for him, and he started

listening and following the voice of his own desires.

Guilty?

The truth is, Even as believers,

none of us really like anyone trying to tell us what's best for our

lives, even

if it is the voice of our Father as revealed through Scripture.

Francis Chan says lukewarm people don't really want to be saved

from their sin. They just want to be saved from the penalty

of their sin.

Amen. And I see that a lot today.

We live in this age that celebrates individualism,

and it's pervasive in the church, and we just kind of want to be

allowed to worship God how we want, and you worship how you

want, and you know what, we'll meet up on the other side. But here's the

deal: sheep were not created to live

on their own. Surviving on their own is

nearly impossible. One of the ways

God has ordained for us to reckon with sin

in our lives and grow in spiritual maturity and be

moved to Christlikeness

is in the context of fellowship and discipleship

as we gather and we hear and we respond to his voice

as it's read through the word, and as

we echo his voice in each other's lives and encourage his

voice in each other's lives. In the context of John 10,

Jesus is making a distinction, a very specific one between

His voice and the voice of a Pharisee. And I want to

talk about this for a moment because I am hearing it

more and more normalized for believers to

simply describe a Pharisee or the voice of a Pharisee

as someone who is overly concerned about holiness in our lives.

And that doesn't sit with me well because

God cares about holiness in our lives.

He says, be holy because I am holy.

Peter cares about holiness in the life of the church.

Paul cares about holiness in the life of the church.

We should be concerned about holiness in this

fellowship, in the life of our body. We

should be striving to obedience to His voice

together. Amen. Now, I have to

acknowledge the church has not done a great job of this

over the years in the context of discipleship.

Well, we remember, like, iron sharpens iron, sparks

fly. Yeah. When iron sharpens iron,

sparks fly. It's not comfortable. I do

not always like the corrections my brothers in Christ

give me. Justin and Doug and Robert.

You're welcome. But if it is the echo of my

Good Shepherd's voice, I can trust it.

So I want to take the opportunity to provide some clarity and

distinction between the 2 voices so we can be sure of a couple things as

we work in discipleship.

God, will you make a revival of discipleship in your church?

We want to be sure of this, that we aren't following the voice of a

Pharisee and that we aren't resisting the voice of the

Good Shepherd. So we need to distinguish between them. We want to be sure that

we aren't perpetuating the voice of the Pharisee and

silencing or missing the voice of the Good Shepherd. And I want to

say this. None of us in this room,

none of us pastors here are the Good Shepherd.

No. We are not the Good Shepherd.

We can aim and hope to be like the Good

Shepherd in all of His amazing qualities, but we will fail.

We will mess up. We will be

forgiven. We will love. We will operate in kindness.

This is what Jesus actually says about the Pharisee.

Matthew 23:1-4. Jesus said to the

Matthew 23:1–4

crowds and to his disciples, the teachers of the

law and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat and pay,

pay close attention to this. Behold,

so you must be careful to do everything they tell you.

But do not do what they do, for they do not

practice what they preach.

Be careful to do everything they tell you, but do not do what they do,

for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy,

cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but

they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to

move them. So it's kind of like

Not everything they're saying is wrong.

It's that they didn't practice what they preached, and that's how you

identify a Pharisee.

They didn't smell like the sheep

because they didn't recognize that they were a sheep. They didn't recognize that

they needed a shepherd, and they didn't live among the sheep.

This is one of the reasons, if it were up to me, I would always

preach from the floor. I like being here.

I imagine myself right there in those seats.

I need a Savior. I need a Good Shepherd.

I need Jesus. The Pharisees didn't

recognize their need for a Savior because they found their security in their

own self-righteousness.

The blind man was healed physically and recognized that

he needed a deeper healing. He was healed physically,

externally, and realized he needed healing internally.

The Pharisees put on a show externally, appearance of

being healed, and had no idea that they needed healing

internally. This, I think, gives a

greater context to— I hope this is

helpful when you— when we read through these interchanges of Jesus and the

Pharisees. We look at Matthew 7, verses about the log and the speck.

I don't believe those verses are calling us to

complacency or inactivity about our sin

in our lives. I think

it's warning us that as we are working in discipleship,

to be more like Christ, make sure that we keep an

awareness of our own sin

much bigger in our minds. This takes me back to Isaiah when he says,

woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and I live

among a people of unclean lips. He acknowledges his own

sinful nature first, and that enables him to

operate in compassion while caring about

holiness at the same time. I love this. R.C.

Sproul, oh man, he nails it so much. Christians have

nothing to be smug about. We are not righteous

people trying to correct the unrighteous, just one

beggar telling another beggar where they can find some bread.

Oh, that may be the most important

distinction in those voices. The voice of the

Pharisee will only tell you that you're hungry.

They won't tell you where to find bread or cornbread,

according to Pastor Wayne. This, this

helps me understand the perspective. We see Paul—

yes, he's correcting others, he's operating

with conviction, but also with compassion because he understood

This, uh, the, the thorn in his side. He understood that

I do what I do not want to do. He

understood his need for the grace of Christ.

He wasn't someone who was speaking, or, uh, he wasn't

someone who believed that he has risen above his need for the Good

Shepherd, so to speak.

Brittany, can you come on out please? Would you all stand with me?

And we'll—

Yeah, well, those who are going to pray, please come.

Knowing where the bread is, or in

our case who the bread is, is what

sustains us and holds us.

Pastor John Piper says, I know of no other

way to triumph over sin long-term than to

gain a distaste for it because of a superior

satisfaction in God. I

want to find my satisfaction in God. And

this, this right here is the good news that I am

satisfied in and held by every day. This is John.

John 10:14–16

10:14-16. Jesus, the words of the Good

Shepherd: I am the Good Shepherd. 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 pen. Amen.

I must bring them also. They too will listen to my

voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

He's talking about the Gentiles there.

And what I love is he says,

I have these sheep.

Not, I hope to get them one day.

I have them. I hold

them.

Many years ago, a youth went on a mission trip, and he came back and

he shared a testimony of something he saw. He hung out one

day with some shepherds. We should all do that.

And they used a technique called wet adoption

that gets a sheep to accept an orphan lamb that is not

her own. What they do is after

she gives birth, they can take the birthing fluids and the

blood of her lamb and spread it on the fleece of

an orphan lamb, and she will accept that lamb as

her own. So

Yeah. The lamb cannot earn its way into the

family like the Pharisees tried. It cannot make

itself belong. It cannot change its own

condition. It's not about our willpower.

It needs someone to intervene

on its behalf. And I think that gives us this beautiful

picture of what God has done for us, each one

of us, through Jesus Christ on the cross.

A.W. Tozer says, the only

sin Jesus ever had was ours, and the

only righteousness we can ever have is his.

God in his mercy did for us what we can never do for

ourselves. I just want to

encourage you this morning, like

Amen. If you, um, have blind

spots

that you need tending to, come and get prayer.

These people will love on you. They will pray for you. They will speak

scripture. Over your mind and over your hearts.

If you found yourself wandering,

return to his voice.

And I want to read this last little bit. This is from

the people that rescued Barak, the, the sheep I showed you

earlier. It's just such a great picture of what our Good

Shepherd does. For us.

No longer shall he struggle for food and shelter.

No longer will he be at the mercy of predators or the

elements. No longer will he be forgotten.

And although a few shearing nicks now mark his

thin body, along with an ulcer, which are the

legacy of his once wool-blind state,

All of that will be healed. Barak can

now see the world more clearly.

Let's worship.