Jesus Unfiltered - Follow - Every Sheep Needs a Shepherd, Part 1

For me, one of the most powerful pictures is Jesus as a shepherd.

In the ancient Near East, the protection, the caring, the nurturing, the patience. If you want to know what it's like to have that kind of intimacy with Jesus, stay with me. That's today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. We're nearing the end of our second volume in our Jesus Unfiltered series, Follow. As we head down the final stretch, Chip walks through another profound characteristic of Christ that we can learn from the Gospel of John.

So if you're ready, go in your Bible to John chapter 10 for Chip's message, Every Sheep Needs a Shepherd. When all the time the earth has ever been the most important thing that ever happened, wasn't simply the birth of Christ as wonderful that is, and not simply his life, but the fact that being fully God and fully man, he died, rose from the dead to give life. Now here's the question in light of that. Consciously or unconsciously, we all ask a question or two as we go through life, and what I want you to know is how you answer these two questions will determine the course of your life.

I'm not overstating that. If you'll notice, I put a teaching handout, I put the two questions there. Question number one is in light of this resurrection, this man who claimed to be God, all of history, B.C., A.D., how do you see God? I mean, what comes to your mind when you think God? What's he really like? Is he harsh? Is he down on you? Is he kind? Is he angry? Is he mildly ticked off? Is he sort of distant? Is he really engaged in what's going on or kind of impersonal?

Did he just sort of set this whole thing up and whatever happens, happens? I mean, when you think God, what comes into your mind? When you pray, what's the visual image of what God is like who's listening to you?

The quote I put there by Tozer I think is profound and accurate. What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about your whole life. Because what you think about God, there's an invisible law of the soul, you'll be drawn to or repelled by the image or the picture that you have. And I would guess for most of us, who we think God is and who he really is are two different people.

The second question might even be more important. How do you think God sees you? I mean, imagine, if you will, long before computers, long before servers, long before Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, anything, the infinite mind of God who knows all things about all people every moment, your thoughts, your behavior, your motives, when the picture of you comes up on the screen of this infinite God, how do you think he thinks about you? I mean, what's his response? How does he feel? Is it like, man, I wish you'd get with the program or how come you're never doing enough?

Or, oh, brother, still working with this one. Or is it you're cherished, you're special, you're loved, you matter, I designed you, I've got a plan for you, there's a special purpose here. How do you think God thinks about you?

Because what I can tell you is most of us don't answer that question very accurately as well. In Matthew chapter nine, toward the end of Jesus' life, he comes into Jerusalem and he sees a multitude of people, not unlike in this room. And when he looked at the people, and he wasn't just looking physically, as he looked at their heart, their motives, their lives, their marriages, their singleness, their work, their pain, their hurt, their cancer, the betrayals, the struggles, the infighting, the division, he says he looked at the multitudes and seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them. Would you circle the word in your notes, compassion?

I don't think most of us know what that means. He felt compassion for them for two reasons. Because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Put a line under distressed and a line under downcast. Distressed that doesn't take a lot of explanation, right?

I mean, stressed out, worn out, burned out, struggling, relationships not working, looking for purpose in life. But the word downcast is a little bit different. Downcast is a shepherd's term. Sheep wander around and they lie down and sometimes they get where the grass is very soft and there's a little indentation and it feels really good and they will lean over. And if a sheep leans over a little too much and gets almost upside down, it can't get up. It can't get up. You know what happens to what's called a cast sheep?

100% of the time they die unless a shepherd comes and lifts them and gets them back on their feet. When Jesus saw the multitudes, when he sees us, he sees our distress, he sees our hurts, he sees our struggles, he sees our insecurities, he sees our pain, he knows our past, he knows what people have done to us, he knows the mistakes we've made, he sees our distress and he sees us as downcast. That we're in a situation that we can't solve on our own because we're like a sheep without a shepherd. And guess what it stirs in him? This is how God thinks about you. Compassion. Not down on you, not get with the program, not do more, not what's wrong with you. Why did you make that mistake?

Why did you make that decision? It says he saw the multitudes and he felt compassion. The Greek word here means literally from the innermost parts or the bowels.

The Hebrews thought that the seats of your emotions were visceral. Even if you've ever had your heart go out to someone where almost you watered up just when you saw someone's pain and it was almost like something down in your stomach hurt that you had to do something to help them, that's this word. In fact, in English, I put a good definition there, it's a deep awareness and understanding of another person's struggle or hurt or pain that compels you to want to help them. Sympathy and compassion are very different.

Compassion is you are compelled and you just long to help solve it and make it right. I had probably one of the most compassionate moments I've had in the last maybe 10 years or so. On Tuesday, I have a little grandson, his name is Noah. So we've gotten really close and Tuesday, his mom was just kind of mopping the floor and he came running behind and just slipped in a very unusual way, came down on his knee and he broke his femur.

Teresa got a call from Annie, mom, I don't know what's wrong. He's crying and no matter what I do, I mean, he's uncontrollable. It's like he's in terror. So they took him to ER and then they took him to the orthopedic guy and by the time I heard about it, I drove over to the orthopedic guy across from Good Sam's and I walked in. As I walked in, the orthopedic doctor had put up his x-ray. I saw this bone, it had this diagonal fracture in it and he was just beside himself and if it moved at all, his poor little kid that I'm so close to and Annie had been in there for a couple hours and so she had to go get a drink of water and the doctor and everybody left and I just sat there, this little guy and he looked at me with like terror in his eyes, like fix me. Papa, what's wrong? And everything in me, I just, something happened.

Has this ever happened to you? I mean, something happened now deep inside of me like I just wanted to say it's going to be okay and it's going to heal up and probably five years from now you won't even remember and of course he's 19 months old, he can't understand anything. And then he just looked at me like Papa, why don't you help? Here's what I want you to know. What I felt inside when I saw his need is how God feels about you when he sees your need.

Splakna is the word. When he sees the divorce in your past, when he sees the strife in your marriage, when he sees the depression and the anger, when he sees the conflict that's happening at work, when he sees whatever need, the cancer that you're battling, the parent that's dying, the kid that just doesn't seem to get with the program, your deepest hurts, needs and mistakes are like a magnet that draw Jesus' love and compassion to you. That's what the Bible teach God to like. Now, I don't know about you, but that's not the picture I've had of God most of my life and I've been a pastor for over 30 years and I can tell you that that's intellectually the picture I know is true, but I have this default mechanism.

Anybody have that? Like on any given day, I can think, oh, I don't think I measure up. I don't think I'm doing very well. God's probably kind of mad at me and it's none of that's true, but I act that way and part of my family of origin, part of my personality and so we have to be reminded. Why did he come?

It was again. So Old and New Testament, sometimes a word picture helps people grasp it, especially if it comes out of the culture. So we can take sort of these concepts and get them into real life and so 200 times in the Old and New Testament, God makes the metaphor of sheep shepherd, sheep shepherd, because that's their world and sheep are dependent, vulnerable.

Has anyone ever seen a wild sheep or a documentary on a wild sheep? You know why? They don't exist. They don't exist. They don't. I mean, a sheep without a shepherd, here's the game plan.

Die. They can't find water on their own. They're vulnerable. If they're not moved to get new food, they'll sit and eat the grass there down to the roots, kill themselves. If they roll over or cast, they can't pick themselves up.

They have to be led. Don't take this personally. God calls us sheep. Pigs are way smarter than sheep.

Sorry. And orangutans are way up there and so sheep are these not that intelligent animals, but they're super valuable. Their wool, their milk, whole villages, whole nations have lived on the great value and specialness of what a sheep bring. And so all through scripture, God helps us understand compassion and what he's really like by the shepherd and the sheep.

There was a time where Israel had, just to use a vernacular, blown it big time and you would think God would be just like, you know what, I'm just going to start over. And Ezekiel 34, after speaking to a group of shepherds who were fleecing the sheep literally and using them and just messing up things, this is God's word to them in Ezekiel 34, 11. He says, for thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

And here's the metaphor or the simile. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for my sheep and I'll deliver them from all the places in which they're scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. You know, I myself, it's Yahweh, Elohim. I mean, this is God the Lord. And he looks at his people and he says, I myself, I'm going to go after them like a shepherd goes for scattered sheep. And he doesn't stop. He says, I will feed my flock and I will lead them to rest. I mean, like anybody here like need rest?

I don't mean just physical. I mean in your soul, declares the Lord God, I will seek, who's he after? The lost.

I will bring back the scattered. I'll bind up the broken and I will strengthen the sick. Even David, when he was trying to express the intimacy that he had with God, remember what he would say? I mean, here's a guy that was a king and the psalmist and powerful. And then on a really, really weak moment on a bad day, commits adultery and then covers it up and commits murder. And yet the New Testament looks back on this very flawed person that was very gifted and said he was a man after God's own heart.

Not because he never messed up, but because of the tenderness of his heart. What he understood was, here's what David got. I see how God sees me. I see that God is a God of mercy and compassion and forgiveness and wants to restore. And so the Holy Spirit led him one day to say, the Lord Yahweh is my shepherd and I won't be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and what he does, he's going to lead me by quiet waters because he's going to restore my soul. And he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadows of death, I won't fear evil because he's with me.

His rod, his staff, they comfort me. He'll lead me in passive righteousness. He's going to direct my life. And there'll be a day when I come through all these difficulties and there's going to be this victory banquet and he's going to allow me, he's going to set a table, a buffet if you will, in the very presence of my enemies. And then just like in the big buffets and the huge moments, he will anoint my head with oil like happens on these marvelous celebrations. And then instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop and something bad to happen, his mercy and his love will follow me.

And the word literally is pursue me, come after me, chase me all the days of my life. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and we'll continue the second volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Follow in just a second. But let me ask you, do you feel bombarded by negative, depressing or even sinful thoughts? If you want some help overcoming them, join us after the teaching as Chip talks about the importance of renewing our minds with God's Word and highlights a resource that can help you take every thought captive.

Stick around to learn more. Well, with that, here again is Chip. Do you think of God like that? So good, so kind, so loving that he's trying to chase you down to say, would you let me give you the best? And then maybe the last thing, and I know he says, I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And so Jesus in John chapter 10 is speaking to a group of people that they just can't figure out.

Some believe in him and some have rejected him. And he wants them to know, even those that are trying to kill him, about his compassion and his love of why he came. And you pick up the story in John 10.

Open your notes if you will. And as you do, John chapter 10, we're going to get the story of Jesus speaking to a mixed group of people, some trying to kill him and some who believed. And so he gives them this metaphor.

And what you're going to see first is you're going to see a parable. Because he longs for people, even those that want to kill him, he longs for them to understand God's compassion. So he gives them a picture in their world that they can understand. I tell you the truth, Jesus says, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman or the porter opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out.

When he's brought them all out his own, he goes on ahead of them. And his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will not follow a stranger. In fact, they will run from him because they do not recognize the stranger's voice. Jesus used this figure of speech or parable but they did not understand what he was telling them. Now, I don't know about you and I didn't grow up in the church and I grew up reading the Bible but if I wanted to know about God's compassion and I heard those six verses about parable about sheep, it didn't do a lot for me, okay? If you understand the culture, you understand what he now says later.

What he basically said was, look, you all understand how life works with sheep. It's an agrarian culture. They're shepherds.

They can't grow a whole lot. The land isn't all that good. So if you're the youngest son, your job is to be the shepherd. And then in the village, you lived off the wool. You lived off, you could sell the wool, the milk.

Occasionally you would sacrifice one. And so I'm a shepherd. You're a shepherd. He's a shepherd.

She's a shepherdess. And so at the end of the day, we would go to the village and in our village would be a shepherd's pen, if you will. It often would be about four feet high, all made out of stone, a large area, and there would be a gate. And so I would bring my sheep and I would stand and I would put my rod and I would count them and maybe I've got 53 sheep and then the next shepherd or shepherdess comes and they've got 35, 50, 40. And so this whole big area is filled with sheep.

And there's an entrance. He's just describing their everyday life. But now he says some things that they really get. And if you've ever seen the documentary or this still happens today, shepherds name their sheep. And sometimes it's striped legged or a bad attitude or stuff like that or white spotted face, but they name all their sheep and they know them personally.

But they build this intimacy and relationship. It's why Jesus uses it. So when a shepherd would come in the next morning, all the sheep are there, they're safe. He might come and they almost have like talk. He might go, yo, yo, yo, and all about 50 sheep, they look and he walks and they follow him. None of the other sheep move. And then another shepherd comes and goes, oh, another 35 sheep and they walk out.

So he's explaining how it happens. And then he says, thieves and robbers, see at night, it's about four feet or so stone and some might be a little bit higher. A thief would come during the dark and he would climb over and have a couple of friends, slit the neck of a sheep and then get as many as they could.

Robbers didn't just steal, they would beat up who was on guard, often kill them and try and get the whole herd. So he's just describing a world about the relationship between sheep and shepherds. Now listen carefully because now he applies it to himself. We pick up the teaching in verse seven through 10. Verse seven says, therefore Jesus said, I tell you the truth, I am the gate or the door for the sheep. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

I am the gate, here's his offer. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He's talking about spiritual salvation in the context of this book.

He will come in and go out and find pasture. So come to me and believe in me. I will provide for you and I'll protect you.

The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy. And then he gives his purpose statement for why he came. I came that you might have life and have it to the full or have it abundantly.

Literally the word means to excess and to overflowing. And so the teaching here, Jesus is saying, that door, the entranceway in and out and relationship, I'm the answer. I'm the shepherd. In fact, what he says, you might jot it in your notes, he's saying Jesus is the good shepherd. And what they knew in their day, that's what you need, a good shepherd.

This is the part of your view of God, my view of God, most people's view of God, I think is completely skewed. We don't believe he's good and you can't trust someone that you don't think is good. We don't think if we left the decision about a future mate to him, he would make a very good decision.

We don't think if we left the decision and wanted his guidance about what job to take or where our kids ought to go to school or is it this roommate I should live over here or there or down deep, we want to control, we think we know better. And so he wants them to know because the barrier to believe is you got to trust and he wants them to know I'm the good shepherd. Now the teaching goes on and he's going to say, let me prove it to you. And he's going to say the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

In other words, greater love has no one than this, that one lay down your life for your friend. And he says, I want you to know I'm going to lay down my life. And as I read this, you'll count maybe three, four different times he talks about laying down his life, laying down his life. And as he does, he's going to say why he does it. He's going to say that he offers this for all people.

And then he's going to say, I'm doing it voluntarily. What you'll learn in this passage is Rome did not kill Jesus and Jews did not kill Jesus. Follow along as I read, let's pick it up at verse 11. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns 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. 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. Repeated, I lay down my life for circle the word for, we'll come back to it. I lay down my life for the sheep. And then he's speaking to Jews here, but he expands. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.

He's speaking of us Gentiles. The reason my father loves me is I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay down my life of my own accord. And I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up. This command I receive from the father. Now notice the response.

Either gone, oh come on, are you kidding? At these words the Jews were divided. Many of them said, he's demon possessed, he's raving mad, why listen to him? And others said, these aren't the sayings of a demon possessed man and can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

In the last chapter he opened the eyes of man blind from birth. And so his offer for life is that little word for I give my life, I lay down my life for the sheep. In Greek there's two words for for. One is sort of on behalf of. I do it for you. The other is I'll do it on behalf of you but in place of you.

That's this word. In other words what he's saying is I'm going to lay down my life for you as a substitute and what you deserve for your behavior and your sin and what I deserve for my behavior and my sin and how I've treated people and what I've done. Instead of me receiving that he says I'll lay down my life and I'll take what you deserve and you can have what I deserve before God's presence. And then he says I'm offering this to whosoever will believe. And then finally says it's voluntary. No one's making me do this.

There's no group to blame. I have the power to lay my life down. I have the power to lift it up. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message Every Sheep Needs a Shepherd which is from the second volume of his Jesus Unfiltered series Follow. Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. When Jesus called his disciples he used two simple words, follow me. So what does it look like to follow Jesus today? Well join us as we uncover the answer as Chip opens his Bible to a section in the Gospel of John. Learn what chapters six through ten tell us about being content, humble, bold, and in awe of Christ's power and how all of those ideas tie into our decision to follow Jesus.

You're not going to want to miss a single program. Chip's with me in studio now and Chip in today's world we're bombarded by lies and negativity and we often believe those ideas without even realizing it. So take a minute if you would and talk about how we can better guard our minds.

Great question Dave. I was just discussing this with the discipleship group I have early on Monday mornings and we were all talking about the news and distractions and negativity and scrolling and all the rest and the scripture in 1 Corinthians says we're to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and so the battle is in our mind and it's one thing to limit the intake but you have to have an offensive weapon and so what we've developed is what I call truth cards. Each card has a lie that we're tempted to believe and then the truth is from the book of John and what you do is you read these over I mean just casually and it is amazing how you learn to take every thought captive.

Let me give you an example. The lie living the Christian life feels like an impossible journey trying to be and do all the Bible says is overwhelming and then you flip over the card and here's the truth. I can't do the Christian life in my own strength but as I stay connected to Jesus I experience his power and his joy. John 15 5.

You get the idea? Get these truth cards they'll really help. Amen Chip. Well to order your set of our Gospel of John truth cards go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. As you read through and meditate on these 21 cards you'll expose the lies we've bought or fallen into and replace them with the rock-solid truth of God's Word. To learn more about this helpful tool visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners tap special offers. Well before we go here again is Chip. As we wrap up today's program this is a very very familiar passage but down deep I'm not sure we relate to it that much. I don't know anything about sheep personally. I've been around a few and I've read that they're you know kind of dumb that they're helpless and they smell and I guess there's a parallel with people there but you know the fact of the matter is the point is is that sheep are followers and sheep are helpless but I think many of us feel very self-sufficient a lot of the time and I think this parable what Jesus taught really rings home when you're out of work when your spouse walks out on you when one of your kids is an ICU or when you get a biopsy report and it says cancer. You see that's when we're helpless that's when we realize I can't change things I need a savior I need God and Jesus is saying I am the Good Shepherd and he says whether you've wandered from the truth or whether you're drowning in alcohol whether you're sick on drugs or whether you're stalled in selfishness I want you to know that I want to rescue you. That great psalm that people read at funerals it says the Good Shepherd he says he'll rescue your rod and your staff sometimes he corrects and sometimes he pulls us out of the ditch but today is the day for you to know there's someone who cares about you there's someone that knows everything in your life if you will admit that you're helpless if you admit that you need help if you cry out for help and run to him the promise of God is very clear draw near to God and he'll draw near to you today whatever it looks like would you take a moment would you maybe just go to a park maybe five minutes in the car and would you bow your head and just draw near to God and let him draw near to you good word ship and as we close I want you to know that as a staff we ask the Lord to help you take that next faith step in your faith journey and if there's a way we can help we'd love to do that give us a call our numbers triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or connect with us at Living on the Edge org and while you're there take a moment and look through our resources on various topics many of them absolutely free listen to next time as chip wraps up the second volume of his Jesus unfiltered series follow until then this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge you