That Great Shepherd

Well, we praise God for the privilege of having this open Bible before us, so we're going to enjoy reading it now, and we're going to read from Hebrews 13, starting at verse 6. Hebrews 13, starting at verse 6. We say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid, what can man do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.

Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Amen. Brothers, I urge you to bear with me my word of exhortation. Father, we offer these moments to you and pray that as we look into your most holy and inspired word, which has just been read so sensitively and with due emphasis on what the Spirit is saying to us right now, help us not just to be readers of your word, nor listeners to its exposition.

Help us also to hook onto those two reactions, our willingness to obey, to make correction, to humble ourselves before your holy and inerrant word. Amen. Let's have our Bibles open at the passage which Barbara read to us.

Here in the 20th verse and 21st, there is what we could call a benediction or a doxology. You know, there are times in the tab when we ask you if you'll say the grace to one another and it can be a sort of embarrassing thing if you're not too extrovert because these days we somewhat cruelly say, instead of just closing your eyes and looking down at your chest, have a look at someone else and wish that benediction to them. How often are your letters that you write to your friends taken up with any spiritual sentiment whatsoever? Well, it's something that maybe you ought to ask yourself and make some correction.

But here is this somewhat annoyingly anonymous writer of the Hebrews, I say annoyingly because the identity, well, we're just not too sure. And he or let me be a little bit sensational and say he or she who wrote this letter concludes because there are some who think it's anonymous, you see, because it was a lady and if it had a lady written it, then the men wouldn't have taken it. And well, we'll not go into all that, but it is a suggestion.

I don't think that you can write it out academically, but it's worth thinking through just for something different to contemplate. But here we are. What was I saying? Well, imagine that you were writing a letter to a friend and you wanted to express wonderful sentiments to them.

Could you not take the example of the author of this book? May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with every good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever, amen. The writer is concerned about the spiritual well-being of the recipient of the letter.

And we should be concerned about the spiritual health of those with whom we are in contact. I mean the great concern is that this God of peace will create such characteristics, will bring about such blessings in the life of the readership, that they will be able to perform their responsibilities as Christians honorably and successfully as they make their way through their earthly pilgrimage. May God equip you with everything good for doing his will.

May he work in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ. Now here is my tussle. The whole of the two verses is full of good juice in terms of teaching.

But I really just want to lift out something that's been in my mind for a couple of days and won't go away. And it's the expression, that great shepherd of the sheep. That great shepherd of the sheep.

So here is this lovely description of our Lord Jesus right in the heart of this piece of benediction or doxology. And I want to bring it central stage for you to think it through. You see the writer, whoever he was, of this epistle is very much experimental in his understanding of Christianity.

One British Prime Minister said last century, it's come to a pretty pass when religion gets personal. Well, he wasn't too happy about the enthusiasts of last century, which is how evangelicals were described. Pretty pass? No.

It's pretty wonderful to enter into an experience of Christianity. You remember my favorite quote from William Booth, I like my religion like my tea, hot. Well, the writer of this epistle would have agreed because he is talking about an experience of God's grace through our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep.

Now have you experienced something of his grace? Our Lord Jesus? In one sense, as I'll say in my concluding remarks, if you can say that of the Savior of the shepherd, then you fully comprehended the Christian gospel. Our great shepherd, that great shepherd of the sheep. Let's get some Old Testament evidence just to bring to bear for a moment or two to help us to understand the background of that statement because it's describing our Lord Jesus.

In fact, it's not just describing our Lord Jesus, it's actually one of the titles that is given in the Old Testament for God himself. We're so glad to have witnessed the dedication of friends who have come away from Kingdom Hall and Jehovah's Witness movement. Now, JW theology is in difficulty here.

Why? Because you see in the Old Testament it refers to the Lord God Jehovah as the shepherd. Listen to Jacob. He's given his benediction to his children.

He has Joseph in front of him and in the 49th chapter of Genesis he directs his blessing to Joseph and in the 24th verse he says of Joseph, referring to the Lord, that the mighty one of Jacob will be with him because of the shepherd, the rock of Israel. And in the 23rd Psalm, do I need to tell you, it says the Lord is my shepherd. Throughout the whole of the Old Testament you get these lovely metaphors of God in terms of the shepherd and when you move into the New Testament what do you discover? Well that same terminology is applied to God manifest in the flesh, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep.

In the earlier hours of the morning I was looking through a very beautiful book which a friend gave me a couple of years ago. It's called The Downland Shepherds. If you like the downs as much as I like the downs then this is a book that would really do your soul good because shepherds are somewhat of a dying breed today.

I mean by that with modern agricultural methods and so on and so forth. There aren't that many. There are shepherds of course but not that many and not so many on the downs near to us.

But if you read this lovely book and see some of the paintings of Sisbury Ring and Shanktonbury and what have you and sites of yesteryear you will come across names of men which would have been very well known in Worthing in years gone by. Names of men who were shepherds. Nelson Copperd for example and John Cox and Michael Blan.

There are pictures of these men. They almost look like a British version of what you would anticipate Moses to look like with long flowing beards and with long jackets. These were the shepherds of the downs of yesteryear.

And when the writer to the Hebrews speaks of our Lord Jesus as that great shepherd he can't use the word that which is really a word of qualification and contrast without having in his mind other shepherds. Well to whom is he referring? Well most of you know that if you go back into the Old Testament before you've turned just a few pages you've come across a shepherd. There's a man for example by the name of Abel a great man and yet that man was slain by wicked hands.

You turn over the pages and you come across the story of Jacob and you read in the 30th chapter and especially the 31st chapter of the book of Genesis that he was a shepherd who took great care of the sheep and then all of you know of course that Joseph was a shepherd and he's associated with feeding the sheep and indeed not just the sheep but taking sandwiches taking packed lunches to his brothers. And Moses well you read in the book of Exodus chapter 2 verse 16, 17 through to chapter 3 and verse 1 that he kept and watered and fed the flock. And who does not know the story of David and the way that he had target practice before felling Goliath by what? Well defending the sheep.

He hazarded his life for the sheep. So here in the Old Testament let's stand them up you've got Shepherd Abel, you've got Shepherd Jacob, you've got Shepherd Joseph, you've got Shepherd Moses, you've got Shepherd David and they're all famous for the way in which they made provision for or helped the sheep. But here is Shepherd Jesus and when the writer of the Hebrew epistle makes reference to him he distinguishes him from all the other shepherds of the Old Testament, that great shepherd of the sheep.

You see there's something about our blessed Lord that is utterly outstanding. Doubtless there were great men if you read this book who were shepherds yesteryear on the downs near to us, men who had a moral lifestyle who kept close to nature and close to the God of nature. Some outstanding men, read about some of these men, some of us ought to read more about what men and women stood for yesteryear, there's a lot of truth and learning that you can get from the lives of others who have lived before us.

Outstanding shepherds and similarly in the Old Testament but here I give you my dear friends someone who is more outstanding than any other, that great shepherd of the sheep, even our blessed Lord. So from the Old Testament you can fetch evidence and of course from the New Testament you can illuminate this passage in Hebrews even more by putting alongside it what the writers have to say about our blessed Lord. Here for example turn to John's Gospel and the tenth chapter, you find our Lord described as he is in the middle of or towards the end of his ministry, certainly in the last half and he's making reference to himself and in the eleventh verse of the tenth chapter of John, what does he say, I am the good shepherd.

Let's read that verse together, we'll read the whole verse, John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd has laid down his life for the sheep. You know that word good, it's a special word in the Greek language, I mean by that though you get other words that are translated from the Greek and bear the meaning good, this is just a little bit more weighty, it's got the connotation of the best, there wasn't as far as I know wine flowing at the wedding yesterday, well maybe there was, I didn't go actually to the, I didn't go to the wedding feast, maybe they had grape juice, maybe they had wine, I don't want to get down that road, why did I start it off, well the wedding at Cana of Galilee, the best wine was put on last, do you remember, and that word best is the strongest word that is translated as good in the English version of the Bible, and it's that word which the Lord Jesus deliberately selects when he is describing himself, I am the good shepherd, in fact here is a claim to deity because he is daring to take this adjective as descriptive of his own life, I am the good shepherd, good master, you remember on one occasion someone steals across Jesus' pathway and addresses him, good master, but they didn't really understand who he was, so Jesus put the puzzling retort, why do you call me good? Do you not know that none is good save God? Jesus wasn't correcting the man, he was reinforcing the statement that the man was making, but casting it in more profound comprehension, yes I am the good, I am the good shepherd, I am the one who is divine, in what way is our blessed Lord good? Well wasn't he good in the way he called his disciples, I mean you think they were just a bunch of working class people, maybe with one exception, and then the women folk who were in his entourage, because we emphasize the disciples who were all men, never forget that there were a goodly number of women folk also with our saviour, who in a sense were equally disciples of him, now wasn't it good that he is walking by one of the towns in Judea, and he comes across Matthew, or rather one of the towns in Galilee, and he comes across Matthew and he says, leave your job as a civil servant and follow me. Wasn't he good in the way that he brought Peter from mending nets for fishing, from fishing and saying, come and fish for men and one day I'll show you how to mend the nets of men and women's lives, isn't he good the way that he called you? You see some of us come from split families, I mean by that that not all our families are Christian, we'd love them and we would wish them into the kingdom but they're not, and yet he called us, why us? Well there's no real answer apart from the fact that he's good, not only good in the call that he gives but good in the care that he exercises.

In this lovely book which is going to have record sales, there's a lovely illustration of the downland shepherd who's concerned for one of the sheep, the little one, the mother has died and the sheep has no way therefore of being fed. So what does the shepherd do? This picture is from last century, he finds a sheep that was stillborn and he skins the stillborn sheep and he gets that skin and he dresses this orphan sheep in the skin of the stillborn lamb and this peculiar little creature which now has got four ears makes its way towards the one that the shepherd wants to become the mother of the lamb without the mother and the shepherd therefore shows his great care, his great goodness, and doesn't our Lord do that? He's a good shepherd who not only calls but he cares. Aren't you glad that when Jesus first arrested you and brought you into his kingdom he didn't leave you there? You needed backup servicing and we need it increasingly.

Sometimes some of us who are getting older than our junior members here in the tab are almost embarrassed at the fact that we still need servicing by the Lord Jesus. We still need his care but we do and he gives it, that good shepherd of the sheep. He calls, he cares and ultimately he dies.

That's why you see back in Hebrews you find in this glorious piece of doxology reference to that good shepherd of the sheep who through the blood of the eternal covenant has become a medium through whom the blessings of God can be channeled. That good shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, good in his call, good in his care, good in the death that he died for the benefit of the flock. Says A.W. Pink, another man who lived just on the tip of the downs for a while, the edge of the downs, let us recognize that a shepherd is the servant and not the Lord of the flock.

And that was our Savior, he's the shepherd, he's a servant of God and he gives his life on behalf of the sheep. A cowboy drives the herd, a shepherd leads the flock. Brothers and sisters, I focus your attention on our Lord Jesus, the good shepherd.

Not only the good but also now coming back to Hebrews because that's the second time you get this reference to our Lord as shepherd with a different adjective, the great shepherd, that great shepherd of the sheep. You who know the letter to the Hebrews will be aware that the superiority, the supremacy of the Lord Jesus is ever at the back of the mind of the author. If Aaron is the high priest, Jesus is the great high priest.

If David is a king, Jesus is the king of kings. If there are earthly lords, Jesus is Lord of all lords. He is always the supreme one.

And so, it's not just the great shepherd, it's that great shepherd. So, contrasting to any other person who might have that description because of the excellency of his qualities, we've looked at his goodness, but what about his greatness? Great in his mastery over death, because it's this that the writer of this doxology is referring to in this particular comment of our Lord Jesus who, through the blood of the eternal covenant, was brought back by the God of peace from the dead. He's thinking of the resurrection.

In what was our Savior's greatness at the point of his death and resurrection? Well, he's great in his mastery over the grave. He's been brought back from the dead. Up from the grave he arose.

A sheep is so vulnerable. That's what Jacob was saying, do you remember, when he was defending the work that he'd done for his uncle Laban? I've been out in the extremes of the climate. I've looked after the sheep.

The sheep are such foolish creatures. They fall over. They can't be righted.

They're so utterly vulnerable. Nobody's afraid of a sheep. Even a young child will go and stroke a lamb if the lamb's not so timid that it runs away at the first sight of the child.

Well, our Lord Jesus Christ, he has mastery over death. His life wasn't taken from him, was it? He said, I lay it down. I lay down my life.

I commit my spirit into the hands of my Father. He does this on behalf of the sheep. He's concerned for the well-being of the sheep, because the sheep at the point of death are in a hopeless condition, but he at the point of death is as strong as he was at the point of life.

Great in mastery over death. But not just great in mastery over death, great in memory over his own. When he died on the cross, his mind was not full of concerns for himself.

Now, this is what I find staggering. I mean, he spots Mary. You remember, she's standing a little distance away, and he knows that she will be, without the benefits that a normal son would be able to give his mother in a pension-less age.

And so he speaks to John and trusts Mary to the care of John. But he's got something else at the back of his mind. I cannot prove it to you by taking you to the crucifixion scene, but I can prove it to you by taking you to the resurrection scene.

When our Lord Jesus is brought back from the dead, and he makes his first communication, what does he say to the woman who is the first proclaimer of the news of resurrection? Tell my disciples, and Peter. He hasn't forgotten Peter. Why is this so significant? Well, you see, here he went through the horror of death, and yet his disciple was in great need.

Peter is a sheep, and he's bruised. He's strayed on the precipice. He's out on the rocks.

He's going to kill himself unless something is done. And Jesus, through the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary, comes through on the resurrection side, and the first thing he has in mind is Peter. That great shepherd.

Mastery over death, great in that. Mastery over memory, great in that. And what about the greatness of the ministry that he proffered his disciples? Here is Peter expecting a wigging from the Lord on the seashore of Galilee.

Jesus took him back to the place of his first encounter, and instead of excommunicating him, he gets Peter right with himself, Peter penitent for all of his folly, and then he commissions him. And he says, Peter, I want you to feed the flock. Peter, I want you to feed my sheep.

Here is a great ministry, not only for Peter, but also for the rest of the disciples. So he says, go out into the whole world and preach the gospel. Here is the greatness of our Lord Jesus.

Great in his mastery over death. Great in his memory, his recall. Great in the ministry that he entrusts his disciples to.

That great shepherd. But before we are through with the heart of this little benediction, I must take you to the third place where you find reference to our Lord in terms of the supremacy of his shepherd ministry. Let's go to the epistle of Peter for a moment, and as you are turning to it, let me remind you that there is an interesting study that could well be done by you at your leisure in the New Testament on the word chief.

You read, for example, that our Lord Jesus, he combats the chief of devils. And then you read of the apostle Paul that he calls himself the chief of sinners. Now, here is a third example of the useful use of the word chief when the apostle Peter refers to the Savior in the fourth verse and the fifth chapter of his first epistle.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. Just backtracking on that thought for a moment of chief. You know, I reckon the apostle Paul and Peter perhaps would have had a little bit of a discussion as to who really qualified for the word chief in terms of sinners.

I mean, Peter was most discouraged about his own state, wasn't he, and the way that he reacted under pressure and so on and so forth. He felt so utterly miserable that he went out into the blackness of the night, and it was even more dark in his own soul. I have no hesitation in suggesting that that man was almost in a suicidal situation.

He let the Lord down. There is a legend that every time Peter heard a cock crow, tears would come into his eyes in subsequent years because the thought of what he had done never left him. And here is Peter, here is Paul, and he is thinking of his pre-conversion days and the way that he brought havoc on the church.

Saints, do I say with your remembered faces, dear men and women whom I sought and slew, how when I reach the heavenly places I'll weep with Stephen and with you. Chief of sinners, no, Peter says, that belongs to me, Paul. No, says Paul, it belongs to me.

And we get up and say, be quiet both of you, it belongs to us. But ladies and gentlemen, I show you not the chief of sinners, but the chief of shepherds. I am the good shepherd in his death.

I am the great shepherd in his resurrection. I am the chief shepherd in his glory. When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

To our Lord Jesus has been given the name that is above every name. Other shepherds they have been, Shepherd Abel, Shepherd Jacob, Shepherd Moses, Shepherd David, but here is one who excels all those men, whatever their virtues may have been. And in heaven they still think of him as a shepherd, but the chief shepherd who is ever looking after his own.

And I dare to suggest if envy is a quality in heaven that the angels can have, then they must show it towards the fallen sons of Adam and Eve, because it was to such as we are that the shepherd came, the good shepherd who shows his goodness by his call and his care and his crucifixion, the great shepherd who shows his greatness by his mastery over death, by his memory and by his ministry. But brothers and sisters, he is also the chief shepherd who one day will come again for the likes of you and me into his eternal kingdom. He will call us.

So here is my final concluding observation, picking up on what I said twenty five minutes or so ago. Remember? Back to Hebrews 13 verse 20 and 21. May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus.

What is the significance? Well, you see, if you can say our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, you have revealed to me that you are a Christian, because there is none other group within this world who will say this. Our Lord Jesus, not just Jesus, not just Jesus Christ, not just Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews is more bold.

Our Lord Jesus. You see, the author has been doing this all the way along. He has been showing us that there is a familiarity that we can have with the Lord Jesus Christ that no one else can have.

In the second chapter he referred to the Lord Jesus as being our brother, being like one of us. Not ashamed to call us brothers. Our Lord Jesus, into the family circle.

Back in the north of England they can be quite clannish. That also happens in the south to some degree, but perhaps the family concept is even more pronounced there. They can scrap like enemies amongst themselves, but let someone else outside the family circle touch our Jeff, or say something about our Joan.

All the family comes together and the solidarity is there. Leave off, they are ours. Now I take my illustration and try and elevate it in terms of its meaning.

Here is our Lord Jesus. Aren't you proud of him? You see what I mean when I said that little phrase was haunting me for the last two days. That great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus.

Oh, take that to your home. Take that to next week. Take that to your problem.

Take that to your difficulty. Our Lord Jesus. He is a fulcrum.

He is a pivot. He is a channel through which this great doxology blessing can flow. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is well-pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Finish me this line of a hymn. The king of love my shepherd is. Now let's say that a little more loudly.

The king of love my shepherd is. And if you meant that, then you take his goodness and his greatness into this next week, into your family, into your circumstance. Let's stand and praise this Lord Jesus.

Oh, take that to your home. Take that to your problem. Take that to next week.

Take that to your family. Take that to your neighbor. Take that to your neighbor.

Take that to your neighbor. Take that to your neighbor. Take that to your neighbor.

Take that to your neighbor. Take that to your neighbor. Take that to your neighbor.

Take that to your neighbor. Take that to your neighbor.