The Greatest!

Later on I'm going to be speaking on Jesus as the greatest and scripture tells us he's not just the king, he's the king of kings, he's not just a priest, he's a great high priest. All the excellences that possibly can be in our world, in the universe, call us in our Lord Jesus. All hail King Jesus.

And Father, as we add our praise to the hymns we've already sung, so we want to bless you for the gift of your word. We pray that you will open this word in a way that perhaps we never quite saw it before and etch upon our minds in a way that's indelible those things that you want us to retain and carry through life. Blessed Father, by the power of your Spirit, speak to us in the name of our Saviour, Amen.

Please be seated and turn in your Bibles, if you have a Bible with you, to the book of Hebrews in chapter 13. And there at the end of the chapter, we read this doxology, this piece of benediction from verse 20, Hebrews 13, 20, 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 forever and ever, Amen.

The toast of East and West Germany, I was informed on an early news bulletin at a ridiculous time this morning, was for that teenage fellow who incredibly had taken his light airplane and safely tucked it down near Lenin's mausoleum in Red Square, Moscow. And the net result of all that is the dismissal of a couple of the hierarchy of the Soviet Union's security. And, as I say, in Germany, the particular stunt was greeted first with disbelief, and then with the proud Germanic spirit of, well, somebody's shown the Russians just how you can penetrate their security.

Now, I'm not lauding what's been done. If I was a passenger, I would have been horrified, I'd probably have jumped out when I saw where he was going, but then I have that feeling when we're traveling in different directions as well in airplanes. But here's a man who has just caught the attention of the German people.

I wonder what his mother thought. I wonder what Gorbachev thought. Come to think of it, I wonder what Mary thought, the mother of the Savior, when she was told in Luke's Gospel that when she gave birth to the child in her womb, he will be great.

He will be great. That's what you discover in Luke chapter 1 and verse 32. And in a very real sense, our Lord was great almost from the moment of birth.

Kings came to His dawning. They brought their gold, frankincense, and myrrh, did they not? And they acknowledged the grandeur of the infant just at the point of birth. When he was hardly a teenager, he went to the seminary, the theological headquarters in Jerusalem, and he started to quiz the professors.

And his knowledge of Old Testament Scriptures was such that they were amazed at his learning, though he was only twelve years of age. He was a great student. And when he started publicly to minister, the ordinary folk, they flocked to him.

Not that they were used to attending church or synagogue in those days in large numbers because, well, the ordinary rabbi didn't really have a great deal to say that was attractive, but he was different. No man ever spoke like him, that's what they said. And when he performed miraculous feats, well, they said of him, no one has ever done this before.

And when he was a prisoner in front of Pontius Pilate, his presence of mind was such that the Pilate is fascinated by him. And when he died on the cross, a hardened Roman centurion who had been used to the blood curdling cries of despair that left the lips of those who were in excruciating pain, when he saw the dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ, he confessed that this was more than just an ordinary person. You see, he's great.

Great in his birth, great as a teenager, great as a teacher, great as a miracle worker, great as a prisoner, great as a man who will be crucified. Greatness, grandeur, they're all part of the fabric of this remarkable man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you read the book of Hebrews, if you wanted one word to summarize the contents or the thrust of what you discover within that fascinating New Testament epistle, you could take the word greatest, because it shows that our Lord Jesus was greater than Moses, He was greater than any of the priests, He was greater than anything that the Old Testament era had ever produced.

And when you get to the last chapter of Hebrews, two novel thoughts are introduced. One is the thought of Jesus as shepherd. You don't come across that anywhere else but in this last chapter.

And the second is the thought of the resurrection, because in Hebrews it's not so much the resurrection of Jesus that's in mind, but His ascension and exaltation in heaven. And so here is the writer of this remarkable book, and he offers a benediction, a blessing to all his readers, and he's speaking about the Lord Jesus, and he speaks about also what the Father has done for the Son. 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.

The greatest that ever there was. You know, it's not so easy perhaps, well, maybe we've got at least an edge on Londoners living down here at the tip of the South Downs. It's not so easy for people to grasp a pastoral setting, is it? And yet, if you go to Sisbury Ring or Shanktonbury Ring at the moment, you can see the sheep and the lambs and so on and so forth.

But by and large, we're not an agricultural pastoral lot. We're more of an industrial society. And it's not perhaps so easy as it was for the Palestinian to grasp the thrust of the New Testament and the Old Testament when it speaks of a priority of the shepherd's role.

Because, you see, what I'm trying to nail this evening and put it in your mind is this, you need the equivalent too in your life of what the shepherd was in old days. You need a guide. You need a counselor.

You need a friend. You who would go to a doctor to have the best medical treatment, you who would seek the advice of a solicitor if you're in a legal turmoil, I say to you from the pulpit that you need someone alongside you who can give you the sort of counsel at the human level, the sort of protection at the human level that a pastor, a shepherd, would have done at the animal level in days gone by. And this is why the writer of Hebrews points out our Lord Jesus, and he calls Him the greatest even in that pastoral realm, that great shepherd of the sheep.

You see, the very word that identifies Him as special from the rest of the shepherds that there have been whose stories are recorded in the Old Testament, and they were great men. Abel was a shepherd, a witnessing shepherd, witness to the blood of a lamb that was slain on his behalf over against his unbelieving brother Cain. Abraham was a separating shepherd who was prepared to leave the security of Ur of the Chaldees and set out for a land not knowing where he was going because he believed that God wanted him to engage in such a pursuit.

Joseph was a sinned against shepherd whose brothers had connived to bring about his premature death. Moses was a pioneering shepherd who brought out from the land of bondage the Hebrew slaves to the land of promise. David was a defending shepherd whose story is encapsulated in the book of Psalms as well as in the historical books.

But put all these shepherds together, and though they were eminent men in their own right, they fade into insignificance when compared to that great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, you need a shepherd in your life like him. You need done for you what a dumb sheep in Palestine needed done for it.

So I've revealed my hand immediately this evening. I want to get you to appreciate this, that the person of our Lord Jesus and the ministries that He brings are vital to your life, and we'll continue to explore it under the theme of Him being the greatest, the greatest shepherd. Three times we're told of our Lord Jesus as the greatest in this capacity in the New Testament.

Go to the reading which was read so feelingfully by Ted, John chapter 10 and verse 11. We read there of our Lord Jesus as the good shepherd who is magnificent in His death. John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. What does the good shepherd do? You see, it's very difficult for you, unless you understand the terrain, that means the geography of Palestine, to appreciate the significance of the shepherd's role. I went for a run the other night from Shanktonbury Ring to Sisbury Ring.

If you want to join me one evening, you're more than welcome. It's several miles, but it's nice. And apart from my friend, I'd only got the sheep and the lambs for company.

Good evening. But, you see, you can't really understand the role of the shepherd from the downs of Sussex, the role of a Palestinian shepherd. You see, the past year long wasn't as good, and at either side of the very narrow plateau you've got precipices, you've got rocks, you've got that which will harm the sheep.

There are no pens, so to speak at least, there are no fields that are enclosed, and nothing is more daft than a sheep, apart from a human being, I'm sometimes prone to conclude. And so your shepherd, your Palestinian shepherd, would have his eyes always on his sheep as they moved around. He'd be a weather-beaten man, he would have love in his heart towards the animals that were under his care.

His concern for them was not really for their meat value, but for their wool value. And as a result, he was in their company for many a long year. And the good shepherd, he cared for his sheep as though they were his own.

And we read of our Lord Jesus when he speaks of ordinary people who will follow him in a later chapter in John's Gospel, the 17th, we read him saying, of those who will be his followers, addressing the Father, thine they were, but thou gavest them me. He's a good shepherd who cares for his sheep as though they were his own, for indeed they are. He's a good shepherd because he knows his sheep, verse 14 of chapter 10.

He knows each sheep as though each one has special value. I took the funeral service this last week and also the previous week of two delightful older people. One lady was ninety-four when she died, an incredible lady.

She used to come here every Sunday evening, though she was ninety-four, and incidentally in the morning. She couldn't hear a thing that I said, but she still came along and she enjoyed the choruses and the songs and so on and so forth. And I was able to explain to her family, who as far as I know don't generally attend church, I was able to explain to them here in our sanctuary last Thursday or whenever last week that I conducted the memorial service, that this little ninety-four year old woman was special in the sight of God, and that I believe with all my heart.

You see, when Jesus spoke to people in his day, he would always address them by name. When he's been raised from the dead, he says, tell my disciples and Peter that I'm going ahead into Galilee. You see, he identifies the name of Peter because Peter, a rather strange sheep at this point, needs the attention of the shepherd.

When our Lord appears in the resurrection garden, he selects a woman to be the first one to have the privilege of an encounter, and he addresses her by name, Mary. He knows you by name. He knows all that there is to know about you, and he's not put off.

Whereas one of the reasons why you're secretive with your friends is because if we knew all that there was to know about you, you might think you'd risk forfeiting our friendship. But not that of the good shepherd, who's so magnificent in his death. He cares for the sheep as though they were his own, he knows his sheep as though each had special value, and he secures his sheep at tremendous cost.

I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. You see, it's not easy to be a shepherd in Palestine. There's so much that threatens the safety, the security of the sheep.

Unless you've got a very, very faithful shepherd, then the sheep are going to be in great difficulty. But here is our Savior, and He speaks about the world as though it's a sheep range, and about you and me as though we're part of the flock. And He says this, that none for whom I die shall be plucked from me.

He guarantees us safety spiritually as we make our way through this world, and the guarantee is sealed in His blood, for the occasion was, as you know so well, when He died on the cross of Calvary so that the sins that we had committed, all the stubbornness, all the rebellion, all the stupidity of sheep-like humanity might be passed onto Him, and we might be saved and be eternally secure as a sheep for whom Jesus died. You see, the Bible makes it very clear, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the great shepherd, the responsibility, the iniquity of us all, and so that's what He's prepared to do, to seek you out, to hazard His life, ultimately to deliver it up so that you might know safe conduct through this world.

That's why He's the greatest, you see, that great shepherd of the sheep, greater than Abel, greater than Abraham, greater than Joseph, greater than Moses, greater than David, greater than anyone that there has ever been, the greatest person whom you could ever invite to have company with you as you move down life's journey, our Lord Jesus Christ. Refuse the invitation and you're more dumb than those sheep on the Sussex Downs. He is the good shepherd, magnificent in His death.

He's the great shepherd, and that's what Hebrews tells us, is it not? He is the great shepherd who is unusual in His resurrection. 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, brought Him back from the dead. This is unique, you see, this is absolutely wonderful.

The Old Testament in the Septuagint version, that means the Greek version, refers to Moses as a great shepherd being brought out of the Red Sea. No, it's speaking metaphorically, and it's probably that that triggers, that stimulates the epistle, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews in referring to our Lord Jesus more realistically, more accurately, as the one who has been brought back, not from the Red Sea, but from death itself. The God of peace, He brought Him back.

Who? That great shepherd. Now, two things follow the word great to describe our Lord Jesus at this point, and they are these. He has the greatest flock.

The greatest flock. You see, you couldn't be a great king unless you had many subjects. I mean, if you've only got a squib of a kingdom with only two or three people, then you're hardly a great monarch.

Here is our Lord Jesus, and He is referred to as the greatest of the shepherds. And I argue logically from that, He must have the greatest flock. And His flock is not constituted only of Jewish people.

He says in John 10, other sheep I have who are not of the Jewish fold. You see, Jesus has come with His sights on all humanity, all lost humanity, be they Jew or Gentile. And this is the reason why the writer of the Hebrews can say that He's the great shepherd of the sheep.

He has the greatest number in His flock. And what's more, He doesn't have the greatest number alone, but He's the greatest pastor. He's the greatest pastor.

But you see, He's not everyone's pastor, is He? I use the word pastor because it's synonymous with shepherd. You see, pastor really gives you the word shepherd, only we've retained the use of the original language there in the word pastor. But He's not the pastor of everyone.

Now again, this is most important that I nail the point. You see, He's not the shepherd of the goats. Now the Bible says, and it's not always very complimentary in the way that it works out its analogies, it says that the ranks of humanity are split into two groups, there are the sheep and the goats.

There are those who are spiritually sensitive and those who couldn't care a hoot. Now the Lord Jesus is not the pastor of people like that. He's not the pastor of those who've rejected Him.

He's not the pastor of wolves. He's the pastor of no other species than human sheep who long for His pastoral oversight and care. And He has the greatest flock and He's the greatest pastor to look after that flock.

You see, the point, why I had to start off by disclosing what my objective was this evening. You see, my argument just runs like this, that to be without the Lord Jesus is like going through life with one leg at a physical level. In fact, even that illustration's not very good because you could just about limp through life or hop through life and without the Lord Jesus, it's not that you have one leg, it's that you've got no legs really.

There's no spiritual momentum at all, you're away there on that open range that was the place where the Palestinian sheep used to graze and there's no one to keep control over you. And you can go off to one way and another way and sure you'll be on the rocks sooner or later and probably some of you are on the rocks right now. And there's no other care that can be directed towards you that will meet your condition than the care of the Lord Jesus.

But before you recognize His care, you have to recognize your own utter inability to get yourself out of the difficulties in your life or to discover anyone else who can help you. He's the Great Shepherd, great in the magnificent way that He gives His life for the sheep. He's the Good Shepherd rather, good in the magnificent way in which He gives His life for the sheep.

He's the Great Shepherd, great in the unusual way in which God has raised Him from the dead so that He can continue His office as the greatest pastor over the greatest flock. But then, and finally, there's one other thing that Scripture teaches us about our Lord Jesus in this connection and that is found in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 4. When you read Peter saying this, And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. He's the Good Shepherd.

He's the Great Shepherd. He is the Chief Shepherd. Now remember, we are not in difficulty in understanding who wrote this particular epistle.

We've got problems with Hebrews, we're not too sure. I've got one or two ideas and I'll confirm whether I'm right or not when I get to heaven and have one or two words with a couple of candidates. But as far as this one is concerned, we know.

We know that Peter is the writer and Peter knows a good deal about sheep in the estimation of Jesus. You see, our Lord, He used the imagery, He used it, He used the idea metaphorically. He said to the disciples on one occasion that they were to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Do you remember that? They had to go out and tell them that Jesus was here, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then on another occasion, there's a great crowd of people coming around our Lord Jesus listening to His ministry. And He sees them as sheep, without a shepherd, going to and fro.

Peter knows, you see, that the way that the Lord Jesus will use this imagery of the shepherd and the sheep. But more than this, Peter has got a vested interest in shepherd and sheep for this reason. He knows that He has been amongst the straying breed, not so? In the 25th verse of the second chapter of this book, He says, addressing His readers, for you were like sheep going astray.

Now Peter's hitting a nerve because he has gone astray from the Lord Jesus, you remember? Our Lord tells His disciples, all men will deny Me. And Peter says, no, you've got it wrong. You're right as far as they're concerned, but not me.

You see, I understand myself. And that was the problem with Peter. He didn't understand himself.

He was like a stupid sheep. But the Lord, He understood. And Peter, having gone astray, is gathered back into the fold.

That's why the message was sent to Peter, especially in the garden of resurrection. Tell My disciples and Peter. Why Peter? Well, because Peter no longer feels that he qualifies to be part of the flock of the Lord Jesus.

And then our Saviour meets up with Peter, you remember, on the seashore of Galilee. And Peter thinks he's in line for excommunication. Instead of that, the Lord Jesus ordains him.

And He says, feed My sheep, feed My sheep, feed My sheep. In other words, Peter, having been forgiven because he was a straying sheep, now is qualified by our Lord Jesus to become an under-shepherd. That's what a pastor is.

Not just a pastor like myself, with a congregation such as yourselves, that's involved. But there is a sense in which everyone who is a Christian can pastor somebody else. Not so? We have a responsibility for other people.

We are our brother's keeper. Now, when Peter makes reference to his ministry, as he is doing in the opening verses of the fifth chapter, he's also encouraging fellow pastors to be faithful to the ministry that is theirs, looking after human sheep. You know, I find one of the hardest things, in my experience as a pastor, is just to help sheep.

I really mean that. You see, first of all, I need help myself. That's why I'm grateful for the ministry of the elders in our church.

But then I have to try to help other people. Do you know, this Sunday sees the completion of my 17th year, the beginning of my 18th year in the tap. I don't know where all the years went to.

I mean, I still think I look incredibly young. But one of the hardest things over those years, and it still remains the same today, is to say to some sheep, hold it, fellow. Hold it, lady.

Let me speak God's word into your circumstance at this time, because you're about to go on the rocks. It takes courage to do that. Not so much corporately addressing the remark to a congregation, but individually.

It's not easy to be a shepherd. People might misunderstand. They may not fully understand the reason why you're giving the piece of instruction that you're giving, and you can't disclose all your information, or else you would be indiscreet as a shepherd.

It's not easy to be a faithful shepherd. And so Peter is writing about the Lord Jesus, having encouraged his brother pastors, his brother shepherds, who are ministering in Jewish churches, presumably throughout the whole of Asia Minor. And he says, fellows, be faithful to your ministry.

Be faithful, because when the chief shepherd appears, he will reward you for the fidelity, the faithfulness, with which you exercise your God-given responsibility as pastors. You see, the chief shepherd's coming back. Verse four makes it plain, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory.

What's he coming back for? He's coming to gather his flock. He's coming to reward faithful servants. That's all part of the ministry that's still in the future for the great shepherd.

Now I'm through, or nearly. My launching pad for this little address was the doxology in Hebrews, the benediction in Hebrews. 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 well-pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

I want you to know that blessing. I really do. Even youngsters who find it very difficult to concentrate for 25 or 28 minutes.

Our Lord Jesus, is he yours? That great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, the good shepherd, the greatest shepherd, the chief of shepherds, but is he your shepherd? Are you as daft as a sheep, who if it could in Palestine, would opt to be left on its own with no guidance, no protection, no pastoral love? Are you as silly as that? The sheep which when it falls over cannot right itself, it is as dependent on human aid as that. Would you be like a sheep? Are you that silly? I speak lovingly. Are you that dumb? Then what must you do, whether you're 18 or 80? Ask the shepherd to receive you as a sheep into his flock, to be a good shepherd, a great shepherd, the chief shepherd who will keep you safe in time and on into eternity.

I commend you to Jesus Christ, the greatest of shepherds. Let's pray. I want you to listen to Evelyn just playing the Lord's My Shepherd a little.

Let the words just float through your mind. I don't think there's anyone here who doesn't know that hymn. I'm not asking you to sing it, I'm just asking you to follow it through in your mind and please just concentrate.

Let's just gently sing that first verse quietly still in an attitude of prayer. The Lord's my shepherd, how he loves me. Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale, yet will I fear none at all.

Goodness and mercy all my life. Goodness and mercy all my life. Father, you know the sheep of our Lord Jesus in this tabernacle.

Those who've responded to him. You also know those who've heard the voice of our Lord invite them into his flock but thus far they have stubbornly refused. We pray that by the power of your spirit, you'll chase after them and bring them into the security of knowing the Saviour and have their face set right in the direction to which you want them to go through life, knowing your blessing, your protection, your care.

Lord, remember these sheep for whom the Saviour died in his name. Amen. And it's a good hymn because it underpins what I've been trying to say about our Lord Jesus being the greatest.

We'll take the final verse twice and just let's lift it to an anthem of praise as we sing it on the last occasion. Jesus is King. Jesus is King.

Our Father, again we thank you for our Lord Jesus. That Good Shepherd. That Chief's Shepherd.

That Great Shepherd. We thank you that you raised him from the dead. We bless you that our Shepherd ever lives to make intercession for us and keeps his protective eye upon us by night and by day.

With such a Shepherd as we have, why should we have anxiety in our world? Send us out, Lord, rejoicing in the knowledge of the preservation of our Lord Jesus Christ's ministry in our lives and we ask that we might know your blessing this week and help us in one sense, all, to be shepherds towards others and have a similar care and concern and selfless interest shown in a tangible fashion in the lives of our brothers and sisters. Send us on our way rejoicing in the goodness of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now and until the day when the Chief Shepherd appears. Amen.

Good night and God bless you.