Our Great Shepherd

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd -Matthew 9:35-36

Sheep are animals in need. According to experts sheep are an easily scared bunch, often stubborn, dependent on someone to guide them, often killed by other predators, and are creatures of habit. This is why sheep so often have dogs and a shepherd to guide them and protect them from others and from themselves. There is, in fact, very little sheep can do on their own. They are an animal in great need.

We are a people in great need. According to the Scriptures we are people whose hearts are deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17:9), bent on pursuing our own flesh (Ephesians 2:3), full of utter darkness (Isaiah 1:5-6), and by our very nature children deserving God's wrath (Ephesians 2:3). There is, in fact, nothing good man can do on his own. We are a people in great need.

We, like sheep need someone. Someone to rescue us, to deliver us, to free us. Scripture says that sin is not just something that we do, but something that is in our very essence (Romans 5). As sheep we have fled, fled from God, departed from relationship with Him. God's holiness demands someone to pay the penalty for the sin, someone has to pay the debt for our rebellion.

"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." -Jesus (John 10:11)

We are the Prodigal Son. We have left all that God has for us to pursue all that we want. We have left God, but God has come in search of us, He has come to rescue us, to reconcile us to Himself, to redeem our fallenness. Jesus Christ on the cross satisfies the wrath of God. God is storing up wrath for you. (Ephesians 2:1-3). His wrath will (ultimately) be felt by all who do not trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. On the cross Jesus Christ dies in our place, giving us (you) His righteous obedience. It is the great trade, in your place Christ has died. Everything you could never do, Christ did.

Jesus Christ, our good shepherd, satisfies God's wrath through His death on the cross for our sins and our sin nature.
Jesus Christ gives to us His perfect obedience to God to remove our guilt so that we might live new lives in and for Him.

Imagine an entire flock of sheep gathered together enjoying perfect fellowship and peace together. Suddenly, one of the sheep runs away, leaving the shepherd and the rest of the flock behind. The shepherd watches him go, never quite losing sight. Quickly, the lost sheep is at risk of being killed by a predator, or being lost from the flock forever, unable to ever find his way back. Where the sheep was once clean and comfortable and warm he is now alone and dirty and surrounded by things which separate him further from home. He is helpless. It is in this moment that the shepherd comes to rescue him, to bring him back to the flock, to bring him back home. The Shepherd places the helpless sheep on his shoulders and carries the whole burden upon Himself to bring the sheep back. (Luke 15, Matthew 18).

Jesus Christ is our Great Shepherd. And we are the sheep. He knows all of our sin, all of our failures, all of our imperfections, all of our lies, all of our darkness and still comes in search of us. He looks upon us with compassion and deep love, for we are like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. Would we rest in the fact that there is nothing we can do to earn God's love and there is nothing we can do to separate us from God's love. God doesn't love some future "better" version of us, but us as we stand right now.

Think through your role as the lost sheep this week, your place as the one Christ has come to rescue, your place as the one who has fled from God and is in need of grace upon grace. As Matt said Sunday night, we aren't just in the water trying to tread well enough to stay alive. We have sunk to the bottom of the pool. We are dead. In Him we now live.

When Jesus Christ died that day, R.D. McClenagan died too. Died to my sin nature, to my past, to all that separated me from God. God knows sees Christ in my place, and He sees Christ in your place as well. Would we be people of great boldness who look out upon others with the eyes of Jesus, looking for the lost sheep and going in search of them no matter where that may lead us.

"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" -Hebrews 13:19-21

reigning in life through Jesus Christ,
R.D.