Episode Transcript
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On the sermon this morning will come
from first or, I'm sorry, from
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the Gospel of John Chapter Ten,
but I'm going to begin reading in Ezekiel,
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Great Prophet, Ezekiel, Chapter Thirty
Four. Just as Jesus makes a
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contrast between good shepherds and hired hands
or bad shepherds in John Ten, and
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the Prophet makes us the same contrast
here. Here he describes those who should
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be shepherding Israel but are not,
and then he goes on to talk about
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how God will himself provide a shepherd
for his sheep, a shepherd that,
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we will learn today, is Jesus, the son of God himself. So
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let's give our attention to Ezekiel thirty
four. The word of the Lord came
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to me, son of man,
prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy
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and say to them, even to
the shepherds, thus says the Lord God,
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shepherds of Israel, who have been
feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed
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the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with wool, you
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slaughter the fat ones, but you
do not feed the sheep. The week.
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You have not strengthened the sick,
you have not healed the injured,
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you have not bound up the strayed, you have not brought back the lost,
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you have not sought and with force
and Hartshness, you've ruled them so.
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They were scattered because there was no
shepherd, and they became food for
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all the wild beasts. My sheep
were scattered. They wandered over all the
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mountains and on every high hill.
My sheep were scattered over all the face
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of the earth, with none to
search or seek for them. Therefore,
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you shepherds, hear the word of
the Lord, as I live, declares
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the Lord God. Surely my sheep
have become prey and my sheep have become
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food for all the wild beasts,
since there was no shepherd and because my
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shepherds have not searched for my sheep. But the shepherds have fed themselves and
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have not fed my sheep. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of
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the Lord. Thus says the Lord
God. Behold, I am against the
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shepherds and I will require my sheep
at their hand and put a stop to
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their feeding the sheep. No longer
shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will
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rescue my sheep from their mouths that
they may not be food for them.
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For thus says the Lord God.
Behold I, I myself will search for
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my sheep and I will seek them
out as a shepherd seeks out his flock
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when he is among his sheep that
have been scattered. So I will seek
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out my sheep and I will rescue
them from all places where they have been
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scattered, on a day of clouds, in thick darkness, and I will
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bring them out from the people's and
gather them from the countries, and I
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will bring them into their own land
and I will feed them on the mountains
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of Israel, by the ravines and
in all the inhabited places of the country.
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I will feed them with good pasture
and on the mountain heights of Israel
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shall be their grazing land. There
they shall lie down in good grazing land
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and on rich pasture they shall feed
on the mountains of Israel. I myself
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will be the shepherd of my sheep
and I myself will make them lie down.
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Declares the Lord God. I will
seek the lost, I will bring
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back the stray, I will bind
up the injured and I will strengthen the
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weak and the fat and the strong, I will destroy, I will feed
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them in justice. As for you, my flock, thus, as the
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Lord God behold, I judge between
sheep and sheep, between rams and male
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goats. Is it not enough for
you to feed on the good pasture,
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that you must tread down with your
feet the rest of your pasture, and
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to drink of clear water, that
you must muddy the rest of the water
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with your feet? and must my
sheep eat what you have trodden with your
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feet and drink what you have muddied
with your feet? Therefore, thus says
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the Lord God, to them behold
I, I myself, will judge between
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the fat and the lean sheep,
because you push with side and shoulder and
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thrust at all the week with your
horns till you have scattered them abroad.
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I will rescue my flock. They
shall no longer be a prey, and
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I will judge between sheep and sheep, and I will set up over them
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one shepherd, my servant, David, and he shall feed them. He
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shall feed them and be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will
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be their God and my servant David
shall be prince among them. I am
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the Lord, I Have Spoken,
I will make with them a covenant of
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Peace and Banish Wild beasts from the
land so that they may dwell securely in
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the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and bless
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and and the place is all around
my hill, a blessing, and I
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will send down the showers in their
season. They shall be showers of blessing,
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and the trees of the field shall
yield their fruit and the Earth shall
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yield its increase, and they shall
be secure in their land and they shall
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know that I am the Lord when
I break the bars of their yoke and
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deliver them from the hand of those
who enslave them. They shall no more
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be prey to the nations, nor
shall the beasts of the land devour them.
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They shall dwell securely and none shall
make them afraid, and I will
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provide for them renowned plantations so that
they shall no more be consumed with hunger
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in the land and no longer suffer
the reproach of the nation's and they shall
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know that I am the Lord,
their God with them, and that they,
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the House of Israel, are my
people, declares the Lord God,
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and you are my sheep, human
sheep of my pasture, and I am
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your God, declares the Lord God. Now let's turn to John Ten,
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John Ten verse eleven. I am
the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays
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down his life for the sheep.
He who is a hired hand and not
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a shepherd, who does not own
the sheep, sees the wolf coming and
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leaves the sheep and flees and the
wolf snatches them and scatters them. He
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flees because he has a hired hand
and cares nothing for the sheep. I
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am the Good Shepherd. I know
my own and my own know me,
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just as the father knows me and
I know the father. And I laid
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down my life for the sheep,
and I have other sheep that are not
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of this fold. I must bring
them also, and they will listen to
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my voice. So there will be
one flock, one shepherd. For this
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reason, the father loves me,
because I lay down my life that I
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might of that I may take it
up again. No one takes it from
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me, but I lay it down
of my own accord. I have authority
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to lay it down and I have
authority to take it up again. This
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charge I have received from my father. There was again a division among the
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Jews because of these words. Many
of them said he has a demon and
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is insane. Why listen to him? Others said these are not the words
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of one who is oppressed by a
demon. Can a demon open the eyes
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of the blind? God bless the
reading of his word to us. Amen,
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but amazing passages these are. We
begin with Ezekiel and, thinking briefly
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about it, want you to notice
just a couple things. First, notice
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the situation. God speaks in a
condemning way to these people that were supposed
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to be leading Israel. They were
supposed to be shepherds of Israel, but,
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to use Jesus's language and John Ten, they were hired hands. They
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were people that were there supposedly caring
for the sheep, but not really caring
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for them, not really loving them
in the way that the true shepherd does.
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In fact, these shepherds, these
shepherds who are watching over Israel,
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were really bad. They weren't just
deserting when the wolf came, but they
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were themselves, in a way wolves. They were feeding upon the sheep,
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they were using the sheep without any
care for the sheep at all. God
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also calls them he got got.
Also reminds them, though, that though
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they are supposed to be shepherds and
are really no shepherds. They are also
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his sheep. That's why he says
I'm going to divide sheep from sheep.
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Why are there these fat sheep but, you know, get mud all over
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there their feet and then walk into
the water, drink the water and then
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muddy it up for everyone else.
These are bad sheep, and he says
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he is going to divide the good
sheep from the bad sheep. And for
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those that have been weak, those
that have been leaned, those that have
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been downtrodden and oppressed on, those
that who are supposed to be cared for
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not being cared for, God promises
in his Ekiel and many others places throughout
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the prophets that he will care for
them. And the ways in which he
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promises to care for them they're truly
wonderful. I hope you are able to
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pick up and remember some of the
things that he promised in Ezekiel thirty four.
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I'd encourage you to read that again
some time this afternoon or this week.
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Notice how he describes, first of
all, his rescuing them from out
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from under these false shepherds, rescuing
them. He promises to be their God
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to be their shepherd, to establish
them in safe places where there is good
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grazing. In fact, he says
he will go so far as to let
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them just wander around in the woods. These sheep are going to be so
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safe under his care that they're not
really wandering anywhere they go in the place
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that he has them, with his
watchful eye over them, they will be
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safe. Wild beasts not a problem, drought not a problem. There will
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be vegetation beyond anything that these sheep
could ever need or want. There will
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be protection in every place. They
will be delivered from the hands of those
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who enslaved them this great, expansive
way in which God promises not to just
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be a better shepherd, or even
a good shepherd, but this kind of
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shepherd that the world has never seen, a shepherd unlike any other shepherd that
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has ever existed, one that can
provide plenty and safety eternally, perfectly abundantly,
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with no threat. That's the kind
of shepherd that God will be a
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two these sheep. So then,
when we come to John Ten and Jesus
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says I am the Good Shepherd,
we ought to understand all that is promised
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there in Ezekiel as being fulfilled here
in Jesus, and there's a number of
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reasons for that, not all of
which are right here in this passage,
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but certainly all of which are in
the gospel of John and throughout the New
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Testament, in many of the passages
that we've looked at already. Jesus has
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shown himself, and John and others
have testified to the fact that Jesus is
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this son of God. He is
God himself, light of light, very
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god of Very God, as we
confessed earlier, he is God who has
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come to be over his sheep.
He is the one who has been promised,
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he is the one everybody has been
waiting for. And now, and
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and and in and we and in
him. We also see the contrast between
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him and these false shepherds that are
still over Israel, these people that are
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calling this very son of God,
this one who just healed the blind man,
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one who has a demon, people
that are only concerned with their own
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power, their own prosperity, their
own place and position in society, even
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supposedly under the name of God.
We are God's true shepherds, we are
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the Pharisees, we are the Sadducees, we are the true teachers of Israel,
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they said. But what do we
see in their actions? We see
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deception, we see tricking, we
see an inability and a lack of desire
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and a hardness of heart to see
the amazing work of God. Jesus heals
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on the day of rest and new
life and new creation, on the Lord's
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Day or on the Sabbath, he
heals this man, a man who had
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been paralyzed from birth, causes him
to get up and walk, and they
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say, who told you to pick
up that mat? When Jesus heals a
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blind man, and my man,
who had been blind since birth, instead
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of wondering and praising God, exalting
in the glorious things that he's done and
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worshiping Jesus for this, this amazing
thing, they bring the blind man in
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and they they, they ask him
questions and they ask his parents questions and
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there's there's no celebrating. It's all
condemnation, it's all fear, it's all
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judgment. Why? Because they were
seeking to maintain their own power, their
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own place, their own privilege.
Because, ultimately, they were not about
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caring for the blind man or the
paralyzed man, or any man or woman
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or child in Israel. They were
cured, they were concerned about caring for
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themselves. So what do you think
we will see when we think about Jesus
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as the Good Shepherd? Where will
the contrast be? What is it that
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will make him so abundantly good?
It's that he will care for the sheep.
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It's that he will love them.
He will love you. No one
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ever has and no one ever will. He will love you at the very
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love of the father. And with
that I'd like to go through briefly for
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things that make Jesus so loving,
so good to us. The first thing
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I want to mention is that Jesus
we one of the ways we see the
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deep, deep love of Jesus,
and that he is a promise keeping shepherd.
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What do I mean by that?
Well, he is the very God
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who spoke through the propheties Ekiel to
one day be the shepherd of the sheep,
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and now here he is in the
flesh, literally to do that work.
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God did not fail to watch over
his sheep even before Jesus came on.
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He cared for them, he protected
them. There was always a remnant,
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but now he is bringing these things
to that final end of times.
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Conclusion where Jesus is here and announcing
that he is the Good Shepherd. One
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of the ways that we express our
love to one another is by being truthful,
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by keeping our promises. When we
say I will love you and I
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will be faithful to you, when
we fulfill that we show that love.
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All of us have failed, and
I'm keeping our promises. All of us
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have failed to be honest in the
ways that we ought to be, in
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the ways that demonstrate true love,
but not Jesus. Jesus is is,
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is perfect in this. He perfectly
keeps his promises, and here he is
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doing exactly that. The second way
we see Jesus is love and that he
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is not only a promise keeping shepherd, but he has a very personal shepherd.
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Notice what he says in the passage
before that we read. He talks
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about shepherds and in verse three he
says the sheep here his voice and he
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calls his own sheep by name and
leads them out, his own sheep,
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individual sheep. We see that same
kind of particularity about God's love and his
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love for his sheep in the passage
that I read today from John Ten.
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I notice that what he says in
verse fourteen. I am the Good Shepherd,
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I know my own and my own
know me. There is a relationship
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between him and the sheep. And
then notice how he describes that relationship Verse
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Fifteen. Just as the father knows
me and I know the father, that
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is how he describes his knowledge between
him and his sheep. I'll admit to
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you that one's a little bit hard
for me to believe. That Jesus knows
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me and I know him, as
he knows the father and the father knows
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him. That's amazing. That's hard
to that's hard to comprehend, especially when
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I know how much I don't know
Jesus, how many ways in which my
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own speculations about him or my own
errors and thinking about him cloud to my
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relationship with him. And yet he
says that I know him and you know
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him in this in such an intimate
way that it can be described in parallel
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or in connection with the relationship between
the father and the son within the Trinity.
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I'll tell you why that's possible.
It's possible because God, the Holy
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Spirit, dwells in US and that
we relate to God not on our own.
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We do not know God on our
own. We know God because God
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is in us and causing us to
know him, causing us to rest in
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him, to love him, to
be with him, to be close with
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him. He is at work in
you and because of his work in you,
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you can have confidence in your relationship
with him. Indeed, if it
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was just sort of God on one
side and me on the other, there
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would be no connecting. But when
God endwells us in his spirit on,
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there is deep connection, abiding connection, connection that is really indescribable. Ultimately,
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there it is Jesus knows us and
he we know him. It reminds
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us that Jesus doesn't just show up
and help whoever happens to be around.
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You've heard fairy tales of sort of
the night and shining armor right, riding
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after his princess, conquering the dragon
for his princess, doing everything, not
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for just princesses in general, whatever
one might happen to be in the tower
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that day, but the shy,
the night and shining armor right, he
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goes to save the one that is
his own, the one that belongs to
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him, the one that he knows
and he loves and he's vowed his heart
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to. This is like what Jesus
does for us. He comes not just
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for princesses in general, but for
his bride that he knows by name,
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names, your names that are lit
written in the lamb's book of life.
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Our shepherd is good. He doesn't
stand back and not think about the sheep.
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He knows you better than you know
yourself and he knows you in love
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as the same time. This is
number three is he is a very personal
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and particularly loving shepherd. Bird he
is also has a great broadness to his
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love. Jesus speaks to these people
here in Israel and he says to them,
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I have other sheep, I have
other sheep that are not of this
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fold. I must bring them in
also. This is verse sixteen, and
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they will listen to my voice.
He's talking about the gentiles, and we
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know that from the ways in which
he sends his voice out into the world
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through his apostles, and which he
calls not just people like the blind man,
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but also women like the Samaritan woman
and others, Sara, Phoenician woman,
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and and and then, of course, through his apostles, goes out
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into the world and calls a bunch
of scraggly sheep like us to come and
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belong to the House of Israel.
The great broadness of our Savior, the
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broadness of his love, he creates
not just this little flock over here and
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this little flock over here and this
little flock over here, but though his
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sheep are spread out through all,
all of the world, he remains the
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one great and true shepherd. This
is why we commend confess in one holy
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Catholic Church, one Holy Universal Church, which expands across the entire Globe and
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throughout time as well. How is
that possible? Because of who our shepherd
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is and because of his the greatness
of his love and the while last way
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I want to point out his love
to you, his love to us in
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this passage is this is what he
says at the end. He says for
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this reason, the father loves me, because I laid down my life that
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I might take it up again.
He is a life giving shepherd. One
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way he we can take that,
understand that to mean, is that he
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gives up his life for the sheep
instead of destroying them. He is he
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sacrifices his own life to save them. Now we would be impressed at any
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shepherd that gave up his life for
his flock. We might even ask,
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how could a sheep's life be worth
more than a man's life? He really
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must care for those sheep. And
here we can add also that it's not
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just a man who gives up his
life, but this is God himself,
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of course, not dying in his
divinity, but nevertheless, like no man
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who has ever existed before, here
has God himself humbling himself to the point
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of death, even death on a
cross, this shameful public execution in which
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he hung naked, with mockery over
his head, a crown of thorns,
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a plaque, king of kings.
The people might walk by and despise him,
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people underneath gambling for his clothes,
his own friends scattering the one who
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has forever sad and glory, who's
The creator of the heavens and the earth,
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whom angels declared his birth, that's
the one who died. That's the
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one who gave his life for sheep, like me, like you. Moreover,
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on top of that, not only
did this amazing shepherd give his life
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for his sheep, but he gives
life to the sheep. So he's like
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he's a life giving shepherd in two
senses, one and that he gives up
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his own life to protect them,
but he doesn't just protect them, he
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actually feeds them on himself. He's
not, in other words, he's not
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just like the fire man who runs
into a burning building to save a person.
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But he he goes and he saves
that person and then he gives them
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eternal life. No fireman can do
that, no no shepherd can do that.
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A shepherd might lay down his life
for a bear or a lion and
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the sheep might live another day only
to be come under danger the next.
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Not with this shepherd, not with
this love. The deep, deep love
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of Jesus goes so far and is
so powerful, so divine, that he
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saves us, even unto eternity,
even in the ways that Ezekiel describes in
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his ekiel thirty four, where we
will be safe, where we will be
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one, where we will be loved
and never fear anymore wild beasts or anything
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else. Jesus does this. Jesus
will be a murdered Jesus will be put
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on the cross, falsely accused,
arrested and tried by these false shepherds,
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but he tells us, right here
and right now, before all that happens,
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that he will lay his life down
on his own accord. This shepherd
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is not at the whim and will
of anyone else but himself and the will
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that he has received from the father. And in the same way that he
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has authority to lay it down,
he has authority to take it up again.
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And so when Jesus rises from the
dead and we then we know that
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he has authority to cause us to
rise as well. When Jesus came to
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die on a cross, this is
what he came to do, to fulfill
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these promises to these particular people,
to give his life as a ransom for
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any so that all who would believe
in him would be saved. Anyone that
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accuses Jesus is therefore of having a
demon is clearly not hearing his voice.
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Do you hear his voice? Do
you hear of his love? If you
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do, then follow him, run
after him, come into his fold and
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know the eternal protection and life and
nourishment and love of God. Amen,
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let's pray
