Sermon May 7, 2017
“Into the Shepherd’s Presence”
Emory Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Brady Radford
TEXT: John 10:1-10
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs
in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the
shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his
voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all
his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his
voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not
know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did
not understand what he was saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I
tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits;
but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be
saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
INTRODUCTION:
Be careful of those who come to steal, kill and destroy.
Some years ago there was a story carried in various newspapers about a woman from
Missouri who was startled out of a dead sleep one night by some desperate cries of
“Help! Help!” You know how it is when you awake to some sound: you are not at all
certain whether you really heard something or if it was just a dream. At first she thought
perhaps her husband had cried out, but he was sleeping soundly next to her. Then
suddenly she heard the cries again: “Help! Help!” Finally she threw back the covers and
headed downstairs toward their living room. “Help!” went the plaintive voice yet again.
“Where are you?” the woman replied. “In the fireplace,” came the rather shocking
answer.
And sure enough, dangling in the fireplace with his head sticking through the flue was a
burglar, upside down and quite snugly stuck! The police and fire department got him
out eventually, though not before having to disassemble the mantle and some of the
masonry. Perhaps the best part of the story was what this woman did in the meantime.
She flipped on all the lights and videotaped the whole thing. I don’t know what the two
talked about while waiting for the police and company to arrive, but had I been she, I
think I would have hauled out a Bible and given the crook a pointed reading of John 10:
“Verily I tell you, anyone who does not enter by the door but climbs in another way is a
thief and a robber!”
CONTEXT:
This morning’s passage comes to us just after Jesus has healed a young adult who was
born blind by restoring his eyesight and giving him insight as to what it means to be
welcomed into the shepherd’s presence.
You see, this young man was born blind and according to the systems of this day
that meant he or his parents had sinned against God in one way or another. If they
ever forgot how unfortunate they were, the religious Pharisees were there to remind
them. So imagine how Jesus’ healing of this young man disturbed their social order. He
has been ridiculed all his life and started in this chapter as the subject of debate, but
ends as a proclaimer of Jesus Christ. He ends the text seeming to know answers to
questions that the religious leaders are still struggling with.
This wakes us up to a few things,
1. It seems when facing Jesus’ contexts and our contemporary context, its not okay
to be healed without the people in power knowing how it happened.
2. It seems clear that Jesus healing and removing this young man’s “pre-existing
condition” was not welcomed by the powers that be, because they did not
understand it or maybe yet because they didn’t profit from it.
3. For all of this young man’s life, he wasn’t welcomed in to the fellowship of the
church or synagogue, and suddenly in a day’s time, he gained the relationship of
a lifetime. He was invited into the Shepherd’s presence.
Friends as we consider the kind of life-changing encounter that was offered to this
Jewish young adult, I want you to also consider the invitation Christ offers us this
morning.
There are various ways that we find ourselves in the shepherd’s presence for
some we are life the young man in John 9, illness or physical tragedy compels us to
search for his presence. For others we stumble into the kind of experiential encounter
most often through nature or a close relationship. It doesn’t matter how you get into
the Shepherd’s presence what matters is that you get there and you get to know the
experience of Christ turning your life right side up when its felt like for days, weeks,
years or months you’ve been living upside down.
Can you remember the first time you felt the awe-inspiring presence of God?
We are invited to bask in the Shepherds presence that we may enjoy him our whole
lives long.
What helps us to know and enjoy God’s presence? The shepherd’s voice, the
shepherd’s path and a personal relationship with him.
AGENDA A: AMONGE THE MANY VOICES LET’S LISTEN FOR THE SHEPHERD’S VOICE (v.
3b) “…the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
History tells us that the many shepherds brought their small herds to Jerusalem, and
that these various flocks were kept together in one big sheepfold. There were no
brands, no markings of any kind, just a fuzzy mob. How, you might ask, does each
shepherd retrieve the sheep that belong to him (or to his boss)?
When flocks were mingled together, each flock would recognize the sound of
their own shepherd’s voice and come to him, ignoring other shepherds. Can you discern
in your life, which “voice” belongs to the Good Shepherd? Which of the following is your
favorite comparison of Christ to the Good Shepherd: Explain.
How do we recognize the voice of the Good shepherd over all the other voices that
promise abundance.
1. TO LEAD THE WAY:
a. Christ’s sheep follow his lead, for it is not just about hearing his voice but
understanding and interpreting what Christ is calling us to do.
b. Sometimes Christ confirms his desires by speaking to us through familiar
voices. The shepherd’s voice resounds and reverberates in community.
God uses the gift of community to help those of us who are new When
others have walked with the shepherd for years they help us to know his
voice.
AGENDA B: ALONG THE PATH’S OF LIFE THE SHEPHERD LEADS US
Jesus in this text acts in ways that are counter to this culture. And that is something
we must pay attention to. Jesus reminds us that those who don’t intend good for
God’s sheep are those who come to steal kill and destroy. That is why Jesus acts as a
gate to protect and expand the body of Christ. His is not a way that seeks to
THE GATE How we all hope for entrance into the shepherd’s presence. but
we must confess that in the society we live there are more gates that keep us out than
invite us in
- Healthcare and pre-existing conditions as if its okay to get sick and be covered
so long as you have not ben sick before no assurances no limits versus capped benefits
and life maximums
We encounter gates in many areas of our lives. There are gated communities, entry
gates for theater and sporting events, toll gates. These gates separate, close o , keep
out. Jesus is the Gate who excludes no one, calls each by name, o ers abundant Life.
Christ is not calling us to be divided but to be united.
- EXCLUSION VS INCLUSION
- BELONGING VS NOT BELONGING
Jesus is there to turn our lives right side up when they’ve been turned upside down
Remember your childhood when you turned various insects on their back? Childishly,
you might have watched them struggle and never achieve their proper leg-side down
position unless we had mercy on them. The shepherd knows that sheep is the same
way, shepherds tell us: completely stranded if it gets turned on its back. In order to turn
it right-side up when it needs it, the shepherd carries a crook. He hooks the sheep and
turns it right. He is kind and careful with his flock. They are not smart. But they follow
him.
Could the thief be time apathy and complacency could it be those things in place of
negotiated living and false equivalency's. Those are all things that have a way of shaping
our lives but they don't promise to us the gift of abundant living.
By following his path, Jesus turns our upside down living and thinking right side up.
With wise counsel he calls us to our higher selves and lovingly corrects us
our actions and behaviors when we’ve confused his voice with the voices of
others. There are false shepherds who speak other words, who talk of
defending one’s rights, of accumulating wealth, of achieving social
prominence. Some Christians listen to them rather than to the true
shepherd.
Christ invites and doesn’t force us.
AGENDA C: AN ABUNDANT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SHEPHERD (v. 10) “I came that
you may have life and have it more abundantly.”
The risen Christ is the One who nourishes his people in his word and sacraments, giving
them life and enabling them to have it abundantly.
What does it mean to you to have the Lord as your “shepherd?” In what ways do
you think God might call you to be a “shepherd” to others on God’s behalf?
This abundance that Jesus speaks of here in the 10th verse is akin to the last
verse of Psalm 23. The invitation we have to dwell in the house of the lord is more
realistically translated as an invitation to “continually return to Yahweh’s presence,
over and over again, your whole life long.” It does not suggest a one and done kind of
relationship.