The Best News – Part 2

Continuing Dr. Willie Nolte’s sermon on the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to John, he explains that Jesus many times gave godly messages through the Middle-Eastern method of storytelling, using parables with the familiar subjects that symbolize truths and that the people of that time and place recognized. A parable is a fable or allegorical relation or representation of something real in life or nature, from which a moral is drawn for instruction. Pastor Nolte asks: Why is Jesus telling this story now? The people of Jesus’ time were very familiar with shepherds and sheep as this livestock trade was vital in their society. The shepherds tended to the sheep intimately and continuously to where the shepherd knew very thing about each sheep and lamb under his care. Likewise, each sheep knew their shepherd by voice and followed them alone as leader and protector. The shepherd herded their sheep into a walled pen area in the evening for protection from predators or thieves and would literally lie across the open as a gate as doorkeeper so that nothing could enter or leave during the night. There were many different flocks kept in these pens and they would mix up nightly. But, each morning the different shepherds would call their sheep, and recognizing their voice, would congregate and follow him alone.

The Israelite understood the story of shepherding and they had the Holy Scriptures, but not the connection of its metaphoric relationship to God and His people, which was the point of the story. Psalm 23:1-4 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The implication that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture is the best news ever. It was a critically important concept that they needed to grasp for their faith. We need to understand this and each of us knows someone who needs it too.

Psalm 100:1-5 “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

By no coincidence, Jesus’ teaching immediately follows the incident in John chapter nine, where Jesus gives sight to the man born blind on the Sabbath, the Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus and casting out of the miraculously healed man. The Pharisees, who were the leaders of the Israelites, failed miserable as shepherds of Israel. Israel did not hear God’s voice in the Pharisees. They were waiting for God’s shepherd to show up but totally did not recognize or accept Him when He appeared. They were the under-shepherds written about in Ezekiel 34:1-16 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: “As I live,” says the Lord God, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”— therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”

Let’s continue with my notes on Pastor Willie’s gospel sermon in the next post.