Jesus and Jesus

Text: John 10:1-10

Focus: Jesus

Function: Reminding people that my job is to focus on Jesus

Form: Storytelling

Intro: A few weeks ago I preached about the problem with Jesus and something else.

That sermon was based on John 9, when the religious leaders refused to see Jesus for who He is. They were changing the message of the good news into something else. Jesus calls them blind leaders.

Good Christian leaders, good shepherds keep people focused on Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

If it is Jesus and anything, it is Jesus and then more Jesus.

So, to keep it positive, we keep our focus on Jesus by preaching Jesus and nothing else.

My son is thrilled with the success of last weekend's Kairos mission.

I have served on the team 6 times now and I can say that every weekend has been a success.

Maybe we say that because in order to serve on a team, there is a lot, a lot of effort involved.

No one wants to put that kind of individual effort into a project and then not call it a success.

But that isn't why the weekends are successful.

I believe they are successful because God blesses them.

And there are biblical reasons for God's blessing.

The first, and foremost, is prayer. The weekends are bathed in prayer.

And the second is Christian unity.

Theologically, we are a diverse group.

We have Methodists, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Brethren, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Charismatics, and independents serving together.

Normally, one would think that this would lead to disputes and differences.

However, we come together for one purpose. And that one purpose is to share Jesus with the men in the institution.

And so, in order to prevent any conflict, all the specifics of each denominations are excluded from the room.

We Brethren are not allowed to anoint someone with oil.

The Charismatics and Pentecostals are not allowed to speak in tongues.

The Catholics and the Orthodox believers are not allowed to venerate Mary.

We don't baptize anyone. We don't lay hands on anyone. We don't wash anyone's feet.

We are only allowed to focus on the doctrines that we all agree on.

And that really just boils down to one. Jesus Christ, the Savior of humanity.

It is amazing how when the good news is crystallized to its purest component, how powerful it becomes.

Keeping focus keeps the gospel powerful.

I have a confession to make.

Some will say: “So what?” Others may be truly offended. I hope not.

I have been baptized three times, all by immersion.

I was baptized at 12, but then I fell away from God and when I returned to Christ, I felt the need to be baptized again. And then the third time because I didn't feel the same overwhelming presence that I felt at my first baptism and the church was doing this really cool baptism in a lake and I wanted to be a part of it and so on.

I have a pastoral friend, actually, he is from a church not too far from here who did a week of revival at my church.

While out visiting, I was talking with him about our baptism ceremony and he told me that unless a person is baptized forward, three times, he isn't really saved.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that although I was baptized three times, it was at three separate instances and every time, it was a backward dip into the water.

I am afraid that his message was a “Jesus and” message instead of a Jesus and Jesus message.

So, what does this have to do with today's scripture?

Look again at it. Jesus is speaking these words to the religious leaders.

And Jesus is reminding them that Jesus is the Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd and they better not get the message confused with their own passions or, more importantly, they better not exaggerate their own significance or importance.

Most Churches grow in spite of the pastor, by the love of the congregation for Jesus and others.

But most pastors are proud and they think the success is up to them.

A young missionary friend said this on his Facebook wall: The thief who kills, steals, and destroys in John 10:10 isn't satan, (sic) but religious leaders. Be careful whom you follow. Be careful how you lead.

And then he said: A bad shepherd gets his life from the sheep. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Is your leadership taking or giving life?

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, me or whoever follows me are merely men, tainted by sin, trying desperately to follow Christ.

And I love what Jesus says about Himself: “The Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name. He calls them by name and they know His voice so they do not follow another.”

We too, know the voice of our Savior.

Jesus voice is obvious to us.

The bad shepherds that Jesus is teaching against have just condemned a man because he wasn't like them.

The good news heals, it never condemns.

He walks with us, He talks with us and He tells us we are His own.

Look at these verses: Isaiah 49:15-16a

¹⁵“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
¹⁶See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

The Good Shepherd has engraved us on the palms of His hands. (I wonder if that is a metaphor, or symbol, of Jesus death wounds.)

God is speaking to God's people and in this image of El-Shaddai.

El-Shaddai is literally El -Mighty God- and Shaddai from Shad -the breast.

This image of God is female. And, it is a name that God uses in scripture for God's own name.

God, the nurture and fierce defender of God's people.

The name evokes the image of the fierce mother bear protecting her cubs.

This God, our God will never forget our name. God calls us by name.

(look at crowd) God calls you by name. He knows your name.

And again, in the prison, there are all kinds of shepherds. Some point to Jesus, others point to Jesus and something else, and others point to Allah and other religions.

Religious life in the prison campus can be difficult and confusing.

On Friday morning there is the beautiful worship service that focuses on God, both Father and Mother. It starts with a dramatic reading of the Prodigal Son's father waiting for the son to return so that he can embrace him and restore him to the family.

Friday morning is still the beginning of the weekend and the men have not let down their guard, yet. They are tough and want everyone else to know it. (Mention Aryans)

The men are in silence with their eyes closed.

And then a team member, with a beautiful voice sings the scripture song: “I will never forget you...” the men begin to melt.

It becomes one of those moments that you don't want to end. You just want to sit there in the beauty of that song and feeling again that sense of unconditional love.

Love is a demonstration of who God is.

The song is a lullaby of God's love.

The men are reminded of that perfect time of complete innocence before they are aware of sin, when all they really know is the purity of the unconditional love of a mother.

That is why we celebrate mother's day.

So we have this mother's day event that brings them back to the holistic concept of being born again, with the slate wiped clean.

And the love that these men are so desperately trying to get back to hits them in a powerful way through this scripture and the song.

Jesus is the good shepherd who calls us, His sheep, by our own names.

The good news is that Jesus knows us by name.

I read this last week: “Satan calls us by our sin, but Jesus calls us by our name.”

Just as that message, “even if your mother forgot you, I will never let go of your hand” powerfully connects with the residents in prison, so too, Jesus calling us by name reaches us.

God loves us as a mother loves her Children.

Here is the thing.

We shepherds are far from perfect. Only Jesus is perfect.

A preacher/commentator wrote these words:My wife would often make the comment "you clergy will have a lot to answer for." She was right, of course. We get up in the pulpit and tell people how they should live, but often struggle to live honoring lives ourselves. We pontificate on the truth, often our own version of truth, since we are infected by the virus of modernism - I think and therefore, it is true. Worst of all, we manage by manipulation. I well remember a colleague explaining how to guide a committee to an appropriate conclusion - pose the problem and wait for someone to come up with the desired solution, congratulate them and adopt it. Oh dear, "thieves and robbers."

Let me interrupt the reading of this for a moment.

My wife, a preacher's wife, and my mother, a preacher's wife, were not as thrilled at the end of the movie “Heaven is For Real” as most of us were.

They are both that “mother bear” protecting not only their children, but their preacher husbands as well.

And when the preacher became human and was wrestling with what all this meant, and then was almost fired, their ire got up. Preaches are far from perfect. Now let finish what was this guy wrote:

Of course, in the end, clergy are no different to the people they minister to. We are all flawed, our "righteousness is but filthy rags." Still, there is one flaw that every minister fears, and it is that somehow, by something we do or say, we hide the narrow gateway that leads into the presence of God - we scatter rather than gather, we fail to point to Christ. I know in my own life that the flaws are many, and I fear that, at times, my sin has blurred the gateway, has stood between the lost and their view of Jesus....

I do wrestle with where I should preach.

This passage is about leaders focusing on Jesus.

Do I stand here (behind the pulpit) as a symbol of authority, or here, (away from pulpit) as a symbol that only Jesus is the shepherd.

I am here (behind pulpit) only because it is true that God's word has authority beyond anything that I possess.

But never ever look at me like you look at Jesus.

Jesus is the shepherd, we, all of us, are merely His instruments.

We are all under-shepherds of the Great Shepherd.

For two more weeks we will be looking at how well we, as under-shepherds represent the Great Shepherd.

But today, its about religious leaders. If they point you to Jesus and, anything but Jesus, they are crossing the wrong line.

And we all do it.

We are far from perfect.

So remember, the mission of the Church is to point people to Jesus.

Hold me accountable to preaching Jesus.

Hold my successor accountable to preaching Jesus.

Let us, as a Church keep focused on Jesus the Good Shepherd.

Jesus who calls us by name.

Jesus who gave His life to redeem us and restore us into the family of God.

Jesus who is at work in us to heal a dying world.

Jesus who may be calling you today, maybe for the first time, to make a covenant with Him.