NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 10:10-11
MAY 11, 1997
In the region of Galilee at the Sea of Galilee, on the northeast shore near the little town of Bethsaida Julius, Jesus looked out and He saw a great multitude. The Bible tells us that Jesus viewed them as sheep without a shepherd. Jesus Christ wants to be your Shepherd and He says, “I am the Good Shepherd.” As we examine this title this morning, I have two teachings and the first teaching is this. The world is dangerous. This world is very dangerous.
On January 6, 1853, a train was racing from Boston to Concord and there was a horrible accident and the train derailed. The box cars, the passenger cars, they came off the tracks, and they just tumbled down this embankment. Many lives were lost. I think some of you know that on that train, on January 6, 1853, Franklin Pierce, the President-elect of the United States, was with his wife and with their 11-year-old boy, Benjamin. Some of you know that Benjamin Pierce died in that tragic accident January 6, 1853.
Frank and Jane Pierce went to Washington, D.C. where they moved into their new home at the White House, but their lives would never be the same. In fact, Jane Pierce was referred to by the media as the “Shadow in the White House.” She rarely came out of her room and when she did, she always wore black. She was just filled with grief and with pain. She had lost her first child in childbirth. She had lost her second child at the age of four through a tragic illness and then finally her third and final child in that tragic train accident between Boston and Concord.
It’s a dangerous world, isn’t it. It’s a very dangerous world. You know, just this morning in THE DENVER POST, I was looking at the front page and you just see danger everywhere. The headline says, “Radioactive Dirt Stays in Denver.” Apparently even the dirt of Denver is dangerous. Uranium, radium and thorium, arsenic, selenium and lead, all found in the soil of Denver, at least in one location.
Life’s dangerous. You see, on the same front page, “Two Thousand People Die in Earthquake in Iran.” According to The Denver Post, 5,000 people were injured. According to The Rocky Mountain News, 40,000 people were injured yesterday in that devastating earthquake in Iran. It’s a dangerous world, a dangerous world. On the bottom of the front page, it reminds us of the tragedy that took place in February of this year on C-470 when teenagers were involved in that horrible wreck where two died and so many were injured. These teenagers are trying to get their lives back together again but it’s just a world where there is so much disease. It’s a world where there is so much death, a world of natural disasters, a world of tragic accidents. It’s also a world where there is increasing violence. We live in a nation, we live in a culture that has one of the highest crime rates, violent crime rates, in the world.
I read some time ago of a man in the Los Angeles area who lives in Long Beach. His name is Al Greenwood. He’s been known as the “Bedspread King,” and he sells bedspreads and other bedroom items. He’s offering now a bullet-proof special to residents of Los Angeles, a bullet-proof bedspread. He offers to tailor your bedspread to the crime rate of your neighborhood. He offers a special bedspread that is able to resist mortar shells, shotgun blasts and hand grenades. What a crazy, crazy world.
I think there are people who go to bed at night very much afraid. Maybe they’re not afraid of crime or violence but they’re afraid. They’re afraid of a world where there’s so much tragedy, they’re afraid that something’s going to happen to their children. There’s a lot of moms in this worship center this morning who are afraid. It’s a scary world to rear children in.
The Bible would remind us that this world is morally dangerous because it is fallen. This world is spiritually dangerous, and this world is becoming more dangerous spiritually and morally all the time. You see, we live in a nation, we live in a culture where Judeo-Christian values have been cast down, where Judeo-Christian values have been buried in a sea of moral relativism and situational ethics. In this time that is described as post-modernistic, there are a lot of people who don’t even believe in moral absolutes, not anymore. You have your truth. I have my truth. What’s truth? It’s a scary world.
Did you know that most of the leaders of this nation from its inception were Christians. They believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that He lived a sinless life, that He died an atoning death on Calvary, that He rose from the dead, that He is the hope of the world, that He will come again in power and glory. They believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Did you know that of the 56 individuals in the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence, 53 of those 56 believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—53 out of 56. Who were the three who signed the Declaration of Independence and were not Christians? Well, contemporary historians tell us that those three were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
You know, contemporary historians at institutions of higher learning love to go back to Jefferson and Adams and Franklin because they were so¬ called deists. They were not born-again Christians. It is true… I mean I have read a great deal about Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and I’ve read their own words. I think it’s true that they were not Christians in the biblical sense of the word. Jefferson, Franklin and Adams, they did not believe in the deity of Christ. They did not believe in His atonement on the cross and they did not believe in His resurrection from the dead. But, you know, they still called themselves Christians. Time and again in the writings of Jefferson and Franklin and Adams, they described themselves as Christians. Why did they do that? They did that because they believed in a personal God. They believed in our moral culpability. I mean they believed that one day we would have to give an account. Jefferson, Adams and Franklin all believed there would come a final judgement. They believed in heaven and hell, and they believed that Jesus Christ was the Master Teacher. They believed that the morals and ethics as taught by Christ were the morals and ethics of God.
Of course, Thomas Jefferson, when he ran the school system in Washington, D.C. as once he did, it was Jefferson who mandated that the Bible be put in every single classroom and that every single student be given a Bible and that they be required to read it. Jefferson. And it wasn’t because he believed in the deity of Christ. He didn’t. It was because he believed in the morals and ethics of Christ, and he believed that Judea¬ Christian values were critical to the future of this nation. Jefferson, Adams and Franklin all believed that if Judeo-Christian values ever were cast down, this nation would fall, and those values have been cast down.
I think there are probably some moms here today who feel a lot like the mother of Ichabod who lived in the 11th century before Christ. We’re told in 1 Samuel, chapter 9, that she named her son Ichabod because she believed that the glory had departed from the nation. The name Ichabod means “the glory has departed.”
You see, the Arch of the Covenant had been stolen from Israel by the Philistines. In Exodus, chapter 25, you read about the Ark of the Covenant. I mean, it was very special. It was made of acacia wood. It was covered with gold. Its lid was made of pure gold. It was called the Mercy Seat. Above the Mercy Seat, there were the winged cherubim also made of gold. Inside the Ark of the Covenant were the tables of the covenant, the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, the stone tablets upon which the decalogue, the Ten Commandments, were inscribed. They were inside the Ark of the Covenant.
The Jewish people believe that the Shekinah, the presence of God, accompanied the Ark wherever it rests and that was gone, departed from Israel, taken by the Philistines. “The glory has departed…” It was a scary world to raise kids in. That’s how any Jewish mother felt in that day. I think today there’s a lot of moms, Christian moms, who feel like the glory has departed from America. It’s morally and spiritually dangerous now. Judeo¬ Christian values have been rejected. There is drug and alcohol abuse. There is sexual promiscuity. No moral absolutes. It’s a scary world to rear our children in, isn’t it? Dangerous times.
But fortunately, there’s a second teaching this morning and the second teaching is this. Jesus Christ is the source of safety. He is the source of safety. The world is dangerous, but Christ is safe. Jesus in the Bible is called Savior and the word is “soter.” It comes from a root word which means safe. Jesus Christ offers salvation, and the word is “soterias” and it comes from a root word which means safe. Jesus Christ alone offers safety in this crazy world, in this dangerous world.
You know, one of my favorite stories concerns King Theodore II who was the King of Abyssinia which today is called Ethiopia. His real name was Liege Collah. He took the title Negas which simply means king and he ruled the kingdom of Abyssinia in the 19th century. He built the mountain fortress called Magdalia, 700 miles from the sea. Historians tell us that King Theodore II, Liege Collah, was one of the greatest rulers in Ethiopian history but he had one great problem, and that problem was arrogance. He did not respect the greater powers in the world. He had no respect for other great nations.
In the year 1867, King Theodore II, King of Abyssinia, took the British Consul, Charles Duncan Cameron, and threw him in prison at Magdalia, incarcerated him. King Theodore II knew that Cameron hadn’t really done anything wrong. He just felt like flexing his muscles a little bit, this Abyssinian king. He wanted to challenge the so-called greatness of the British Empire, so he took their Consul, and he incarcerated him. As soon as the British government learned about it, they demanded the immediate release of Charles Duncan Cameron. King Theodore II refused and so, in October of 1867, the British government decided to rescue their Consul. They sent 16,000 armed soldiers by sea. It was an operation that would take them six months—16,000 soldiers by sea under the command of Sir Robert Napier. They arrived on the coast of Ethiopia, and they marched 700 miles across the Ethiopian desert until they came to the mountain fortress of Magdalia.
It was April 13, 1868, when they arrived. King Theodore II looked down from his mountain fortress and he could not believe his eyes. He could not believe it when he saw 16,000 armed British soldiers marching on his fortress. He was overwhelmed and he committed suicide that day. Those 16,000 British soldiers marched up that fortress mountain and they rescued Charles Duncan Cameron. Because he had been persecuted, they carried him to the sea on their shoulders and at times on a bed. They carried him 700 miles and then they brought him by ship back to England and safety. They brought him to safety. That operation used most of the British fleet. It cost the British government $25 million but Great Britain said they wanted to make a statement to the world that they had the will and the resolve to protect their citizens.
If you’re a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior, you belong to a heavenly kingdom and you have a Shepherd King. He has all power in heaven and on earth and He has power to protect you. He has power to protect your body, soul and spirit. He does provide for us bodily. He provides for our physical needs. “As He feeds the birds of the air, as He clothes the lilies of the field, so He feeds and clothes us.” Matthew, chapter 6, The Sermon on the Mount. And certainly, there are times He comes to rescue us physically. Certainly. But He wants us to understand that the safety He promises is not the safety of the body.
Do you know that biblically Jesus Christ does not promise to keep your body safe? He does not promise to keep your physical body safe. Now, He does promise to give you a new body. If you believe in Him as Lord and Savior, He promises to give you a new heavenly body someday, indestructible and not subject to decay but He doesn’t promise to keep your earthly body safe. He doesn’t promise you five score years of life in this world or even three score and ten. He doesn’t make promises like that. Not in this fallen world. What He does promise to keep safe is your soul. Nothing is more important than this.
If you’ve come to Him, if you’ve received Him, if you’ve embraced Him as Lord and Savior, if you’ve made Him your Shepherd King, He promises to protect your soul. Nothing is more important than your soul. Nothing. Jesus said, “What does it profit a person if they gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?” What can a person give in exchange for their soul? In the Bible, Jesus Christ is called the “Shepherd and Guardian of our soul.” What a majestic and wonderful title, the Shepherd and Guardian of our soul.
You see, your soul is where your personality resides. It is the seat of your personhood. Biblically your soul is your throne room. It’s where you express moral autonomy. It’s where your volition resides. It’s where you make decisions. When you sin, it’s in your soul. When you sin, you sin in your soul. You sin in the throne room. The Bible tells us that our souls need to be washed clean by the blood of Christ and the Bible tells us that only Christ can guard and protect the soul. Only Christ.
This should say a lot to us as parents. Nothing is more important than the souls of our children. We care for their physical needs, their bodies. Do we not? I mean sometimes we labor so hard to provide for the physical needs of our children but what are we doing for their soul? If He is the Good Shepherd, then as Christian parents we are under shepherds under Him. If His great burden is the protection of the soul, this should be our number one priority with our kids.
You know, I read recently the story of Edward Case. Edward Case grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He was a Christian young man, and he was a tremendous athlete. He participated in many different sports, and he received many different honors. He played athletics. He competed in sports with reckless abandon. He was known as a kind of rugged guy, a king of man’s man. But strangely when Edward Case was around women, he was very different. He was the perfect gentleman. He treated women with compassion and with gentleness. When he was around women, he was sensitive. He treated women with great respect, and he accorded them the highest honor. Whenever he mentioned his mom, he would always tear up.
Now, his pastor was a man named Calvin Stanley. One day Calvin Stanley went up to him and he said, “Edward, tell me about your mom.” Edward began to tear up again. He said, “Well, I never knew my mom. I never knew her because she died in childbirth. She died giving birth to me. My father told me that the doctor came in and said ‘There’s a medical emergency here. We cannot save both the mother and the child. We can save the mother, or we can save the child, but we can’t save both.’” Edward Case said, “My father was speechless, and it was my mother who said ‘Please, please, please save my child.’”
Thank God we live in a world where decisions like that are not frequently required. But is it not true that most moms, most dads, would do anything to protect the physical life of their child. I mean isn’t that true? Wouldn’t most of us do anything to protect the physical life of our children or our child. We love them so much. And most of the time, parents labor to provide for their children and are willing to suffer but how much are we willing to suffer for their souls? How worried are we about their souls? What are we doing to nurture their souls?
We had an infant dedication this morning. In an infant dedication, Christian moms and dads make a commitment to nourish the soul, to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Jesus Christ, the Bible says, will stand and feed His flock in the strength of the Lord but what He feeds is their souls. He feeds your soul. He feeds my soul, and He wants to use us as parents in that effort.
And so, Christ would ask you today, as Christian moms and dads, what are you doing for the souls of your children? Do you have a family altar? Do you always bring your children to church? Do you pray for them every day? Do you discuss with them the things of Christ as they relate to current events and to the realities of this dangerous world. Are you in daily discussion with your kids about the things of Christ because nothing is more important than the soul.
You know, it was Hannah, and with his we’ll close… It was Hannah in the Old Testament who cried because she was childless. Her husband, whose name was Elkanah, was not able to console her in her grief and in her pain and in her barrenness. But Hannah was a devout woman, and she made her way one day to Shiloh, to the Temple of Yahweh. There she prayed and there she met with the Chief Priest who was Eli and he blessed her. Hannah resolved that day if the Lord would give her a child, she would raise that child in the Lord all the days of that child’s life. God gave her a son and that son’s name was Samuel. I think most of you know Samuel became the last of the judges and the first of the prophets, the anointer of kings. It was Samuel who anointed David to the kingship.
When Samuel was three years old, Hannah brought him to the Temple at Shiloh, dedicated him to the Lord and gave him to the service of the Lord all the days of his life. There’s a sense in which we must do that with all of our children, you see. They really don’t belong to us. They’ve just been entrusted to us for a while. God says “All souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine.” Our job is to bring these children up in such a way that they would love Christ and come into his flock and then to work with Christ in provision and protection, not focusing simply on the needs of the body but on the needs of the soul. Let’s close with a word of prayer.