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Bible Text: John 10:1-16 | Preacher: Rev. Judi Restemeyer | Sheep are one of the few livestock found virtually everywhere in the world. There are very few places where sheep are not raised. Australia has 3 times more sheep than people; some farms have as many as 20,000 sheep, and it’s the highest wool producing country in the world, producing about ¼ of the world’s wool.
Not so large, but just as important to the local economy are the sheep farms here in BC. According to sheepcanada.ca, the BC sheep industry is relatively small and very diverse, with an average flock size of 40 sheep and lambs, and a total of 55,000 head. About 15,000 of those are here on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, on about 500 farms, and are raised for milk, meat, or wool. Today, our scriptures, hymns, words of assurance, children’s story, and of course the sermon all revolve around sheep, the good shepherd, and the blood of the lamb.
Not surprising, since apparently sheep, shepherds, lambs, flocks are mentioned in the Bible almost 700 times; sheep were actually the first animal identified by name in scripture. And the 23 rd psalm is among the most revered, precious, and best known of all the psalms, and perhaps even all the scriptures of the entire Bible.
A Sunday school teacher asked the children if any of them could quote the entire 23 rd psalm. One little girl raised her hand, walked to the front of the class, and said: The Lord’s my shepherd, that’s all I want. She then smiled and sat down. She may have overlooked a few verses, but she captured David’s heart in this psalm. The idea throughout this oh so familiar and beautiful psalm is that we are utterly contented in the shepherd’s care, so there is nothing else we need. So let’s talk today about how, if this is true, if the Lord is our shepherd, we are sheep who need nothing else. However, for all their positive qualities, it is not necessarily a complement to be compared to and called a sheep. Let’s talk about why.
In the 2 nd verse of the 23 rd psalm, he makes me lie down in green pastures; of course, “green pastures” is where the shepherd takes his sheep, a place with lots of green grass to graze and fill up so the sheep will then lie down in contentment. For 30 years, Randy and I lived in a small city that was surrounded by a number of family farms, mostly large dairy operations. However, a number of the local farmers had sheep. One particular Sunday, standing in the middle of the road I was on driving from one church to the other in my two-point charge, was a great big sheep. Apparently, the entire neighbourhood knew about this particular sheep, because it was forever escaping its boundaries, doing the proverbial “looking for greener pastures”.
The challenge with these sheep is that they are often never content with the good grazing land provided for them, so they wander away, invariably find a hole in the fence, and then escape, often ending up grazing on INFERIOR grass.

If this isn’t bad enough, these discontent sheep often teach their lambs—and some of the other sheep—to follow them. And often they all end up in trouble. Know anyone like that? People that, despite having all they need provided for them, go astray and take others with them? It’s that herding instinct too that gets so many in trouble when the discontent sheep starts something. If a lead sheep refuses to eat from a pot of food, all the other sheep will refuse as well, and they will all end up dying of starvation. Their herding instinct is stronger than their intelligence. Likewise, we suffer when our herd instinct becomes stronger than our intelligence. It’s not only young people who follow the crowd. I only have to mention leaders like Adolph Hitler of Germany, Jim Jones in Guyana, or David Koresh in Waco Texas, and it brings back memories of all kinds of people who blindly followed the lead discontent sheep and it ended in death and destruction for so many. So it’s not great to be compared to sheep who choose to go astray and take others with them. Next, in chickens there’s a pecking order, but in sheep it’s called a ‘butting order’. Sheep bleat and butt their way around the fields, bullying their way to the best grazing grass. And the ones who do this make the other sheep nervous, restless, agitated and inferior. Know anybody like that? I think we can all think of someone we know like that. So it’s not great to be compared to sheep who can sometimes be bullies out in the pasture.
What else is bad about being compared to sheep? Well, even if something is good for us, we don’t know when to quit, and over-do it, and that leads to problems. Let me ask you: how many of you have ever eaten so much you could hardly move? I remember a Herman cartoon long ago. Picture a man who is really overweight, and his doctor is standing over him saying, Your daily food intake could feed a whole village! Sound familiar? Well, when sheep over-do it, they become ‘cast’—that’s a sheep that’s had too much Thanksgiving dinner! It doesn’t know when enough is enough! It will eat so much that its stomach gets huge and weighs the sheep down; then when it lies down, it ends up on its back and won’t be able to get back up again on its own. It will lay there with its feet in the air flailing away uselessly. That is why it is so important for the shepherd to be so diligent, because the shepherd always has to keep an eye out for any of his sheep who might be in trouble; if not, the sheep could die. The good shepherd sees one of his flock in trouble, and comes to its rescue, gently turning the sheep over, rubbing its legs to restore the circulation, and all the while,
speaking lovingly, gently and tenderly, but still rebuking it.
In a little while, the sheep will run off, a little wobbly perhaps till it regains its equilibrium, but eventually off it will go on strong independent legs—until it falls over again, and once more needs the shepherd to come and help it out again—doesn’t that sound familiar?? WE are often like cast sheep. We get ourselves into trouble, often knowingly, and fall down and struggle, helplessly trying to recover, but like cast sheep, we cannot to it on our own.

We too need OUR shepherd to arrive on scene, get us upright once more, let go of worldly things, and get back on the straight and narrow path. Some of you own dogs and cats who sometimes get lost, but invariably they find their way home. Even cattle when coming in from outdoors know their own stall. Not so with sheep: they have no homing instinct. When a sheep gets lost, it is doomed unless someone rescues it and brings it home. Of course, that someone is the shepherd. The overriding principle of the 23 rd psalm is that a sheep cannot survive without a shepherd. And just like sheep, we can’t make it without our Shepherd either. So, like David in the psalm, I need the Lord to be OUR shepherd. We need the Lord to be our shepherd because we live in a world of butting and bleating sheep; but did you know when the shepherd is around, the sheep stop all this noise and rivalry and calm down. Isn’t it amazing that when you are around Christians who are solid in their faith, there’s a sense of peace and calm?
We need the Lord to be our shepherd because he leads us to still waters, the quiet waters of peace and trust, where we are able to walk through any valley, not just the valley of death. We are not afraid, because in the Shepherd’s care, we fear no evil. …The still waters also take us to a time of reflection, and encourage us to drink the spiritual waters of His word and His presence, that quenches our thirst, refreshes our mind and spirit, and quietly satisfies our hearts.
We need the Lord to be our shepherd because, if we are sheep, we recognize the voice of our shepherd. Jesus says My sheep know my voice and they follow me. A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep. But he vigorously protested that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days. When the case went to court, the judge didn’t know how to decide the matter.
Finally, he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. He ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal. The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened.
The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep ran toward the door and that voice. It was obvious that the sheep recognized the familiar voice of his master. His sheep knows him, said the judge, and the case was dismissed!
We need the Lord to be our shepherd because he has marked us as his own. A shepherd must mark his sheep, so he cuts a distinctive mark into one ear of each of his sheep. In this way, even at a distance, it is easy to determine to whom the sheep belongs. Christian author Philip Keller raised sheep for many years, and about marking sheep, he
says, “It’s not an easy thing to do, for either sheep or shepherd, but from that mutual suffering an indelible lifelong mark of ownership can never be erased.” We too are marked. The mark of Jesus, our shepherd, is the cross: it marks us as his–forever.

We need the Lord to be our shepherd because he knows what it is like to be a sheep: Jesus was one of us; He knows our needs; He knows how vulnerable we can be. He knows we’ll end up lost without our shepherd. Remember, sheep have no homing instinct, so if we are sheep, we cannot make it to our heavenly home without our shepherd.
So, the 23 rd Psalm: 6 powerful verses that remind us of the power of a shepherd. Let me share how powerful they can be: From Robert Morgan’s book “The Lord is my shepherd”, then 90-year-old British WWII vet Maurice Pink tells his story:
There are times in your life when things don’t go right and you feel all alone. That happened to me on December 10, 1941, when I was on the battle cruiser HMS Repulse with the nearby HMS Prince of Wales. We were attacked by Japanese forces, which resulted in both ships being sunk. I found myself alone in the water, unable to see anyone else.
It was then that the 23 rd psalm came into my head and I realized I was not alone. I had a Shepherd. The Lord was my Shepherd; I did not need to want. I was not in green pastures, but in oily waters; but He restored my soul. Even though I was walking in the shadow of death, I was to fear no evil, for He was with me.
The rod and staff did not ring a bell with me until voices above me were shouting. Looking up, there was a big destroyer alongside me, with nets over the side, which allowed me to climb up to safety. That was my rod and staff. I didn’t have a table before me, but I did get a cup of the ship’s cocoa. Since that day, goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. And when I think back to that day, I wondered what would have happened if I had died. There again, the psalm had the answer: I would dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Thank you, Lord, for being my Shepherd and for the 23 rd psalm. (Robert J. Morgan: The Lord is my Shepherd, p. xix)
The Lord OUR shepherd similarly calls out to each of us, asking us to come to Him, to listen to Him, to enter his fold, to be sheltered and made safe with the rest of the sheep; to trust that with Him we are safe from the robbers and thieves who aim to destroy; safe from the evil one who would have us live in darkness and despair all our days. As a good shepherd calls, by name, each of his precious sheep, so too does Jesus call each of us.
If we listen – and follow – we shall not want.
If we listen and follow – we will lie down in green pastures.
If we listen and follow – our souls will be restored….
So if the Lord is our shepherd, what else do we need? Amen

Preacher: Rev. Judi Restemeyer