Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Selected Verses Revelation

“Sheep, Shepherds, and The Lamb”

Rev. Meagan Boozer

I know that most of us have our minds on many things this morning. How are things going to go with our families today or tomorrow, will we have enough ham, or pie, will this person like the gift I bought for him or her? Many of us have many thoughts running through our brains right now on this Christmas Eve morning. So, let us go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help us focus on His Word:

Heavenly Father, thank you for your presence with us here. Thank you for you Word and it’s transforming power. Help us to take every thought captive to Christ so that what we hear now will make a difference in how we worship and celebrate your birthday later. This we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The title of this message today is, “Sheep, Shepherds, and The Lamb.” We are moving into the final book of the Holy Bible –Revelation. We started way back in Genesis almost 12 months ago, and now as we approach the end of the year, we are in the thick of what the apostle John saw as a vision from God when he was exiled to the Island of Patmos. We’re going to be in this book next Sunday, too- and I’ll have more time then- and so today, I’ve felt led to give a very general glimpse at one theme we see in this remarkable book.

At Christmastime we make much ado about sheep and shepherds, because of their part in the biblical story. But, throughout all of Scripture, there are many references to sheep, and many references to shepherds. Partly this is because in the Bible lands, shepherding was one of the main occupations. Even in these days, there are shepherds out in the rocky fields of Israel, keeping watch over their flocks by night. When we were there, we saw them, and they weren’t just there for tourist photographs. Many times in the Scriptures, the people of God are compared to sheep. The congregation of God’s people in the New Testament is compared to a flock of sheep.

But let’s be clear, this comparison is not all that flattering. We are not compared to sheep because we are cute and fluffy like little leaping lambs. We are compared to sheep, because we, like sheep, are stubborn, and pretty dull (as in slow to learn). Why else would sheep, of all the animals mentioned n the Bible, need a person (a shepherd) completely devoted to keeping them together except that they are excessively stubborn and slow to learn?

Sheep seem to be interested in one thing only: feeding themselves. If they have a good patch of grass, they will follow that grass wherever it goes, even if it goes off the side of a cliff. Sheep are not the sharpest tools in the box.

The prophet Isaiah said, “We all like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way.” (Isaiah 53) We, like sheep, are interested in one thing: feeding ourselves, (whether that means with food, notions, of self-importance and pride, with material possessions, with sex, drugs, alcohol, pornography, the thrill of lying, cheating, stealing, gambling, you name it)- whatever feeds our hunger (whatever hunger that may be), that’s what we want without a whole lot of concern for the rest of the sheep. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are like sheep who have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. All of us need a shepherd.

There are many references to shepherds in the Scriptures of practical reasons. God told the kings of Israel to shepherd (lead) his people. But beginning with the words of the prophet Isaiah in 40:10, we begin to hear about a different shepherd: “See the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense (his compensation) before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms.” After this reference, there begin to be more and more references to a great Shepherd, and in the 2^nd chapter of the New Testament, Matthew 2, we read, “And you Bethlehem are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

The ruler-shepherd who comes from Bethlehem is Jesus- who called himself the Good Shepherd in John 10:11. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away- and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, buy I lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Sheep: That’s us. The Shepherd: That’s Jesus. Now, let’s learn about The Lamb.

In Genesis 4 we read of the necessity of the sacrifice of a lamb when Abel (Adam & Eve’s son) brought to God the firstlings of his flock; in Exodus we read of the necessity of the blood of the lamb to save the people from the wrath of God in the story of the Passover: The Hebrew people as recorded in Exodus 12, were instructed to “take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish…then the whole congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it… For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night… the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you.” (Ex. 12:1-13) In Leviticus, we read about the necessity of the purity of a lamb for sacrifice for sin; and in Isaiah 53 we read of the necessity of the divine personhood of the Lamb- a suffering servant; “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

We know that Isaiah is prophesying about Jesus. Jesus was oppressed. He was afflicted. He didn’t answer Pilate when he was on trial (Luke 19). He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, of his own will, to lay down his life for the sheep.

When John the Baptist was baptizing, Jesus came towards him to begin his ministry and John declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

In Revelation the Lamb of God is revealed in his true position. Listen to the apostle John’s description in Revelation 5 and 6 of what he saw: “Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered… and the 24 elders fell before the Lamb.. and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And from chapter 7, After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from al tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the lamb!” Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more, the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

All we like sheep have gone astray. All we want is to feed our hunger, and whether we know Christ or not as Savior and Lord, it is an ordeal to live in this world. Living here is hard, especially the older we get as our bodies begin to deteriorate. But for those who make it through this ordeal called ‘life on earth’ with faith in the saving power of the blood of the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God, we are promised a time and a place where we will hunger no more. One day, as we gather around Jesus, the great Lamb on the Throne, we will be drinking deeply from the springs of the water of life.

Christmas Eve is a wonderful time to recognize that Jesus wasn’t just laid in a manger as a helpless baby by a virgin mother. He laid himself in that manager as the first sign to each of us that he came to lay down his life for the sheep. He laid himself in that manger like a lamb is lad on a feasting table; so that he could be divided in proportion to the number of people who would choose, by faith, to take him in. He laid himself in that manager like a lamb on the altar to spill his blood for our salvation.

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

How can we express our gratitude to Him? We can do what He told us to do right before he ascended to that throne (Matthew 28:19): “God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

This is why we enter now into the Sacrament of Baptism. May Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, and the King of kings receive honor, and glory, and blessing forever and ever! Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

12-24-06