The Greatest Shepherd and King

Today we take a break from our tracing of David’s life from his humble beginnings as a shepherd to his becoming a great king over the nation of Israel. Today we remember an event that David looked forward to, by faith, without knowing when or how it would happen. The Holy Spirit gave him insight to anticipate a successor who would fulfill all the promises that God had given to him. That person, of course, was Jesus, who in His resurrection on the first Easter established David’s throne forever. The angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus in Luke chapter 1. It says that when Gabriel greeted the young woman Mary that she was “greatly troubled,” which I think is understandable, under the circumstances.

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”—Luke 1:30-33

Mary was to call her son Jesus, or Yeshua, which means savior or deliverer, just like the name Joshua. He would bring salvation to the world through His death on the cross, as a perfect sacrifice for sin. He laid down His life for us on Good Friday and took it up again on Easter. So Easter is a special day to remember how God provided His way of salvation for the world.

We will be spending some time in John 10 today, since that is where Jesus explains what it means for Him to be the Good Shepherd. As a preview, let’s look at what He says in verses 17 and 18:

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”—John 10:17-18

Jesus had the power to prevent His crucifixion, if he had wanted to. But He knew that sacrificing His life was His assignment from His Father. He was the Good Shepherd, laying down His life for His sheep. He was Yeshua, bringing salvation to the world. But what else did Gabriel say about him? “He will be great and called the Son of the Most High.” David had an inkling that someone greater would come after him. Jesus explained David’s prophetic reference written in Psalm 110, using it to confront the unbelief of the Pharisees in Matthew 22:

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.—Matthew 22:41-45

How could the Messiah be greater than David? And how could Jesus claim to be the Messiah? Only because He was the Son of God, equal to God, a claim that made the Pharisees hate Him, because they really didn’t understand it or believe it. But that is what Gabriel had told Mary. He would be called Son of the Most High – the Most High God, that is. The divinity of Jesus is where Christians part ways with both Jews and Muslims. Neither can accept that Jesus was equal to God. And to call Jesus the Son of God is one of the most objectionable statements to Muslims, because they interpret it as Christians having multiple gods. Also, Muslims would never call Allah “father.” That would be far too familiar – bringing Almighty God down to our level. And yet that is exactly what Jesus did in coming as a man, a servant, a sacrifice – laying down His majesty to live among ordinary people and love them.

I am reminded of a book that I read as a teenager called I Dared to Call Him Father, the testimony of an aristocratic Pakistani woman named Bilquis Sheikh who had a dream of John the Baptist who introduced her to God as Father and Jesus as the Son. She dare to call God Father, as Jesus did, and almost lost her life as a result. You will have to read the whole story if you haven’t. It’s amazing how God is using dreams and visions to speak to Muslims all over the world to convince them of the truth of who Jesus is and what He did for them.

So Gabriel announced that Jesus would be great and would be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God would give Him the throne of David, and He would reign over Jacob’s descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. Jesus inherited the throne of His ancestor David. After Christmas, the wise men would come seeking “the king of the Jews,” and thirty years later Pilate would put that title on Jesus’s cross, making a mockery of it, not realizing what would happen on Easter Sunday to establish the kingship of Jesus for eternity.

The resurrection of Jesus fulfilled God’s promise to David, brought by Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 7. This was after David was established as king; he had built his palace and was wondering about building a temple for the Lord.

 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel.  I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth…

The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom….

Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”—2 Samuel 7:8-9, 11-12, 16

The only way that David’s kingdom could endure forever is in a spiritual sense. As described in 2 Kings, the physical kingdom was ripped away from David’s descendants when they were unfaithful to God. The people went into exile, and there has never been another Jewish king of the nation of Israel. Can you imagine a king being established in the physical state of Israel now? In theory, Jews are still waiting for the Messiah, but they are all over the map in terms of their expectations of this promised ruler and deliverer. I read recent interpretations of ten different branches of Judaism. These range from “the Messiah has come and we’ve missed him” to “we all need to be the Messiah” to “the Messiah will come someday and put things to right, but we have no idea what that will look like.” Praise God that we can know Jesus as our eternal King, fulfilling all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

Jesus as the greatest King establishes His authority over all creation. His resurrection marks His victory over sin, death, and the power of Satan. David was a great king, but we know just how human he was. Sin got the better of him at times, and he needed to turn to God and be forgiven. Peace was elusive – in his own heart, in his family, and certainly in his nation. But he was conscious of his limitations and turned in faith to God, looking to him for forgiveness, strength, and direction. He is one of the “heroes of faith” mentioned in Hebrews 11:

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies….

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.—Hebrews 11:32-34, 39-40

By faith David looked ahead to Jesus, a greater King than he could ever be. None of the people listed in Hebrews 11 really knew what God had in mind to save His people, but they believed that His promises would someday be fulfilled. They were saved by faith even though the object of their faith was yet to come. In the same way that they looked forward, we are able to look back in faith to receive for ourselves the salvation that Jesus secured for us. So that is how they are “made perfect” together with us.

In Acts 2, as Peter was speaking to the crowd at Pentecost he quoted from one of David’s psalms, Psalm 16, where David talked about the Lord’s “holy one” not seeing decay. Peter explained how this was a prophecy of Jesus resurrection:

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.”—Acts 2:29-32

Jesus as Messiah, in His bodily resurrection and ascension to heaven, fulfilled God’s promise that David would always have a descendant on his throne. He is Lord of all, and someday every eye will see Him and every knee bow in submission to Him. He has supreme authority, but He is also love incarnate, so we call Him the greatest shepherd as well as the greatest king. That is the other aspect of who Jesus is that we want to look at today.

We have already studied what it meant for David to be a good shepherd. He cared for his sheep, he guarded them from wild animals and other dangers. David was skilled with his sling, but he would still put his own life at risk to protect his flock. In John 10 Jesus talks about what it means for Him to be the Good Shepherd.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep 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 are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”—John 10:11-16

And then come the verses that we read already about Jesus laying down His life of His own accord and taking it up again. Jesus as shepherd does not just care for His sheep in some general way. It says here that He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. That speaks of relationship. He knows everything about you and loves you completely – and He wants you to enjoy that level of intimacy with Him, too. As we listen to Him speak to us in our spirit, we become accustomed to His voice and learn to recognize when He is directing us in a certain way. And not just us, but His sheep all around the world, as we are one flock following one shepherd.

Jesus radically adjusted and expanded the idea of who God cares about. The Jews of His day would not have been happy to hear about sheep that were not of their sheep pen. But other peoples and languages and nations would hear the voice of Jesus and turn to Him as their shepherd – and be united as one flock. Jesus reinforced this message in his parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. The Pharisees were complaining about the type of people that Jesus was associating with. Jesus compared them to the 99 sheep already taken care of. He would be the good shepherd searching for the one lost sheep and rejoicing as He found it and brought it home on His shoulders.

Sheep are very vulnerable creatures. They really have no way to defend themselves but are completely dependent on their shepherd. They are not particularly intelligent either, so they need to be led to the places where they need to go. Left to their own devices they can easily get into trouble, stuck in difficult places, and need to be rescued. Lisa tells a story from when we lived in Bajhang in Nepal, where there were always shepherds passing through town with their flocks. One day, down by the river, she noticed a lamb that had strayed from its flock, lost among the rocks by the water’s edge. The shepherd came down to get it, and Lisa pictured the good shepherd leaving the rest of the flock to come and rescue the one lost lamb. However, that rosy image was shattered when she saw the shepherd get down to the lamb and started beating on it and kicking it to get it to go back to the others.

Not all shepherds are good shepherds. Jesus talked about hirelings who did not really care for the sheep. They would only be concerned about themselves. The religious leaders knew that He was referring to them. Jesus also mentioned the thief that would come to kill and steal and destroy, describing Satan’s desire to ruin people’s lives and keep them from God and the abundant life that He has for them. Earlier in John 10 He had said:

“All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”—John 10:8-10

Too many people think that being a Christian means being restricted and burdened and boring. And yet Jesus promises life to the full. Are you living His abundant life? It may not be comfortable or easy, but it will be the most fulfilling experience you can imagine. What does abundant life look like? We can get a clue from the Shepherd’s Psalm, Psalm 23: still waters, green pastures, a restored soul, leading in paths of righteousness, no fear in the valley of the shadow, loving discipline, abundant provision, joy in the Holy Spirit, goodness and mercy, hope of heaven and the presence of the Father forever. What a blessing to be a sheep in the care of the Good Shepherd!

This past Tuesday, one of the pillars of our mission council in Minneapolis died of cancer. It was less than two months ago that he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer which had spread throughout his body. He was 83 and had lived a very full and active life, touching the lives of hundreds of pastors and leaders around the world. His daughter is one of the people that I am responsible for, serving in India. She wrote that she and her mother had taken a white African robe that her father had been given during their 20 years of missionary service in Nigeria, and they had hung this voluminous robe up in his room toward the end, adding a palm branch to its pocket on Palm Sunday, one week ago today. It was a poignant reminder of what he had to look forward to in just a few days. What do we see in Revelation 7?

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”—Revelation 7:9-10, 17

The Lamb at the center of the throne, our risen Lord, reigns forever in glory as the greatest king. He is also the greatest shepherd, who cares for us more than we can imagine. Therefore we “do not grieve as others do who have no hope.”