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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: John 10:22-30
On Good Shepherd Sunday, which coincides with Mother’s Day, we see how motherhood reflects God’s love and points us to Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Despite the pain and imperfections of a fallen world, a mother’s sacrificial love, guidance, and protection mirror God’s providence, as seen in her confidence-giving encouragement, intimate knowledge, love for her children, and deep drive to keep them secure. Though imperfectly fulfilled by human mothers, these qualities find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, who gives us faith to follow Him, knows and loves us intimately, and secures us eternally in His hand, as He laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:22-30).
Transcript
Yeah so today today can be a seemingly kind of awkward day and that in the church calendar today is a good sheeperd Sunday uh but as I said in the beginning uh for those who were here at the beginning um that uh that it’s also you know in the cultural calendar it’s uh it’s Mother’s Day uh and so which way do you go right you go with the church or you go with the the culture uh but good news is I think the two work together and I think that I found just how they do because uh I think today paints a picture uh of our good shepherd through motherhood through motherhood now uh not confusing gender roles i’m not trying to say that Jesus was a was a mother uh that’s not what I’m saying here but motherhood is part of God’s created good creative order it’s part of his plan uh and it’s a reflection therefore of who God is it’s a part of who he is not as a woman but in the created order of motherhood reflects him one of the early church fathers John Chrissum uh he said “A mother’s love is a reflection of God’s love for she pours herself out for her children body and soul.” And so a mother’s love and a mother’s care for her children it it’s a reflection of God himself and therefore it’s a reflection of Jesus our good shepherd i know that in a fallen world Mother’s Day can be a difficult time for for many i know for everyone it’s not a joyful occasion it can uh it can it can bring back pain painful min uh memories either for maybe a loss of your mother or bring back pains of of maybe a deeply imperfect mother in your life or maybe heartache and not being able to to have biological children uh or facing the agony of a broken relationship either with your mother or maybe with if you’re a mom with with with one of your your children and I think it’s important that that we acknowledge it uh that it’s true and for for many this is is a hard day uh we live in a fallen world and we are deeply imperfect we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God but the pain of it the pain that that that those broken relationships and uh of motherhood can that create actually points us to the incredible intentional purpose of God that that he intended for motherhood so that when it is broken it hurts deeply and and it leaves something missing uh in our lives
so it’s important that we understand motherhood is not the end in of itself in God’s created order but rather it’s one of God’s ways in his creative order to point us to himself to point us to himself and this morning Jesus point us to Jesus our only good shepherd you know John Calvin one of the the continental reformers he said “Mothers uh in their care reflect the providence of God who entrusts them with the sacred task of raising his image bearsers.” You know what are some of the ways that motherhood reflects the providence of God and points us to the only perfect fulfillment of what’s just revealed in this world within within motherhood of God’s plan well there’s a few things that I we can draw from uh that reflect to our our gospel reading but the first one is this that mothers at least in God’s creative plan and in its perfect order give confidence to their children by guiding them in the way that they should go you know I can still remember uh watching sometimes Gracie uh when she was taking the kids to swim lessons uh I did I occasionally was with participated in that but most often it was her i did not have the the patience uh to deal with that uh and the screaming and the obstinence and you know I just I just couldn’t handle that uh but uh but you know but every once in a while what I really wanted to do was just throw them in i knew they’d figure it out you know eventually they’d figure it out and uh and we’d all be okay so I did not do the the swim lessons Gracie did uh and what would happen was you know in the course of the the lessons Gracie would get in the pool and she’d stand in the pool and and the child one of our kids would stand on the edge uh if you’ve ever been through this you probably can remember and would give that encouraging word just say “Hey just jump in just jump in and come to me i’m here and and I’ll catch you.” Just giving voice to that encouragement uh assuring them if you jump in I’m going to be there i’m going to catch you uh now of course they didn’t believe it right they they didn’t believe that uh that was all nonsense because they could see the fact that there was water between them and their mom uh and so uh you know they just did not believe it uh but eventually with enough encouragement and even with not dad there to push them from behind um eventually they did it right they heard their mother’s voice and eventually they found that confidence to jump in to take the plunge and after a while of crying and getting through it all they inevitably start swimming uh that that’s the way it is with a mother’s voice a mother’s voice when we hear it we often reject it many times right we often rejected at least I know I have uh but but with a good mother eventually we come to trust her and have the confidence to follow the confidence to be able to follow where her voice is trying to lead us uh number two the second way we see a mother reflects the providence of God is in the way that she knows her children and still loves them you know the most basic of all uh all human beings hearts desire of our hearts is to to be known but not only just to be known that’s one thing we want to be known we want to have significance in someone’s eyes we long for that but more than that uh we we don’t just want to be known we want to be known and loved at the same time that’s the hard part but to be known fully and still loved fully and many of us I think struggle with this all our lives we struggle with this all our lives the idea of if I were truly fully known would I still truly fully be loved and it’s hard to convince ourselves of that truth that that that and we have in God cs Lewis says “The love of a mother with its quiet constancy is the foundation of all other loves binding the family in God’s design.” You know the first true human being that truly knows us is our mother who truly knows us you know whether it’s a biological and so for 10 months she knows us in ways as a man I can’t even possibly begin to understand uh in a deep way for adoptive moms this knowing it takes on a different form maybe it takes more time but it still happens in a unique and a special way uh in God’s creative plan mothers are the first to know us and yet still love us and delight in us in a way that that a father just can’t quite get that it’s it’s special when it’s in right order and when God’s purposes again I recognize that we’re fallen people and not all mothers reflect this but in God’s creative and good providence this is part of his purpose for motherhood that’s pointing us to God and pointing us to our good shepherd Jesus the third way we see this reflected is that motherhood reflects the providence of God and the good shepherd in the way that she offers protection and security to her children as only a mom can uh you know we recently entered into the season of uh teenage drivers um and that brings a whole mess of issues right uh but in this season I’ve witnessed uh a mother’s deep drive to protect her children and to keep them safe and secure uh in ways that as a dad I’m like hey they’ll be fine you know just don’t don’t I just don’t get it but a mom does you know it’s so hard for her to you her hard desire is to you know she wants to keep them safe and secure but to be able to let them go right that’s a hard thing for a mom to be able to get to that point because her desire is to keep them uh secure but one of the earliest examples of of with our children that I saw uh with Gracie and desiring to keep our kids secure uh was the let’s say as a toddler one of our children I won’t name names uh was a runner they were a runner and so one day while trying to wrangle the other three out of the car and take care of them of course our runner uh decided to run out into the the middle of the street into traffic now thanks be to God uh nothing bad happened but it was terrifying uh and you know when that child ran out there and it was horrifying and and just so uh disturbing uh for Gracie and her heart and desire to keep those kids uh keep them safe and secure uh we had also sworn uh that we would never ever put a leash on our children in fact we’d see other families and mothers who had their children on a leash and we’d just kind of judge them and kind of mock them of we would never do that we’re going to be so much better parents well after that incident guess what we did we ordered a leash we ordered a leash and it did work it during a
You know a mother in God’s providence has a deep drive to keep her children and those under her care secure these are beautiful aspects of motherhood under God’s uh providential design and that’s why it hurts so much that’s why it causes so much pain and disillusionment or uh to when our relationships with our mothers don’t fully fulfill this desire or they fall short and all moms fall short every mom does we none of us are every father falls short we aren’t we aren’t perfect but when those desires we have for confidence in life for being known and loved for the security and the assurance that our hearts are longing for because motherhood uh is important and it’s worthy of praise and it’s worthy of honor and it’s worthy of celebration today but we have to remember that it’s just pointing us to the only place where we can find our ultimate confidence our ultimate love the ultimate security that we want above all else and that is in the we can only find in the arms of our good shepherd Jesus and we hear about it in John 10:22 to30 uh Jesus shows us how these deep desires uh of our hearts are only fulfilled and satisfied when we are in a relationship a personal relationship with him you know this section is part of the the good shepherd discourse that Jesus uh gives this teaching on that I am the good shepherd the earlier verse in verse 11 that we didn’t read today Jesus said “I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jeremy Taylor who was a 17th century Anglican minister linked this even to motherhood when he said “The mother who labors for her children bearing their burdens and body and soul imitates Christ in her sacrifice.”
Motherhood reflects the good shepherd and modeling sacrificial the sacrificial love of God for us in Jesus but in our passage Jesus declares three major points of being one of his sheep a sheep in his pasture number one he gives us the confidence to follow where he leads number two he knows us and yet in his grace he loves us and not only does he love us he delights in us and number three he gives us a security that nothing else in this world not even a great mother could ever possibly offer in verse 27 Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice.” My sheep hear my voice you know more often than not that we think we think of faith uh is something that’s the work of man uh something that we have to conjure up the will uh to have faith something that that we have to muster up inside of us we see uh Jesus as the the mother standing in the water uh beckoning us to jump in and come to him but Jesus said uh that we’ve got to get the we have to muster up the will right that we have to muster up the the the trust to be able to get there ourselves to make that leap but Jesus said that my sheep hear my voice and then in a few words later and follow me and what Jesus is telling them it’s the voice of Jesus it’s the voice of the good shepherd in our ears that does the work of giving us the faith to be able to jump in with him and to follow him it’s his work just as a mom that child if that if she wasn’t there in love and encouragement beckoning him to herself they’re never going to try to jump in ever so was it the kid’s work or was it the mother’s encouragement well for God it’s his it’s the good shepherd’s encouragement to us that gives us and gives birth in our hearts to faith in Romans 10:17 uh Paul said “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” It’s the good shepherd’s voice that speaks to us and gives us in our hearts the gift of faith it’s the gift to trust him to follow where he is leading to jump in with him and into his loving arms in Matthew 11:15 Jesus said “He who has ears let him hear.” Meaning the person who’s been given the gift of trust hearing the voice that comes from the good shepherd will actually be the one who has faith friends the confidence we’re we’re longing for in life the courage to follow Jesus that comes only by faith that faith only comes from the gift of hearing his voice through the inworking of the Holy Spirit in our hearts it’s the work of God in us that’s the hope of the gospel it’s his work in us not our own secondly Jesus said in verse 27 about his sheep I know them i know them that word the Greek word that’s used here it means more than just to like intellectually conceive of or to understand the word means to to know us intimately and personally in fact that word’s also used for a a husband and a wife and and their sexual knowledge of one another meaning Jesus knows everything about us in the most intimate ways more so than even our spouse or a mother or a father he knows everything about us the good the bad and the ugly all the things that we spend our lives hiding from everyone else for fear that if they really knew if they really knew that they would not possibly still love us he knows us intimately yet he still loves us and yet he still delights in us our deep desire to be known and to be loved that begins as we see reflected in our relationship with our mothers uh for better or worse it finds its fulfillment in Jesus the good shepherd he knows you and he loves you all the same and loves you so much that his love begins a transformation into us creating us into the people that he wants us to be thirdly Jesus the good shepherd gives us the security and the assurance that that motherhood is pointing us to in verse 28 he says,”I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” This means that when we hear the voice of our shepherd and he knows us and he loves us our lives are assured and secure in him by his death and by his resurrection we are given new and unending life death has been destroyed for us and we are his forever and better yet Jesus said “No one will be able to snatch us out of his hand no one.” The good shepherd puts a leash on us and we have the assurance that he will never ever let us go we’re secure in his almighty hand forever friends the confidence the knowing and being still loved the security that is modeled for us and God’s uh intended plan for motherhood it finds its fulfillment in the loving embrace of our good shepherd so today honor and celebrate motherhood and God’s providence but find your confidence find the love that you so desire find the security that you’re longing for in Jesus your good shepherd who laid down his life for you so that we may be with him forever amen amen
