“Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’” (Matthew 9:35-38 NASB1995)

What gospel message did Jesus proclaim to the people?

Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

And what did he mean by saying that the people were like sheep without a shepherd? The people were apparently desiring to hear, to learn, and to follow in the ways of the Lord, but they were lacking in anyone to lead them in the ways of God and in the ways of righteousness and obedience to the Lord and to his commands. And so it is today, not that there is a shortage of shepherds, but that there is a severe shortage of shepherds who are leading the people in the ways of righteousness and in obedience to the Lord.

So many of the “shepherds of the sheep” today, at least here in the USA, are leading the people in the darkness to continue in the darkness and to not come into the light of truth. They are teaching the people lies, and they are training them in unrighteousness by telling them that they are not required of God to obey God or to do any good works or to leave their sins behind them. Instead, they are giving them the impression that a verbal confession of Christ as Savior is enough to secure them heaven for eternity.

So, what we need desperately is not more shepherds but more shepherds who will tell the people the truth of the gospel that Jesus and his apostles taught, in the correct biblical context. We need more shepherds of the sheep who will speak the truth of the gospel to the people, in love, regardless of whether or not the people will receive them. We need more shepherds who will tell the people that Jesus died and rose from the grave so we will die to sin and live for God in obedience to his commands in holy living.

And we need more shepherds and more watchmen who will warn the people against the false shepherds of the people who are teaching them lies. We need the lies exposed for what they are, for so many who profess faith in Jesus Christ are living the lie and not the truth. So many are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin with no regard for God and for his commands. But if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to God and to his commands, we will not inherit eternal life with God. See:

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.

Video Talk on the Same Subject

Like Sheep Without a Shepherd
An Original Work / April 28, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love