Morning Message Text: John 10: 11-18
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 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.
13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 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.
17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.
18 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.”
Morning Message: “Right Standing”
Morning Message:
The 23rd Psalm is both a Psalm of praise and a reassurance to God’s people. We draw comfort from it, especially in times of sorrow and grieving. We mistakenly think of it as a reassurance of God’s providence after we pass from this earth, but it is more useful to us in our daily walk with God. The Hebrew word for shepherd is Rohi. One of God’s names is Jehovah-Rohi, meaning: The Lord…my shepherd. The whole job of a shepherd is to take complete care of the sheep that belong to him. David says: I lack nothing. This is a very difficult concept for us today because we confuse what we want with what we need. We very easily feel uncared for when we don’t have everything that others seem to have. We all do this, maybe some more than others, but we forget what our actual needs are, so we feel neglected. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there are not needy people in this world, but none of us are neglected by God.
Verse 3 in a different bible translation reads like this: “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” I am reading now from one of my devotionals. “The theme of righteousness is mentioned more than five hundred times in the bible—more than love, grace, salvation and other themes. Why is righteousness mentioned so frequently? Sometimes when a plaintiff brings a lawsuit against a person or company, the judge will dismiss the suit because the plaintiff lacks standing. That is, they have no right legally to file the lawsuit. That’s what righteousness means in scripture: ‘right standing.’ Mankind lost its right standing before God in the Garden of Eden due to sin. We lost our ability to stand before a Holy God and enjoy fellowship with him. Therefore, the story of the bible is God’s provision of a way for mankind to regain righteousness—the ability to be reconciled to God and be righteous in his sight.”
God leads us in paths of righteousness, but sometimes we don’t follow. Therefore, we need a way to regain right standing with Him. That’s why God sent His sinless Son into the world. He took our sins, and we received His righteousness by faith. Now I know that you may grow weary of me making this same point over and over again. If this just seems like old news to you, I’m sorry, but I won’t apologize because this is vital to our faith and you might be surprised how many well-meaning, regular church attendees either don’t fully understand this or have missed it altogether. Apart from Jesus you cannot stand before a righteous God. Only through faith in the living Christ can you gain a renewed, right standing with God.
In order to get a clear understanding of today’s text we need to go back to verse 7. “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.” Notice here, He doesn’t say that no one has listened to them, but the sheep have not listened. “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” Who can tell me what familiar verse this sounds like? John 3:16. You know, when we talk about right standing before a Holy God, many times we forget to include the one and only way to become righteous in his sight. Jesus is very clear here. He leaves no room for debate. You must enter through him. You may know this already, but I think it’s a beautiful analogy, a perfect picture that Jesus paints of his love for us and his protection over us. Jesus is the gate. How can he be both the shepherd and the gate to the sheepfold? The sheepfold was a round rock wall with an opening for the sheep to enter. The shepherd would herd his flock into that enclosed area and then lie in the entrance so the sheep could not get out, and nothing could get in.
Jesus describes three benefits of entering into God’s sheepfold: (1) We have already talked about. Those sheep will be saved. (2) They will come in and go out, freely moving about in the secure provision of the shepherd. When you belong to Jesus you have eternal safety. What do I mean by that? Yes, your eternal life is secure, but that knowledge should allow you to live this life without fear. That doesn’t mean that we will never be afraid, but it does mean that whatever we encounter is not as powerful as the God that we serve and there is no reason to fear death. (3) They will find pasture, constant sustenance for the soul. That doesn’t mean that your belly will always be full or that you will not want things, but your soul can always be full.
Verses 7 – 9 were necessary in order for you to understand today’s scripture. Jesus says that He is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Just like sheep, we cannot trust our existence, our souls, to anyone except the person who is willing and able to lie down in that gap for us.
There are a lot of hired hands out there, false prophets, false teachers, and other religions that will claim to give you the benefits of this life and eternity, but there is only one Jesus, one Savior, who gave his life as a sacrifice for you. He leaves no doubt here that you can be one of his sheep. Who do you think he is talking about when he says, “I have other sheep that are not of this pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” There are some who claim that this is a reference to some special group of people, but that is a false belief. This is you and me. Jesus came for all of us. He came to make us righteous, to give us Right Standing with a Holy God. Thank God today that you can stand before God when you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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