Still Waters and Green Pastures
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 35:10
0 ratings
· 7 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
Leading Sheep
Leading Sheep
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
One of the clearest and yet overlooked concept of the scriptures is that sheep need a shepherd… they can’t do it without them. and Biblically speaking, God’s people are the sheep and He (and Jesus) are our shepherds.
shepherds cared for the flock.... they protected the flock. See Amos 3.12
12 Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.
They would look for lost sheep- see Matthew 18.12
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
The shepherd took care of leading the flock from day to night. See John 10.2-4
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
The shepherd would prepare a place for the sheep to sleep at night, and sleep with them. If he lost one, he was responsible for the cost of that sheep.
Shepherds/sheep had a close relationship.
Sheep represented the chief wealth and total livelihood of pastoral peoples, providing food to eat, milk to drink, wool for the making of cloth, and hides and bones for other uses. In addition the sheep was a medium of exchange and a sacrificial animal. The number of sheep raised in ancient times was prodigious.
Sheep are mentioned over 700 times in scripture..... and the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep symbolizes the Christan’s relationship with God/Jesus.
So what does it mean that the shepherd made the Psalmist lie down in green pastures and led him to still waters?
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
Pastures- grass, herbs, grazing
green-living well.
water- water
still describes the water- calm, quiet, place of rest.
He makes me go there.... He LEADS me there.
Where? a place of abundance Rest.
REST
REST
Freedom from work or activity.
God Himself Rested on the seventh day- Genesis 2.2
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
The basis of the “sabbath” is a Hebrew term for rest.... an ordinance of creation. The basis is God’s sabbath.
Look at Exodus 20.8-11
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
A key to rest, however, is not just past (creation) but also present (weekly) and future.
A symbol of rest in the life of Israel is found in Moses leading the people out of bondage into the Promised Land. They attained it under Joshua, not Moses, but eventually they attained it. Joshua settled them in the land. God’s rest transcends any earthly or temporary experience.
Abraham, who god first brought into the promised land, lived AND died by faith, knowing that the promise of perfect rest and an everlasting inheritance has its fulfilment there but not here…He looked for a better country.... look at Hebrews 11.8-16
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
REST
REST
The 40 year wandering in the wilderness meant that the whole adult generation that set out with Moses perished without entering into the Promised Land. Their hearts were too hard. Look at Psalm 95.7-11
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
REST
REST
It is God’s rest into which all persons are encouraged to enter. A weekly day of rest is a reminder and a reflection of that rest. The rest the Israelites found in the Promised Land after the wilderness wandering is a symbol of God’s eternal rest in which his people are to share.
The rest that Christ gives to those who come to him is a foretaste and a guarantee of the divine rest that God gives.... see Matthew 11.28
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
This rest is a gift to believers who have died in Christ. See Revelation 14.13
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
This rest finds its completion in fullness when Christ returns, when Christ’s followers are fully conformed to his likeness.... see 1 John 3.2
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
REST
REST
see 2 Corinthians 5
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
There will be a new order of creation… see 2 Peter 3.13
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The coming of Christ will be the moment of entry of God’s people into the fullest and undending enjoyment of his rest…Freedom from all sin, freedom from sin, sorrow, pain, suffering, persecution, frustration, injustice, and death.
So, how does the shepherd lead US to this rest?
We are His sheep...
See Revelation 7.9-17
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”
14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
See Revelation 21.1-7
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Rest > Rr
all that a Christian rests from simply sets him free to be active ceaselessly and joyfully in the service of God, the Creator and Redeemer. In perfect harmony with all God’s works and in complete fulfillment, Christians exultantly praise and serve the Triune God. Joy will be full, without possibility of improvement or deficiency (cf. Rv 4:8–11; 5:8–14; 7:9–12). Such will be the rest without end of that eternal sabbath which has a morning but no evening.
Finally, Hebrews 4.11
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.