Prophecies of Jesus Part 2
Prophecies of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Scattered Sheep
Scattered Sheep
Jesus prophesied that His sheep would be scattered
Jesus prophesied that His sheep would be scattered
In Matthew 26:31-32, Jesus makes reference to a Messianic prophecy found in Zechariah 13:7 and prophesied that his sheep would be scattered from him:
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
Later, Judas Iscariot, betrays Jesus leading a crowd of armed people to where Jesus and His followers were praying. Jesus was arrested and His disciples fled:
But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Have you ever experienced loneliness? Can you imagine how Jesus felt when at the first sight of real conflict and confrontation that might really cost them something, His disciples abandoned Him so quickly?
We were never created to do this life in Christ in isolation. We all have an innate desire to at least feel connected relationally. Does God understand your loneliness? The first place we see the Scriptures address loneliness is in Genesis.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
In Genesis 2:18 the context is obviously one compatible for procreation. However, the Hebrew word used here is ‘ezer עֵ֫זֶר simply meaning one who helps and aides another in the life God has given. For example, we see this word used in other context:
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!
Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
Even in marriage relationships we try to make our spouse the ‘ezer that only God can be. Without God as the primary help in any relationship, it will not be what God intended.
In the family of the Lord, as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, we are to make God our helper in life. As well, we are to be a helper and an aide to one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
There is more to this than what you do for others. It is about knowing you are relationally connected to a community of fellow believers in Christ Jesus. This is why I believe the church, or the Body of Christ, was never intended to be a corporate institution or merely a facility of assembly where we follow a presentation agenda and call it a church service. The real function of the church is in those things that foster connective relationships and aide in the sustaining life of Christ.
Jesus said this in Luke:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
If you are a gathering for Jesus, instead of a scatterer, then there is an abundance of help in your times of need.
Again Jesus said this in John:
\John 16:32
Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
Jesus said, though you all leave Me, I am never alone. The mighty warrior and king David experienced loneliness. As well, he gives us some understanding of its causes, it repercussions, and some solutions for it:
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
David cried to God, “I am lonely”. Loneliness will cause everything to be magnified. Every little problem, emotion, struggle, and crisis will seem like it is overwhelming and unbearable to the lonely heart.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
You can be in a crowd of people and still feel isolated and alone. The flesh will try and convince you with a perception of reality that is skewed. It may even bring a victim perception that everyone is against you and you have no one to turn to for help. It will change your perception of what others say or do making you the focus and recipient of others perceived hostilities. Your imagination will start to play conversions that others are having about you as if you are really hearing them in your ears.
But when Christ is your hope and your mind is stayed on Him, your desires are directed towards Him and He becomes a Tree of Life to your soul.
Look what David does, He cries out to the Father and first ask for complete forgiveness of any possible sin against God or others. He has a repentant heart towards God. He ask God to guard his heart and soul in the midst of this struggle. He reminds his soul that his refuge is in the Lord. The Lord is his helper and is near him always.
Now that all sounds good and very spiritual when you are not the one with loneliness taking captive your every thought and emotion. But David ends this passage with something very powerful. He cries to God, “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.”
Job dealt with this in the midst of his sorrows. He had lost everything and even his so called friends were of no help. In fact, even his wife admonished him to just curse God and die already. How encouraging is that for a help mate? But Job says this:
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job and David held fast to their integrity and uprightness before God. In this they put all their trust in the Lord for He was their one desire above all things. This my friends is true faith that is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It is to know the joy of the Lord in the midst of trials and that joy become a strength, a helper that is close by. It is to know He is near even in the fiery furnace, the lions den, and a prison cell of darkness all the while praying and singing praises.
This is how Jesus put it when everyone had abandoned him except his mother and His Heavenly Father, “Father forgive them. It is finished. To You I yield my spirit.”
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Is your spirit committed to the Father? If your spirit is not then neither will your soul be. We are called to be a family that is the flock of the Lord. We are called to be brothers and sisters helping one another and being there for one another. But if the sheep are scattered, how can we follow the Good Shepherd? He leads one flock, one family, one people. He has called us together not to live in spiritual isolation. In a marathon, each man runs his own race. In a track meet, they sprint individually but win collectively. But in the Army, they run as a coherent formation. If a man drops out, the entire formation circles around to pick him back up. And this is repeated until that man finds the renewed strength, fortitude, audacity and perseverance to carry on. The formation as a whole may run and extra mile but they do not lose a brother.
God desires for us to no longer be scattered sheep but a family flock that helps one another, encourages one another, pays attention to one another and reaches out to one another. Outside and inside the church there are many scattered sheep. Don’t be scattered. You are not alone. God is your helper. Your church family is your helper.
God never promised you would not feel loneliness. Adam felt it even Jesus felt it. But Father did promise you would never be alone. So, what you are and what you feel are not the same thing. If you are struggling with loneliness, hold fast to your integrity and uprightness. Cry out to God as did David, Job and Jesus. Give your loneliness to Him and let Him be your help in time of need. Yield your spirit and soul into the hands of the Lord Jesus to comfort you and connect you to the family flock. Get rid of all the excuses, reasons, roadblocks, and walls you have used to stay in relational isolation. Don’t be the fleeing disciple. Run to the Good Shepherd.