Follow the Lord

We are in the middle of a sermon series called “The Lord Revealed.” We are having the Gospel of John help us discover the ways that God is at work within us, through us, and around us. You can find the previous sermons for this series or any series on our You Tube Channel or Facebook page.

This week we focus on “Following the Lord.” Our scripture comes from John 10:22-30

22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Please pray with me…

This scripture, like many of them, at least for me and most likely for many of you, sends us on a journey of discovery and often discontent. They lead us to questions and often answers that we don’t like. We discover our faith is not as strong as we would like it to be.

The question for this week could be “who am I more like, the ‘Jews’ who want Jesus to tell them ‘plainly’ who he is or those that are Jesus’ sheep?” What this question really is asking is do I have enough faith to be willing to allow “the Lord” to be my shepherd. Am I willing to “follow the Lord.”

(Transition)

Last week we were at the end of Jesus’s time on earth. We have moved back in time to a portion of his ministry. We are told that they are at the “Festival of Dedication.” You would be more likely to recognize this festival as “Hanukkah.” It is a Jewish festival to remind them of the heroic faith of the Maccabees.

Who are the Maccabees? They are a group of Jewish rebel warriors led by a priest named Mattathias and his five sons. One of those sons had the nickname “Maccabeus,” or “the hammer” in English.  It is believed that is how this became known as the Maccabean revolt.

They led a revolt against the Seleucid Empire who had taken the Jewish nation captive. In 167 BCE the king had banned Jewish religious practices. Among the ways he made his point was through desecrating the temple through actions such as sacrificing a pig, an animal that the Jewish people considered unclean.

This understandably upset the Jewish people and led a small group to revolt against their mistreatment. The Maccabees would eventually recapture Jerusalem and rededicate the Temple to their God. It is their actions that are remembered during this time. It is a celebration of remembrance to what was accomplished with help from God.

Those that are following Mattathias and his sons had to have trust in them in order for them to be willing to risk their lives to do what he believed God would want done. All of them had to have faith in God to believe that he would help them overcome the great opposition they were facing.

(Transition)

That is our backdrop for today’s text. We have a group that is at the Temple to celebrate. They ask Jesus if it is true that he is the Messiah, and if it is when will he announce this truth. They don’t trust Jesus enough to believe that he is the Messiah without him saying it to them “plainly.”

They obviously are not amongst his followers. They don’t want to admit that he is the Messiah, but they also don’t want to be among those that are saying he definitely is not the one that the Jewish people had been waiting for.

This was spoken of somewhat in the book of Revelation. John in chapter 3 called the church at Laodicea “lukewarm” in their faith. The Lord says that they are neither “hot nor cold, therefore he is about to spit them out of his mouth.”

These Jews questioning Jesus aren’t `100 percent against Jesus but they also are not 100 percent for him. They are lukewarm. This can lead us to a new question, “Am I like the Christians at the church of Laodicea, am I lukewarm in my faith?”

Most of us are not lukewarm but we often move between hot and cold. Our faith is not regulated. We don’t have a strong enough faith to consistently stay connected to God and be willing to follow God at all times.

(Transition)

I don’t believe that it is any coincidence that John has a group of people who are supposed to be celebrating a great revolt having a conversation with Jesus about what they are hoping will be another great revolt. This time they hope to defeat the Romans.

The Jewish people expected the Messiah to be a great conquer. He would set things right again and have the Jewish people once again be in power in their country. They were either hoping or questioning if Jesus was this person.

A person who would be greater than those that led the Israelites to the defeat of the city of Jericho. Greater than David when he conquered Goliath. Greater than the Maccabeans they were celebrating. The Messiah was going to be greater than any of these previous military leaders.

(Transition)

That leads us to Jesus’s answer. He points out that all has already been revealed. He is saying that he has offered enough physical proof for them to believe he is the Messiah. The problem is that they can’t handle the truth.  They don’t have the faith to believe that it is a probable conclusion for Jesus to be the Messiah.

We find a similar situation when John the Baptist has his disciples go to Jesus to ask him if he is the Messiah. Jesus’ answer is that “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” These actions prove that Jesus is the Messiah.

How do we know that? We find in Isaiah 35:5 and 6 that these are actions that the Messiah will be able to perform. The scripture says that “the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. the lame will leap like a deer, and the mute tongue will shout for joy.”

Jesus is saying that his disciples are willing to trust him and follow him because they have the faith to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Faith is us being willing to believe without physical proof. But they have the physical proof, those that are questioning Jesus lack the faith to believe that Jesus could be the Messiah.

(Transition)

Those that trust Jesus and have the faith to believe that he is the Messiah he calls in our scripture ‘his sheep.” This would be Jesus referring to himself being the “good shepherd.” This would mean that these followers listen to Jesus, follow Jesus, and therefore are protected by Jesus.

We that have the faith to believe today are also given the ability to listen, follow, and receive from Jesus. We speak of this when we mention during our prayer time that we are not only called to ask we are also supposed to listen.

Listening is the first step, but we also need to be willing to follow what we are called to do. We can find ourselves hearing but God allows for us to decide if we want to respond. That is where our lack of faith can become the problem.

We have enough faith to believe that Jesus came and died for our sins, but we lack the faith to believe that God would call someone like us to do what he desires for us to do. Many times, we might go as far as acting like we haven’t heard from him. We make the decision to walk away.

We instead need to believe that Jesus gives us the insights we need for us to be able to succeed. God desires to help us with what he has called for us to do. It takes faith for us to be willing to trust that he will help us.

We spoke last week about three ways that God helps us. The first is he gives us the talents to succeed. The second is that he will place people around us for us to be able to succeed. And the third is that He will do what we need him to do for us to succeed.

We need to have the faith to believe that God will fulfill his promise to be with us and never forget about us. We need to decide that we are going to walk in faith despite our trepidation that we are not good enough to succeed.

(Transition)

When we are willing to have the faith to “follow the Lord” he will make us good enough. We find this in our first reading. I want to read for you again how this scripture begins…

“Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.”

God chose you not because you are good enough. He chose you because he believed that you would be willing to follow him. We are in good company if we don’t believe we are good enough.

Jesus’ twelve disciples had to believe that they were not “good enough.” There were fishermen and a tax collector among them. None of them were among the students who learned in the synagogue. All of them would have been considered “not good enough” by Jewish society.

Paul even tells us why God uses those of us that are not good enough. He chooses us because he wants us to not be able to boast. He wants us to struggle to believe that we were able to succeed. He wants us to give the credit where the credit belongs. To the one who we are following, the Lord.

(Transition)

It is not about us being good enough. It is about us having enough faith to believe that God is enough to make up for our inadequacies. We need to believe that through God all things are possible.

I mean this is mothers’ day. Those that are parents, how many of you believed you were ready when you brought the first child home that first time? God will help us through our struggles. He stays with us on the journey. We get to decide if we want to be on the journey with him.

(Transition)

This is not only true for us as individuals but also as the church. There is no doubt that we are not the church that The Church of the Good Shepherd was in the past, but I hope that we want to become the church that God has planned for us to become in the future.

There is a concept within church circles that is called “revitalization.” It is a statement regarding churches that are struggling and the process to bring them you could say “back to life.” Some would use this term as the description of what we are attempting to do here at the Church of the Good Shepherd.

I disagree with this term. This church is vital to the community. We host the civic meetings for the area, we have AA meetings every weekday. We have an Alanon meeting that it sounds like has been around almost if not as long as the building has been here.

We are vital to the community, but we have to discover how we can become spiritually vital. We have to figure out the ways that we help people discover the need to be in a relationship not only with Jesus but those that are followers of Jesus.

(Transition)

We have a mission statement focused on the ways that we can become spiritually vital to those around us. We need to reach out to our communities. We are surrounded by people that many do not have a place to worship and some who probably don’t know about Jesus. We need to figure out how to reach those that are around us.

We are to love all people. There are many people who believe that the church is not a place for them. They believe that stepping into a church will be an unwelcoming environment. How do we make sure those around us know that all people will receive the love of God from us here at The Church of the Good Shepherd?

We figure out how to accomplish the first two parts of our mission statement by being willing to grow in faith together. We need to pray as a church for our church. We need to find ways to serve our church. We need to discover how God wants us to live out our mission statement.

This wil linvolve us having to step out in faith. God can do this on his own, but he desires for us to help him have us become the individuals and church that he desires for us to be. We have to be willing to follow him in all that we say and do.

(Transition)

We have a message to share with the nations, a message of truth and mercy, a message of peace and light. We have a God that loves us too much to not help us on the journey. A God that desires for us to help him by sharing his message of a God that will never leave you or forget about you.

We have many people around us who are lost. They are attempting to discover what they are missing in their lives. We have a message to share with them. But we have to have the faith that God will help us. He will give us the words to say for that person to hear in that moment.

Let us decide today both as individuals and as the church that we are going to have the faith of the sheep. That we are going to be willing to follow the Shepherd. We are going to listen, follow and trust the one who first loved us.

Let us pray…