Our Shepherd Jesus, Part 2
Our Shepherd Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsJesus our shepherd surprises us in where and how he leads us
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The Shepherd’s Sacrifice
The Shepherd’s Sacrifice
Last week we saw where David, when he was still a boy, who worked as a shepherd, would take on lions and bears with only his hands and overcome them. David was incredibly brave because of the strength and faith that God gave him to protect his sheep.
However, Jesus is a completely different kind of shepherd.
Jesus is the shepherd, who at the right time and the right place will surrender His life to the very evil Bears and Lions who would seek to destroy Jesus, and His sheep.
Yet because Our Shepherd Jesus is God-the-Son. The very act of laying down his life to be destroyed by evil, will be the very thing He uses to overcome and destroy evil!
Don’t be too quick to answer this question: Who has power over Jesus’ Death? Jesus Himself!
Look at what Jesus says in verses 17-18
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
Now, any person has the power to lay down their own lives. This refers to dying. But what person do you know who has the power to take their lives up again, after they have died?
NO ONE! ONLY JESUS!!!
So, are there other places in God’s Word that teach about Jesus having power to resurrect Himself?
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Scripture makes it clear that the temple Jesus was referring to was not the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
Scriptre also makes it clear that every person in the Trinity raised Jesus from the dead.
The Spirit raised Jesus:
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The Father raised Jesus:
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
What kind of Shepherd is this Jesus?
JESUS IS THE ULTIMATE SHEPHERD! JESUS IS GOD!!!
During Jesus physical life on Earth, did everyone agree about who and what He was? It is still true today. While at a promise Keepers event in Boulder Colorado in the early 1990s someone was holding a sign which said: “Mary should have had an abortion”
Evil opposition to Jesus has been around since the time Jesus was born, when King Herod had all the male children, who were 2 years old and younger, killed in Bethlehem to stop Jesus.
Perhaps you think the ugliness of politics today is something new. Listen to the name calling they placed on OUR SHEPHERD JESUS.
Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings.
And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?”
Others said, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Perhaps this is why Jesus asked His disciples this question:
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Even though Jesus commends Peter for getting this information from God the Father, Jesus shows the disciples that He will be a Shepherd who MUST DIE.
This is so against Peter’s pre-conceived ideas that Peter actually rebuked Jesus for talking like this.
Then Jesus speaks painful truth to Peter:
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
This brings up an interesting idea. Do you have pre-conceived ideas about what Jesus is like? Do you think you know what He would and would not do?
I do. I have run up against these issues in my life.
I have had a couple of people in my life that I actually hated. I had been hurt by them and I wanted to see them hurt as badly, or even worse than I had been hurt.
Of course I knew that was wrong. Do you think that stopped me from thinking evil thought about them? It did not stop me.
Then I was reading my Bible and I came across this verse:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
I discovered my heart was totally against what God wanted it to be. I didn’t want to love these people. I certainly didn’t want to pray for them. But an UNDER-SHEPHERD of the Great Shepherd Jesus taught me a lesson.
That UNDER-SHEPHERD was a Pastor. That is what the term Pastor means: a shepherd!
This pastor taught me to pray for the people I hated. He taught me to pray for God’s richest blessing on them. He taught me to pray for the very best which God could provide in their lives.
I told this pastor I wasn’t sure I could do what he was asking of me. He said that didn’t matter. Boy was I confused.
He told me to pray for them EVERY DAY, even if I prayed with anger in my heart. He assured me that if I did this every day, and asked Jesus to soften my heart, it would happen.
It took a long time, I can’t say exactly how long, because eventually I came to sincerely pray for these people. I actually wanted to see God’s richest blessings poured out on them.
My heart had softened, I had changed!
Now whether they ever changed or not, whether they were ever blessed or not, is out of my control. But let me tell you, living with peace in my heart toward people I used to hate is a wonderful gift.
So, be careful how you expect God to work or not work. Our Shepherd Jesus continues to surprise us with His love, His Mercy and His Grace.
I will share one more way OUR SHEPHERD JESUS surprised me. In the Lutheran Church you have to have a college degree before you start seminary. When I was in college, I didn’t know I would be called to be a pastor.
I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology. I wanted to be a pilot for my vocation in life and Meteorology fit well with that.
I met a young woman through a classmate in Meteorology. We fell in love and I proposed and she accepted the proposal, about two months before I moved away to start seminary in Iowa.
Just a few days before I moved to school, she broke off the engagement. Just to make it clear, this was not Paula. I was devastated and heart-broken. I prayed and poured out my pain to Jesus. One day I heard Jesus speak to my heart. He told me:
“IT WILL WORK OUT”
Well, that was very good news to me. I went to seminary and would write to this woman. Every time she wrote back, I would scrutinize her words, looking for signs that she wanted to get back together.
However, trying as hard as I could, I could never see that this was going to happen. Had I misunderstood God? Indeed, I thought I had.
Then, a couple of years later, after I had given up on the idea that “IT WILL WORK OUT,” I got a summer job at a Lutheran Bible Camp in Colorado.
There was this cute woman with brown eyes named Paula. Eventually we fell in love, got engaged and married. Guess what?
God was right all along.
IT DID WORK OUT
OUR SHEPHERD JESUS, knows what is best for us.
There are times when it is hard to trust that this is true. We get our eyes focused on our circumstances and fail to see, or hear, OUR SHEPHERD JESUS leading and guiding us.
We, like stubborn sheep insist on going our own way, and doing our own thing. Far too often it is only when we have strayed into danger, or have found ourselves in a situation where we are trapped, that we cry out to the Shepherd.
Though we don’t deserve it, Jesus comes. Jesus rescues, Jesus forgives, Jesus restores.
Just like we think when we pray for our enemies, that they don’t deserve it, Jesus’ Shepherd heart is there for us to lead and guide us through the most difficult of times, places and people
“OUR SHEPHERD JESUS, COME AND SHEPHERD US NOW!”
I want to close with an old favorite hymn,
Jesus, Still Lead On
I found the music on Youtube. It is a group of six women who sing with a flute and cello. There is a short musical interlude between each verse.
Jesus, Still Lean On
Text: Nicolus L. von Zinzendorf. Translated by Jane L. Borthwick. Tune by Adam Drese
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Verse 1
Jesus, still lead on, Till our rest be won;
And, although the way be cheerless,
We will follow, cam and fearless;
Guide us by Your hand To The Promised Land
Verse 2
If the way be drear, If the foe be near,
Let no faithless fears o'ertake us,
Let not faith and hope forsake us;
Safely past the foe To our home we go.
Verse 3
When we seek relief From a longfelt grief,
When temptations come alluring
Make us patient and enduring
Show us that bright shore
Where we weep no more
Verse 4
Jesus, still lead on, Till our rest be won;
Heav'nly leader still direct us,
Still support, console protect us,
Till we safely stand In the Promised Land
Amen, Now may the Shalom of God, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Our True Shepherd. Amen!