Latest / The Daily Word / August 8 – The Good Shepherd
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good wee hours of the night. Whenever you're joining us, welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes. It's my privilege to serve as the pastor of Arkitapa Campus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another episode where we're gonna be doing a devotion out of the New Testament portion of the Bible reading plan that we're joining in together on as a church. And today's New Testament portion comes from John chapter 10. Now last time I was on the daily word with you, we were looking at John chapter 6, which contained the first of the seven I am statements of the gospel of John. These are seven times that Jesus told us who he is. I am this and he gives us a picture of who he is, what his purpose is. We started off in John chapter six. In John chapter six, we saw that I am the bread of life. And today we're looking at two more I am statements that Jesus presents kind of back to back here. We see the first and in verse seven, then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door Of the sheep. And then in verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Now, these are the only two I am statements that Jesus kind of gave in the same conversation. The rest of them are kind of spread out through the gospel of John. But Jesus almost presents these two as kind of like a package deal. You see, he is the door to the sheepfold. He is the only legitimate entrance into the flock of God. All others who would try to enter in any other way he says are thieves and robbers. This idea here mirrors a parable that Jesus told in Matthew 22 that I kind of always had questions about until someone explained it to me. It's the parable where a king throws a wedding, and then once the celebration is going on, he's he's going around and he's greeting guests, and he finds someone there who's not wearing proper wedding attire. And the king asks him, like, wait, why aren't why aren't you wearing the right clothes, man? And and there's no response from the guests, they don't reply. And the king has him thrown out of the wedding. This this is a picture in that parable of the kingdom of heaven. And that never really made sense to me. Why would it matter how I come to heaven, what I'm wearing? Like that kind of doesn't sit squarely with a lot of the other pictures. That we see in scripture of what God values. But then Hanni Asad, who leads the the Egyptian missionary ministry that that we support as a church here at Lakeshore. We we we support his Egypt project where he goes and he ministers over there. He explained to me once that it was a Middle Eastern custom. That when you went to a wedding, you actually didn't dress yourself when you came to the entrance. The host would actually provide you with wedding clothes, that way it wouldn't be incumbent on you to spend a bunch of money to come dress nicely, they would take care of that expense for you. So that means when when the king found this guest in the wedding feast, not dressed in wedding attire. The king knew this guy must have snuck in under the tent peg somewhere. This guy didn't come in through the door. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying happens sometimes in the sheepfold. Jesus is that king. Jesus is the one going throughout the wedding. He is the one serving and watching over his sheep. He is both the door by which we enter, and he is the one that is shepherding the flock. He protects his flock from all those who did not enter in through him. And we can take comfort in this because the days of deception that we are living in, there's all kinds of people who sneak in to the flock. we we live in an age of Of of internet quote unquote ministers with people teaching all kinds of errant doctrine. But Jesus is the good shepherd who's actively watching over his flock and he's protecting us from those who snuck into our midst with impure motives. And and one way that Jesus does that is by appointing under-shepherds, pastors who who watch over segments of his flock and feed and protect them under his direction and authority. Another way he does it is through actively leading and guiding each of us in our personal relationship with him. He is shepherding us collectively, but he's also shepherding each of us individually. And and and this is some of the comfort that he gives us here in this in this chapter in verses four and five. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them. And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. So as long as we stay actively connected to Jesus in our relationship with him, and as long as we follow his leading, we have absolutely nothing to fear from any wolves that would sneak into the flock in sheep's clothing. We can trust Jesus, who is both the door and the good shepherd, who would never lead us. astray that's our observation is that we can we can trust him what's our application well are we actively purposing to follow after Jesus i if you are one thing i always find comfort in is that jesus is a better leader than i am a follower let's let's just be real sometimes i make mistakes sometimes i wander off on my own because boy that grass over there show looks good nom nom nom nom nom Meanwhile I'm eating something something deadly. I I wander off sometimes. We all do. But Jesus is a better shepherd than I am a sheep. He knows how to lead us and he will get us back on track. He will lead us back into the flock if we trust him. We can take comfort in the fact he's the good shepherd. He'll keep us on track. And as he does, he will protect us. Now if we aren't actively purposing To follow after him, well, our application is just to start, you know? All we have to do is repent and start following after him. Again, repenting just means turning around. Repenting means just go going in the opposite way that we have been going. Maybe you find yourself way off course of where you you know you should be in your relationship with Jesus. Don't don't worry about it. Repent and turn back around, and Jesus will come back to you, and he will start leading you back into the way of life. And he knows the perfect path to get you where he wants you to go. And he will be there with you the whole way. And that is good news. Because in our relationship with Jesus, the real prize is really Jesus being with us on the journey. It's not the destination, it's that he's with us along the way. So That is our scripture. That is our observation. That is our application. Let's pray. Jesus, I just thank you. I thank you that you are the door to the sheepfold. We can enter into your lush pastures through your forgiving atoning sacrifice and the blood of the lamb that lets us into the family. And we thank you that once we're in, you you you don't go anywhere. You're right there next to us. You're leading us, you're guiding us, you're protecting us, you're feeding us. You are caring for us the way a shepherd cares for his sheep. And we're so thankful, Jesus. I thank you that you never leave us. You never forsake us. And anytime that we get off on our own and start going after what we think is greener grass elsewhere that you aren't leading us to, we thank you that you're so patient and faithful and persistent that you just come right along us and you pull us back onto track. We thank you, Jesus, that you are with us and you're protecting us from any wolves that would try to sneak in. Lord, I thank you that you did lay your life down for the flock to protect us. And we thank you for the confidence we can have in your leadership and in the name of Jesus. We love you, King Jesus. We really do. Amen.