John 20:31 (NKJV), John 2:1-22 (NKJV)
When a soldier is dying on the battlefield a medic will give him a potent dose of morphine. The drug will not save him, but it will mask the pain and ease the suffering.
In the same way the blood of animals could never save and could not fix the root of the fatal wound; sin. These Old Covenant sacrifices could only mask the symptoms of sin for a short season, but every year new sacrifices had to be offered and new blood had to be shed.
The blood of Jesus was of a totally different quality than any blood ever shed before. The blood of Jesus not only dealt with the symptoms of sin, it went to the very root of the problem. The blood of Jesus was not a superficial remedy for a shallow flesh wound. It penetrated the core of the human condition and went all the way back to Adam; reversing the curse and turning the greatest tragedy in history into the greatest victory.
The ruler of the feast said, "…you’ve kept back the good wine until now." After all other wines had been served and after they had all run out and run short, finally the "good" wine was being served. The best was saved for last. I see this first miracle of Jesus as a prophetic foreshadowing of what Jesus had come to do. The Jews were hoping for a national Messiah that would start a Maccabean-type revolution. Jesus had come to lay down his life and shed his blood.
When Jesus sat at the last supper and held up the cup of Passover wine he said, "This is the NEW Covenant in MY blood…" After all the blood of goats, lambs and birds had been shed and after they had all run out and fallen short, then God Himself came and performed a miracle; the Word became flesh.
His body was broken and His blood was shed once for all. His blood did what no other sacrifice had been able to do. There is enough power in one drop of the blood of Jesus to wash away every sin, to heal every sickness, to break every curse of every human being who has ever lived in all the world and in all of history! God has saved the best for last!
Taken from Christ for all Nations news
Water Into Wine - Part 3 of 3 - No Other Sacrifice
By: Daniel Kolenda, Evangelist
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Easter 4 (15th May 2011)
Theme: The Shepherd and the Sheep (John 10: 1-10)
The context of our Gospel reading for this morning is the story in John 9, which is about the healing of a man who had been blind since he was born. After Jesus healed him, the Pharisees were angry because he did it on a Sabbath Day. So in chapter 10 Jesus started to talk about the Good Shepherd and what he does for his sheep. He was explaining what he was doing – that in his act of healing the man born blind, he was exercising his love and his care for his sheep.
The image of God being our shepherd was not an invention of Jesus: it was a continuation from the Old Testament. Ezekiel 34:31 says, "You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God," says the Lord.” In Psalm100:3b, it is stated: “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 95:7, it says: “For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.” And in Isaiah 40:11: “He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”
Why are we compared to sheep? Why not dogs or cats or horses? It is because a sheep is a unique animal. Without a shepherd a sheep is a defenceless animal. Without God we too are defenceless against Satan. A sheep may fight with another sheep but it cannot fight other stronger wild animal. We too can fight our fellow men, but under attack of Satan we would succumb to defeat.
The sheep is prone to wander and a sheep is also without a sense of direction. If a sheep is lost it cannot find its way back, like a dog or cat. That is why in the parable Jesus speaks about the lost sheep that has to be searched by the shepherd. We too are prone to wander until we get lost. Isaiah 53: 6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
So because we are easily lost like the sheep, we need a Shepherd to guide us. And because we are defenceless against Satan on our own, we need to stay together, just like the sheep under one flock and led by a shepherd.
There are three things that I want to share with you about becoming sheep of the Shepherd:
Good sheep know the shepherd: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep” (vs. 1 & 2).
We live in a world that has a lot of false shepherds knocking at the door of the sheepfold. People are being misled, confused and wasting their lives without ever truly understanding Who God is and what He wants for their lives. How are we going to recognize the true Shepherd?
First, false Shepherd avoids the proper way. He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. The purpose of the sheepfold was to provide protection during the night. A Sheepfold was a circular wall about 10 feet tall with a single opening that served as a door. Several flocks might be placed into the sheepfold at night, with one of the shepherds lying in the opening to serve as the door. Nothing could get into, or out of the sheepfold without having to go through the shepherd and only thieves and robbers seek to enter the sheepfold by another means besides the door.
Second, false shepherds surround us on all sides looking for ways to get at the flocks. Sometimes they come through religion. Sometimes they approach us and teach about morality and make us feel guilty, and then give us false hope. Some may tell us about giving us excitement, or promises of wealth or health. What is common about false shepherds is that they always distort the truth in one way or another - primarily the truth about Who Jesus really is.
Third, false shepherds work hard. They teach you many rules to follow and rituals to keep so that you remain in their control, and you can be led astray. Their teaching may sound good, but their real motive is to steal and exploit the sheep for their own purposes. Many of these false shepherds are sweet-talkers and full of charisma, and that is why many people don’t even realized that they are being sucked in and led astray. 2 Peter 2:2-3 says, “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
On the other hand, the true shepherd enters the proper way: "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep” (vs. 2). In the summer, the flocks stayed out in the field all night. But in the winter, the flocks were gathered into pens, or sheepfolds.
Shepherding in the ancient East worked differently from the ones practiced in the West. In the west, sheep are driven by the shepherd on a horse with the help of a dog. In the east, the shepherd leads the flock on foot, and they follow him. In the east, sheep were given names, as we do with our dogs and cats. The shepherd was familiar with his sheep, knowing them all by name, and they would know the sound of his voice.
The sheep would graze out in the field the whole day. When even came the sheep would be led into the sheepfold. In an open country, the shepherd would herd his sheep into a low walled enclosure of piled rocks with a small opening. At night, since there was no gate, just an opening, the shepherd would lie across the opening to keep the sheep in and the wild animals out – he would literally become the door. That was what Jesus was talking about in verse 7: “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep”.
The sheep that were reared near villages were kept in a slightly different manner. They would be taken into a common sheepfold. This sheepfold was typically a large stone wall enclosure about 10-feet high, without a roof, with a single entrance into it. Several flocks from various shepherds would all share this same sheepfold for the night. Shepherds would take turn to guard the sheep by spending the night sleeping at the entrance of the sheepfold.
A good Sheep know the voice of the shepherd: "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (vs.3). A communal sheepfold might have about a few hundred sheep belonging to different shepherds. How would they sort out what sheep belong to who? In the morning the shepherds knocked at the barred door & the watchman would open from within. Then each shepherd would separate his sheep by giving a call or singing a song. The flock would follow its own shepherd. This reminds us two things:
First, good sheep know the Shepherd’s voice. A sheep is a unique animal. It does not respond to a call: you cannot blow a whistle and expect the sheep to come like a dog. Sheep don’t respond to calls like that: they respond to Shepherd’s voice. What does the voice of our Shepherd sound like? Does he speak like a politician or an environmentalist or a businessman? Does Jesus speak like any religious leader? I believe that the voice of Jesus is different from most voices because he speaks about forgiveness, about love, and about grace, in a way different from others. We who are his sheep need to hear a voice that speaks like Jesus. And we, the Church, cannot speak differently from how Jesus speaks.
Second, good sheep know their own names given by the Shepherd. In Bible times the sheep were raised not so much for their meat, but for their wool. So the sheep received special care, and even develop a sort of relationship with the shepherd. The relationship was so special that the shepherd has a name for every one of his sheep. What sorts of names does a shepherd give to his sheep? He usually named them by their peculiar characteristics, traits or spots, or even by their defects. He would give them descriptive names like “Brown-leg” or “Black-ear” or “Big eyes”.
Jesus also knows the individual weaknesses and failings of His flock and watches over the members with love and understanding. Jesus knows our doubts, fears, trials, conflicts, and defeats that disturb our peace, and He will come to our aid. That is the picture of our God. He knows what you are worried about right now. He knows the temptations that you battle with. He knows the struggles you have had this week
Names convey a sense of who we are and how others relate to us. “The Lord has called Me from the womb; . . .He has made mention of My name” (Isa. 49:1). Jesus calls us by name because He knows us so well. And those of us who know him respond to his voice. If the shepherd gives the names of his sheep after their traits and characteristics, what name do you think that Jesus has given you? Of course I don’t want you to go around and tell people that Jesus has called you “Ms. Humility” or “Mr. Cheerful Giver”. That is for you to know yourself.
A good sheep follow the leading of the shepherd: …..and leads them out. "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers" (vs. 4 & 5).
The shepherd has to constantly lead the flock of sheep from place to another. He cannot lead the flock out of the sheepfold to graze and then takes a rest and goes to sleep. We need to remember that the grass in Palestine is not like ours. They only have little patches of grass here and there and the shepherd has to protect them and ensure they will grow again. So the shepherd has to keep the sheep moving otherwise the sheep will eat all the grass until the root, leaving the place a barren land. The sheep have to be on the move because if they keep still in one place they will start to fight one another.
What does this speak about our God? Our God is the Shepherd who keeps us always on the move. Sometimes he leads us out of our places of comfort so that we don’t get lazy. Sometimes God makes us busy so that we don’t have time to fight and quarrel with one another. I know why I have to be moved out from this town parish to a rural parish like Betong – It is not only because God has a purpose for me there: it is also for your own good that I move.
Now if the Shepherd is on the move, we the sheep should be moving too. The sheep has to constantly listen to the voice of the shepherd; otherwise it will be left behind. Christians who are not paying attention will be left behind. If you are left behind, you are without the protection of the Shepherd. If you do that, you are putting yourself in a very dangerous place and very vulnerable to attack of the enemies.
There are so many religions and churches around us – all claiming to speak the truth and leading people to the right way. So how do we know the truth? Look at verse 5: "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." Do you know why the thieves and wolves are so successful today? Do you know why false teachers attract crowd of people to follow them? It is not because their voice is so effective: it because the sheep don’t know the voice of the true Shepherd. When you don’t know the truth, you will accept anything that sounds convincing, sweet and nice to be the truth. That is why every Christian must spend enough time with God, to study his Word and in prayer. In that way you will develop an ability to know the voice of God, so that you can recognise when a stranger or a false shepherd is speaking and trying to lead you astray.
I believe that as we go through this section of the Bible, there are at least two things we can learn: Jesus is leading us right now. As he moves ahead of us, he is calling us to follow him. The question is: are you listening to his call and are you moving with him?
Theme: The Shepherd and the Sheep (John 10: 1-10)
The context of our Gospel reading for this morning is the story in John 9, which is about the healing of a man who had been blind since he was born. After Jesus healed him, the Pharisees were angry because he did it on a Sabbath Day. So in chapter 10 Jesus started to talk about the Good Shepherd and what he does for his sheep. He was explaining what he was doing – that in his act of healing the man born blind, he was exercising his love and his care for his sheep.
The image of God being our shepherd was not an invention of Jesus: it was a continuation from the Old Testament. Ezekiel 34:31 says, "You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God," says the Lord.” In Psalm100:3b, it is stated: “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 95:7, it says: “For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.” And in Isaiah 40:11: “He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”
Why are we compared to sheep? Why not dogs or cats or horses? It is because a sheep is a unique animal. Without a shepherd a sheep is a defenceless animal. Without God we too are defenceless against Satan. A sheep may fight with another sheep but it cannot fight other stronger wild animal. We too can fight our fellow men, but under attack of Satan we would succumb to defeat.
The sheep is prone to wander and a sheep is also without a sense of direction. If a sheep is lost it cannot find its way back, like a dog or cat. That is why in the parable Jesus speaks about the lost sheep that has to be searched by the shepherd. We too are prone to wander until we get lost. Isaiah 53: 6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
So because we are easily lost like the sheep, we need a Shepherd to guide us. And because we are defenceless against Satan on our own, we need to stay together, just like the sheep under one flock and led by a shepherd.
There are three things that I want to share with you about becoming sheep of the Shepherd:
Good sheep know the shepherd: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep” (vs. 1 & 2).
We live in a world that has a lot of false shepherds knocking at the door of the sheepfold. People are being misled, confused and wasting their lives without ever truly understanding Who God is and what He wants for their lives. How are we going to recognize the true Shepherd?
First, false Shepherd avoids the proper way. He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. The purpose of the sheepfold was to provide protection during the night. A Sheepfold was a circular wall about 10 feet tall with a single opening that served as a door. Several flocks might be placed into the sheepfold at night, with one of the shepherds lying in the opening to serve as the door. Nothing could get into, or out of the sheepfold without having to go through the shepherd and only thieves and robbers seek to enter the sheepfold by another means besides the door.
Second, false shepherds surround us on all sides looking for ways to get at the flocks. Sometimes they come through religion. Sometimes they approach us and teach about morality and make us feel guilty, and then give us false hope. Some may tell us about giving us excitement, or promises of wealth or health. What is common about false shepherds is that they always distort the truth in one way or another - primarily the truth about Who Jesus really is.
Third, false shepherds work hard. They teach you many rules to follow and rituals to keep so that you remain in their control, and you can be led astray. Their teaching may sound good, but their real motive is to steal and exploit the sheep for their own purposes. Many of these false shepherds are sweet-talkers and full of charisma, and that is why many people don’t even realized that they are being sucked in and led astray. 2 Peter 2:2-3 says, “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
On the other hand, the true shepherd enters the proper way: "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep” (vs. 2). In the summer, the flocks stayed out in the field all night. But in the winter, the flocks were gathered into pens, or sheepfolds.
Shepherding in the ancient East worked differently from the ones practiced in the West. In the west, sheep are driven by the shepherd on a horse with the help of a dog. In the east, the shepherd leads the flock on foot, and they follow him. In the east, sheep were given names, as we do with our dogs and cats. The shepherd was familiar with his sheep, knowing them all by name, and they would know the sound of his voice.
The sheep would graze out in the field the whole day. When even came the sheep would be led into the sheepfold. In an open country, the shepherd would herd his sheep into a low walled enclosure of piled rocks with a small opening. At night, since there was no gate, just an opening, the shepherd would lie across the opening to keep the sheep in and the wild animals out – he would literally become the door. That was what Jesus was talking about in verse 7: “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep”.
The sheep that were reared near villages were kept in a slightly different manner. They would be taken into a common sheepfold. This sheepfold was typically a large stone wall enclosure about 10-feet high, without a roof, with a single entrance into it. Several flocks from various shepherds would all share this same sheepfold for the night. Shepherds would take turn to guard the sheep by spending the night sleeping at the entrance of the sheepfold.
A good Sheep know the voice of the shepherd: "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (vs.3). A communal sheepfold might have about a few hundred sheep belonging to different shepherds. How would they sort out what sheep belong to who? In the morning the shepherds knocked at the barred door & the watchman would open from within. Then each shepherd would separate his sheep by giving a call or singing a song. The flock would follow its own shepherd. This reminds us two things:
First, good sheep know the Shepherd’s voice. A sheep is a unique animal. It does not respond to a call: you cannot blow a whistle and expect the sheep to come like a dog. Sheep don’t respond to calls like that: they respond to Shepherd’s voice. What does the voice of our Shepherd sound like? Does he speak like a politician or an environmentalist or a businessman? Does Jesus speak like any religious leader? I believe that the voice of Jesus is different from most voices because he speaks about forgiveness, about love, and about grace, in a way different from others. We who are his sheep need to hear a voice that speaks like Jesus. And we, the Church, cannot speak differently from how Jesus speaks.
Second, good sheep know their own names given by the Shepherd. In Bible times the sheep were raised not so much for their meat, but for their wool. So the sheep received special care, and even develop a sort of relationship with the shepherd. The relationship was so special that the shepherd has a name for every one of his sheep. What sorts of names does a shepherd give to his sheep? He usually named them by their peculiar characteristics, traits or spots, or even by their defects. He would give them descriptive names like “Brown-leg” or “Black-ear” or “Big eyes”.
Jesus also knows the individual weaknesses and failings of His flock and watches over the members with love and understanding. Jesus knows our doubts, fears, trials, conflicts, and defeats that disturb our peace, and He will come to our aid. That is the picture of our God. He knows what you are worried about right now. He knows the temptations that you battle with. He knows the struggles you have had this week
Names convey a sense of who we are and how others relate to us. “The Lord has called Me from the womb; . . .He has made mention of My name” (Isa. 49:1). Jesus calls us by name because He knows us so well. And those of us who know him respond to his voice. If the shepherd gives the names of his sheep after their traits and characteristics, what name do you think that Jesus has given you? Of course I don’t want you to go around and tell people that Jesus has called you “Ms. Humility” or “Mr. Cheerful Giver”. That is for you to know yourself.
A good sheep follow the leading of the shepherd: …..and leads them out. "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers" (vs. 4 & 5).
The shepherd has to constantly lead the flock of sheep from place to another. He cannot lead the flock out of the sheepfold to graze and then takes a rest and goes to sleep. We need to remember that the grass in Palestine is not like ours. They only have little patches of grass here and there and the shepherd has to protect them and ensure they will grow again. So the shepherd has to keep the sheep moving otherwise the sheep will eat all the grass until the root, leaving the place a barren land. The sheep have to be on the move because if they keep still in one place they will start to fight one another.
What does this speak about our God? Our God is the Shepherd who keeps us always on the move. Sometimes he leads us out of our places of comfort so that we don’t get lazy. Sometimes God makes us busy so that we don’t have time to fight and quarrel with one another. I know why I have to be moved out from this town parish to a rural parish like Betong – It is not only because God has a purpose for me there: it is also for your own good that I move.
Now if the Shepherd is on the move, we the sheep should be moving too. The sheep has to constantly listen to the voice of the shepherd; otherwise it will be left behind. Christians who are not paying attention will be left behind. If you are left behind, you are without the protection of the Shepherd. If you do that, you are putting yourself in a very dangerous place and very vulnerable to attack of the enemies.
There are so many religions and churches around us – all claiming to speak the truth and leading people to the right way. So how do we know the truth? Look at verse 5: "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." Do you know why the thieves and wolves are so successful today? Do you know why false teachers attract crowd of people to follow them? It is not because their voice is so effective: it because the sheep don’t know the voice of the true Shepherd. When you don’t know the truth, you will accept anything that sounds convincing, sweet and nice to be the truth. That is why every Christian must spend enough time with God, to study his Word and in prayer. In that way you will develop an ability to know the voice of God, so that you can recognise when a stranger or a false shepherd is speaking and trying to lead you astray.
I believe that as we go through this section of the Bible, there are at least two things we can learn: Jesus is leading us right now. As he moves ahead of us, he is calling us to follow him. The question is: are you listening to his call and are you moving with him?
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