I don t know if this happens to you, but sometimes people come up to me and say I ve got some Good News and some Bad News, which do you want first?

Transcription

1 Bad Shepherds, Good Shepherd 1 (Jeremiah 23:1-8; Matthew 1:1, 18-21; John 10:14-18) 11 th Dec 2016 G Day church family Please have your Bibles open and turned to the OT book of Jeremiah, chapter 23 the first 8 verses. Then we ll look at Matthew s Gospel in the NT, chapter 1 and then finally John s Gospel, chapter 10 If you re a person who likes to take notes there s an outline to write on - if that helps you concentrate Let me pray first for God s help in understanding and applying His word to our lives. Let s pray Intro I don t know if this happens to you, but sometimes people come up to me and say I ve got some Good News and some Bad News, which do you want first? I usually say the Bad News to get it over and done with? Some of you might do the same? It s like if your boss at work calls you into his office and says: I ve got some Good News and some Bad News The Good News is we really appreciate all the hard work you do here, Paul The Bad News is we have to let you go we can t afford to pay you anymore see you later Page 1 of 10

2 I think I d rather have the bad news first! 2 So let s begin with the Bad News [this morning/evening] from the OT book of Jeremiah chapter 23 Bad News - Bad Shepherds (Jeremiah 23:1-4) So looking at v1 the Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah about 600 BC and says: [Powerpoint 1-Woe] Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture! We don t use the word woe much these days do we? Woe means great sorrow or distress is coming your way We might say today You ve stuffed it shepherds you re in real bother! God s basically saying I ve got some bad news for your shepherds! And God s not talking to real shepherds who look after furry fluffy sheep He s talking to the leaders of Israel who look after God s people we see that in v2 the shepherds who tend my people These leaders of Israel are people like the Kings of Israel (which Jeremiah mentions in chapter 22) and other civil leaders, as well as some of the prophets and priests (which Jeremiah mentions in chapter 23) These leaders and religious teachers, Jeremiah says, are bad or false shepherds, they are not taking care of their sheep the people! The problem is the leaders don t care about God s rules or God s word and they don t care about the people either. In fact they are leading their sheep the people astray! Page 2 of 10

3 The same problem exists today. No matter what country we look at in the world we can see examples of leaders who are not following God s rules who don t care about what is right in God s eyes who don t seek God s wisdom before making decisions but instead lean on their own understanding. Leaders who don t care about the people they are supposed to be serving but only care about their own self-interests first And this same thing can happen in churches if we re not teaching God s word or we re teaching it incorrectly or if we re not looking after our people 3 In Jeremiah s time this had reached epidemic proportions so God through Jeremiah says: In v2 the bad news is because you are bad shepherds you will be punished You see there is a responsibility for anyone in leadership of a country, a state, a community to look after the people AND a responsibility to follow God s rules and live lives pleasing to God and be an example to the people This responsibility is also on leaders of churches they must lead and teach God s people in the ways of God so all the people live lives pleasing to God so that people don t get led astray and wander off like lost sheep. If leaders don t look after the people God says - the leaders will be punished! God goes on to say through Jeremiah - in verse 3 - that there will come a time when God Himself will be the people s shepherd. And He will Page 3 of 10

4 4 gather a remnant of His flock from all the countries he drove them out to and bring them back These are encouraging words to Jeremiah and the people because the people face the prospect of being exiled to the foreign country of Babylon (modern day Iraq) But here God is saying He Himself like a Good Shepherd - will bring some of them back to their own land and they will be fruitful and increase in number again AND He will place faithful under-shepherds over the people in v4 These new under shepherds will look after the people so they don t go missing like lost sheep, and so they are not afraid like sheep who don t have a shepherd or who don t have anyone protecting them. The people will feel safe and protected because these new under shepherds will be following God s ways and so the people won t feel afraid anymore Instead they will feel like God is with them And God s promise to have under shepherds was fulfilled in a small way shortly after Jeremiah s time as God raised up faithful Godly leaders like: Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah who helped to bring the people back from exile in Babylon, to rebuild the city walls and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem So the Bad News is the bad shepherds will be punished and replaced. [Powerpoint 2 Bad News for us] But what about us here today? We might not be leaders? Are we off the hook? Aren t we just like the shepherds of Israel? Aren t we just like the leaders of Israel? We re don t always follow God s rules Page 4 of 10

5 5 We don t always come back to God s Word for advice and wisdom and teaching and guidance do we? Are we just as much as fault as our politician leaders, our community leaders and our church leaders? Aren t we just as much in need of having God, Himself as our Shepherd too? Isn t the bad news for the bad shepherds just as much our bad news? The Bible says All have sinned and fall short of God s glory (Rom 3:23) And that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23_ Sin breaks the relationship between us and God So we need God Himself as our Shepherd too! Good News Good Shepherd Promised (Jeremiah 23:5-8) Now let s look at the Good News As we said: God himself will be the New Master Shepherd and will appoint under shepherds to look after His people [Powerpoint 3 A Good Shepherd] But there s more Good News than that Ultimately the Lord promises through Jeremiah: In v5 that He will raise up a righteous branch from King David s family tree This righteous branch will be: A king who will reign wisely Who will do what is just and right in the land And this King will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour This Righteous Saviour King will be God Himself and will be a Good Shepherd as opposed to the bad shepherds of Israel (pause) Page 5 of 10

6 6 Now it s clear that in Jeremiah s time the people needed a Good Shepherd because they were being led astray by these bad shepherds What about us today? Do we need this Righteous Saviour King and Good Shepherd? Well Yes of course we do - we need Him because we all sin and rebel against God s rules and we can t stop sinning completely and sin leads to us all dying and being separated from God forever AND we can t fix our sin ourselves. Only the perfect Righteous (blameless, perfect) Saviour King and Good Shepherd can do that!!! That s why we all need him! Good News Good Shepherd Born (Matthew 1:1, 18-21) Fast forward 600 years or so from Jeremiah s time And we look at the NT book of Matthew chapter 1, verse 1 [Powerpoint 4-Born] Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 1 And we see something very interesting We see the start of a genealogy A posh word for a family tree It says This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham So here s the family tree of Jesus He is called the Messiah Hebrew word for God s Chosen One And He s the Son of David Remember how in Jeremiah the Promised Shepherd was to be a King from King David s family tree Page 6 of 10

7 Well here He is It s Jesus He s the Promised Shepherd that Jeremiah was talking about 7 Now if you skip down to verses 18 to 21 of Matthew chapter 1 We see something very interesting about Jesus birth and family tree We see that there is a couple called Mary and Joseph They are pledged to be married we would say today that they are engaged to be married And they haven t slept together yet either And yet Mary is pregnant Mary is made pregnant by God s Holy Spirit Now that s really important Because it means the baby that Mary will have is from God God is the Father through His Holy Spirit And not through Joseph a human being This means when God said back in Jeremiah I myself will gather my flock (Jeremiah 28:3) This is how God s going to do it Because baby Jesus is from God Which means the baby is fully God from God s Holy Spirit And the baby is fully human from His mother Mary Now this is pretty mind blowing for Joseph He s thinking of calling off the wedding v19 But an angel reassures Joseph in a dream v20 - that it s all okay and that the baby is from God s Holy Spirit And importantly the angel tells Joseph in v21 to call the baby Jesus That s really important Because Jesus name means Saviour or He saves Page 7 of 10

8 And that s what Jeremiah said about this promised Shepherd He would be a righteous Saviour King 8 And Jesus is only able to save people from their sin because He is fully God and therefore fully perfect and sinless in every way! God always keeps His promises! Good News What the Good Shepherd Does (John 10:14-18) But the Good News doesn t stop there Fast forward about 30 years after Jesus was born And we read in John s Gospel chapter 10 from verse 14 to 18 Please turn with me to John chapter 10 [Powerpoint 5-Good Shepherd] And we read The Good News Jesus himself says in v14 - I am the Good Shepherd And the good thing for us is- He knows His sheep (us) if we care to believe in Him And we His sheep know Him if we care to believe in Him (Psalm 23) And importantly He s different from shepherds who look after their fluffy furry sheep who might even go looking for a stray sheep Jesus as the Good Shepherd not only looks for His sheep/people who a lost from God He is prepared to die for His sheep to keep them safe Safe from what? Safe from their sin which separates them from a proper relationship from God Because ultimately we all have to be punished for sin and the punishment God says is we all must die Page 8 of 10

9 9 But the Good News is Jesus took the punishment for our sin on the cross and took our place and our guilt and died a cruel death on the cross so we could be forgiven of our sins Yet there s still more Good News! See v17 Jesus says - He not only lays down His life for His Sheep He takes up His life again Because the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead 3 days later And that gives us even more Good News Of not having to worry about dying either Because if we believe in Jesus the Good Shepherd He not only takes our sins away and replaces them with forgiveness He also takes our fear of dying away and replaces it with the hope of rising again and living with God forever in Heaven Ultimately for someone who believes in Jesus death on the cross and rising from the dead there is no bad news Only Good News! Conclusion So to sum up - as we approach Christmas in 2 Sundays time [Powerpoint 6-Conclusion] If you re someone here today who hasn t thought about the Bad News that our sin and rebellion breaks our relationship with God and who hasn t realized that this bad news can be changed into Good News by believing in the Good Shepherd who fixes our relationship with God Then I pray today is the day you put your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Come and talk to me after the service! Page 9 of 10

10 If on the other hand you have already accepted Jesus as Lord - I d like to encourage you today to be equipped To tell everyone you come across 1. That the Bad News about bad shepherds and leaders who lead us astray and the bad news about our sin and rebellion against God has now been replaced by Good News of a Good Shepherd 2. This Good News involves a Good Shepherd who was promised by God in the Bible - in the OT 3. And the Good News is that this Good Shepherd Jesus - has already been born and he takes away sin and death and replaces it with forgiveness and eternal life 4. Tell everyone on this planet (start off with Toukley) that they need this Good Shepherd because he turns the Bad News of being in a broken relationship with God into a joyful relationship where we can celebrate God s love in sending Jesus That s WHY we can sing Joy to the World! Let s pray 10 Page 10 of 10