Comfort in Christ! (John 10)

We have for years seen pictures of Christ as a Shepard, with the lamb in one hand and looking so peaceful.   As we read chapter ten of John’s gospel we read how Christ gives us a picture of Him being the Shepard.  In the first part of chapter ten, Christ speaks of how the flock knows Him, how thieves and imposter came but the sheep ran away.  Who are these thieves and imposters He speaks of, they are those who at that time came into the world and claimed to be Christ, or claimed to be the way to heaven and eternal life.  The thief is anyone trying to steal us from Christ there are still many false religions and false teachings even inside supposed churches teaching a Different Christ, this is nothing new to our culture, in the books of Jude and 2^nd Peter believers are warned of false teachers.  This is why it is so important we read and study the bible along with prayer so that we know God.  Christ Explains to them how it is through Him that we come to God.

“Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. Wherever they go, they will find green pastures.  The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness”(John 10:9-10).  Do not misunderstand what Christ is saying here, because what He is saying here is so important.  He’s saying the only path to eternal life to Heaven to  God the father is through Him.  No other Gate is going to get you out of Hell, only Christ can do that , there is no other way only through Christ.  Many into today’s society and around the world are going to tell you that this is a hateful way of thinking, and wrong.  But if God were a hateful God why then would He send His son to die on a cross for our sins.  Christ says in verse 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”  Christ is saying to them I am going to the cross to die so you may have life, once again letting them know of the love God has for them.

The reality is, this is great news for us, because God came down to us, we do not need to go up to God.  We do not need to go anywhere to meet God, we can on a daily basis read His word and pray to Him and know that He knows us.  The Psalmist writes “You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (ps 139:16)  God knew us before we were even born.  God is not some impersonal God who is up in Heaven looking down at us trying to figure out what He can do to keep us out of reach.  He is everywhere and knows everyone whether they want to know Him or not. He came up with a plan to allow us to come into a relationship with Him.  Through Christ dying and on a cross, then defeating death for us on the third day raising again.   

Christ says in verses 15 thru 17, “ just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice; and there will be one flock with one shepherd The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again. No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again. For my Father has given me this command.”  We are the Sheep and He gives His life for us to be able to come to know God who loves us and knows us already.

Is this life really all about me? (Philippians 2:1-18)

I wonder what people are looking for in a church, the one thing that scares me when I look at some of the poplar teaching by so called pastors is the idea that church is about us.  It is about what God can do for us, how we feel after going to church, Church should be a place we go and leave feeling good about ourselves.  The pastor should speak on something that is uplifting.  I have been told by some that a sermon should go no longer than twenty minutes, and don’t speak on not sinning that may offend someone.  That no one wants to go to church and leave feeling bad because l told them that they cannot do something.  We need to make sure that the music is to everyone’s liking so that they can all be entertained by it.  But then I think back to the Word of God, and I come this question is my life here on earth really all about me, about the things I want, the things that I desire.  Should I just ignore those around me that may be hurting and suffering because it makes me uncomfortable?  Then God reminds me about His word and I read in Philippians these words, “Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.  Don’t think only about your own affairs.  But be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.” (Phil 2:3-4)

As I read just those few words written by Paul I am reminded of how it is not about me, our us but it is about God.  Our lives are to honor God in all we do, when we go to work we work hard not for us but for God, when we go to church we worship God.  We are to live our lives in order to please God in all we do.  We are to treat others with love and respect, and that is hard to do sometimes.  But is this not what Christ did for us?  Paul goes on in verses 5-11 to tell how Christ who was God, gave up His position in heaven to come and be a slave here on earth.  Christ came from heaven to die as a criminal, not for Himself but for the glory of God.  For it is through His death and resurrection that death was defeated.  WE are to follow the example of Christ and serve God with are entire lives.  It is so easy to make life all about us all about what we want but we as Christians must give up our lives in order to truly be alive.  In the gospel of Mark we read where Christ tells those around Him “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ^ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”(Mark 8:34-35)  These words spoken are also found the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

The reality is that we serve a God that loves us enough to send His Son to die on a cross, so we can enter into a relationship with Him.  But we want to begin to try to come into the relationship on our terms.  We want to make it all about us, but it is not about us it is about God, it is about what He has done for us.  We are to allow Him to begin to change us as we get to know Him better.  It is through Him we are saved it His grace and His blood that saves us.  We did nothing to deserve His love but we are allowed to freely accept it and come into His kingdom.  

We No longer need to live as the Blind (John 9:6-41)

Last week we look at the beginning of John chapter nine, we saw where Christ Healed the blind man.  We talked about how when times are tough, things are not going the way we think God should be allowing them to go that it is during these times that we are able to allow God’s glory to shine the most.  We now see that as the once blind man is walking in his town people are stunned even at disbelief that this is the same man who was blind now he can see.   The people took the man to the Pharisees, the Pharisees ask him “who healed you?”, then they told him “this man is not from God who healed you for He healed you on the Sabbath.”  But they could not shake this man’s belief  that Christ was a man from God.  He was finally excommunicated from the Jews by the Pharisees, since they could no longer accept the truth that was being spoken to them.

This man who grew up Jewish gladly left the Synagogue that day to go and accept that Christ was the Son of God.  Christ came in and changed his life forever, even if he had to leave everything he knew he was not going to back down on who healed him.   We must realize that Christ never said that accepting Him into our lives would make our lives easy.  No we are told throughout all four Gospels that we may have to go through tough times here on earth.  But I think that many in the church in this country have forgotten something very important we are to grow in our relationship with Christ.  We are to walk away from the sin in our lives and put on a new self.  We on the other hand in this country try to say its ok to be a Christian and still walk in the darkness of this world to still go and do what we please.  Some people even say that you sin every day that you cannot help it.  I disagree with that thought, I do not believe that Christ came as the light of the world to die on a cross then rise from the dead, and then send us the Holy Sprite to help us just so we could still live in sin. 

Let us look at the final conversation between this man and Christ.  Christ ask him do you believe in the Son of Man, the man answered show Him to me because I want to believe.   Christ tells him I am the Son of Man, which prompts the man to worship Christ.  Here is the important part Christ says, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?  Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”  What is Christ saying here? He is  saying, now that those who lived in the darkness have seen the light they must no longer live in the darkness.  The commentator has this to say, “The Lord’s answer may be paraphrased as follows: “If you admit that you are blind and sinful, and that you need a Savior, then your sins can be forgiven you, and you can be saved. But you profess that you are in need of nothing. You claim that you are righteous and that you have no sin. Therefore, there is no forgiveness of sins for you.” ^[1]  The first step is admitting that we are sinners and need Christ then the second step is getting to know now Christ.  The closer we are to God and His word the easier it is to follow and be obedient to His Word. 

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^[1]MacDonald, W. 1997, c1995. Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Jn 9:41). Thomas Nelson: Nashville

God wants to use you to glorify His Name! (John 9:1-5)

As we read John chapter nine it is easy for us to maybe shake our heads at the disciples asking why is this man blind who sinned.  But we in many ways do the very same today, I was just told about a story the other day, that ended with this statement, they believe all their problems are from God punishing them for leaving the Church.  How many of us also like to say if they lived their lives differently then they wouldn’t have the troubles that they have.  The entire book of Job was an illustration on how God does not punish us for our sins while we are still on earth.  We do not go through hard times because God is in heaven looking at us and says I need to punish them now because they are disobedient.  In fact in the Book of Job we get a completely different picture.  In Chapter one of Job, we are told that Job is a man of God, and loves God.  We then see how God wants to show Lucifer that Job is not just following Him because of all He has given to Job.  He allows Job to be tested so that in the end He is glorified in that Job still loves Him. 

Here in Chapter nine of John Christ tells us that “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him. All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. But while I am still in the world, I am the light of the world.” (verses3-5)  This man was born blind so that the glory of God could be seen in Him.  Christ goes on to heal him in the following verses.  God allows us to go through tough and difficult time so that during those times we are going to glorify His name.  Not because we have done something wrong, trust me we are all sinners and all deserve eternal death.   It is easy to give praise to God during the good times in our lives but what about the tough times.  Instead some blame God and walk away saying if we had a loving a God then none of this would be happening, they forget that a loving God sent His Son to earth to glorify Him on a cross so that we may be saved from our sins. 

Christ came to be a light in a dark in a dying world; He came to serve the poor and the needy.  He healed those who were sick and feed those who were hungry.  We too must go and be  a light into this world, we too must go into a dark and bleak world and shine the light of Christ so that other may come to know Him be saved and enjoy true life.  It is time as a church that we begin to look outside our walls of comfort and begin to show compassion unto a dyeing world.  In a world where every five seconds a child dies of starvation, which is over 2.5 million deaths a year.  Where over 1.7 billion lacks access to clean and safe water to drink.  Let us bring it closer to home,  how many of us look down at those we pass because we believe we are better than they are.  Instead of sharing the love of God we have already decided that they are not worthy of our love or even a smile.  We don’t go out of our way to cross the street meet them and talk to them, to learn about their story.  Maybe it is time for us to begin to start to pray for God to shine through us to help have the courage to go out and meet new people and share the light.  To let them know of a God that loves them, by sharing that love. 

Lucifer wants to stop us from going out and sharing the love of God, he wants to be as self-centered as possible, so when he comes and brings troubles our way it is meant to stop us from going out and sharing the love of God.  But what if instead of when bad things come our way we started to praise God and thank Him.  That is what we are told to do in James, “dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.”(James 1:2)  What if when trouble came our way we praised God, give more and told more people about Christ and how He changed our lives.  We serve a God who is all powerful, we have nothing to fear not even death.  But we seem to want to stay in our comfort zone, where it is safe and everyone knows us and loves us.  We are afraid to go and tell others about Christ.  We think that coming to church is about doing the right thing, and that we are ok by just coming and that we need not go and share Christ with others.  We think that because of our past or troubles we are going through we can’t tell others about Christ.  But it is the very troubles and the problems we have had that God wants to use to work His glory through.    Let us Look at who God used to go and tell the world about His Son, a tax collector, a handful of fisherman, a man who took pride in murdering Christians.  God used all these people He also wants to use you with all your troubles and all the baggage you carry along.  

Do We Really Know Our Father? (John 8:31-58)

The reality of many people is that they believe they know God, they go to church on Sunday morning hear the message and feel that they know God.  They may not always obey Gods word, they may not even read their bibles, or pray.  But they know God their heavenly father, in fact they know if they need something they can go and pray for it.  The problem is that God is not the kind of Father who is going to just look over the fact that the only time we come to Him is when we need something, or that the only reason we go to church is to feel safe about not going to Hell.  We need to come to realize that the teachings of Christ tells us we must obey God.  In fact to truly know the Father we must first know Jesus, and Christ tells us, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  The key word in this statement is abide, abide here means to remain, to continue.  Christ is saying if you want to be a follower to know me you must remain with me, continue to be obedient in my word.  In fact He tells them if you do then, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  The church leaders had trouble with statement about being set free because they thought they were already free.

I dare say that many of us today have trouble with this thought of being set free from the bondage of sin.  Many of us are very comfortable with how we live we do not want God telling us we must change.  That we may view something or do is wrong.  In fact we feel like we are free, we have become good at telling ourselves it ok that really isn’t a sin, that since Christ came we don’t have to worry about certain sins, that living how we live is just fine with God, after all we come to church we let others know that and it’s no big deal to God how we spend the rest of our time.  In fact the Jewish leaders continue to tell Christ that they are children of Abraham, and it is through Abraham that they know God.  Christ then tells them this, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. ^Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. ^You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. ^ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. ^ Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? ^He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”(8:42-47)

Christ is telling them that they do not know God, they only know evil that their true father is Satan, that they only live to glorify themselves and not God.  You see Christ is the only true path to find freedom from sin.  We are held by the bonds of sin, we want to believe that just by going to Church and saying a few words, that we are no longer needing to live in fear of Hell, but the truth is unless we have given everything to God then we are not living for God.  Christ told those around Him, “‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.”(8:52)  If we want to live for God and know God the Father then we must keep His word live a life that glorifies God.  What Christ is saying is if we want true life, true freedom then we must give it all to God, we must realize it has nothing to do with who we know or are related to.  That no matter what we are going to follow and obey.  Even if it means being mocked called names, beaten we are following God and putting all of our trust into Christ Jesus our risen savior! We are no longer living for sin, we are living for God, We are asking God to send His Holy Spirit to fall onto us and Guide us and comfort us and give us freedom we never understood.  I ask you this very important  question are you truly following Christ and know God?