Pastoral Letter 9

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

As I write this letter, we are hearing some positive news about things getting better, though slowly. We are filled with hope that we are on the way to recover from this unprecedented situation. Social distancing restrictions are easing and gradually we will be able to have more face to face communication, respecting the distancing rules. We are filled with hope that sooner rather than later, we will be able to worship together in the church. Let us keep praying for that day to come soon. Some hoped that on Easter we will be able to gather for our church services, as Easter was a fitting day for us to be raised anew. But unfortunately, it did not happen. It was not the right time yet. But as we look forward, Pentecost could be another good possibility, even if we will not be able to worship with our neighbouring St. Aidan’s Anglican Church according to our long time custom. Pentecost is the day when we celebrate the coming of the Spirit and the birth of the church. So, let us pray and hope that it will be the day when we will be able to open our doors.

Again, with this email and the attached Order of Service, I ask you to follow the Order on Sunday morning at 9:30 am as you have done during this pandemic, by reading the script, the Prayers, Responsive Reading, Bible Readings and sing the hymns and think about all those who are worshiping with you at the same time. I am attaching the hymns in music and video format to make it easy for you to sing along.  Also, a few other pieces of music for your enjoyment. One from Ruth, as I promised last week, and a few from Mark. Just double click on the attached files and your computer will do the rest. Please do not forget to light a candle, if you wish, but most importantly, a small roll and a small cup of wine or juice to share together the Lord’s Supper.

I am grateful to all of you for your wonderful words and beautiful messages that keep coming, which encourages me and assures me that we are together in these challenging times. Your prayers and support mean a lot to me, and I keep doing my best as we move forward together through these uncharted territories. Please keep writing and keep communicating with each other, with calls and keep everyone informed with any new developments that happen with you, your family or any congregation member that you know is having any problems.

Keep on praying and leave everything in the hands of our great God, who is our refuge and strength.

 

Some prayer requests to you all:

Please pray for Ruth, as she is still struggling with her sister Katie’s psychosis. Katie is suffering terribly from the side effects of the antipsychotic drugs, but she seems to be just coping at home and they have managed to arrange some support.

Please pray for those members of our congregation who are lonely and struggling with many challenges, as we are not able to have our regular gatherings and services, which were, and hopefully soon will be, one of the best ways to overcome our loneliness. Let us pray for that day to come soon when we will be together to share our life and encourage one another.

Please pray for Penny, as she recovers from a minor operation for removing a BCC from her leg. May she rest and be refreshed to keep up the good work she does as the Church Council chairperson.

Please pray for our treasurer Wendy and accountant Stan, who continue with the same diligence to keep our finances in order and do their best securing support from the government in these challenging times.

Please pray for Sarah and John and their family, our previous cleaners, as Sarah is still undergoing chemotherapy and for now she is OK.

Praise be to our God and Father, who loves us, keeps us and is with us always.

Krikor

Your Minister

 

Message Summary

The Good Shepherd

“I am the Good Shepherd”

John 10:1-21  –   1 Peter 2:21-25

There are many images that Jesus identifies Himself with in the New Testament. But the one that brings comfort and relief to many is that of the shepherd.

Many stained-glass windows in church sanctuaries portray Jesus as the Good Shepherd, often surrounded by children. The 23^rd Psalm, the Shepherd’s Psalm, has been used by countless pastors to provide comfort to families, who have lost loved ones, as the Good Shepherd offers a safe refuge from a world filled with thieves, robbers and wolves, who are trying to destroy people. The Great and the Good Shepherd is our constant protector, always on guard and who does not sleep (Psalm 91:1-4; Psalm 121:1-4).

We live in a world which, on so many levels, thinks in a negative way. One of the main reasons for suicide today, is not that people want to die, but that they cannot find a reason to live. In the midst of this negative attitude, God gives us the picture of our Good Shepherd, who tells us that we will not be in want, but we will have the best of pastures and water and be restored in our souls. We have the peace that He is our guide because He loves us and will not leave us. There is the certainty that this shepherd walks with us all of our lives, and that when we breathe our last breath in this world, He is there to walk with us and we will be with Him forever. He will anoint our heads with oil and promise us that we will dwell in His house forever.

In our gospel reading from John 10, Jesus is teaching His disciples the type of relationship that He desires to have with Christians, His followers and with us.

SCRIPTURAL BACKGROUND:

We read in the previous chapter that Jesus is in the midst of a controversy with the Pharisees over healing a blind man on the Sabbath. Strangely enough the controversy is initiated by His own disciples, as they asked Jesus who had sinned in order that this man was born blind. According to the culture it was felt that previous sin in the person’s family was the cause for the condition, in this case blindness. Jesus answered them by saying that the man was blind not by the power of someone’s sin, but rather to show the healing power of God, and thus He heals the blind man.

Later the man was brought to the Pharisees to investigate the healing. The Pharisees were hoping to find something against Jesus. The issue thus became an issue of healing on the Sabbath. The healed man was eventually thrown out of the synagogue for defending Jesus.

Jesus then comes to his aid again. First, He leads the healed man to have personal faith in Him, and then He turns His attention to the Pharisees. The account here in chapter 10 is all part of Jesus’ dialogue with the Pharisees.

Let’s reflect on Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading this morning when He said: “I am the Good Shepherd.”

What a strange metaphor to use, but I think very appropriate in some ways. So, what are the reasons for Jesus to call Himself the Shepherd and us the sheep?

1. Because we have some similarities to sheep.

When we look at society today, we can see three characteristics of sheep that we see in people around us and in ourselves too.

a. Sheep follow the crowd and do not think of the consequences.

That’s what happens when you are out somewhere in the midst of crowds, who, maybe, are out for a demonstration or to make a statement. You follow them and do what the others are doing. This is true in the case of sheep too. They follow each other.

b. Sheep can be pretty stubborn.

The shepherd tries to lead them in a certain direction, but the sheep stubbornly go in another direction. There is not much difference with people.

c. But when a sheep trusts someone, it follows without thinking.

It is therefore essential that we find the Good Shepherd who will care for us sheep – not exploit us.

2. Jesus’ love and concern for us is similar to that of a shepherd for his sheep.

What characteristics of the Shepherd can we see in Jesus?

There are some wonderful characteristics that first century Jewish Shepherds had.

a. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and cares for them individually.

We see that beautifully illustrated in the parable of the Lost Sheep. A shepherd had 100 sheep and found that one of them was missing. What did he do?

Did he write that sheep off as a slight economic loss? No, he left the other 99 safely grazing and went off to find the one that was lost. And we read that when he found it, he put it on his shoulders and came home rejoicing! What a beautiful picture of the caring Good Shepherd.

b. Shepherds protect their sheep

Let us look to King David. David was a Shepherd before he became King. It was as a shepherd that he killed Goliath. He said this to King Saul as he went out to battle with Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:34: “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

The Good Shepherd protects his sheep from all dangers. He does everything to protect and safely bring the sheep home. He cares that much for His sheep.

c. The shepherd wants the best for their sheep

Jesus said this in John 10:10: “I am come that they may have life and have it in abundance (to the full).”

The Good Shepherd wants the best for his sheep.

God wants our very best. He wants us to have a rich and full life. We can spend eternity with Him.

Easter reminds us that Christ the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep.

Jesus loves us so much that he wants us to have a rich and full life. He is not going to give us up to the enemy. But to be safe, like sheep we need to stay close to the shepherd.

In Psalm 23 we see He provides for His sheep. The psalmist says: He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still (quiet) waters, he restores my soul.

Did you know that sheep will only drink by still water and not by running water?

It is when we come to a quiet place that God will restore our souls. Jesus often pulled away from the crowd to be with the Father.  So, shouldn’t we do the same?

In John 17 just before the Crucifixion, we see Christ praying. The Good Shepherd was protecting his Sheep. He cares for us.

3. Thirdly because the Church should be like the sheepfold.

According to the first century Jewish culture, a sheep pen or enclosure was where sheep have shelter.  A sheep pen was a place which had high walls to protect the sheep, but no roof or door.  The shepherd often lay across the entrance to act as the door. When Jesus said: “I am the door of the Sheepfold”, this is exactly what he was referring to. It was the Shepherd who regulated who came in and who went out.  There is safety in the sheep pen, when the Shepherd acted as the door.

The Church should be like the sheep pen – a place of safety – with the Lord as its keeper. When Jesus said: I am the Good Shepherd, He was telling us that it is only when we are in the presence of Christ – allowing Him to be the door that regulates our lives – then we can be safe.

We can be safe because:

I. He took our sins on His body on the cross

When the apostle Peter states that Christ “bore” our sins he is underscoring the fact that our Saviour was a sacrifice, He is like the lambs offered in the Old Testament, He bore our sins!

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah, looking hundreds of years into the future and what the Messiah would accomplish wrote:

“Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:12

The Hebrew word for the verb “Bore” means to “take up”. The Lord Jesus Christ in reaching down to us in our sinful condition “took up” our sin upon himself.

Paul says: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Corinthians: 5:21

Writer Max Lucado in his book “In the grip of grace” wrote:

“Sin has sentenced us to a slow and painful death. Sin does to a life what shears do to a flower. A cut at the stem separates a flower from the source of life. Initially the flower is attractive, still colourful and strong. But watch that flower over a period of time, and the leaves will wilt, and the petals will drop. No matter what you do, the flower will never live again. Surround it with water. Stick the stem in soil. Baptize it with fertilizer. Glue the flower back on the stem. Do what you wish the flower is dead.

A dead soul has no life. Cut off from God the soul withers and dies. The consequence of sin is not a bad day or a bad mood, but a dead soul. The sign of a dead soul is clear: poisoned lips and cursing mouths, feet that lead to violence and eyes that do not see God.

Now you know how people can be so vulgar. Their souls are dead. Now you see how some religions can be so oppressive. They have no life. Now you understand how the drug dealer can sleep at night and the dictator can live with his conscience. He has none. The finished work of sin is to kill the soul.”

But the finished work of our king and our Master is to take upon Himself our sin! Why? So that we might die to sin and live righteously!

II. Were to die to sins and live righteously

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed“.

When a sinful soul is surrendered to the Saviour, a change takes place.

Peter is teaching that this new person, a saved person can and should live for God. Righteousness can be an intimidating word. Broken down to its root it means to do right. To live for righteousness then is to live with a passion and a desire to do the right thing!

Peter reminds us that “By his wounds we have been healed” Healed? From what? From sin and the consequences of leaving this planet without asking for the forgiveness of Christ. Our Saviour took our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live righteously, resulting in our being his sheep.

III. We are the sheep of His pasture

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls” 1st Peter: 24-25

Peter paints a vivid picture of sheep wandering away. Outside of the sight and protection of the shepherd there is danger. From the pages of God’s word there emerges a characteristic of our God that can enrich any life. He like a shepherd searches for us. The Psalmist wrote in Psalms 95: 6-7

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture the flock under his care. Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts”

He cares, He searches, He offers safety, He watches with care and so much more. The only thing worse than being lost, is being lost and not having anyone looking for you.

“For you were like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls” Peter is writing to Christians who have returned to the shepherd and overseer of their souls.

Our Saviour took our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live righteously. Resulting in our being His sheep.

Remember the cost and live accordingly.

Come into the fold, there’s safety and most importantly a shepherd who knows you and loves you. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls“.

Jesus, our Lord, the Head of the church is the Good Shepherd, who loves and cares for His sheep. He cares for us and gives what we need because He knows us and loves. And most of all He is the Shepherd who protects us and is ready to sacrifice Himself for our salvation.

Amen.