SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2016 8:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Jesus the True Shepherd of the Sheep PT-1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 10:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 "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. 2 “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd
of the sheep. 3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and
he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 “When he puts forth all
his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his
voice. 5 “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him,
because they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 This figure of speech Jesus
spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had
been saying to them.”
In John
MacArthur’s commentary, which we are following he begins this section after
looking at what he entitles “A Ministry Marked by Contrast to False Shepherds,”
and I want to look briefly at that section before we begin this very long
section that covers the first six verses of John chapter ten, a section that
will take a number of days to cover.
As we look
back to the days when Jesus Christ was on the earth, and even before, and for
that matter today in many parts of the Middle East we see shepherding. Sheep were used for their wool and also for
their meat and still are today. Sheep
are the most helpless, defenseless, straying, and also a very dirty animal, yet
as mentioned before humans have a great deal in common with them. As we look back in Bible history we will see that
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were shepherds.
Moses was a shepherd between the ages of 40 and 80, and this was very
good preparation for him as he lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. David was a shepherd and once again this
helped him in the skills he needed to lead Israel as their king. Old Testament writers frequently used
shepherding imagery, to depict Israel as the flock of God and the same can be
true for New Testament writes using it to depict the leading of the Church.
MacArthur
concludes “But while the metaphor of a shepherd suggests tender care, it can
also depict harsh, abusive, autocratic rule.
As will be seen in the discussion of verse 1 below, the Bible refers to
false spiritual leaders, as well as true ones, as shepherds. In verses 1-10 Jesus contrasted Himself with
Israel’s false shepherds by using tow images:
He is the true Shepherd of the sheep, and He is the only door to the
sheepfold.” As mentioned we will begin
this first section today and continue it for, perhaps a few days before we
conclude it.
We notice
that the first two words seen in verse one are “Truly, truly,” and we have
spoken about them before as meaning “amen, amen,” which introduces a statement
that Jesus wants us to realize is of notable importance. Once again I remind you that what we are
looking at here is a continuation of what we have just finished in chapter
nine, as the people and place are the same.
Remember how we learned that the leaders that we saw in chapter nine, basically
the Pharisees were false leaders or could be called false shepherds, and Jesus
is contrasting Himself as the true Shepherd with those false shepherds in this
section.
The towns
in Israel in Jesus’ day each had a sheepfold where sheep were kept for the
night. Many different owners of sheep
would keep their sheep in these folds to keep them safe and to also ensure that
they could get a good night sleep. Now
as the shepherd would begin to put his sheep into the fold he would stand with
his staff across the entrance and check each sheep over to make sure there was
nothing wrong with them before they were allowed to enter the fold. Now once they were in the fold they were in
the hands of the doorkeeper who was a hired undershepherd as seen in verse 12,
and this man would watch them throughout the night. Now we can understand what Jesus says when He
says “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.”
Thieves and robbers would go over the top of the sheepfold to kill
and/or steel the sheep, as they would not go through the doorway. There was
only one who entered by the door who was the shepherd of the sheep. We will stop here and continue to look at
this section in our next SD.
Message of the verses: It is not glorious to be compared as a sheep,
but when I look at who my Shepherd is, then I can handle it. I think of Him looking after me, checking me
over each day as the shepherd of the sheep did, and that makes me thankful to
be a part of His flock, getting such wonderful care.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to get me
through today as I continue to have some problems with my insides.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:4-5) “4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through
baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5. For is we have become united with Him in
the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection,”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Lystra” (Acts 14:8-12).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was hanged on the gallows
he built for someone else?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/28/2016 9:40 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment