14 March, 2017
Speaker: Rev Dr Anthony Patterson
Scripture: Ezekiel 33
Ezekiel in the beginning: Prophet and hard
man, hardened by God to speak to hardened/obstinate people.
Ezekiel 33: quite different from the start.
V31: my people come to you, Ezekiel and sit before you. They hear your words to
be entertained but do not put them into practice.
Phase 1: The appearance of the likeness of
the glory of the Lord. The reason God was on the move was that He was moving
his house/temple. This was because Jerusalem has become sin-city. God is
departing from Jerusalem to the exiles, and this was disaster for Jerusalem.
Ezekiel was called to ask the people to repent, so that the judgment would be
reverted, but the people didn’t, so Jerusalem is attacked by the Babylonian
army.
Then oracles of the nations demonstrating sovereignty
of God over people.
Phase 2 now: If God’s people did not obey,
then judgment come. If God keeps his words of judgment, so will He keep to the
words of restoration. This section talks about the gloriousness of God’s
return.
Ezekiel 34
First, the leadership comes under
criticism.
Corrupt leadership. Government corruption
is the most common cause of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
The image of the shepherd is used in many
places. Guide, protect, comfort, nourish, save sheep, gather the flock
together.
Israel’s leaders do the opposite: scattered
sheep became food for all the wild animals. This failure is one of the main
reasons why Jerusalem had fallen. Using position and power to serve themselves
rather than take care of the flock. Their rule became harsh and brutal. They let
power go over their heads. Leaders use their privilege to act as mini-gods. They
use people to further our own agenda rather than the kingdom of God. It becomes
“our own legacy”.
But it is the way we treat the little ones/
the weak, sick, injured etc. that says a lot more about our leadership.
V7: therefore you shepherds, heard the word
of the Lord…
V10: I am against the shepherds and will
hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock
so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock
from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
V11-15: I myself will search for my sheep
and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is
with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the
places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness…. I myself
will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Justice in the OT is more than judgment, it
is also putting things right.
V17: I will judge between one sheep and
another, and between rams and goats. Flocks not caring for each other either!!
Thoughtless people only caring for themselves. Selfishness.
V23-24: God will do so by raising up a
righteous king!
Pastor= Latin translation of shepherds.
Peter was asked to “feed my sheep”.
Teaching God’s people, teaching God’s
words. Teacher of the word of God.
Peter gives 3 sets of motives:
V1: be shepherds… watching over them, not because
you must, but that you are willing.
V2: Not pursing dishonest gains, but eager
to serve. Not for our own financial benefits.
V3: Not lording over, but being examples to
the flock. No place for heavy handed authority. The example of your life should
be what compels others. Life needs to match the lip. Nothing puts people off
more than hypocritical leadership.
When the chief shepherd appears, you will
receive the crown of glory.
21 March, 2017
Speaker: Rev Dr Michael Frost
Scripture: John 10:1-18
There are lots of pictures of Jesus with
the sheep.
There’s also the story of the shepherd
searching for the one lost lamb.
We are rescued and we are the precious
lamb, but that’s not primarily what John 10 is about.
When Jesus said “I am a good shepherd”, he
was in a furious argument with the Pharisees.
He is addressing leadership, the Pharisees
as wolves in sheep’s clothing! The context is leadership, not lostness.
The Pharisees were just using the woman who
just committed adultery as a bait to trip Jesus.
Jesus also
just healed a blind man who was born blind and can now see. The Pharisees
brought this man and his aged parents before the tribunal, interrogating them
about where Jesus’ powers came from, and these people were terrified. It is religious
abuse.
Michael
tells us a story about two children abused by someone from the Jehovah’s
Witness in 1970s. When they told the elder, they were shunned from that
community. All their relatives were Jehovah’s Witnesses so they were cut off
from the community. This is one of the ways church elders exercise their power
to abuse people.
John
9:39-41
Jesus said,
“For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those
who see will become blind.”
Some
Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind
too?”
Jesus said,
“If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you
can see, your guilt remains.
The Romans
were “blind” so if they act cruelly towards the Jews it’s understandable. The Pharisees
have read the word of Moses, claiming to be shepherds of the people etc. They
are not “blind”. So their guilt remains. They are robbers, thieves, and hired
hands. When the Romans invade, they do deals with them.
10:20
What the
Pharisees say of Jesus: “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to
him?”
10: 7-10
The sheep
are trapped, not lost. They were penned in by the fundamentalist legalism the Pharisees
have penned up. Sheep are meant to be roaming around the hill, in pastures
green. The Pharisees were thieves climbing over the fences to destroy them.
The good
shepherd leads them to freedom:
Jesus is
saying, “As a good shepherd, I am leading the people to freedom.” “I am the
gate, whoever enters through me will be saved.”
“I have
come that they may have life, and have it to the full”. This is not about
prosperity and wealth. It’ about freedom from spiritual neurosis, the freedom
to be in the presence of God.
10:16
“I have
other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.” Jesus will
fulfill the covenant of Abraham. So that this nation will be a light to the
nations, calling sheep from other pens, forming a multicultural human society.
We are sheep from the other pens!
10:17-18
The good shepherd
gives his life for our freedom.
It’s not
just pastoral, or devotional. It’s blood soaked. All the three times he announced
himself to be the good shepherd, he said he must lay down his life.
Michael
grew up in the 1970s: Entertainment was four channels on TV only, no internet.
There was a sheep dog contest show. He heard a story about a sheep dog from that
show. A sheep dog was told to sit, and the owner noticed the dog sat but looked
increasingly agitated. Then he soon realized the farm hand was backing and the
tractor and crushed the dog. The dog stayed there obediently despite knowing it
may lose its life because the owner told him to sit. This is an illustration of
laying down one’s own life in obedience.
10:4
Sheep know
their shepherd’s voice.
The
Pharisees did not believe because they are not his sheep.
They resort
to violence to demand obedience.
Some of us
may be called to be a shepherd. If we have sensed that God is calling us to do
the work of the shepherd, take this chapter seriously, two of our roles
include:
1.
Leading
people to freedom. Freedom from fear, from sin. To be free in Christ.
2.
Teach
the sheep to hear and recognize the shepherd’s voice.
1,100 people
have filed child sexual assault claims against the Anglican Church in Australia.
Don’t think that the general Australian population doesn’t see Christians the
same as Jesus sees the Pharisees.
So, one of
our tasks is to redeem the reputation of King Jesus and his people.
Personal thoughts and
reflections:
Don’t know if it’s
the storm theopanies of Ezekiel, but the storm was so big after work today that
I felt I was driving under water!
I had just read the
Stream in the Dessert daily devotional 26April two days before this. Something
really stood out from that: Shining is always costly. Light comes only at the
cost of that which produces it. An unlit candle does no shining. Burning must
come before shining… Many want the glory without the cross, the shining
without the burning, but crucifixion comes before coronation.
In this day and age,
there is not a shortage of sermons on success and prosperity. However, there is
not as much talk on servant leadership.
As I start seeing more closely what a pastor's job entails,
I find it so important for people who are serving in ministry to develop a high
sense of self-awareness, constructive self-reflection and good communication
skills. It's just so easy for any of us to fall into the trap of seeking
relationships in the congregation for our own fulfilment (eg. a sense of
accomplishment, of being idealised, of being a spiritual authority figure, a
need for personal intimacy or even for sexual gratification in the cases of extra-marital
affairs and sexual abuse.) The pastor is
supposed to help the parishioner move from depending solely on her relationship
with her pastor for support to identifying her primary source of strength as
her faith in God. Some ministers may even become so addicted to the sense of
connection that arises from ministering, counselling, and offering spiritual
direction that they create an unhealthy interdependent relationship with the
parishioner.
Boundaries in ministry: overcoming the dark side of
leadership:
