Do You Follow King Jesus!
Discipleship Questions for
Sunday
November 25, 2007
Scripture Readings:
First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm: 122
Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43
Jeremiah 23:1-6
1"Woe to the shepherds who
destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!"
says the LORD. 2Therefore thus says the LORD God
of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people:
"You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them.
Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings," says the LORD. 3"But I will gather the remnant of My
flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to
their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and
they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says
the LORD. 5" Behold, the days are
coming," says the LORD, " That I will raise
to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute
judgment and righteousness in the earth. 6In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by
which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. -- NKJV
Psa. 122:1
I
rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of
the LORD.”
2 Our feet are standing
in
your gates, O Jerusalem.
Psa. 122:3
Jerusalem
is built like a city
that
is closely compacted together.
4 That is where the tribes go up,
the
tribes of the LORD,
to praise the
name of the LORD
according
to the statute given to Israel.
5 There the thrones for judgment stand,
the
thrones of the house of David.
Psa. 122:6
Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and
security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our
God,
I will seek your prosperity.
Colossians 1:11-20
11strengthened with all might,
according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has delivered us from the power of darkness and
conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14in whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by Him all things were created
that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created
through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and
in Him all things consist. 18And He is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness
should dwell, 20and by Him to reconcile all things
to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made
peace through the blood of His cross. -- NKJV
Luke 23:35-43
35And the people stood looking on.
But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, "He saved others; let Him
save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God." 36The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour
wine, 37and saying, "If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself." 38And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of
Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 39Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him,
saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and
us." 40But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same
condemnation? 41And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has
done nothing wrong." 42Then he said to Jesus, "Lord,
remember me when You come into Your kingdom." 43And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you,
today you will be with Me in Paradise." -- NKJV
-
OR -
Luke 19:29-38
29And it came to pass, when He drew
near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two
of His disciples, 30saying, "Go into the village
opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has
ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you
shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'" 32So those who were sent went their
way and found it just as He had said to them. 33But as they were loosing the colt,
the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" 34And they said, "The Lord has need of him." 35Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own
clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36And as He went, many spread their clothes
on the road. 37Then, as He was now drawing near
the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began
to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had
seen, 38saying: "'Blessed is the King
who comes in the name of the LORD!' Peace in heaven and glory in the
highest!" -- NKJV
I do this not to
be irreverent certainly but because I believe it will help if we can get a good
picture of who we love and follow.
Remember God became visible to the world in Jesus Christ. Jesus once said:
John 14:9
Jesus answered: “. . . Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
So people saw God
the Father when they saw Jesus. Let’s believe
then that God isn’t opposed to our trying to get a picture of Jesus in our
minds – if for no other reason than it happens anyway so why not try to bring
some clarity to this picture?
I want to postulate that perhaps as our picture – our
mind’s eye image - of Jesus becomes enriched so too – just perhaps - may our
response to Him.
5. Let’s ponder over what Jesus just might look
like and then consider what that means for our response to Him?
Our Old
Testament reference in Jeremiah tells us
that when God comes he will come as a shepherd who will gather His scattered
sheep: Jer 23:3 “But I will gather the
remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring
them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.”
So here we have
an image that the New Testament echoes in the words “The Good Shepherd.” Jesus says in the Gospel of John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
If Jesus is a
shepherd then I want to be His sheep- a member of His sheepfold – don’t’ you???
Ask Kevin to show
images of shepherds.
In our Psalm
reading from Psalm 122 we get the image of
coming to the house of our Lord. So the
image that I gather from this is a hospitable Lord who welcomes us into His
grand home! This for me is a welcoming –
homeward image! I see myself then as a
pilgrim being given a room in the home of my Lord and the Psalm response of “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the
Lord” springs easily to my lips.
Do you feel “at home” with the Lord? Is He a hospitable host to you?
And are you and happy and contented guest in the home of the Lord?
And now let’s
linger a little longer on our Colossian
reference and as I read it again try to capture
the images that spring into your minds:
By the way I’m going to be reading from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”
paraphrase to better help us to find images of our Lord:
Col.
1:11
We pray that
you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim
strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is
strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, 12 thanking
the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and
beautiful that he has for us.
Col.
1:13
God rescued us
from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the
Son he loves so much, Did you hear that?
He set us up in the kingdom of the Son He loves so much! Who set us up in the Kingdom – God did! Now let’s read on - 14 the Son who got
us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep
repeating. Ah! Did
you hear that – the Son, our King, rescued us out of the pit we were in. So he’s a hero –
a rescuer!
What does a rescuer look like? He got us out of the pit we were in and got
rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating!
I don’t know about you but images of a strong armed
rescuer come immediately to my mind.
I see Him reaching down into the muck and mire in which I find myself
stuck and not bothering about getting His hands dirty He reaches down and
gently lifts me out of it – just as He did when Peter began to sink in the
stormy lake! Let’s read on: - verse 15:
Col.
1:15
We look at this
Son and see the God who cannot be seen.
What images spring into your minds when you hear words like that – We
look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen? Can we wrestle with that for just a second –
look at your image of Jesus and understand that this is somehow a picture of
God the Father! O Lord, help me!!! The mind boggles doesn’t?
Reading on: We
look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. Ah!
This is what we’re supposed to look like – God’s original purpose is
carved into the very physical features of Jesus – the Good Shepherd, the
Hospitable Lord of the Kingdom and rescuer of our souls! What image, if any, is forming in your mind’s
eye?
Let’s
read on: 16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below,
visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got
started in him and finds its purpose in him.
17 He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it
all together right up to this moment. 18
And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a
head does a body. Wow! What sort of being is this? He’s the fountainhead of all creation both
visible and invisible! Wowwww! Now my mind begins to boggle – to
crumble. How can I envision such a
being? Remember now Paul is writing this
about Jesus whom He saw ( 1 Corinthians 9:1
Have
I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? 1 Corinthians 15:8 And last of all he was seen by me.) in such magnificent hyperbole! Can you and I get a glimpse of this
man-god? He was before everything and
holds all of creation together. As Head He organizes the church and hold’s even
it together! What does such a munificent
being look like? I can only imagine!
I must confess to you that at this points
out that the image I have of Jesus is faltering. It’s just not big enough!
Ah, but remember
Jesus comes to us in an image we can grasp.
He was a particular man! He is fully human yet fully divine. It’s His divinity that we struggle to
imagine.
Could it be that
this is the very reason God gave us an imagination – to reach out to try to
imagine the unimaginable!
And so now we come
to terms with our Lord’s Immanence and His Transcendence.
We can just begin to touch on His immanence – His humanity
- but it’s His transcendence that we have to bow down before and gasp for
breathe!
Let’s read on: The
end of verse 18:
He was supreme in
the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the
end. Now there’s a picture of a King – supreme in the beginning and ending –
leading us in His resurrection parade – try to picture that will you!!!
Reading on: From beginning to
end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. 19 So spacious is he, so roomy, that
everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. 20 Not only that, but all the broken
and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get
properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death,
his blood that poured down from the Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Who is this Jesus? He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords –
all of creation both visible and invisible will one day bend the knee and bow
before His magnificence!
Try to image that
scene at the end of it all – imagine all of Creation bowing in reverence – not
feigned, not pretended, not coldly but with utter breathless astonishment. No one will be able to remain standing in His
presence!
What does such a
being look like – this is our King! This
is our Lord!