There is a Good Shepherd Psalm 80; John 10

 Psalm 80:1-7;  John 10:11-18  “There is a Good Shepherd”  4/21/24
Preached at Eastminster Presbyterian by Rev. Dr. J. Ben Sloan

Here is a video of a sheep that I would like for you to see at the beginning of this sermon:  

There are so many images of sheep in scripture.  In our more urban society, we may easily get confused.  But I remember 2 things: they can get messy and wander off;  I can remember when we had the Live Nativity here, and before we hired the sheep, we had a farmer, Mr. McCracken, who would allow us to have his sheep at the Live Nativity.  There were two problems.  First we had to catch the sheep.  My brother, who is about 10 years older than me—and I think David Chase, went to catch these sheep one Christmas.  It had rained the night before and they came home absolutely covered in mud!   Then the other problem was that the sheep tended to escape and headed down Trenholm Road toward what is now the field.  Sheep are cute, sweet, won’t hurt a fly, but they can be messy and get in trouble.  [show slide]  I love that meme.  It reminds me that as many times as Jesus rescues me, I tend to get in trouble all over again.  The good news is the Good shepherd does not give up- to the point that he would rather die than not rescue the sheep. 
     When Jesus restored Peter after his resurrection- He went after one of his lost sheep; His question  3 times (one for each of the times he denied him) was: “Do you love me.”  Then the next admonition was to “Feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep.”  He was asking Peter to be an under-shepherd- and a good one- motivated by love, and the need to care for the people of God.  He was asking him to be a good shepherd.  We need people who will consider the ministry.  Who are willing to give themselves fully for the glory of God.  Jesus here lists some qualities for a Good shepherd.  He listed them not just for the apostles, but for all who listen. 
He lays down his life; He knows his sheep; he cares for their being peacefully together; He gives them abundant life.
    1) THE GOOD SHEPHERD LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP- He Doesn’t run away when trouble comes.  Do you know how much you are loved by the God who made you?  He loves you, knows you, and gives Himself for you.  When you stray away- He reaches down to bring you back.  The birth of God in human form that we celebrate at Christmas shows God is willing to come down for you that you might be brought up to Him.  The death of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, is not some esoteric theological concept.  Jesus said it like this, Greater love has no one than this- that He gives his life for his friends.  He said the Son of Man came not to be served- like a hireling- but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.  We know all that, but can you let it sink into your bones?  The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  God is not out to get you, or manipulate you, or zap you, or consume you. 
     That doesn’t mean that the Good shepherd doesn’t want you to come into His fold, into the safety of His care, to come back to Him.  The Good Shepherd cares when you go astray.  He doesn’t shrug his shoulder and say, “Those old dumb sheep- they’ll get what’s coming to them.”  No, He comes down.  He looks for us like the Prodigal’s father.  He leaves the 99 to go after us.  He looks for us as a person looking for a lost coin or a lost pearl, and He invites us to look for Him.  The Good Shepherd says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then all these other things will be added to you.” 
   Eight months ago 9/2 at 1:30 AM, Joseph Pope and Charles Segar saved the lives of two 18 year old students whose car was burning in a late night wreck.  They saw the car burning, and when they looked they saw the man inside.  They busted out the window and pulled Anderson Jones from his Nissan.  Jones told him there was another in the car.  They pulled her from the car too as the car started to be engulfed in flames.  The car could have exploded.  Pope cut his arm trying to help and required stitches.  The two could not save themselves- but Pope and Segar saved them and were recognized for that by Clemson City Council, and the Boy Scouts.  Pope was an eagle scout from our own troop 10.   Jesus is our rescuer.  He came to us when we could not save ourselves at risk to himself.   When we rescue, when we help when we give of ourselves we are being Christ-like.

2) THE GOOD SHEPHERD KNOW HIS SHEEP AND HIS SHEEP KNOW HIM- he binds up their wounds, they call out to the shepherd, and the shepherd calls back to them.   I said this awhile back, but we tend to live like everyone knows us except God.  Our Snapchat, twitter, facebook, virtual friends may know us- but God doesn’t really know us.  If He did, He wouldn’t like that snidy comment I put up about someone else’s opinion.  We think our GPS service knows where we are- but somehow God does not.  We think Google can see our house from Google earth, but somehow God cannot.  If Google knows your email, your ad preferences and wants, and it is but a machine, cannot God Almighty the omniscient one?  The guillemot is an arctic bird that lays its eggs on the cliff . All the birds lay thousands in a row.  Yet studies show the mother incredibly  knows which egg is hers.  So God knows you by name and loves you.  There is a great article in the State paper about Dawn Staley texting a Clemson fan giving him comfort over his gamecock mother’s passing.  It meant so much that she took time and that of all the fans she met, she knew her and cared.  God knows you so well.  He made you.  He knows every cell, every molecule of your body.  He knows when you fall into a ditch.  He knows when you are in the green pastures feeding and lying beside the still waters.  He knows when your heart is broken.  He came down to earth to show us He understands us.  The One who is and gives eternal life understands suffering and death.  There is nowhere, not the darkest evil place, not the brightest good place;  not the stupidest place, or the most enlightened place; not the place where you feel horribly uncomfortable- even the death bed, and not the place where you think you are already in heaven.  There is no place where God does not know you and care about you.  Tim Keller said, “God know us to the bottom yet loves us to the skies.” 
3) THE GOOD SHEPHERD CARES ABOUT THE UNITY OF THE FLOCK- There are other sheep not of this pen—He is clearly talking about that there are gentiles that Jesus wants to invite into the fold.  They also will know Him, and he says, “And there shall be one flock.”  One of the saddest things in our day is that we seem to have lost in the last fifteen years, the desire to be one flock.  We divide and cast out and divide again until people say, “why do I want to go to that individualistic church.”  The number of denominations is growing.  The first 1,000 years of Christianity there was only one denomination.  The next 500 years there were about five.  Today there are roughly 45,000 different denominations in the world- including non-denominational churches who became denominations.  We have a problem.  The problem is not that our beliefs are not perfect- no one believes perfectly.  The problem is described in 1 Corinthians 13- “If I speak in the tongues of angels but have not love- I am nothing.  If I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love I am nothing.”  The church is dying today because we lack faith, hope and love. In our context, we must learn to love across denominational lines- to love those with whom we differ- or we will wither into nothing.   It is not our kingdom come- it is His.   The old joke is about a person who dies and goes to heaven.  St Peter is giving them a tour.  In one room are people kneeling.  The man says, “Who are those people?”  They are the Methodists;  Then another room there are people singing and raising their hands “Who are those people?”  They are the Pentecostals.  There were some with their heads bowed quietly- almost like they were asleep- “Who are those people?”  They are the Presbyterians.  Then there were three rooms with the doors shut.  The man says, “Who are those people?”  Peter says, “SHHHH!  Those are the indepen dents and they think they are the only ones up here.  It is time to repent of our divisiveness, and our willingness as sheep to wander off looking for greener pastures.  The Good Shepherd wants one flock. 
4) ABUNDANT LIFE-The Good Shepherd is not a thief who seeks to kill and destroy and take away your joy.  The thief is not just the devil.  There are many thiefs!  Envy steals our joy;  drugs we may think give us joy- but can also give us regret and addiction that kill and destroy- Last year in SC over 2,000 people died to drug overdoses and that is with an abundance of Narcan that keeps people from dying.  Immorality steals our joy- things like pornography- SC ranks 9^th in the nation in time spent on porn on the internet.  But porn can destroy a family.  There is a long list of wolves in sheeps clothing that people buy into.  Life can be hard and troubling- but we can be of good cheer- for the resurrected Christ has overcome the world.  The Good Shepherd is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing who wants to take the beauty of your life away.  The Good Shepherd says, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden- I will heal your wounds, get you beyond your past mistakes and hurts.”  The synonym for salvation is “eternal life.”  Jesus says, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  1 John 5:12 says, “Whoever has the Son has life.”  Ephesians 2 says when we were dead in our sins, Christ came to make us alive.  The abundant life is right here.  Today is the first day of the rest of your eternal life.  Are you just existing?  Are you just coasting in life?  Is your life meaningless?  Is loneliness consuming you?  Are you trying to find yourself?  There is one who wants us to open the door to His love.  He wants us to give up our destructive ways- give up jumping back into the ditches and live in the abundant life.  Today at Eastminster we will have baptisms of confirmation students and a baby.  It is not the end of their journey- it is the beginning of their abundant life!  Hedonism is living for pleasure.  John Piper coined the phrase “Christian hedonism” which means finding pleasure in the living God- the good.  We are made to not just glorify but enjoy God- right now and on into forever.   Do not let any thief steal your joy.  Instead, seek to relish the abundant eternal life- which begins today. 

4-1-1 Do You Want Information?

                                           Wikipedia- Partial Map of the internet
 What is Your Information Source?

Scripture: "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings from the honeycomb." - Psalm 19:7-10

Today is 4/11. Many of those under 35 do not know what "dial 4-1-1" means. We may know what 9-1-1 means (emergency), but from 1930-2023, you would often hear on the other end of a 4-1-1 dial: "Information." The free directory assistance service was discontinued by AT&T in 2022 for cell users and in 2023 for landline users. With Google, and certain directory search engines as well as screens on cars that pull up directories, 4-1-1 became obsolete. However, since 4-1-1 was eliminated, the most helpful directory assistance websites either require payment or make you put up with annoying advertising. So where do you go for information?

We live in a time of information overload. We have access to more information than we can use. We also have so many prejudicial sources of information that we recognize that most truths are hidden and combined with a layer of slant or agenda. We have become so used to this that some have given up on believing there is any truth (or trustworthy information) at all in the world.

When confronted face-to-face with the living Truth of God in the flesh, Pontious Pilate asked the famous (pagan) question of doubt: "What is truth?"

So where do you go for real, deep information (epistemology)?

Some say to trust the truth to the experts. Certainly, we do this to a certain extent. When a car repairman services my brakes, I trust the brake expert more than my ability to even check on what he is doing. The problem is that sometimes experts get it wrong. When the locomotive was invented, one "expert" said the human body could not endure traveling at such speed and with such noise, thinking such travel would "injure the brain." Experts can contradict each other with half-truths. Just look at the political "experts" and debates of our day.

Our confessions speak of the Bible and especially the person and words of Jesus Christ as being the measure of real Truth and information. Jesus is the incarnation of God's love. In some ways, the whole Protestant Reformation was about putting the Bible in the language of the people (vernacular) and then putting that Bible in the hands of the people – teaching them to read it. One of the reasons we have so many Bible studies is we believe that what we ought to believe and do is found in the scriptures.

In addition to the scriptures themselves, we also need the church (and one another) to help us discern what the Holy Spirit is saying to us today through the scriptures. The information we receive is not just for trivial pursuit or encyclopedic storage but for application to change us and the world to make earth more like heaven itself.

So do not be afraid to seek the most important information from the One who claimed to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). He is the One who said, "Your Word is Truth" (John 17:17). The word "Gospel" can be translated as "good news” or "good message" or "good information."

The most important information is information that will affect us both now and in eternity. Part of our calling is to not keep the really great information to ourselves but to tell others how to have the hope, joy, and love that is within us. Look for ways to pass that 4-1-1, that important information, on to others.

Prayer: Lord, your commands are true and righteous altogether. In a drowning sea of information and misinformation, help me see your Word as my lifeline to hope and truth. Give me a heart to seek you in scripture and ears to hear your Spirit speaking to my heart. Amen.

DEVOTIONAL AND THOUGHTS ON THE ECLIPSE 4-8-2024

 

ECLIPSE

4/8/2024

All of the United States will experience at least a partial eclipse Monday 4/8.
There was a 2017 eclipse (8/21) that passed from Oregon to South Carolina in which 215 million Americans viewed it directly or digitally;  The 2024 eclipse (7 years later) will go from Texas through Maine.  If you combine them together, the two eclipses form an X or a cross intersecting south of St. Louis.  South Carolina will experience a partial eclipse 81%  to 69% beginning around 1:50PM peaking at 3:08 and ending at 4:25 PM.  Please wear special eclipse glasses to protect your retina.  I did not at a total eclipse when I was 13 and it damaged my retina which tore in 1993. 

Historical significances of eclipses:
1) On May 28, 585 BC there was a huge battle at the end of a six year war between the empires of Media (later Medes and Persians/Iran) and the Lydia in what is now Turkey. Herodotus recounts that “just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night…when they observed the change, the Medes and Lydians ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on…This event was foretold by Thales.” 
2) Herodotus also accounts how the Persian king, Xerxes  saw an eclipse before invading Greece.  He was told by his Zoroastrian priests that it was a warning of the Greek’s destruction.  However, we know the Persians were defeated, not the Greeks and Xerxes was assassinated in 465BC. 
3) When Jesus died on the cross 3:00 PM 4/3/33 there was an earthquake (Mt. 27:51) and a darkening of the sun (Mt. 27:45; Mk. 15:33; Lk. 23:44) from 12-3:00 (sixth to the ninth hour).  Some say this darkening was by a solar, lunar, or simply dark clouds from a storm. 
4) Christopher Columbus on his third voyage to North America, was shipwrecked on Jamaica in 1503.  He and his crew was facing starvation.  Columbus forecast a lunar eclipse on March 1 as a sign from God that they should not withhold food from his crew.
5) Tecumseh’s brother prophesied a solar eclipse 4/16/1806 and it united the Shawnee and other Indians in a confederacy against William Henry Harrison and the Americans.
6) In 1919 an eclipse proved Einstein’s theory of relativity’s prediction that the sun’s gravity bent starlight forever changing how we look at time, space and motion. 

Religious significance of eclipse:
“The heavens are telling the glory of God.  The skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes out into all the earth.”  (Psalm 19).  An eclipse is another amazing sight in the heavens that could help us to think about the God who made it all. 
Jesus quoted Isaiah 13:10; 34:4 about the distress of the days around his second coming:
“the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the sarts will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”  Joel 2:10 speaks of the great Day of the Lord that “the earth quakes, the heavens tremble.  The sun and the moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness.”  (Ezek 32:7).
In other religions eclipses had different religious meanings.  According to a BBC article (Richard Fisher 10/12/23) in western Asia it was a dragon devouring the sun; In Peru a puma; The Vikings spoke of sky wolves.  In Choctaw Native American culture black squirrels devoured or clouded the sun, and we were supposed to remain quiet. 
In a total eclipse, the birds hush their singing, some animals curl up as if going to sleep, and there is a quiet upon the earth. 

From a Christian point of view, signs in the heavens are opportunities to re-think our faith.  It is a definite reminder that the universe is bigger than we are, and that we are not in control of it.  Nor should we expect that the universe is always constant and beyond change or the control of a Creator.  Even if an eclipse is predictable mathematically, that doesn’t mean it is not a huge event that effects life or is a possible wake up call.  When I see a sunrise over the ocean or a sunset behind the mountains such things are predictable but that does not take away the ability for them to inspire and even change me for the better.  Because Jesus (and Isaiah and Joel) predicted the darkening of the sun and moon before the day of the Lord (or the day of the second coming), seeing an eclipse can make us think of seeing our God face to face one day.  Perhaps (as the Lydians and Medes) it could inspire us to seek peace and pursue it.  Perhaps those who are dividing from others would seek instead to love and overcome their differences.  Perhaps our egos and pride will be seen for what they are in the shadows of an eclipse.  Maybe we could stand and see the Bailey’s Beads (sunlight around the edge of the moon) or the shadow bands (seen on the ground before or after an eclipse) , the 360 degrees of orange and feel the temperature drop and stand in awe of the God of the universe.
I remember the 2017 eclipse.  We had a worship service at the church.   There were no earthquakes, nuclear war, no apocalypse and the Lord didn’t come back.  But HE was present and we stood in awe and wonder at the God who made the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars, and “set their courses in the heavens.”  “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God.”  (Acts 2:33). 

Prayer: Lord, you are the Creator of the sun, the moon, the stars, and all that I can see, including me.  Thank you for the gift of life, and the things that happen in life that make it interesting and point to you. I stand before you in humility at your greatness and power.  I kneel before you in silence, humility, and repentance.  How majestic is your name, Lord our Lord!  You have set your glory in the heavens. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you have set in place.  What are human beings that you are mindful of them?  Yet you came down to our level in Jesus.  You showed your sympathy and love through Him making a way for us to come to you. 

 

Suggested Hymns:  For the Beauty of the Earth;  God is Working His Purpose Out, O God who Spins the Whirring Planets;  “Let all things Now Living” (has the great phrase- “His law he enforces, the stars in their courses, and sun in its orbit obediently shine.”). 

My pop song eclipse playlist:  “Here comes the Sun” (The Beatles) “Soak up the Sun” (Sheryl Crow); “A Sky Full of Stars” (Coldplay); “Fly Me to the Moon” (Frank Sinatra); “Moonshadow” (Cat Stevens)
But specifically for a solar eclipse:  “You’re so Vain” (Carly Simon); “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (Bonnie Tyler); “Bad Moon Rising” (Credence Clearwater Revival); “Eclipse” (Pink Floyd);