Lighthouses of Prayer – The Call To Shepherd January 13, 2008
Review of Lighthouses of Prayer
Last week I introduced the idea of lighthouses of prayer. It comes from Luke chapter 10 where Jesus sends out the 72 Disciples to go into the villages around the country.
This is his commission: "When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.’ If the head of the house loves peace, your peace will rest on that house; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, … Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ’The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
From this passage we receive a way to impact our neighbours for Jesus:
The Luke 10:1-9 The Model
5-6 - Bless Your Neighbours
“When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.”
7-8 Develop relationships with your neighbours.
“Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you”
9a - Pray for their needs
“Heal the sick who are there”
9b - Share the Gospel
“…and tell them, ’The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
Now we have taken this model and organized it so that it is something that you can do as part of your daily routine: we’ve suggested that you take the five houses on either side of you, and the 11 across the street and begin to pray blessing on each of them.
You can do this by walking up and down your street and blessing each house – (it is easier to do this nonchalantly if you have a puppy or a small child in tow) Or you can make blessing your neighbours part of your daily devotions, you could bless a neighbour as you bless your food…
This might be new to you, or you may have heard me, or someone else speak about this. For some of you the idea of blessing people in Jesus name might seem strange – isn’t that best left up to the professionals?
Priesthood of all believers – permission to bless
1 Peter 2:4,5,9
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
You may have never thought of yourself this way before, but if you have given yourself to God through Jesus, If you have accepted his death and resurrection as payment for the things we have done wrong in life, then God gives us the Holy Spirit and he makes us priests – every one of you is a priest!
Duties/privileges of a priest:
Proclaim forgiveness
John 20:21-23 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
Proclaim blessing
In Numbers, God is setting out the whole religious system for the Jewish people, and this is what he says to Moses:
The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, ’This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
" ’ "The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace." ’
"So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
- Numbers 6:22-27
Because we are priests, we can bless people with the blessing of God!
Lead people to God
Priests also have the task of drawing the people to God – of teaching the things of God to the people around them.
It appears that in Jesus time the priests and religious leaders were not doing their job, because you have this story in the gospels that says:
Mark 6:30-34
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
This is where I want to shift images from priests to shepherds. …
Most often when we use the sheep and shepherd image around the church, we have a picture that the pastor (means shepherd) is the shepherd, and the congregation are the sheep. That is not the major image in the Bible – the major image in the Bible is that we are all shepherds, and the sheep are the people out their who don’t know God through Jesus.
This might bother you a little, because it is kind of nice being a sheep – the only responsibility that you have is eating, sleeping, and not running off to often. Being a shepherd has a great deal more responsibility.
But remember what Jesus said: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Jesus also said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
– John 10:11-16
If God sent Jesus as a good shepherd, then we too are sent as good shepherds into the world to find lost sheep.
You may remember that Peter denied Jesus 3 times before his death, so when Jesus retuned, the proclamation, ““As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Probably was not good enough for peter, Jesus and Peter had more reconciliation work to do before Peter could accept the call. So later, Jesus approaches Peter and asks him 3 times if he loves him. Peter responds yes three times, and Jesus repeats the call to him, but instead of saying, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." He says “Feed my lambs.”
It’s the same call, and it is the call that I want you to hear today – that as you walk out of this meeting, back to your homes, that you are a shepherd and you are to shepherd the people on your street, in your office, at your school… They are the sheep: you are the shepherd.
There is a scene in the movie Pulp Fiction (Don’t see it, t is horrendously crass and violent) where Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson has an epiphany and he decides to leave the life of being a hit-man and cold blooded killer. His decision is quickly put to the test when the diner that he s eating in gets robbed. He pulls his gun on the robber and he says this: (Edited for church consumption)
Jules: There’s a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.
I been sayin’ that stuff for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant you’re dead. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a guy before you killed him. But I saw some stuff this mornin’ made me think twice. Now I’m thinkin’: it could mean you’re the evil man. And I’m the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he’s the shepherd protecting my righteous behind in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you’re the righteous man and I’m the shepherd and it’s the world that’s evil and selfish. I’d like that. But that ain’t the truth. The truth is you’re the weak. And I’m the tyranny of evil men. But I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard to be a shepherd.
I guess I’m hoping that you will have the same epiphany that Jules had – and start trying real hard to be a shepherd – that is your call.
For the group of people that you chose to pray about last week – your neighbours, co-workers, fellow students… I want you to see your self as their shepherd, their pastor.
1. The shepherd focuses on the sheep – Sheep only have to focus on themselves and grass, the shepherd focuses on the sheep – the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep
From last week’s sermon “Start off this new year with a focus on the people around us”
Philippians 2:1-4
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
2. The good shepherd is motivated by compassion: “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” – ask God for his heart for your neighbours. We don’t want them to know God to fix them and make our lives easier, or to make ourselves feel better because we did our Christian duty and brought someone to Jesus, we want them to know Jesus because it is the best way to live!
3. Shepherds lead. The picture that we often have of a shepherd is a man walking behind the sheep with a stick, and if one starts going the wrong direction, she gets a little tap to drive her in the right direction. Jesus gives a different picture – that of leading, not driving the sheep – the shepherd walks ahead and calls the sheep to follow – the sheep hear his voice and follow him. In the same way, we are not to brow beat our neighbours into following Jesus – most often we drive them away rather than drive them to God. We are to lead by example, showing them the way. This means that our life needs to reflect where we would like them to be headed. In the city, you can’t hide much from your neighbours – if I yell at my kids, the people who own the other side of the semi will know it! As shepherds, our right living is not just about our relationship with God, it directly impacts the people that God has put into our care. – Not that we must fake being perfect, but we must live the journey out in the open, and the progress must be in the direction of God’s character and his ways.
Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, so we must look to him to know how to shepherd the people He has given us. We must always ask “Are my actions leading people to God, or away from him.”
If you know Jesus, you cease to be sheep: you become a shepherd, and you sheep are the people That the head shepherd has given you, whether they know it or not. Shepherd them well.
