AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW
1 Peter 2:21-25 (p858) Dec. 12, 2010
INTRODUCTION:
I walked into my bedroom the other day to find Xzavier my three year old grandson putting on my shoes. I said, "Little Toot" …what are you doing? And he said, I'm gonna wear Papaw's shoes…I said, "go for it Xzavier.
And he tried putting on my size 11 heavy blade dress shoes and walking in them…He made it a step or two, but they were way to big and heavy….Someday they'll fit him, someday he'll fill those shoes…He's just not ready yet.
What's my goal…"To live in such a way that he wants to wear those shoes…and help him grow into them."
Albert Schweitzer said, "Example is not the main thing in influencing others--it’s the only thing!"
The Boss says "GO!" - The Leader says. "Let's GO!"
What is the real meaning of Christmas? It's where God said, "Let's Go!"
Christmas is the story of God as "Immanuel"
It's why the angel in Joseph's dream assured him about Mary's pregnancy.
"She will give birth to a Son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. all this took place fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet." The Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel---which means, God With Us" (Matt 1:21-23)
God's shoes are always too big and heavy to fill…that is unless you're God.
Christmas is the moment where God says "Let's Go" my son will walk in your human shoes with human feet…those feet will encounter places filled with every temptation and every emotion people experience---and they will never turn aside….they will constantly be headed towards heaven, because God is wearing them.
I'm not just going to tell you how to get there any longer…I'm going to be your leader, your example….Follow me.
I TO THIS WERE YOU CALLED.
When I was little my best friends were the neighbor kids…Johnny Mastmiller, Jeff Barn, Steve Delebar. After school we'd play army, or whiffle ball, or football…I could play
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with them until my Mom called me for supper…she'd come out on the back porch and yell "Ricky….supper's ready….come on home."
The reason I was being called was supper's ready…Dad's home and ready to eat…come on NOW! (If I didn't come…pretty quickly I was gonna get in some serious "Dad type trouble"
1 Peter 2:21 says "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."
It is impossible to come home to God unless He calls you!
Every single person who's ever lived has gone off on their own to play. Isaiah 53:6 says "We ALL, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way"…
God the shepherd told us all…here's the pasture I want you to stay in…Here's the path I want you to take…and every single one of us left his pasture…and every single one of us took our own path.
Christmas is the message of the shepherd calling us back…even more than that…it’s the story of the shepherd searching for his lost sheep until he finds it.
"Peter got it right "You wee like sheep that wondered away."
That decision always causes suffering and requires that.
II THE SHEPHERD BECOMES OUR RESCUER
What if you can't get home because you're trapped? What if you can't get back to God's pasture because you're too far away, and caught in thorns and thistles?
What if the wolf has you cornered? How do you return to the shepherd and overseer of you soul then?
I'll tell you how….the shepherd comes searching for you…calling your name with all his might…he know your name intimately by the way…but to get to where you are he's going to have to walk where you've walked…He's going to have to get cut up, tired and hurt as well…In fact when he gets there he might have to trade his life for yours!
It's exactly what Peter is saying when he wrote "Christ suffered for you…."
All our sinful steps away from god led to one destination…Death. Every single wayward footstep led to suffering and punishment.
We stand before God who judges justly---and the only verdict is "Guilty" You can hear the echo of the Holy Spirit's voice in your heart.
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And then God shows you a perfect set of footprints…they're God shaped and never waver they lead right up a hill…to a place of death called Calvary…And God says follow those footsteps.
He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth…when they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly…
And there Rick…on that place of death…the place where your footsteps, and everyone else's footsteps ended…
He Himself (the shepherd who became the Lamb bore your sins in his body on the tree, so that you might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed."
God's Christmas package…Jesus…Savior…Immanuel was wrapped in a blood red ribbon of love. This is the reason God became an infant…It's the wood of the manger pointing to the wood of an old rugged cross.
Biblical scholars refer to this changing of places as the doctrine of "substitutional atonement" "He carried our sins" "We are healed by his wounds"
In life he is our example, in death he was our substitute…but Peter lets us know…your footsteps leaving the cross cannot be the same as the ones that got you there, because
III NOW YOU'VE COME BACK
You were like sheep that wondered away, BUT NOW YOU'VE COME BACK to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:25 might be one of the greatest illustrations in scripture to repentance.
["You were wondering this way]
[But now you've come back ] (Returned)
Christmas is all about a Dad that wants to give us the chance to return.
True repentance always has two ingredients to its makeup.
You have to turn away from something and turn to something. If either of these is missing it's not repentance.
[Do you remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15? A man had tow sons, the youngest asks for his share of the estate. He gets it…and no long afterwards takes off for a distant county (I'm 18 and I'm out of here!]
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He squanders his inheritance in wild living. After it's all gone a severe famine hits the land... He becomes a hired hand, feeding pigs…so hungry he wants to eat their slop…there's no one that will help him.
and verse 17 says
"He came to His senses…remembered his father…knew he wasn't worthy to be a son any longer, but…he headed home none-the-less.
Luke 15: 20-24 (p740)
All of us feel sorry when we end up in the pig pen and there's no one left to help us…But not all of us turn homeward with the same brokenness and humility.
The Greek word for repentance is "Metanoia" it means "a change of mind" "To change direction"
If Jesus really has become the shepherd and overseer of your soul…walking in his footsteps towards the father is the proof.
The Apostle Paul wrote his 2nd letter to the Corinthians because his first letter was a spiritual "Spanking" They were divided, arguing, putting up with sexual sin, selfish in worship…and he called for them to repentant to change…they did.
Here's what he says in… 2 Cor 7: 8-11 (p819)
Paul is saying "Now you've Come back"
You didn't just turn from your sin…you turned towards God…and the change was evident in the way you think and the way you act.
Its evident because of who you turned to…God doesn’t make you grovel, he doesn't say clean up your act and then you can walk with me.
The moment Dad see's you coming home he runs toward you…He's got a robe, He's got a ring… Its time to celebrate. Now you've Come Back
I know we don't know for sure, but do you think the relationship between Dad and prodigal was the same after his return?
I can tell you personally….its not!
Once you've heard his call, and you realize he's come to rescue you… from your pig pen, a proud arrogance… and rebellion…it's not the same once you've come back…your following as close as you possible can in the footprints of the Shepherd and overseer of your soul.
In his book What's so Amazing About Grace, Phillip Yancey tells
the story of Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway grew up in a very devout
evangelical family, and yet there he never experienced the grace of
Christ. He lived a libertine life that most of us would call "dissolute"…
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but there was no father, no parent waiting for him and he sank into
the mire of a graceless depression. A short story he wrote perhaps reveals the grace that he hoped for. It is the story of a Spanish father
who decided to reconcile with his son who had run away to Madrid.
The father, in a moment of remorse, takes out this ad in El Libro,
newspaper. "Paco, meet me at Hotel Montana, Noon, Tuesday…All
is forgiven…Papa." When the father arrived at the square in hopes
of meeting his son, he found eight hundred Pacoes waiting to be reunited
with their father. Was Paco such a popular name? Or is a father's
forgiveness the salve for every soul?
Christmas is all about a father doing everything he possible can to bring his children home.
