Be the Sheep-In Prison Part II
The Shepherd will sort the flock eventually
Today is Good Friday. My small group voted not to have class on Sunday because our church’s activities are happening during that time. That means no lesson was posted today for Sunday.
Pastor Kristen Lee started the sermon by reading the John passage from part I. You can find that part HERE. The last verse of that passage ended with an interesting statement that got me thinking.
16These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
John 12:16 (NASB95)
I like the King James Version’s version better. It’s also what I read in church and what prompted my note.
16These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
John 12:16 (KJV 1900)
The idea that they “then remembered they…” meant to me that the Disciples forgot those things they remembered when these events were happening. They “understood not” or “did not understand at first” because they forgot about the prophecies. They forgot what they studied about God’s Word. Do we do that? Do we forget what we studied of God’s Word? I think we do sometimes. We’re only human and prone to making mistakes. Sometimes, those mistakes are forgetting or remembering something.
Pastor Lee read the Isaiah scripture next because it was the prophecy of Jesus’ entry into the city as the king. I find it not at all coincidental that one of my small group members’ memorial service was on Saturday, and the Isaiah passage lists one of the things this King will do as “…to comfort all who mourn.” There are no coincidences.
2To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all that mourn;
Isaiah 61:2 (KJV 1900)
As I wrote this note about Tom’s memorial and the conjunction with scripture, another scripture came to mind. This one relates to the prophecy and Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem in another way. My note was to wonder who or what kind of King Jesus was when entering. I think this other scripture helps close the loop on that question. However, this scripture comes at the beginning of Christ’s ministry. I post it here to help remind us of a portion of what the Disciples might have forgotten. This scripture also quotes from Isaiah 61:1-3.
16And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
17And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,
19To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
20And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
Luke 4:16–22 (NASB95)
Isaiah 61:1-2
“Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I wonder if we would be aware enough to understand what that meant? I know at least some of those who heard it were because it became the basis for the blaspheming charges against Jesus. The Jews of the time recognized the words of Isaiah as a Messianic prophecy. They knew this scripture as proclaiming the coming of Messiah, God among us, the deliverer. This was not a prophecy of another prophet or wise teacher. This was a prophecy of God's coming to release His people, and everyone in Israel knew that. Those among us today who try to declare Jesus never claimed to be God are wrong.
In the sermon, Pastor Lee mentioned the title of the series, Be the Sheep, but also mentioned it in another context. She didn’t mention the scripture by name but hinted at it. I will post the entire long passage because it embodies everything about this sermon series, and this is the last installment. Here is that passage.
31“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32“All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?
38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
41“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;
43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
44“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
45“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31–46 (NASB95)
All Pastor Lee said was, “He will separate His sheep from the goats.” Her point was that we are to be the ones ministering to people in the world, both Christians and secularists. It is not our job to separate the sheep from the goats. Jesus will take care of that when He returns. We are simply to be obedient to the calling of our gifts and minister to those we encounter whom we can help.
The message moved into the specific part about prison ministry here. I must confess that aspect of ministry or volunteering is something I have had little interest in exploring. Pastor Lee mentioned one ministry by name and a minister she read about in preparation for this sermon. If this is an aspect of service you are called to, Breakthrough is the ministry, which you can find HERE. The Lutheran pastor she read about is Nadia Bolz-Weber, who you can read about HERE.
The concept of the sheep and the goats relating to prison ministry brings up the image of those who are jailed and those who are not. Let’s step back from that for a second and back into the theme of this sermon series. We are to be the sheep, meaning those who understand God’s love for all mankind, not just some of them. As sheep, we minister to everyone. Let’s not look at it in micro-classes of people but in the far broader sense of those who minister and those who are ministered to. In the sense that Christians understand God’s love for all Mankind, we know He wants everyone to come to Him through His Son Jesus. When we minister to others, we have to make sure we don’t do so from a position of pride, thinking the ministers are better than those being ministered to. The sheep aren’t better than the goats. The sheep need ministering just as much as the goats. The difference is that we recognize the need and are willing to obediently fill that need. There’s a scripture for that, too.
9And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
14“I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9–14 (NASB95)
This scripture confused me for a long time. I wondered why it was wrong to be thankful that I was not afflicted with the problems I saw as rooted in sin in other people. It took me a long time to understand that it’s a prideful position to see someone else’s sins and see ourselves as better than them because we don’t have those sins in our lives. No, we don’t, but we have other problems that many of those people we might have considered ourselves “better than” don’t have in their lives. The problem with my prideful position was that I failed to recognize those things I struggled with made me just as sinful in the eyes of God as those things that other person I was silently condemning did. No, I didn’t have the problems of that other person, but my problems were just as egregious to God as those I recognized. I compounded things for myself because, in my pride, I failed to see the dirt on my clothes, so to speak. Because I didn’t see myself as “dirty,” I also didn’t see the need to clean up, which was the greater sin, in my opinion.
When we go out to be the sheep, we must make sure we recognize we might also be goats in other ways. That recognition helps us repent of those things, ask for forgiveness, and receive it just as everyone else can also do. That helps us reflect the love of Jesus to the goats we minister to as we are out being the sheep, but also remember we might be ministering to other sheep who struggle with things in which we are strong. We shouldn’t immediately assume everyone else is a goat.
Pastor Lee shifted the perspective with the idea that the minister is not better than the ministered. She brought us back to the triumphant entry of Jesus with the palm fronds; it was Palm Sunday, after all. The crowds shouted “Hosanna,” prayers answered for salvation, as Jesus rode by on the colt. Then she dramatically shifted to later in the week and suggested those same people would later be shouting, “Give us Barabbas!” That’s a jarring shift to consider. Within less than four days, those people so happy Jesus had arrived would be shouting to condemn him to torture and death. That is a vibrant illustration of how fickle a mob can be and why we should be aware of when our emotions are involved in decisions instead of our thinking intellect. It is a very dangerous thing to let, “Well, I feel we should…” make decisions instead of “I think we should…” That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care or have feelings for other people. In fact, Pastor Lee’s point was that we should make sure we have empathy for those we minister to, and I agree with this.
Everyone is a child of God. Everyone is an active and living image of the Most High, created and knitted together in his or her mother’s womb to be a living image of the Creator. As we go out to be the sheep, we have to remember that about everyone we meet.
Pastor Lee moved into the mission opportunity for this week. In every other sermon, the congregation did something in the sanctuary or narthex. This time we have something to go out of the church to do. Sunday’s mission opportunity is a prison ministry book drive for books and Bibles with a group called Prison Alliance. A link to their site is HERE.
Pastor Lee asked us to help donate books and Bibles to Prison Alliance. A video was shown that explained who they are and what they do. You can follow the link above to find out more about Prison Alliance. However, if you’d like to donate books, here is a link to their book donation process, which you can find HERE.
We closed the sermon with a Scott Bader quote. It was long, and I didn’t get it all or even enough to find it exactly. The point was that missions do not go out from God’s people but define God’s people. We aren’t to just help people as a duty. We are to help people because in helping others we reflect the nature and love that God has shown us in our lives to other people’s lives. Through our actions, they see Him, not us.
Pastor Lee’s closing statement made me wonder if I am someone shouting Hosanna or Barabbas? I’m I thankful for the Savior in my life or willing to crucify him every chance I get? Consider this; when Pilot gave up Jesus to the crowd that saved Barabbas’ life. On earth, Jesus could only save one person from death, and he saved Barabbas, who was a vile, evil-doer. After His resurrection, Jesus saved everyone who comes to faith through Him. In that story, I am Barabbas. You are Barabbas. Jesus was crucified to save that one person, and that one person is me…or you. So, as we head into Easter Sunday and give thanks for the risen Lord, are we shouting Hosanna or Barabbas?