Ephesians 4:7-16: Spiritual gifts –pastor teacher, part 6.

Class Outline:

Wednesday November 24, 2021

 

We are closing our doctrine of the gift of pastor or shepherd with JOH 10:1-18, where the Lord speaks of Himself as the good Shepherd. The pastor/shepherd teacher is to imitate Jesus Christ.

 

We have been careful to see the passage in light of its context, the healing of the man born blind, as well as its background, which is Eze 34 where the Lord condemns the terrible shepherds of Israel (political and religious leaders) and also promises that He will gather His sheep and that He will be their Shepherd forever.

 

Of the many wonderful things this shows us, one is that that no matter how bad and selfish your leaders or your authority may be or may have been, the Lord is your shepherd, and if you believe, you shall not want for any good thing.

 

EZE 34:11

For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.”

 

In JOH 9:35 we see Jesus searching out the healed blind man after the Pharisees had sent him out.

JOH 9:35

Jesus heard that they had put him out; and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

 

JOH 10:1-6

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 "When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 "And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know [perfect tense: they will never know] the voice of strangers."  6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.

 

Isaiah prophesied (ISA 49:5) that the Servant of the Lord (the Messiah) would gather Israel to Himself. This same Servant in ISA 53:11 “My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

 

In fact, the Shepherd would for a time become like a sheep Himself and be silent before the shearers, referring to His willful acceptance of the Father’s plan to crush Him (ISA 53:10).

 

After healing the blind beggar, Jesus then becomes his Shepherd, protecting him from the harsh jealousy of the Pharisees.

 

JOH 10:7-9

Jesus therefore said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am [ego eimi = emphasizing Himself] the door of the sheep. 8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them [the sheep are believers if they have not listened to false prophets or shepherds]. 9 "I am [ego eimi] the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

 

EZE 34:15

"I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest," declares the Lord God.

 

Directly after this He says that He will feed the bad shepherds with judgment.

 

The thief’s designs for the sheep are wholly malicious; the good shepherd’s plans for them are entirely benevolent. The shepherd desires and promotes their wellbeing. The Lord is for us and not against us. He is not content that His flock should eke out a bare and miserable existence; He wants us to live life to the full.

 

This is not the promise of material wealth or physical health. Spiritual maturity is the full knowledge of Christ.

 

PHI 4:19

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

 

Every believer has eternal life given at salvation, but to draw on its riches is to have full knowledge of the Father and Son.

 

JOH 17:3

“And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

 

What riches do we need? We need the spiritual riches that accompany eternal life, and we have eternal life at the moment of salvation, but to draw on its riches is to have full knowledge of the Father and the Son, and that is a lifelong journey.

 

This is a good place to mention thankfulness or gratitude in light of the holiday tomorrow. What every believer has in Christ should be a fountain of gratitude. No matter what may be going on in our we should live thankfully because are in Christ and through Him possess eternal life which opens to the door to knowing God the Father and Son. I would also add, difficult as it can be, we should be thankful even in our failures. Not grateful for the failure, that is antinomianism, but grateful that our position in Christ did not ever, and does not ever, depend upon us. We are to hate sin, and to a certain degree, that will lead to a proper loathing of some aspects of ourselves, but as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2CO 7:10).

 

Sorrow will be turned to joy as we overcome our weaknesses through Christ Jesus. The Shepherd strengthens the sheep.

 

Psa 95

1 O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God,

And a great King above all gods,

4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth;

The peaks of the mountains are His also.

5 The sea is His, for it was He who made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

 

6 Come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

7 For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you would hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

As in the day of Massah in the wilderness;

9 "When your fathers tested Me,

They tried Me, though they had seen My work.

10 "For forty years I loathed that generation,

And said they are a people who err in their heart,

And they do not know My ways.

11 "Therefore I swore in My anger,

Truly they shall not enter into My rest."

 

The ungrateful (Meribah - bitterness) do not enter God’s rest. We must find true and pure thankfulness for just being His.

 

At Meribah, because their supply of water was getting short, and the water they had found in the wilderness was bitter, they despaired and murmured against Moses. They had just recently passed through the Red Sea and witnessed God swallow up the greatest army on the earth at the time with that same sea. So thrilled and inspired were the people that they sang a wonderful song of worship to God, which song’s final lines were:

 

"Thou wilt bring them and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance,

The place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thy dwelling,

The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.

The Lord shall reign forever and ever" (EXO 15:17-18).

 

A few days later they are grumbling and entertaining the possibility that they’re going to die in the wilderness.

 

Let us be thankful to the Lord for all He is and all He has done for us.

 

Psa 138 A Psalm of David.

 

1 I will give Thee thanks with all my heart;

I will sing praises to Thee before the gods.

2 I will bow down toward Thy holy temple,

And give thanks to Thy name for Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth;

For Thou hast magnified Thy word according to all Thy name.

3 On the day I called Thou didst answer me;

Thou didst make me bold with strength in my soul.

 

4 All the kings of the earth will give thanks to Thee, O Lord,

When they have heard the words of Thy mouth.

5 And they will sing of the ways of the Lord.

For great is the glory of the Lord.

6 For though the Lord is exalted,

Yet He regards the lowly;

But the haughty He knows from afar.

 

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,

Thou wilt revive me;

Thou wilt stretch forth Thy hand against the wrath of my enemies,

And Thy right hand will save me.

8 The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;

Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting;

Do not forsake the works of Thy hands.