Title: The Good Shepherd and the Wage Shepherd
Contents
We live in a reality where the price of cabbage is skyrocketing, and many common people say that it is really difficult to live. Everyone! Are you struggling? What do you think annoys you the most? Is the environment what makes it so? It is said that the most difficult thing for modern people while living in the present age is the problem within themselves.
Modern people are busy with things. The words liberation and freedom are also very familiar to Koreans. We have the experience of gaining freedom from the oppressed life with the help of the Allied Forces during our 36 years of colonial life. Liberation and freedom are two sides of the same coin. Where there is liberty there is freedom, and where there is freedom there is liberation. Jesus came as the true liberator of our lives. So today's text compares him to the Good Shepherd.
He came not to set us free from poverty, sin, curses, anxiety, fear, stress, disease, and death, not from any religion, ethics, morals or philosophy. What is the true liberation and freedom that Jesus, the Son of God, gives us, and how should we enjoy it?
1. He set the poor free.
*Genesis 3:16-19 - In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”
1) As we sinned and departed from God, spiritual and physical poverty came.
2) Characteristics of the spiritually poor - They did not have eternal life, the Word of God, and the kingdom of heaven.
3) Characteristics of the physically poor - Life is difficult due to material poverty, suffering from debt, and the door of the environment is closed.
4) Jesus takes on all our poverty and gives us the blessing of Abraham (Galatians 3:13-14).
2. He freed the captives.
*1 John 3:8 - He who sins is of the devil, and the devil sins from the beginning, because the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.
1) Those who are captive to sin - original sin, self-crime, ancestor sin
2) Those captured by anxiety and fear - environment, future, death
3) Those who are possessed by demons
- Spiritual (suffering), mental (oppressed), moral (fallen)
4) Those who are captive to bad temper - anger, hatred, strife, lack of patience
- Self-destruction.
5) Those who are captive to evil habits - alcoholism, drug addiction, fornication, kleptomania
- Did medicine, knowledge, philosophy, and education liberate? Nothing but the Word can give a solution to man's existential problems.
6) Jesus wants to set the captives free now.
*Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is with us now.
3. He freed the blind from darkness.
1) Natural eyes - Bartimaeus blind
2) supernatural eyes
a. He became blind in spirit who saw God in the Garden of Eden.
b. I don't know the afterlife.
c. His eyes were darkened by the lust of his eyes.
3) If you accept Jesus as your Savior, your eyes will be opened and your eyes will be opened to see the world of God (John 4:13-14).
4. He freed the oppressed and set them free.
Acts 10:38 - God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
1) Freeing those who are spiritually captive
2) Mental - More than 70% of modern people's diseases are mental disorders
3) Physical - Adapted Disease
4) He wants you to be set free by loosening the bonds that were held down in Jesus. (Matthew 11:28) You can never be happy in a state of being pressed.
5. We can recognize the Lord by His deeds.
1) John 10:25~26 - Who were the people who did not believe in the Lord so much? Faith is the gift and grace of God. Without this gift, neither Jesus nor the Bible can be trusted, even if they have lived in a monastery for many years. However, given this grace, even those who are drowning in the mud of the world can simply believe all of them. Just as little children instinctively trust their mother. The reason we are here today is because that gift has been given to us. So, what should we do after receiving that precious gift?
2) John 10:27 - Those who receive the gift of faith hear the word of the Lord above all else. And follow the Lord. In other words, imitating the Lord and becoming more like Him. If the gift of faith is the grace of the Lord, it is our responsibility and mission to hear, know and follow the Lord. We look forward to the Lord who will make a greater work happen through those who believe.