I am the Good Shepherd

John 10:1-18

Rev. Dan Whang

Jesus is making incredible claims.

He came during a time where Israel was lost. They were under Roman rule. They were being judged for not following God. There were people who were supposed to shepherd the people. But they cared only themselves. Ezekiel 34:11-12;15-16 speaks of the shepherd of God. The true shepherd.

What is Jesus saying?

This is the most personal statement. He is claiming that He is a personal God. He is also claiming us as his sheep. Shepherds are not ranchers or pet owners. Sheep are their life and dictate their lifestyle. Jesus was telling the people that he is knowable and loving.

Why is the claim meaningful?

He knows us perfectly, we cannot hide anything from him. The shepherd knows everything about his shepherd.

Sheep are not the brightest animals. It is a bit of an insult. They cannot defend themselves. They follow other sheep, but they don't know how to get home. This is how Christ sees us. Isiah 53:6 tells us how we are. At the best of times, we see how stupid we've been...but only on hindsight. God sees us in the present as sheep.

He is telling us that he will lay down his life for us. He is not seeing sheep as wealth. He is not a hired hand. He loves and cares for his sheep more than his own life.

Shepherds never leave or abandon their sheep. Jesus will seek us out even when we stray. He will find the lost sheep and bring us back.

How should we respond?

Lay your idols aside and follow your Shepherd in everything.  We all have our idols. None of us are innocent of this.

Follow the shepherd through good times and bad. God leads us through good times and bad. We may find ourselves in the valley of death, but God is still with us. Psalm 23 talks of this.

Lets point people outside of our flock to the Good shepherd. Jesus is seeking the lost sheep. We should follow Jesus in this as well.

We should worship and adore him.

Mercy and Justice: The call to serve our city

Luke 10:25-37 - The parable of the good Samaritan

Rev. Dwight Yoo

The immense need in the city could fill an entire sermon. Alot of my thoughts and views are from a book... In alot of my sermon, you will find echos of this book.

Ministries of mercy - Tim Keller

The necessity of mercy

The law of God can be summed in two things: loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. There are two kinds of responses. One is okay,i follow the law... I don't murder, steal, etc. The other is...utterly hopeless. We fail to fully love God as we ought. We fail to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are left humbled. The teacher of the law tries to justify himself... He asks Jesus to clarify the law, to try to whittle down the law of God to something manageable and doable. But this is not what Jesus does. Instead he tells a parable. The story of one who risks his life, provides for his needs, and gives sacrificially.

What is the point of this?
It is the way to salvation. To provide for tangible needs, that is how we know that we are saved. It does not save us, but it shows that we are saved...it is the fruit of the Spirit. This is a mark of genuine faith. It is not optional. It is not solely for those with a gift of mercy. It is for all christians.

The nature of mercy

We usually try to limit the scope of mercy. There are three ways we try to do this.

Who: we try to avoid people who are different. Class, race, social, economic, etc. We are called to love even those we hate.

When: we feel like we should not give mercy to those who don't deserve it. Those who made poor choices... This is not dismissing wisdom, but we should remember that we are undeserving of God's mercy.

How much: The Samaritan shows us how much. He risks his life. He gets dirty, tired, and poorer to love his neighbor. He takes on the sorrow of his neighbor. It takes sacrifice.

Motivation of mercy

How are we supposed to do this?
Guilt is not enough. How about obligation? That is ultimately not enough. The law cannot provide us the motivation. It only tells us that we should. We don't have the power to do it. We are not generous enough to show mercy like that. We can only be this radically merciful when we see that we were the one who was bloodied, beaten, and dying hopeless...lying on that road. And Jesus came and saved us in all those ways.

Method of mercy

Practical thoughts

First we need to see. We cannot just walk by it. We have to see it and engage. We cannot just see it and walk by like the priest and the Levite.

We are not called to help everything and everyone. We need to be wise about it. We need to do it in community. Evangelism should be done in community; same for mercy. We should provide mercy in a targeted, deliberate, and organized way.

We should work with churches. It would be arrogant to think we can serve the city as individual churches. We should make strategic partnerships with other churches who are already providing mercy. Our name does not need to be on it. We are doing this for the kingdom, not so that our church would be known.

Serve in mercy not because of guilt or obligation, but because of God's mercy.

Seeking the Heavenly City to come

(Hebrew 11:13-16; 13:12-16)

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed hto be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

{Dwight Yoo}

To be a Christian is to be a resident alien.

Abraham left his homeland for Canaan. But the canaanites still lived there. So Abraham lived as an alien in this place. But even so, it was more than just a nationalistic sense. They are not of this place, but rather a heavenly place. We are to live as one seeking to go home.

Those who live for the heavenly city, do the most for their current city.

If we forget our alien status, we start to live like residents. We take on the values and desires of the place we live in. We look the same and act the same. We have no power in Christ. If we forget our resident status, we act like we are passing through. Christ sent us into the world. (Jeremiah 29:4-7) We are called to love and minister to those around us.

Our greatest motivation to live like this is Christ

Jesus came to us from the heavenly city. He came for us. He was taken out of the city for us. So that we would be welcome in the heavenly city.

The alternate city: a counter-cultural community

1 and 2 Corinthians

Rev. Dwight Yoo

How we are different

Attitude toward Community - 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

The world  has two  extreme ways of dealing with community. One is radical individualism. My way is the right way. No responsibility towards others. There is also the worship of community. People seek out a tribe, a place to belong. Like high school: jocks, nerds, rockers, etc. This  continues into older years: hipsters,   classy, emo, etc. This develops into pride and segregation between socio-economic divisions. We end up only hanging with people who are like us. We will do anything to  stay acceptable in our group. The fear of rejection drives us in these communities.

God is a triune god. There is community in our God. We are not meant to live self-absorbed and self-centered lives. We are meant to step into the community of God. But we are also not meant to worship the group, posse, or tribe. We are all sinners under God. Regardless of race,  social, economic  differences we are one family in Christ.

For christians, we start knowing of our sins. We are acceptable  because of Christ. It is not performance based. We practice radical love, radical acceptance. This  is the type of community we are called  into.

Attitudes toward sex -

Corinth was a place that worshiped sex. It was a place filled with temple prostitutes. It dehumanizes  our interactions with the opposite sex. We treat people as just a place for pleasure instead of loving them. On the other hand, we can't be prudes. Sex is a beautiful gift of God. It is bot a dirty thing. It a wonderful thing to only be  shared in marriage.

Attitudes toward money - 2 Corinthians 8:1-4

Money is not our security. The church in poverty gives more. This is very counter cultural. When hard times come, we tend to hang onto money. Or money gives us a sense of worth. We want to drive bmw's, live the good life, so people will know that we are somebodies. Christ  came and gave so that we might be rich.  We can be radically generous.

Christians are supposed to be like a model home. In front of developments, we have these houses that show what it would be like to move into that development.  When people come into the community of Christ, they should have a foretaste of the city of God. Our communities should give visitors a sense of longing...to go  to the city of God with us.

How to proceed

To pray for growth into Christ-likeness
To pray for and commit ourselves to community

Total church -

The Spirit of Work: The Critical Role of Imagination

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Rev David Kim

The Holy Spirit is not tethered to just our personal salvation. He is a spirit of creation. He brought what was in the mind of God into the world. If you have not used your imagination lately,i dare say that you have not been producing for the kingdom.

When your imagination is active, you look at your world and work, you don't just see annoying coworkers...you see people made in the image of God. Imagination can be misused, but it can also be a great tool for God. We need the ability to see the invisible and things that have yet to come. They will motivate and inspire during tough times in ministry.

Consider that the first place the spirit leads us is to the place of death and destruction. It shows us our brokenness. Then the hand of God comes upon them. The hand of God is a symbol of power and strength. It is God empowering Ezekiel.  Ezekiel is too frail for the calling God had given. So God gives him a vision of resurrection.

TED talk - Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

Do we recognize the divine in our lives? When something amazing happens,do we realize that God is the one who empowers us? Or do we attribute it our own talents?

God is there in our work. We are not doing it ourselves. We are working with God. That same closeness we experience in worship can be found in our work.

Finally, consider that God didn't just raise a jumbled mass of people. He raised an organized army. A community of people for God's purposes.

Jesus gives the Spirit to the disciples. The church is that army. The believers are the fulfillment of Ezekiel's vision.

The Glory of Work: Where is all this going?

Isaiah 60:1-14

We don't usually think of work as bringing glory to God. We usually think of praise and ministry as things that bring God glory. When people heard "New Jerusalem", it would be like someone saying to you, New Philadelphia. That is what God is working towards. It is not a glorified church service. We aren't just singing praise. It is an actual city, with life, culture, civilization...renewed.

This New Jerusalem is an international city. You see all these nations and regions represented in the vision of the new city. The ships of Tarshish represented the height of human pride. They were the Goldman Sachs of their times. This is very controversial. These camels are the maserati's of their day. A sportscar in heaven? It is a very metropolitan vision.

Bringing faith to work is more than just evangelism.

Three points
Your motivations toward work
The transformation starts with community
The work itself

Loving our work: Looking deeper into our motives

Rev. David Kim

Revelation 21:1-5

When you think about your typical day, you will find that we spend a significant part of our time at work. Work and religion have become separate spheres. The church has lost it's influence on work.

Why we need to love our work

Isn't our job just a paycheck? Is it only about making money to do things we want to do? The work that God does is an expression of His characteristics. Since we are made in His image, we express ourselves in work. When we don't work, we are missing part of our purpose. While it is true that our identity comes from Christ, part of us is found in work.

When God created the world, He first created the structure then He filled them. He created the separation between air and water... Then He created birds and fish to fill them. This is the vision we should have of work. Work provides both identity and purpose. We are to subdue and cultivate the earth.

Why we can't love our work

Even though we are supposed to love our work, we cannot. We go into our first jobs, full of hope and expectation. But the reality comes crashing in and we come out jaded and bitter. Work has become a source of identity instead of an expression of our identity. We love and hate work because of what it provides or doesn't provide.

How we can grow to love our work

God creates a new city. The city of God. The bride in the story is not the church...it is the city. Part of what we have done is part of the bride. Our deeds are part of what God displays. When God looks at our work, He looks at them through the eyes of love. It is not a matter of  objective judgement, it is that God loves us, therefore God loves our work.  God will not let our work go to waste.