Parkwood Baptist Church

“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” (Genesis 2:2)

“When He received the drink, Jesus said, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’  With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30)

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)

“Then He took it down [the body of Jesus] wrapped it in a linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock…and the Sabbath was about to begin.” (Luke 23:53,54)

“Then Moses and the priests…said to all Israel, ‘Be silent, O Israel, and listen!  You have now become the people of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 27:9)

“Then they [the women] went home and prepared spices and perfumes.  But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56)

“For you know that it was not with perishable things that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:18,19)

Today marks the last day of our Lenten journey.  For 40 days and 6 Sabbaths we have been contemplating the work of God on the cross of Christ.  Today marks a “quiet” day in the passion story.  The work began this past Sunday with the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the Temple and finished (according to the cry of Jesus) 6 days later on Friday afternoon.  So, why this day?  Why the time in the tomb?

Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised.  God’s greatest work to this point was the creation of the world.  He worked for six days and then rested on the seventh.  Nothing happened on that first Sabbath.  The Scriptures tell us that God never changes.  He is always the same.  Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the greatest work of God since creation would follow the same pattern.  The restoration of creation to it’s original purpose and potential took six days and then…a Sabbath rest.  A quiet pause before the unveiling of the greatest story ever told…God has defeated death and we have been set free!

I love the words of Moses to the people of Israel as they stood at the edge of the promised land.  They had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and now they were just on the other side of the Jordan.  His words to them can be words for us on this day that marks Jesus’ time in the tomb.

Shhhh…be silent and listen.  You have now been redeemed by the “precious blood” of Christ.  You can once again become the people of God.  Take a moment…let that sink in.  Maybe that is one of the purposes of this Saturday in the tomb.  A day of quiet gratitude for God’s indescribable gift!

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.”

“Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.  They bound Him and led Him away…” (Matt. 27:1)

“He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul.”

“After they had mocked Him, they took off the robe…and led Him away to crucify Him.” (Matt. 27:31)

“He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake”

“When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals – one on His right and one on His left.” (Luke 23:33)

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me”

“It was the third hour [9 am] when they crucified Him” (Mark 15:25)

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”

“The people stood watching…the rulers even sneered at Him…the soldiers mocked Him” (Luke 23:35,36)

“You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.”

“It was now the sixth hour [12 noon] and darkness came over the whole land” (Mark 15:33)

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life”

“At the ninth hour [3 pm] Jesus cried out in a loud voice…” (Matt. 27:46) “Jesus called out in a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’.  When He had said this He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46)

“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”

Today the Good Shepherd gave His life for you.  Throughout the day allow your thoughts to turn to Him and thank Him for enduring the shame and the pain on your behalf.  Today He demonstrated His love for you.  Today He proved Himself the Good Shepherd.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;  Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil;  my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23)

“Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.” (Luke 22:7)

“It was just before the Passover feast.  Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father.  Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.” (John 13:1)

Today marks the last full day of Jesus on this earth…Maundy Thursday.  It is the day that Jesus sent the disciples into the city to prepare the upper room for the evening meal.  Sunset on this night was the beginning of Passover.  Today was the day everyone made final preparations for this significant event.  For Jesus and His disciples it would be more than just another Passover.  It was the Passover that was the fulfillment of what all previous Passover’s were pointing to.  This was God coming to us.  This was God taking the initiative to reconcile us to Himself.  This was God showing us the “full extent of His love”.

The Good Shepherd loves His sheep.  Therefore, He takes care of them.  He doesn’t just have sheep and hire someone to watch them for Him…He does it.  He meets their needs.  He makes them to lie down.  He leads.  He restores.  He guides.  He is with you to calm your fears.  He comforts you.  He prepares a table for you.  He anoints.  He is pleased to be your Shepherd.  He gives you a place to dwell…forever.  I hope you didn’t miss it.  This Psalm is about God and His great love for us.  It is not about our work or effort in obtaining favor in God’s eyes.  It is about God’s love and what the “full extent” of that love looks like.  Maybe that is why this Psalm has brought so much comfort for so many.  It brings us back to the truth that God loves us and He will take care of us.  All we have to do is come into the fold and trust Him.

This is the message of the cross.  Jesus went to the cross for His sheep.  It is what we needed.  Without His sacrifice on the cross we would be lost.  We were in need of a Savior! So Jesus, our Good Shepherd, broke bread with His disciples, went to the Garden, and allowed Himself to be arrested.  This was the work of God on your behalf.

“…dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

“For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable , and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:  ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54,55)

 “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:12,13)

Yes, my friend, forever is real.  Eternal life is available for us to enjoy!  The way has been prepared and revealed through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  It is a relationship to the Good Shepherd Jesus that gives us the life that never ends.  Those who have this faith (believing) relationship with Jesus have the eternal life but those who do not remain under the condemnation of death.  So, there is an option.  This “forever” or “eternal life” is available but it requires a response.  Death or Life?  This is the choice.  How did it come to this?

We must remember that from the beginning we have rejected God’s sovereign rule over us and gone our own way; “…all we, like sheep, have gone astray and gone our own way” (Isaiah 53:6).  God warned that this would bring in the consequence of death…an end to “forever” for us.   But, God so loved us (the world) that He gave His only Son (John 3:16).  Paul said this,

“When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave all of our sins…He took it away, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:13,14)

The Good Shepherd does not choose to force His sheep into submission…He chooses to love His sheep into relationship.  That great love was demonstrated on the cross when He took upon Himself the “wages” of your sin which is death.  He died so that you could live and live forever!  This is the Truth of the Gospel.  This is the pathway to eternal life.  This is how those dead in their sin…lost in this world…sheep without a shepherd…can find life and place in the fold of the Lord.  And this is when one can say,

“The Lord is my Shepherd”

“…I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”

The Good Shepherd never leaves the sheep.  Here David uses the word forever.  Forever is a word that we read in fairy tales and…the Bible.  It is beyond our understanding and is somewhat “other worldly”.  It deals with that looming nemesis called “time”.  Time sets the boundaries around everything…good and bad.  For example, we may say, “Time heals all wounds”, but then we say, “all good things come to an end”.  Our very lives are contained within the constraints of time.  It is a constant reminder of our own mortality.  Even a “long long time” still has an end at some point.  It is no wonder that, in our fairy tales, we write time out of the story.   The happy ending is when things do not end…”and they lived happily ever after”.  There is no measure, no ending for “forever”.

The Scripture tells us that forever is not a fairy tale.  A fairy tale is a “make believe” attempt to offer some comfort to those longing for something more in this world.  It is the “wish and a prayer” fantasy that briefly gives an escape to the realities of this life.   Some see the Bible as the same thing.  It was Karl Marx who said that religion is the “opiate of the masses”.  He believed that God was merely a fairy tale manufactured to bring hope to a world headed for certain doom.  Friend, if there is no God and if all we have is fairy tales to bring us temporary relief than we are hopeless, but…

…there is more!  The Bible also talks about forever.  However, this is no fairy tale dream that is used as a drug to ease the suffering of humankind on the way to annihilation.  It is the truth about the power of God that vanquishes the enemy of death and opens the door to “eternity”.   It is the proclamation of the reality of the Kingdom of God and the truth that we were created to be an eternal part of that Kingdom!  To come into the flock of the Good Shepherd is more than changing care givers…it is changing the landscape of life itself.  It is transforming that which is limited to that which is limitless!  It takes that which is mortal and makes it immortal!  The Apostle Paul says that we have “taken off mortality” and “put on immortality”.

Once again, it is the cross of Christ that makes this possible.  Living forever is no longer a fairy.  It is true that we were facing a certain end in this world but God came bursting into our world and made it possible for us to experience forever.  Over the next few days as we work our way to the cross, we will look into this powerful truth.

Today, rest in the truth that there is a forever and it is no fairy tale!

“…and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

The Good Shepherd gives His sheep a home forever.  Our Shepherd is not just a worker whose job it is to take care of the sheep.  He is not a hired hand that will punch out at the end of the day and go home.  We are not off on a farm somewhere and the shepherd checks on us periodically.  We are in His house!  Our Shepherd is home and we are with Him!  The Hebrew word here describes more than a building in a neighborhood.  It is more than four walls and a front door.  It carries a much more intimate meaning than that. This word is used when speaking about family and belonging.

David has saved the most precious and comforting thought to sum up this beautiful Psalm.  All of the verses lead up to the reality that we are part of the family.  As His sheep we belong to Him.  This goes beyond just meeting needs.  It is more than feeding, grooming and protecting the sheep.  This is talking about relationship.  It is saying, “I am now a part of the family”.  This meets the deepest need we have as human beings…the need to “belong”.  To know that you are part of a nurturing family is important to God.

Family has been the DNA of humanity since the Garden of Eden.  God said that it was not good for man to be alone and created family.  The family is the thread in the fabric of our world.  It was true then and is still true today.  God created us for fellowship with Him and with a family.  David gives this description of God in another Psalm,

“A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families…” (Psalm 68:5,6)

In this world that has been broken by sin, many families have failed to provide this and so many are lonely searching for a place to belong.  This is what Psalm 23 promises.  No matter how alone you feel…no matter how lost you may think you are…there is a place for you in the home of the Good Shepherd.  You were made to live in His home and to be a part of His family.  He will take care of you and meet you greatest need…the need to belong.

This is the message of the cross.  Our sins are forgiven and God calls us to come home.  We can come into His presence today as part of His family…right where we belong.

“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul – then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.” (Deuteronomy 11:13-15)

Today we are observing the last Sabbath rest during Lent.  I have chosen these verses for us to think about because they remind us that God is in charge and that He covers all the bases.  That is important to remember if we are really going to enjoy the Sabbath.  Many have a hard time truly “resting”.  We worry about the things that are still undone.  We worry about the things that we will need to do later and we wonder if all the bases are covered.  We can’t totally relax until we know for sure that things are going to get done.

That’s why I like these verses.  God says through Moses, “If you love me I will take care of you and…cover all the bases.  If we are loving God with all our hearts He promises to bless us and take care of us.  But…He also promises to bless the land, the crops, the harvest and even grass for your cows to eat!  What?  Oh, and by the way, you will be fed and satisfied as well.

So today, I want to remind you, on behalf of the God who loves you, sit back and enjoy a Sabbath rest.  It’s okay.  He’s got all the bases covered.  There will be plenty of ways that He will include you in His work, but on this Sabbath let Him take care of it.  Trust Him.

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life”

The Good Shepherd is pleased with us.  He enjoys watching over His sheep.  Why?  Because He loves them!  This verse reveals the motivation behind everything that the Shepherd does for us.  The reason He takes us into the green pasture and beside the still water is because He loves us.  His love for us is why He walks with us through the valley.  It is love that is behind His guidance and His discipline.  He prepares a table for you because…yes, that’s right…He loves you.

The song we learned as children says it simply;

“Jesus loves me this I know.                                                                                                             For the Bible tells me so.                                                                                                                         Little ones to Him belong,                                                                                                               they are weak but He is strong.                                                                                                      Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.                                                                                          Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.”

It is God’s Word that gives testimony to the truth that God loves us.  Each time I get the privilege to lead the chapel for our WEE Center I remind the children that the Bible tells us that God made us…God loves us…and God wants to take care of us.  Isn’t that the same message that we receive from Psalm 23?  And, isn’t it the same message that we see in the cross of Jesus on Calvary?  It is His great love for us that motivated our Savior to give up His life.  This, again, is what makes Him the Good Shepherd.  He lays down His life for His sheep.

The word translated as “love” in this verse is  “mercy” in some translations.  That is not inaccurate since the word can be used either way.  Whatever way it is translated it implies the other as well.  Mercy and forgiveness is a result of genuine love.  Conversely, love shows itself in mercy.  The Scripture tells us that you can’t have one without the other.  This truth is also illustrated on the cross, which not only demonstrates God’s love for us, but makes it possible for us to receive mercy and forgiveness.

The motivation for our salvation is love.  God enjoys taking care of us because He loves us.  And that love will follow you all the days of your life.  It is relentless.  It is a love that will not quit.  He will not let you go.

“I will never leave you or forsake you”

“Surely goodness and love (mercy) will follow me all the days of my life,”

The Good Shepherd is pleased with us.  The Hebrew word for goodness used here is not referring to the goodness of the sheep.  David is not saying that he will leave a “trail of goodness” wherever he goes.  The word is used to describe “pleasure” or “satisfaction” and, in this case, the Shepherd’s pleasure with His sheep.  That’s right.  God is pleased with His sheep.  He enjoys watching over us and it “blesses” Him to see us thrive as His people.  Paul said to the Church in Corinth,

“So, we make it our goal to please Him” (2 Cor. 5:9)

It is good to be pleasing to God!  To know that He enjoys the relationship as we do gives us a relationship that brings joy and security.  When we sense God’s pleasure it brings a confidence in all we do.  We can be ourselves and know that He loves us just the way we are.  This “goodness” or “pleasure” of God that follows us allows us to be better servants to those around us also.  If we are pleasing to God then we don’t have to try to please others.  So, this not only improves the way we live day to day but effects those around us as well.  It is written in the Book of Proverbs;

“When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7)

Maybe that is why the Apostle Paul always made such a big deal about living to please God and not men.  We can make ourselves miserable trying to please others instead of our Shepherd who takes care of us.

“Surely, God’s pleasure follows us”.  He enjoys watching over you.  He is pleased to have you in His flock.  You are not an unwanted sheep…you are a chosen sheep that brings Him joy.  Rejoice in that fact today.  Receive the blessings that come with His pleasure and…hear His voice as He speaks to your heart this day.

“…my cup overflows.”

The Good Shepherd is generous.  In fact, He gives more than our cup can hold!  It overflows.  God does not withhold anything good from us.  He provides us with what we need and then some.  It is unbelievable but true!  So, two questions to consider today.

#1  What can we do to receive these unmeasured blessings that God longs to shower on us?

#2  How does being so blessed effect our lifestyle and attitude to the world around us?

First, most of us would acknowledge that fact that God is a God who blesses us.  But, at the same time, we would also confess that we don’t always feel that our cups are overflowing.  So, what is the problem?  The Scripture is clear that experiencing the blessings of God begins by responding to His generous gift of life available in Christ.  We must abide (or live) in Him as Jesus talks about in John 15, “I am the vine and you are the branches.  He who abides in me bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  To be in fellowship (connected) with Christ is to be in a place to receive God’s blessings.

To abide in Christ means that every aspect of our lives brings glory to Him our Shepherd.  The prophet Malachi said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10).  To bring our lives and all that we have before the Lord is a key that unlocks many of the blessings God has for us.

His generous gift on the cross produces a generous response to Him which brings more blessings upon us which enables us to be generous with others.  This answers the second of our questions.  We should be generous people!  Proverbs 11:25 says;

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”

We cannot out give God.  He expects us to freely give from the storehouses of His blessings.  We are blessed to be a blessing!  God does not pour His resources into a stagnant pond.  He pours those blessings into vessels that will be conduits of His mercy and grace.

The Good Shepherd has blessed you.  Your cup overflows.  Are you allowing those blessings to overflow onto those around you?  It is what we are called to do.