The Sheep Will Scatter

Mark 14:27-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 29, 2020.

Although our passage is immediately about the events leading up to the crucifixion, it also points to all those places along the path of our walk of faith where our faith will be tested.  We can call this the crucible.  The crucible is a place where we are melted down and the impurities float to the surface.  The purpose is to remove the impurities identified in that event.  The crucible experience always asks the question, “Will you continue to follow Jesus, or will you stumble?”  Or, in the words of John 6:67, “Do you also want to go away?”

The truth is that we all stumble at times in this walk of faith.  The real point is whether or not we will stumble to the point of falling away completely.  I pray that you will remain loyal to the Lord Jesus in the days ahead regardless of any stumblings.

We are living in a time where no people on earth are going to be able to escape the trap that the whole world is heading into.  You can escape its destruction, but the trap will be there nonetheless.  The wonderful news is that in Jesus there is a way through the trap.  You can’t avoid it, but you can be saved through it by putting your trust in Jesus completely, by letting your fears and idols be purged from your life in the refiner’s fire of these times, and by clinging to him, no matter what.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus tells the disciples that they will be made to stumble

This discussion seems to take place on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mt. of Olives, east of Jerusalem.  Jesus tells his disciples that they will all stumble because of him this very night.  This word for stumble is the same word that Jesus used when John the Baptist was in prison.  John was having second thoughts on whether he was right about Jesus.  Thus, he sends his disciples to Jesus with the question, “Are you the Coming One, or do we wait for another?”  Jesus tells them to tell John the miraculous stuff that he is doing, but then ends with this statement.  “Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.”  This gives the wrong impression to us today, one of a person’s feelings being hurt.  It would be better translated as this, “Blessed is he who is not made to stumble because of me.”  Jesus is using the Old Testament stumbling block imagery we find throughout the prophets (see Isaiah 8:14-15 and its context).

The stumbling that is being referred to is a spiritual stumbling, and is tied into the Greek term for a stumbling block, skandalon.  This actually points to a whole series of things.  To stumble is to waver in our faith in such a way that we lose our balance on the path of following the Lord.  This can lead to a person falling to the side of the path, even landing on the ground, injured.  If the problem is not rectified at each point of the situation then it can lead not only to falling off the path, but a person may continue on an alternate path that does not follow the Lord, that is either deception, or apostasy (leaving the faith completely). 

Stumbling and falling away are spiritual terms that Paul uses in Romans 11 when he explains what God is doing with national Israel.  As a nation, Israel had stumbled and fallen away from the path of God.  To some of the early Christians, it appeared that God was replacing Israel with the Church and that Israel would be no more.  Paul explains that the fall of Israel was not for nothing.  It had opened the door for the Gospel to be sent to all the nations, and, when this time of the Gentiles was completed, God would open the eyes of natural Israel that they may believe in Jesus the Messiah.  Of course, through the centuries, anyone of natural Israel could believe on Jesus and be recovered, but they would not be recovered to the faith as a nation until the end times.  This is what Isaiah is talking about in chapter 8 and is what Jesus means.

Before they can protest this statement, Jesus quotes Zechariah 13:7.  This is an interesting passage.  In chapter 12 of Zechariah, he talks about Israel, “they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son.”  This is in the context of a great salvation from many, if not all, of the nations of the earth marshalled against her.  Zechariah 14 actually describes the second coming of Jesus, which also spares Jerusalem from total destruction.  However, in Zechariah 13, nestled in between those other chapters, God calls upon one who is “My Shepherd, and My Companion (or Associate).”  It pictures the shepherd (the good shepherd) that God sent to teach and to lead Israel (this shepherd who was a close companion to God, being struck and the people of Israel (his sheep) being scattered.

It is interesting that Zechariah doesn’t mention stumbling in the verse Jesus quotes, only “scattering.”  The prophets not only spoke of stumbling, but also of falling, broken, snared, and taken.  It speaks of such a bad stumbling that Israel is removed from the land and scattered throughout the nations.  A scattering that only Messiah could recover.  This the verse in Isaiah 8:14-15.

“He will be a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.”

Yet, in Luke 21:35, Jesus says, “[The Day of the Lord] will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.”  It is not just the disciples of the days of Jesus that need to beware spiritual traps that lead to us being snared.  Jesus promises that the trap is not done.  There is a great end times trap that has been set by the Lord.  This world is quickly rushing headlong into it.  The only ones that will survive are those who put their full faith in Jesus and do not stumble to the point of not recovering.  God help us to keep our bearings, not to be deceived, nor to lose faith in Jesus.

Jesus then tells them that he will go ahead of them to Galilee after he is resurrected.  This helps us to understand why Jesus was telling them that they would stumble.  His purpose was not to rub their nose in their coming failure, nor to tell them what a bunch of losers they are.  Jesus is not vindictive and angry at their weakness.  He had told them many times that he would be killed in Jerusalem, and yet, rise on the third day.  Now, he is adding that he will meet them in Galilee afterwards.  Yes, the sheep will scatter when God’s shepherd is struck, but then the Good Shepherd (who was struck on our behalf) will rise up and seek out his sheep who were scattered “on a dark and cloudy day.”

We have our own dark and cloudy days, not just on the horizon, but even now.  These are times of testing in which all of us have our times of wavering in faith.  The Spirit of Jesus is here today, drawing us to his side, saying, “Stand with me and I will give you rest.”  For those who stumble, we are called to help them to keep their balance, and keep walking in faith.  Even those who fall to the side of the path, we are to warn them of the destruction, bandage their wounds, and help them back into the way of the Lord. 

There is a great falling away from the truth of God and His Messiah that is moving throughout the earth.  We must guard our hearts and prepare for greater storms yet.

It is at this point that Peter protests what Jesus is saying.  True to form, Peter is only saying what he wants to be true.  “Even if everyone else is made to stumble, I will not be made to stumble!”  This sounds like a great statement of faith, similar to Joshua’s, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”  However, Joshua spoke his statement as a battle-hardened warrior who had been fighting the battles of the LORD.  For him, it was not bravado, but a faith that had been tried in the furnace and purified.  Peter and the disciples were still wet behind the ears.  They were only now headed into the first of many furnaces that lay ahead for them.  In fact, in Luke 22:31, Jesus tells Peter that “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.”  Like with Job, Satan had requested to try Peter and his pretentious words.

Jesus prophesies that Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows a second time that very evening.  Peter and the other disciples then vehemently protest this statement.  I know that in your heart you may want to be something great for Jesus, but be warned.  We are only now in a time of furnace that is itself what purifies our motives and hearts.  These are not the times to be talking smack, but rather to be removing the impurities that come to the surface. Jesus knows that we are weak and frail in ourselves.  Without him we are fodder for the enemy.  Yet, he loves us.  In Luke, Jesus tells Peter a wonderful thing in this exchange.  He says, “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”  How beautiful is that?  When we couple this statement with the events after the resurrection in John chapter 21, they are like bookends of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.  He is not expecting you to be a robotic faith machine.  He loves you; He will not forsake you; He has prayed for you that your faith will not fail!  Yes, the sheep will scatter, but in the Name of Jesus we are empowered and authorized to go out into all the world and draw God’s sheep back into the fold.  Amen!

Sheep Scatter audio

The Virtue of Submission 2

We will finish up 1 Peter chapter 2 as Peter continues talking to us about the virtue of submission.  Last week we looked at how our response to government can send the wrong picture of what Christ is.  He was not a rebel trying to take over the earthly kingdoms of this world.  But then neither was he a sycophant who was in love with human governance.  The passage today deals with the area of slavery.

The term here could be literally translated as a house servant as opposed to a lesser slave.  However, I’m not so sure that would make a difference in the instruction given.  There were many reasons why a person may end up as a slave.  Many ended up in slavery through indebtedness.  Depending on the size of that debt they could be slaves for less or longer periods of time.  Others were captured in wars and thus had little opportunity for freedom.  Others were born into that class.  Some hired themselves out as house servants with a contract for service.  Lastly some were in an apprentice relationship and thus took care of the master’s needs in return for instruction in a trade.  Notice that even in America we still have these types of relationships.  Have we truly abolished slavery?  We may have abolished a certain form of slavery, but no economic system can completely remove the principle of slavery.  Some men will always be at the economic mercy of others, whether through fault of their own or not.  Even the false hope of communism that called for all the workers to unite and cast off their oppressors, soon itself made everyone slaves to a system that was ran by the elite in the government.  Now put yourself in God’s position.  You have to give a word of instruction to people who will live under every kind of government conceivable and under every possible variation of leadership from evil to good.  What would you say that would serve your people or children well under every circumstance?  It is easy for modern people to hear this instruction to slaves and scoff like we are somehow more righteous than God.  May we approach His Word with the understanding that God is less concerned with meeting 21^st century America’s approval and more with helping his people not lose their faith in this society.

Servants Should Submit To Their Masters

Peter speaks to those in the lower class of society who are being told through the Gospel that Jesus has set them free and they are children of God.  Instead of promoting a revolt against Rome and all governments that supported slavery, he tells them to take their proper place under their masters with fear.  Instead of despising their master and abandoning their post, they need to serve him and not assume that God would look kindly on any insubordination.  Because we get stuck on the word slave, we refuse to move on to the deeper point.  True slavery is never about your circumstances.  It is about your heart.  We see submission and service as slavery when in fact a free man is most able to serve.  God can set us all free in the natural, but will our hearts still be slaves to pride, arrogance, and selfishness?  If we attack God for speaking to this heart issue then we must at least own up to the fact that we are seeking temporary trinkets over the top of eternal joys.

Peter then speaks to the obvious question about a good versus bad master.  The good and gentle master is compared to the “harsh.”  The Greek word is skolios (where we get the word scoliosis).   It means twisted and perverted, curved towards self.  God is not pleased when his people use the errors and sins of others to justify their own error and sin.  We are not to deceive ourselves and cloak our sinful attitudes.

Peter reminds them that suffering because of doing good will be commended by God.  When we are aware there is a God, we are not so quick to try and take justice into our own hands.  Do you remember Jesus talking to his disciples in Matthew 5:46?  He said if you love those who love you what credit is that to you?  Don’t sinners do that too?  But if you love those who hate you, then you will be rewarded by God.  The same is true here.  If you submit to a good and gentle master that is not a credit.  But to lovingly serve a twisted, perverted master is to give him a picture of Christ.  Evil will not help a wicked master.  Only good can break through if it is possible at all.  However, our flesh is tempted to not care about God’s reputation or the wicked master’s soul.  We have a day of eternal reward coming, but he has an eternity suffering ahead.

Servants Must Remember Their Calling

Peter then reminds them of the Lord Jesus who has called them to follow him.  Our master, Jesus, suffered.  How can we be above suffering?  Even those who are not servants in the natural need to recognize that, we are called to follow Jesus in his sufferings.  He suffered injustice on our behalf because he loved us.  Am I refusing to do the same?  My flesh certainly does.  We need to learn to step in his steps and follow his lead.  Remember the passage of Isaiah 52:13 through chapter 53?  He is the suffering servant who is well acquainted with sorrow and grief.  When his disciples were asleep, his two constant companions, sorrow and grief, were wide awake.  However, we also need to follow Jesus in his response.  He didn’t use injustice as an excuse for sin or deceit.  He didn’t pay back wrong for wrong.  The word “revile” literally means to heap abuse upon someone.  He had the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and more piled upon him verbally, physically, and emotionally.  Yet, he didn’t threaten.  Can you imagine being threatened by God?  But Jesus didn’t do that.  He committed himself to God’s judgment and submitted himself to the judgment of men.  He was free to suffer injustice because he knew in his heart that he was right before God.  God would vindicate him and reward him.

Peter then reminds them that Jesus died because of our sins.  Imagine, Jesus carried your sins on himself.  He suffered your punishment.  The true believer has felt the repugnant effect of his own sin and died to it.  On the other hand he has seen the beauty of Christ’s love and come alive to his righteousness.  The suffering of Jesus (his stripes) makes us whole.  Who might be made whole through my suffering?  I can’t satisfy the punishment of other’s sins.  But Jesus has already done that.  However, we can be a vehicle for demonstrating and revealing Jesus to them.

It is clear that Peter had Isaiah 53 in mind as he wraps up this instruction by referring to them as sheep.  Isaiah said that all we like sheep have gone astray, but God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Peter reminds them that they were wayward sheep who have come back to the good shepherd.  Only this shepherd is not watching over your flesh to help it be well fed.  He is watching over your soul.  Many a soul is lost for the sake of the pleasure of our flesh.  Always remember that rebellion destroys the soul.

Final Thoughts

Ask yourself, is my life reflecting Jesus or am I following a Jesus of my own making?  It is important for us to often remind ourselves of our sin and what it did to Jesus and yet his love is still towards us.

Lastly, ask yourself, do you trust God to deal with the injustices done to you in this life?  When we keep our “station” whatever it may be, even under the threat of evil, God is pleased and promises to reward us in the coming judgment.  God help us in the days ahead to understand that Jesus was not a wimp and yet he submitted.  Jesus was not a slave and yet he served us.  Let’s follow him!

Submission II Audio