I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR THE SHEEP
Monday – June 3, 2019, Iyar 29, 5779
Greetings my precious partners and friends of this Ministry and The Three Minute Word publication. God is so good. I don’t care what is going on in any of our lives right this minute, never forget that God is good and God is never the source of bad things in our lives. If you are reading this on Facebook please, please, take a moment and “share” this teaching and hit the “like” button. Come on, you can do it. The featured pictures this week will be from the deer feeder I had in Texas. Now, let us turn our attention to our Bible Study of the Book of John. First let us read the primary text aloud and determine in our hearts to have ears to hear and the will to do.
John 10:14-19 (KJV)
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
What a wonderful and good God we have! Isn’t it so good to know that our God is interested in us as individuals and wants to be intimately involved with every part of our lives? He wants to show each of us how we can grow in our spiritual life. He wants us to grow into being the very best help-meet, the very best friend of our spouse and a covenant friend for others He brings into our lives. And, if we will let Him, He will show us how to transform our love life (sexual intimacy) with our spouse into the most excitement we can imagine. Yes, God is interested in it all and wants us to live in the overflowing abundant life He paid for at Calvary.
Jesus is the “good Shepherd” and He will lead us into the most wonderful pastures. Not pastures of not enough, or just enough, but pastures overflowing with all good things. Our God is one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These are the co-equal persons of the Trinity. The Trinity moves as one just as our marriages are to move as one. As we study the fifteenth verse of our text Jesus tells us that He will “lay down my life for the sheep”. Other than Jesus, no person at any time, has been called to lay down their physical life for God. That is not to say that Christians are not killed everyday for the name of Jesus. It is never the will of God or the plan of God for any person to be killed for the name, the gospel, or the Kingdom. Jesus is the one man that came into the earth to physically and spiritually die for mankind. He came from Heaven having laid aside what made Him God becoming as a man to take our sin and give us His righteousness. Jesus was the last Adam; He was as Adam. However, we are unlike Adam in that we have a safety net, His name is Jesus, our advocate with the Father. We are under Grace and not subject to the Law of Sin and Death.
By way of clarification Jesus was the Word in Heaven before the womb of Mary and fully God. In the womb of Mary, He laid aside all that made Him God and lived as a man (the man Jesus) and functioned in the earth as a man Anointed of the Holy Spirit (Christ Jesus). At His resurrection He was restored fully as God and seated at the right hand of the Father. Now at the right hand of the Father, Jesus is fully God and fully man with an incorruptible body. That was a brief aside to give us clarity of thought concerning The Word (fully God, no humanity) before the womb of Mary. Christ (Anointed) Jesus (Jehovah saved) in the earth (fully human). And now in Heaven at the right hand of the Father fully God and fully man (our High Priest). The man Christ Jesus in the earth was the same Spirit and Soul as the Word in Heaven during eternity past but absent the attributes of God.
As todays teaching comes to a conclusion let us consider what kind of death, we have been called to embrace for in it is great victory and reward now, as well as eternal victory and reward. We have been called to the death of self (death of selfishness), which are the thoughts, words, and actions of fallen man. That does not preclude all fun, quite to the contrary it will result in an abundance in every area of our lives. Lord willing, I will pick up here tomorrow.
Until our next publication, as a Bible Teacher and Prophetic Voice I speak this blessing over each and every one of you, receive it by faith in Jesus name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)
24 The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
26 The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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