{"id":3701,"date":"2020-06-01T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3701"},"modified":"2020-06-01T07:13:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T12:13:08","slug":"church-the-flock-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/church-the-flock-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Church – The Flock of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are continuing to look at various ways in which the Scriptures describe the church. <\/span><\/div>\n
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We will spend several days looking at the relationship with Jesus as He see us as His sheep.<\/span><\/div>\n
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While Jesus was with His disciples, He used many analogies of Him being the Shepherd and His relationship to His sheep. One of the more well known is\u2026 <\/span><\/div>\n
John 10:27 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Today, I want to examine a most familiar passage in Scripture and relate it to John 10:27.<\/span><\/div>\n
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John 21:15\u201319 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
15<\/sup><\/i><\/span> When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, \u201cSimon, son of John, do you love me more than these?\u201d He said to him, \u201cYes, Lord; you know that I love you.\u201d He said to him, \u201cFeed my lambs.\u201d <\/i><\/span>16<\/sup><\/i><\/span> He said to him a second time, \u201cSimon, son of John, do you love me?\u201d He said to him, \u201cYes, Lord; you know that I love you.\u201d He said to him, \u201cTend my sheep.\u201d <\/i><\/span>17<\/sup><\/i><\/span> He said to him the third time, \u201cSimon, son of John, do you love me?\u201d Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d and he said to him, \u201cLord, you know everything; you know that I love you.\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cFeed my sheep. <\/i><\/span>18<\/sup><\/i><\/span> Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.\u201d <\/i><\/span>19<\/sup><\/i><\/span> (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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This exchange takes place after Jesus\u2019 resurrection. It appears obvious that Jesus is reinstating Peter after his great failure of denying Jesus three times.  So, three times Jesus asked Peter, \u201cDo you love me?<\/span><\/div>\n
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There are many nuances to this exchange, but today i simply want to call our attention to what Jesus says to Peter after each of the three times. Peter responds with, \u201cYes, Lord; you know I love you.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Jesus\u2019 responses are: \u201cFeed my lambs,\u201d  \u201cTend my sheep,\u201d \u201cFeed my sheep.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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For now, forget about the variance in each response and simply notice the implication behind all three of these responses.  Jesus was not only reinstating Peter to this relationship with Him as one of His disciples, but He was initiating what the primary focus for Peter\u2019s ministry was to be.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Peter was to be a shepherd of Jesus\u2019 sheep.  What would be the main emphasis of Peter, or any shepherd of Jesus\u2019 flock?  Would it not be to teach the sheep to hear, know and follow the voice of the supreme Shepherd.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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The most important thing for a shepherd to remember is whose sheep he is shepherding. They are not his sheep.  They are Jesus\u2019 sheep. A true shepherd of God will always lead the sheep to follow Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are continuing to look at various ways in which the Scriptures describe the church.    We will spend several days looking at the relationship with Jesus as He see us as His sheep.   While Jesus was with His disciples, He used many analogies of Him being the Shepherd and His relationship to His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3701"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3705,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions\/3705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}