The Shepherd of the Sheep: Part 2 - The Gate of the Sheepfold

This Sunday, Simon Lace brings us the talk in the latest of our EBC Online services. Once you have watched the video, we encourage you to reflect on the bible text and join us in the prayer that follows below.

To listen to the talk click here.
 
Readings:

John chapter 10 verses 1 - 10 (New Living Translation)

“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognise his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Psalm 100, verse 3b (New Living Translation)

He made us, and we are his.
    We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.


 

Prayer & Reflection

Father God, we thank you that Your will for our lives is good and pleasing and perfect. We thank you for your precious Son, Jesus, who saves us, in line with Your will. Father, forgive us when we stray from Your will. Forgive us when we besmirch ourselves and thus dishonour you. By your Spirit, O God, help us to trust in you, abide in you and love you. And if we love you, help us feed your lambs, take care of your sheep… help us love one another even as you love us.  Father, you know each of us intimately well. You know well the condition of your flock. Help us Lord, with those things we are struggling with, spoken and unspoken. Lift our heads O God, and wipe our tears. Restore our souls, Lord. For we ask all of this in Jesus’ name. AMEN.



Questions to Consider

1. What are some of the things that you might describe as your personal “sheepfolds”? What circumstances, roles or responsibilities might be in some way “penning you in”?
2. Is there perhaps something more rich and satisfying to be found within any of those pens – if you enter them via the gate that is Jesus? What might change about your perspective if you come to those “sheepfolds” having spent time with him and knowing that His purposes for you are good?
3. Are there some fresh “patches of clover” to be found if you explore more fully the sheepfold… and what might they be?
4. Are there are any fences that you bump up against in your sheepfold? If Jesus’s stated purpose was that we might have life and have it more abundantly (NKJV)… can you reinterpret these fences as being there to protect your life, not restrict you – even if they do, in fact, restrict you in some ways?
5. Take some time to reflect on the differences between an easy, long life on earth (which we’re not promised) and a rich and satisfying life (NLT) that lasts eternally – which is Jesus’s stated purpose for us. Which would you prefer?