I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I was too excited... “Feed My sheep” In John 21:15-17 we find an interesting conversation between Peter and Jesus. Previously, during the trial of Jesus, Peter had denied Christ three times. So, I do not think it a coincidence that Jesus asked Peter to confirm his love for Him three times. However, during this exchange, Jesus gives Peter three commands; “Feed My lambs,” “Tend My Sheep,” and “Feed My sheep.” Jesus is not only commanding Peter to “Feed His sheep,” but this command was meant for all the Christian leaders. So, why are so many spiritual leaders in the churches FEEDING THE GOATS? They water down the message and tickle the ears of the majority of the congregation that have no intention of ever doing the things God commanded them to do, just to keep the seats full. WHY? When Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell off all his possessions and give the money to the poor, the young man was offended by this and turned and walked away. Did Jesus run after him and tell him He was only kidding? No. He let him go. (Matthew 19:16-23, Mark 10:17-23, Luke 18:18-25) Shortly after Jesus fed the 5,000 in the wilderness, He noticed He was getting a large following of people. However, He knew that many of them followed Him with wrong motives. (“Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” –John 6:26) So what did Jesus do? He told them that whoever ate His flesh and drank His blood will have eternal life and He will raise them up at the last day. (John 6:54) After this, it says that ‘From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.’ (John 6:66) They were offended by His Words and left Him. Did He run after them, and try to sugarcoat or water down His Words to please them? Nope. He let them go too. And my personal favorite story found in Luke 14:25-33, says ‘GREAT MULTITUDES WENT WITH HIM.’ (Luke 14:25)Now if this was you or me, we would be thinking to ourselves, ‘Look what I have done!’ ‘I must be someone important!’ ‘Look at all these people following ME!’ ‘I better go find that rich young ruler and tell him not to sell his possessions after all, because we are going to need his money to build a big temple and fill it with all these GOATS so I can feel important about myself!’ Did Jesus do that though? No. Instead Jesus did just the opposite. He told them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. (Luke 15:25-35) WHAT?!? Did Jesus really say that??? YUP. He was explaining that if you loved any of these people or even your own life more than Him, you cannot be His disciple, and that you must COUNT THE COST of following Him, because you will lose friends and family along the way. Are you seeing the trend Jesus is setting here? He wasn’t trying to gain a large, worthless entourage to follow Him around and stroke His ego. Jesus was seeking TRUE FOLLOWERS. He never ran after any of them if His Words offended them. He never sugarcoated the Truth to make it easier to swallow. He never watered down a message in an attempt to keep people from leaving Him. HE….LET….THEM….GO…. This is exactly what the spiritual leaders of the Christian churches should be doing. PREACH THE TRUTH! DON’T TICKLE THEIR EARS! IF THE TRUTH OFFENDS THEM, LET THEM GO! These people are quenching the Holy Spirit in our churches, and need to go. Otherwise, if you keep feeding the goats, the Lord’s sheep will starve from malnourishment...
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 01:44:08 +0000
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