Episode Transcript
Many in the room know that David was long dead when those words were written, so what on earth could it mean that God would set David up over his people? About 600 years after Ezekiel wrote those words, a man came to John to be baptized in the river Jordan. He told John that it was appropriate that he be baptized in order that all righteousness might be fulfilled.
This man was driven into the wilderness by the holy spirit to be tempted by Satan. He was tempted for 40 days. He went there not having eaten. He's in a wasteland; everything is stacked against him. And unlike Adam before him, who had everything going for him and failed, this man succeeded.
He then preached the sermon in which he said that he had not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but he had come to fulfill them. This man was called the son of David by many. He once asked the question to the religious authorities in Israel, “Whose son is the Christ?” And they replied that the Christ is David's son.
Well, he then quoted a portion of a Psalm that David himself had written where David wrote, “The LORD says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” And then he asked these religious leaders if the Christ is David's son, then why does David call him LORD?
The son of David said things like this: The son of man came to seek and save the lost. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. He said this - listen with Ezekiel 34 in mind. Those words of Ezekiel we just heard, listen with them in your mind - I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
He, who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep, but I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it up. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
This charge I have received from my father. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Everyday Grace 020
