Sheep Killer?

Life is filled with events; full of stories about things that are, things that should not be, and (when it concerns what we find written in the Word of God) clear and very needful understandings of – exactly how things should be.

We have a story to tell you this evening, and this is how it goes:

There was a man. He was up early; much too early for them. He was disturbing their church, interrupting their morning worship service, and preaching against them, the ministers of the church; right there in front of their people!

He was disrupting everything! He pushed over all of the tables in the foyer, the entrance to the church’s sanctuary: the room where they, the preacher and his guest preachers, usually preached. This guy was nuts! And look! The poor deacons; the poor ushers! Why, he had gone and grabbed a bunch of cords from off the floor, turned them into a whip and was now violently driving the ushers out of the church: right there, in front of everyone; right then, in the middle of them trying to take up the offering!

What? He… had… gone… too… far!

But wait a minute! That’s not the worst of it! The people, oh, the people: they were listening to him instead of their own preachers! In fact, look at them! So intent! They were actually hanging on every word that he had to say, as if it were a matter of life or death! What? This guy? This… this… this… Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior of the World. (See the original story in the 21^st chapter of Matthew, the 11^th chapter of Mark, and the 19^th chapter of Luke.)

We had been listening, just now, to this tale told from the viewpoint of the established preachers who were in the midst of being confronted by Jesus.

Would the preachers listen to him? Would they be corrected by him; by what he had showed them, by what he was saying, by what he had said throughout the past (throughout his Word); and by what has now been said through him written all the rest of the way to the end of the Holy Book – where we hear his voice, where we are privileged to hear the voice… of God?

As Abraham holding Lazarus to his bosom had said from the edge of Paradise,

“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)

Oh preacher, oh pastor, oh priest, oh minister of God! Our Lord raised you up from among us, your brethren, not to lord it over us but to lead us not as you might think to do but rather as the Word of God dictates.

“Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” (John 2:5)

Should have been your theme; not

“every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)

But you have lived as a king, and within thy monarchy has been found the seeds of anarchy; and therefore, as it is written,

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind:

1. it hath no stalk;
2. the bud shall yield no meal:
3. if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” (Hosea 8:7)

And so, we shall; and so we must look to the Word of God to look away from the foggy puffs of what our Savior called “the tradition of men.” We shall look to the Book, and find laid bare upon its pages the great example of a great ministry gone wrong. Yes, not primarily the threefold sins of David, but more importantly their results. Their affects upon his people, God’s people: the Church of God.

“Thou art the man”, and

I. Have you caused the death of your own converts?

“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.” (2 Samuel 6:7)

“Thou art the man”, and

II. Have you caused the death of your own children?

“And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33)

“Thou art the man”, and

III. Have you caused the death of your own church?

“So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.” (2 Samuel 24:15)

Conclusion

Luke 19:48 says that those “bigger” preachers, those ministers with lots of men, women, families, and children already in their church [quote],

“… could not find what they might do [against Jesus]: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.” (Luke 19:48)

Preacher, if your ministry is conducted right, according to the Word of God as so clarifyingly focused by our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior of the World… If you minister the way he has directed you, if you are truly (and this is what the word “minister” means), if you are truly serving the true members of the Body of Christ and those who truly hunger and thirst after his righteousness then – get your head out of your pocket of pride and behold this fact that…

Preacher, they did not come to hear you!

Preacher, they did not come because of you!

Preacher, they did not stay (in your church) because of you!

But preacher, know this also that

• if those people – leave it almost assuredly will be because of you and not because of Him!

As even wicked Governor Pilate said,

“I find no fault in this man.” (Luke 23:4)

No, preacher! It is not our Savior’s fault, who was crucified for all of our sins on the day that Pilate made this affirmation. And dear preacher, it is not your fault if in your service to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his people you have conducted that divine service in a manner in which you continued to keep… his… commandments!

As our Lord said to his disciples on the night of his betrayal,

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Yes, and remember that he said to chief apostle Peter – and therefore to us all, and chiefly to you!

• Brother minister, are you getting the point?
• Are you getting what our Lord in his Word is saying to you?

Toss out you so-called logic that steps away from the written logic of God.

Throw over the tables in the temple of your denominational traditions that have devolved into making God’s house a “den of thieves” instead of the “house of prayer” that, shouting, the Lord Jesus declared it should be!

Burn up the twenty, forty, sixty or more years of any and all unbiblically based experience that the magnifying sunlight of God’s eternal wisdom outshines; as gloriously from the pages of his own Word the fire of God burns up any so-called truth you have gathered that is not his!

Get out of the way of the train before it runs you over.

Jesus is coming!

Jesus is coming!

And brother minister, he… will… judge… you

Based on what in the Bible in your ministry –

You did or did not do!

OUTLINE:

Sheep Killer?

1. Have you caused the death of your own converts? (2 Samuel 6:7)
2. Have you caused the death of your own children? (2 Samuel 18:33)
3. Have you caused the death of your own church? (2 Samuel 24:15)

Conclusion:

Jesus is coming!

Jesus is coming!

And brother minister, he… will… judge… you

Based on what in the Bible in your ministry –

You did or did not do!