Tabernacle

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. That is a packed pronouncement! First, notice how Jesus is a shepherd, a leader. The call to discipleship is fundamentally summed up in two words: “Follow me.” Second, He is a good shepherd. We could be stuck with a bad leader, but instead we have One who is the epitome of goodness. Third, He is ours. He calls us His sheep and we belong to Him as much as He offers Himself to us. Will you have Him? Will you trust Him? Will you follow Him?

God is holy.  Therefore, it is no surprise that He requires His people to be holy too.  This should cause us great alarm because all of us were born sinners and none of us have lived a holy life.  This is a big problem.  Our eternal destination hangs in the balance.  Thankfully, God has provided a solution to this problem.  He sent the Holy One, His only begotten Son, to redeem us and to make us Holy.  Jesus suffered in order to sanctify us though his own blood (Heb 13:12).  Holy, Holy, Holy!  Lord God Almighty!  All Thy works shall praise Thy name.

It has been one year since that awful Saturday in Charlottesville, when racism removed its veil and reminded us of how ugly it really is.  Bodies flew and life was forfeit in the wake of the hate.  It shocked most people, but not all people, not Black people.  Black men and women have long known how ugly racism is.  Where does racism come from?  How can it be stopped?  What can we as the Church do to heal and to help?

It has been one year since that awful Saturday in Charlottesville, when racism removed its veil and reminded us of how ugly it really is.  Bodies flew and life was forfeit in the wake of the hate.  It shocked most people, but not all people, not Black people.  Black men and women have long known how ugly racism is.  Where does racism come from?  How can it be stopped?  What can we as the Church do to heal and to help?

How many times did Jesus have to explain the cross to the disciples?  Over and over again He told them, “We are going to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man must suffer many things…”  They just did not get it.  They didn’t have a category for God accomplishing their salvation through suffering.  Even in Zechariah’s day, God foretold how He would “strike the shepherd” in order to refine His people and teach them (and us) to say, “The LORD is my God.”

This morning we welcome Rev. D.J. Carter back to Tabernacle.  DJ, his wife, Sarah, and their baby boy live in Charlottesville.  He recently completed a two-year ministry residency program at Trinity PCA, and has just become the Executive Director of the Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia.  May God give our brother grace to lead us to the cross, where we can "look...on him whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10).

Zechariah brings on the imagery again in chapter 12!  It a succession of pictures, God reminds us that His eye is always on His people.  He is always acting for our salvation, “so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David” (12:8).  He is always calling the strong to bow to the Source of their strength.  Those who don’t will inevitably stumble.

Zechariah is one of the most quoted OT prophets in the Gospels.  The thirty pieces of silver that Judas threw into the temple was prophesied in Zechariah 11.  We are told that Judas was remorseful, but was he repentant?  What is the difference?  And what difference might it have made if Judas had gone to Jesus, the true Priest, instead of to the false priests?  Where do you go to have your guilt removed?

It takes two people to be in a relationship.  If either person walks away, the relationship is broken.  This is how covenants get broken.  The good news is that God will never break His covenant with us.  The bad news is that, time and time again, people break their covenant with Him.  God is a good shepherd, but He will not care for a flock that rejects Him.  These are the occasions when some of the hardest words in the Bible are spoken: “I will not be your shepherd.”

One of the most startling things about the Gospel is that no matter where you are, no matter how far off you have wandered, you can always return home.  God does not hold our sins against us.  He forgives us!  The cross is the means; the empty tomb is the guarantee.  And the result is…joy!  There is no greater joy for us than to know that God, the living and true God, has restored our relationship with Him by removing what once separated us.  Rejoice that our home is with Him!