Storm Clouds Part 2 (1 Samuel 19-20)

Have you ever felt like life turned against you for no good reason? You did the right thing, obeyed God, and served faithfully, only to watch storm clouds gather where the sun had just been shining. What do you do when doing right leads to being hunted?

In this episode, Stephen Davey opens 1 Samuel 19 and 20 and continues his series on the life of David. The pretense is finally over. King Saul openly orders his son and servants to kill David. Stephen walks you through the crushing losses David absorbs in rapid succession. His position, his wife, his spiritual mentor, and finally his closest friend, Jonathan. Every layer of stability is stripped away, not because David sinned, but because he stood faithfully in the will of God.

Stephen also draws in the courageous witness of Jonathan, a son who refused to imitate his father's evil, and points to David's honest cries in Psalm 59 as the very songs forged in these dark days. Alongside David's story, Stephen brings you into 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul confesses he too has been pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and knocked down, yet never crushed, driven to despair, forsaken, or destroyed. God, who raised us up, wants us to stand. And He wants us to remember how.

This message will comfort your heart when the storm refuses to lift. Desperate times have a way of redefining your sources of strength and rewriting your list of priorities. Every roof will leak except the roof of your Sovereign shelter. Look up. Look ahead. What you see now is not all there is. God will make everything right, even if He waits until glory. Until then, keep singing the song of faith that is being forged in your own hideout.

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Transcript

Promised Shepherd Versus False Leaders

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Well, the Feast of Tabernacles has ended. There in John chapter 7, we saw Jesus remaining in Jerusalem. He says he's patiently teaching, he's enduring the antagonism of the scribes and Pharisees, and then we saw in chapter 9 how he miraculously healed a blind man, which angered the religious leaders even more. Now, what happens next is also recorded in the Gospel of John. This time we're in chapter 10. Jesus delivers one of the warmest, most personal messages found in all of the Gospels. And it's also going to serve as a rebuke to the leaders of the nation, because they happen to be false shepherds of the nation Israel. Now, before we dive in, let me remind you of Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34. This is where Israel's leaders are called shepherds, shepherds who led the nation astray. The prophets then predicted that the Messiah would come, and the Messiah would be a true shepherd. He would restore and bless the nation. You can be sure the Pharisees know all about those Old Testament passages. Well now here we are in John chapter ten for what happens next. Get this now, Jesus is going to present himself as the true shepherd, the one true shepherd that God promised to send to Israel. Jesus begins speaking here in chapter ten in verse one. Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Now verse six tells us the crowd doesn't understand, so Jesus clears it up a little bit here in verse seven. He says, I am the

The Sheepfold And The Door

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door of the sheep. Well, in this day a shepherd would make a simple little enclosure out in the fields for his flock by piling rocks to sort of create this little circular wall. There wasn't any door to this makeshift corral. The shepherd would actually lie down in the opening. So he essentially became the door. Nothing could go out, and nothing could come in except by going, as it were, through him. Now if the crowd still misses the point, Jesus clarifies even further here in verse nine, saying, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. He's effectively saying, Look, if you want to join the flock, I'm the only way in. Now with that Jesus begins to point out the differences between himself, the true shepherd, and the false shepherds, the false teachers of Israel, particularly the Pharisees. He says here in verse ten the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they, the sheep, may have life and have it abundantly. By the way, the word thief here is the original word kleptase, and from that word we get the word kleptomaniac. And the Greek word here refers to somebody who steals with cunning and with stealth.

Thieves Hired Hands And Abundant Life

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See, these false teachers aren't stupid people. They're not ignorant men, by the way. They're strategic. They are intentionally misleading the sheep. They kill and destroy the flock. You know, I think it's interesting that the word translated kill indicates killing for food. In other words, these false shepherds, they don't want to protect the flock. They want to live off the flock. Now in verse 11, Jesus changes the analogy to emphasize what kind of shepherd he is. He says here, I am the good shepherd. What is it about this shepherd that makes him so uniquely good? Well, Jesus tells us, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now the Lord's going to repeat that statement here in verses 15, 17, and 18. This expression, lay down his life, clearly refers to our good shepherd giving up his life as a sacrifice in order to save his flock. Now Jesus goes on here in verse twelve to emphasize the contrast between a good shepherd and a and a false shepherd. 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 is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Obviously, the false shepherd's in it for the money. He's not in it for the protection of the sheep. The false shepherd wants to fleece the sheep, not feed the sheep. But the good shepherd cares about his sheep. So Jesus is making a case here that he is the good shepherd, by the way, uh he's willing to sacrifice his life for the sheep, and also his care and concern for the flock. He offers even more proof here in verses 14 and 15. He says, 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. The original verb here is gonusco, which refers to knowing intimately. This is intimate knowledge that comes through a personal relationship. In fact, the verb tense indicates that Jesus is taking the initiative in knowing his sheep and his sheep in knowing him. Let me tell you, beloved, if if you're in the flock, you got there because he made it possible for you to know

Known Fully By The Good Shepherd

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him. He gave his life for you. He opened your eyes to the truth of who he is. And you're learning all the time, aren't you, more and more about who your good shepherd happens to be? But Jesus says here that he knows you, he knows me, just like the Father knows him, and just like he knows the Father. Imagine that. In other words, we're always learning about Him, but He knows everything about us just as intimately and completely and from eternity past to eternity future as He and His Father know each other. You know what that means? That means He already knows the best about you and He knows the worst about you. So He isn't gonna learn something about you that that's gonna make Him wanna kick you out of the flock. He already knows you completely, fully, and He's already forgiven you completely and fully when you put your trust in Him. Now there's there's even some some more good news about our good shepherd. We're told here in verse 15 Jesus says, I laid down my life for the sheep. Now who are these sheep here? Well the Gospels make it clear that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah who came to the Jewish nation. They clearly are the primary object of his earthly ministry. So it might be tempting to think that, well, he only has the nation of Israel in mind when he speaks of his sheep. But listen to what Jesus says here in verse 16. 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. I love that

One Flock One Shepherd One Choice

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because that includes you and me. And by the way, this announcement would have no doubt shocked the Jewish leaders, the Jewish people to hear this. If there were Gentiles present, Jesus' words would be incredibly encouraging to them, those non-Jewish people whose hearts are tugging within them to believe in Jesus, give their lives to this good shepherd. Well, they might have been wondering, are we invited? Well, guess what? He will lay down his life for them, for us, us all as well. Now Jesus goes on to reveal here in verses 17 and 18 that all these promises hinge on his sacrificial death as well as his miraculous resurrection. His death is not going to be forced upon him. He is going to lay down his life willingly. He's not only the shepherd, think about this, he's also the sacrificial lamb. He's going to die for the sins of the whole world. Now, with this announcement from the Lord, the the crowd here is immediately divided. Many think that he's out of his mind, he's deluded, uh, if not demon-possessed. Others in this crowd are confused. They can't imagine that somebody who is demon-possessed would be performing such wonderful uh miracles. And of course, there are going to be some who believe that he is indeed the good shepherd. Let me tell you, beloved, the same reactions are taking place today. Jesus is still dividing people, as it were, based on their understanding of who he is. But what he said is still true. His sheep do know him, and his sheep do follow him. So let me ask you, where are you today? Do you know Jesus as your shepherd? Are you following him today? Well, until our next wisdom journey, beloved. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.