The Church
Season of Easter,
Easter 3, One
Year Series
Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (April 22, 2012)
Readings: Psalm 23
Ezekiel 34:11-16 1 Peter 2:21-25
John 10:11-16
+INI+
Grace, mercy and
peace be to you from God the Father
and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for
today’s message will be from the Gospel lesson as recorded in the 10th
chapter of St. John, especially the following verses:
John 10:11-16
(ESV)
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep. 12 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. 13
He flees because he is a hired
hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and
my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The Good Shepherd is the work of God. He is the one who
does not run from danger - any danger, but pays the price. What that tells us,
is that it's not that Jesus didn't want to flee. He told His disciples that He
was sorrowful to the point of death - He really didn't want to go to the cross.
He cried out earnestly to His Father in heaven that if there was any other way,
He wanted to avoid the cross. But He is the Good Shepherd. He is not a
hireling, but the Owner of the sheep. So, Jesus could not run. He could not
deny the need of the flock. He could not take care of Himself first. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the
sheep. You are His sheep. Jesus
died - on the cross - in your place and in mine. He died for His sheep, because
they were His and He is the Good Shepherd.
And if Jesus is the good Shepherd, we must be the sheep.
It is important to consider the image that Jesus leaves with us about who we
are. People will often have this wonderful, warm feeling as they consider the
picture, but the picture they have in mind is the one where Jesus is holding
the sweet little lamb in His arms or on His shoulders. That is not a picture of
sheep. That is a picture of Jesus. Sheep are another thing altogether.
Just think of the phrase, "a bunch of sheep." It
is not a positive image. Sheep are, in fact to be kind, known to be among the
least intelligent of animals. They will wander from safety into danger without
a thought. They will go where they cannot get back from without assistance,
repeatedly. They are helpless in the face of danger. Sheep often do not
understand the dangers that confront them - and even when they do, it is often
too late for them to flee or do anything about it to protect themselves. That
is what makes sheep a perfect
image for God's people - and the Shepherd the perfect image for God Himself. We
often do not understand the depth of the danger we live in. And which we get
ourselves into by our own actions and words.
We don’t see sin for the evil thing that it is, nor do we
often see our sins as sins, until it is too late. We don’t consider what it
means when we make our religion into something we like. Rather than following God, we follow our
family, our friends, our neighbors, just like sheep, into things we ought not do,
and into attitudes and values which deny our God and betray the faith we
confess. Like sheep, we allow ourselves to be drawn away from what is wholesome
and good, and many times, by our expectation of some pleasure, or some joy, or some
"greener grass" on the other side of the fence.
And what can threaten us? Lives accustomed to sin. Too
much free time and too great a hunger to be tickled and pleased. Too great a
pride to admit our errors. Too much wanting wealth and happiness of a worldly
sort, and too little willingness to set aside the desires of our flesh for what
God lays before us. That is what Luther meant by the phrase, “The devil, the world and our own sinful flesh.”
Anything that causes us to forget to trust God or causes us to despair of God's
love and good will and forgiveness threatens us.
The truth about Jesus is the Gospel. Jesus is the Son of God -
True God Himself - who came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy
Spirit and was made man. That means that He became one of us, taking on human
nature and flesh and blood and was born fully human, while still truly and
fully God as well.
The truth about Jesus is that He lived without sin, and
spent the last few years of His life teaching His disciples and doing things
that should have identified Him as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament,
the Savior intended by God for our rescue from the mess of sin into which we
had gotten ourselves.
Then Jesus died. "The Good Shepherd lays down His life
for the sheep." He died on a cross, as we just celebrated on
Good Friday. His death was ours. We had earned it and we deserved it and He did
not, but He died for us and in our place anyhow. Because of His great love and
His self-giving sacrifice, we are forgiven. Our sins are not held against us.
We are no longer reckoned as guilty and deserving punishment and death, but
holy and righteous because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus
won this for all people, and God has promised that all who trust His promises,
and expect what He has promised will receive and possess those promises of forgiveness
and love and blessings now, and life everlasting and resurrection of these
tired bodies from our graves, only they will be outfitted for unending and
eternal life before God in Glory, which is His gift to those who believe,
though Jesus Christ.
“Jesus' sheep hear His voice and follow Him.”
We follow Jesus into our graves trusting in His power to raise us from the
grave to eternal life. We follow with lives of faithfulness and holiness, by
His help and power. We will follow Him in His resurrection, also by His help
and power. In the course of this life, we hear Jesus’ voice where He has placed
it, in the called servants of the Word who are faithful. We follow by
faithfully doing what He has given us to do. We believe in Him, and we cling to
His Word and His truth - that is sound doctrine - and we follow His voice.
Others don't. That is an unfortunate truth. Jesus said
that. “His sheep hear His voice.” Those who cannot hear it are not
His sheep. Those who will not listen are not His sheep. Those who will not
believe the things His voice says are not His sheep. Those who will not follow
Jesus are not His sheep. Shepherds lead their sheep, the sheep hear the
shepherd's voice and follow Him. Jesus' sheep hear his voice. He said so. Those
who do not hear and follow Him are simply and sadly not His sheep.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. There are other shepherds out
there. They speak different words and lead in different directions. Each has
his own agenda. But they do not care for the sheep, except as a means to their
own ends. They do not love the sheep because they do not own them, and they
cannot save them, because the kind of saving the sheep need is beyond anyone
but Jesus. When the dangers of life, or death and hell confront the sheep,
those false shepherds, those hirelings, run away and abandon the sheep to their
destruction.
But Jesus is the Good Shepherd. That means you are safe. “The
Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” He will keep you in
all your ways. He will guide and guard and bless you. He will not desert you in
the hour of need, because He is not merely a hired hand. You need have no fear
of life or death. He is Your Shepherd. He has loved you to death and into
everlasting life, and He will keep you until you arrive at the heavenly
sheepfold.
You and I are the other
sheep that Jesus mentioned in our text. We are the ones whom He has
added to His flock. There are still many false shepherd and hirelings out in
the world today. They are those who have their own agendas. Some want to build
a large flock that they can lead wherever they will. Some use the sheep for
their egos, or they are serving another who would be shepherd, but is not and
cannot be. Some just want to fleece their flock. Whatever their goal or agenda,
only the Good Shepherd has forgiveness and life and salvation. Only the Good
Shepherd can bless and only the Good Shepherd can save.
Only the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, is the One promised
in ancient prophecy, "I will feed My flock and I will lead them
to rest," declares the Lord GOD. "I will seek the lost, bring back
the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the
strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment." He has
sought you. He has gathered you together into His flock. He has healed your
deepest wound - sin and death. And He gives you the rest - the peace and joy of
the Gospel. Only those who are too strong and too comfortable to listen to His
call are in danger. Those He will
destroy.
So listen for His voice. Be careful to hear His voice and
not another. And when you have heard His voice, and you will know that it is
His voice, follow Him. Do not let anything, not fame or wealth, not family or
friends, not pleasures, or fear, or troubles, or sorrows, or any other thing
stand in your way, but follow Him. And be at peace in whatever circumstance you
may find yourself, for the Jesus Christ, your Shepherd, is the Good Shepherd. He
leads you to eternal life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
+++SDG+++
