- Apr 23, 2024
- 6 min read
[John 10:11-18] Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He 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. 13He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16And 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. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18No 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.”
Jesus, Good Shepherd
Sheep are creatures that must be tended to and guided by a shepherd. Going it on their own doesn’t work. Their wool must be groomed and sheared. They must be led to safe and wholesome pasture. They must be protected from predators. Sheep are not self-sufficient. They, by nature, must be cared for.
We are the same way. As a group and as individuals. It’s in our nature, it’s in our design, that we must rely on another – someone greater. Men and women are not self-sufficient creatures. We were not created to be. We were created to live by faith in our Creator, expecting from Him every good thing.
Sheep tend to go astray, as if they have no shepherd to follow – even when they do. We are very much like sheep. “We all like sheep have gone astray” [Isaiah 53:6]. The original sin, which we all inherit in ourselves, is that we do not live by faith in God our Shepherd.
It is sin that we seek to go it on our own, making up our own way, facing the challenges of life as if there is no Shepherd to rely upon.
Maybe in pride, we don’t want to admit we need a Shepherd, so we go our own way. Maybe in some form of self-righteousness, we are seeking a better word than God’s Word.
Or, perhaps very often, as if there is no Shepherd tending us – as if there is not a Creator, Redeemer, and Savior for us – we react from an inward place of fear or anxiousness or isolation, as if we are sheep who must fend for themselves.
But there is a Shepherd. And He has made promises. We find many of those promises in Psalm 23, which begins with those words, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Here we find the promises which so comfort us. Yet, in so many ways, we live as if these promises are not true.
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”
In the face of financial trouble, it’s the fear and anxiety of feeling you are on your own, fending for yourself, that leads to the stress and arguments that shake up a family’s life.
But faith in the Good Shepherd says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” – which means, “I will not lack.” “I have a Shepherd; therefore, I will not lack. He will not leave me without what I need.”
“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.”
As if we have no Shepherd to give us good food for our soul, we occupy our days with a stream of frivolous distractions - or even with a steady flow of life’s best things – but “the one thing needed” [Luke 10:42] and the Bread of Life [John 6:35] are right in our reach - “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” [John 6:35].
Or you might cling to the idea of having some thing in life you don’t have but are convinced you must have – forgetting your life has a Shepherd who is leading you to what He knows is best – “green pastures; still waters” – according to His knowledge, not our understanding.
“He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
We read in our Epistle today, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” We’ve been given the new commandment to love one another as He has loved us [John 13:34]. “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him.” [1 John 3:16-24].
We fall far short of what we should be. In the face of our failure, “our heart condemns us” [1 John 3:19]. As if there is no Shepherd, our focus is set on how much we’ve strayed – or on how much we lack in progress toward doing better – then we despair, thinking we may be lost forever or that we cannot be improved.
But “God is greater than our heart” [1 John 3:20]. And our Shepherd is greater than our straying. His work in us in greater than our sin and flesh. He does prevail in you at doing what He has promised – “He restores your soul. He leads you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” He restores and leads sheep-who-stray. He is a capable Shepherd who can successfully keep even the most difficult sheep.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Evils can come. Bad health can come. Untimely death can come. But these cannot harm us at all. We need not lose faith.
Your Shepherd guides you safely through every trouble. Because there is a Shepherd – who conquered the grave – there is comfort, and also joyfulness and thankfulness, during bad times – through that valley – even when in the world there is only fear.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Though we are sojourning in a world that has wolves, we do not need to fear the sinfulness of the world, the craftiness of the devil, nor opposition to the Truth more than we trust the goodness and capability of our Savior.
There are wolves. But we are a flock with a Shepherd. We are not unguarded.
Your Shepherd and Lord spreads His table every Sunday in the presence of the world, sin, the devil, and all enemies – and His cup overflows with His goodness toward us. We can confidently be witnesses to the Truth by our word and life, believing that doing so will bear fruit.
Jesus is “the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Of His own accord, willingly, Jesus the Shepherd became the Lamb who laid down His life for the sins of the sheep – “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” – “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.” [Isaiah 53:5-6]
Upon the cross, the Shepherd-Lamb, Jesus, made His soul an offering for the guilt of His flock. He prolonged your days and made you to be counted righteous [Isaiah 53:10-11].
We, like sheep, are not creatures who are self-sufficient. In both physical and spiritual matters, we are dependent completely on that One who is greater than us.
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” [John 15:3]. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” [1 John 3:16].
Because He has done this, we can say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Amen.
- Apr 15, 2024
- 5 min read
[Luke 24:44-46] …Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead…”
Fulfilling the Scriptures
One way to lift ourselves up is to bring others down, right? Of course, we learn that it never really works. Yet, there are ways in which we do it to the Lord our God.
To lift up our own reason or opinions – our own way of thinking – decisions we’ve made or actions we would like to take – to a higher rung of the ladder, we are tempted to bring the Scriptures, God’s Word, to a lower place than where they belong.
For some, the motive is to cling to traditions or what we’re familiar with. For others, it’s to avoid Scripture’s moral commandments. Others struggle with the severity of God’s judgment as expressed in Scripture. And yet others struggle with the generosity of the Gospel’s free forgiveness as expressed in Scripture.
And, we might remember in the Easter season, that for many individuals, it’s those big, miraculous things in Scripture – like the six-day creation in Genesis – or the flood – or Jonah swallowed by the fish – or the virgin birth of Jesus – His many miracles – or, His bodily resurrection from the dead on Easter – that are hard to believe, and we are tempted to bring the Scriptures lower.
In various ways, to lift up our life-decisions, our opinions, our ways of thinking, or our human reason to a higher rung on the ladder, we are tempted to put Scripture, the Bible, lower than where it belongs.
Why bring this up on the Third Sunday of Easter? Because in our Gospel reading today, the risen, living, resurrected Jesus Himself points to the Scriptures in regard to His resurrection.
As the Church, we can look to the perfect Man, the risen, living Jesus Christ, to see at what great height He holds the Scriptures – and, therefore, at what great height we ought to hold them.
On the evening of His resurrection, Jesus appears to His disciples. He shows them His hands and feet. They handle Him to see that He is flesh and bone. At first, they doubt for fear. Then, they disbelieve for joy.
But Jesus tells them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me – “Scripture” means “the writings” – in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms – a way of referring to the Old Testament Scriptures – must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead…”
At what height does the risen Shepherd of the Church hold Scripture? In reference to His resurrection from the dead, Jesus tells His disciples, “I was fulfilling Scripture.” Jesus, risen from the dead, stands in front of His disciples and points to Scripture, saying, “There I am.”
Jesus then opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. With their minds opened to the Scriptures, then they can understand what they’re looking at in front of them on Easter.
Scripture is held at the highest heights on the day of His resurrection, and Jesus tells His disciples that it was necessary for Him to fulfill them.
In fact, from His conception to the events surrounding His birth – to His preaching and miracles – to the details of His humiliation, suffering, and death – and to His bodily resurrection from the dead – it is repeated again and again, throughout the four Gospels, that He did these things – and that these things happened – in order to fulfill the Scriptures.
The Scriptures had to be fulfilled – they had to be kept and accomplished – because they are God’s Word. Jesus came to do the will of His Father in Heaven, and has done it completely.
Jesus said of the Scriptures, “Scripture cannot be broken” [John 10:35]. The apostle Paul said, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” [2 Timothy 3:16]. The apostle Peter said, regarding the authorship of Scripture, that “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” [2 Peter 1:20-21].
(And in the time of the apostles, they were already regarding the New Testament writings as Scripture – 1 Timothy 5:18; Luke 10:7; 2 Peter 3:16.)
Scripture is the Word of God. And Scripture, all throughout, is about Jesus – “everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms…”
More amazing still, the Bible is God’s Word written – and Jesus Himself is God’s Word made flesh [John 1:1-14]. That’s a mystery beyond understanding. But a lower view of God’s Word in Scripture leads to a lower view of God’s Word altogether, even in the person of Jesus.
What does all this mean? Does it mean we throw out every proper use of human reason? Does it mean we throw out all human observation and thought as worthless? Of course not.
But it does mean we rejoice that in Scripture we have something that is more and greater than everything else. Greater than all other words. Truer than all other knowledge.
The Scriptures are true and reliable in every respect. If they’re not, then we have no reliable record of a single word of Jesus either. But if Jesus is true, then Scripture is also true – because the risen Jesus pointed to the Scriptures to show us Himself.
Every person has very basic questions that need to be answered: “What am I?” “Where did I come from?” “What am I worth?” “I know certain things are wrong and certain things are right, but what is it based on?”
“What about my wrongs, my sins?” “What can be done with those?” “Am I forgiven?”
And, “What about when I die, what happens?” “What happens to my body?”
In Scripture, you are not an animal. You are created. You are made in the image of God. You are accountable to God. You sin, and are not the person you ought to be, because we are all fallen in sin, fallen from that image.
In Scripture, you see that the Son of God, Jesus, died for you – in your place, for your wrongs. You see that He paid with His life for you. That gives you tremendous worth. It means that you are forgiven. Jesus has accomplished it.
And you see in Scripture that your body will not end ruined in the grave. Jesus has conquered death. He is risen from the dead to never die again. He will “swallow up death forever” [Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:54]. “Because I live, you also will live”, Jesus says [John 14:19].
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” [Matthew 24:35]. No matter what the struggle with faith is, we can never lift ourselves or others up by setting Scripture lower.
Instead, in the Scriptures we have that which is greater than our doubts and struggles, greater than heaven and earth. There, the risen Jesus still opens minds and hearts to know Him and all He has done for us. Amen.
- Apr 15, 2024
- 5 min read
[1 John 1:3] “…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
That They Too May Have Fellowship with Us
This is said so often that it’s become cliché – but, nevertheless, we’ll say it – the world around us has become increasingly polarized. “Us versus them.” It is true that, in recent years, an “us versus them” mindset has increased and become more entrenched.
Maybe we shouldn’t expect any better from the world, but each of us truly can and should expect better from our own selves. Each one of us has been redeemed by Christ-Crucified to be something different. “Us versus them” is not meant to be the status quo mindset for believers in Christ.
“Us versus them” is not the norm in the baptized child of God. It is the norm in our old sinful nature which still clings to us. Therefore, this is one of those things that we are called to daily repent of and put away. And there is a new way of thinking that we are to daily take up.
The early Christian community which we read briefly about in Acts 4:32-35 is an example for us, both in their mindset toward each other and toward the world around them. “The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”
This is not a proposal about the economy or politics – but it is a description of a people whose way of thinking changed. “My” and “mine” were no longer the dominant thoughts.
Instead, there was dedication to a common goal. Perhaps, dedication to the “new commandment” of their crucified and risen Savior to “love each other as I have loved you” – and to show the world whose disciples they are by their love for one another [John 13:34-35].
And we see in this reading – and in our second reading [1 John 1:1–2:2] – dedication to the common goal of proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus to the world around them. “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”
They knew who they were and what their calling was. The goal of the gospel – of proclaiming the resurrection of their Savior – shaped their heart and mind toward one another. And – this is the main point today – it shaped the mentality of their hearts and minds toward the world around them.
In the church, you are not alone. The church is the body of those who believe in Christ. In the church, together, you have fellowship with God, your Creator, through Jesus Christ, His Son, your Redeemer.
These early Christians had that fellowship with God through Jesus, and suffered much adversity from the world around them. Persecuted in their homeland, and then persecuted abroad. Hated, and sometimes put to death, for proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus.
Yet, by and large, they did not fall prey to the mindset of “us versus them.”
Their hearts and minds were dedicated to winning men and women for Christ instead of saying, “It’s us versus them.”
In the face of a world that was actively persecuting them – and which advanced the same forms of sin and immorality you see in your world – the Christians said, “We are here for them – that they too may gain knowledge of their Savior, be redeemed from sin, and receive this same salvation that we have received in Jesus Christ.”
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands… we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” [1 John 1:1-3]
The Apostle John and all the apostles – and five hundred other disciples – saw, heard, witnessed, and even touched their resurrected Savior. Jesus met with the apostles in the upper room on Easter evening. He showed them His hands and side. He spoke to them, “Peace be with you.”
What they had seen and heard, they went out and proclaimed so that – as Jesus promised – others would also receive the forgiveness of sins in the fellowship of the church, the body of Christ. [John 20:19-23]
What do you hear and see in your fellowship in the church?
In this fellowship here, you are gathered in the name of Jesus, and therefore the risen, living Jesus is in your midst when you gather, as He promised – “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them” [Matthew 18:20; Matthew 28:20].
Here, you have deliverance from darkness and the forgiveness of your wrongdoing – “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” [Colossians 1:13-14]
“God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” – here you have fellowship in His light – “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” [1 John 1:5-7]
Here, we find a place to be honest about ourselves, not needing to convince ourselves we’re doing better than we are: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [1 John 1:8-9]
Here, in fellowship with God our Creator, and with His Son, our Redeemer, we have a place where – by God’s power – we are learning how to do better and become better men and women.
At the same time, in the same place, we are met with mercy and new beginnings when we fail or fall: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” [1 John 2:1]
What we have here is the best thing on earth, the best thing in the world – when we remember why we are here, what we are gathered for, and what our mission is.
And what we have here is for us to share: “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” [1 John 2:2]
Not “us versus them”, but “Us for them” with the Gospel, that they too may find salvation in their Redeemer. Amen.
