4th Sunday of Easter Sermon

Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Good Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Amen.

Please pray with me.  Heavenly Father, in Your love and faithfulness You provide us with our Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.  In Him You call us to trust in You and to live according to Your Word.  By Your gracious will and Spirit You give us the ability and strength to hear Your voice, trust in You, and follow where You lead us.  Guide us today with Your voice, O Lord, in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Provide us with a spirit of humility, boldness and perseverance so that we might not stray from Your paths.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.

Hello people of God, sheep of the Good Shepherd.  In the Scriptures we are given many images for the character of God…for our relationship with God.  We are told in many different places that our relationship with God is like a marriage.  He is the Groom and we, the collective people of God, are His beautiful bride.  Or we are told that God is our loving Father, and that we are His beloved children.  Today we heard a lot of references to God being our Good Shepherd and we His sheep, those for whom in Christ He willingly laid down His life. 

Today we are going to focus in on one of the aspects of this Shepherd/sheep relationship; voice recognition.  No I don’t mean some program on your phone or in your car.  Voice recognition is an aspect of God’s relationship with His people that parallels the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep.

Say you brought 20 large flocks together – thousands of sheep – and mixed them all around in a grassy field.  If you were to put their shepherds around them – hidden out of sight but within hear shot – you could have the shepherds start calling out, and the sheep would each find his or her way back to the right shepherd.  And if the shepherd was a good shepherd, he would know if all of the sheep there belonged in his flock or not.  He would also know if any of his flock was missing. 

It is this kind of voice recognition that we heard about this morning in our Gospel reading.  Jesus speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd.  His sheep know His voice and listen to Him.  He calls them out and once they are all out of the sheep pen He goes ahead of them and they follow where He leads.  They don’t follow after the voice of a stranger, rather they run from the sound of the stranger’s voice.  He says that He leads His sheep in and out of the sheep pen by His voice.

Before we get too far into this I just want to point out a couple of things.  They should be obvious but I think it is important that they are made clear.  First, I think it is worth noting that the word “pastor” means “shepherd.”  In fact, when I was ordained in MN I was given this shepherds staff as a symbol of the ministry to God’s people that I was being entrusted with.  But even though I am called a pastor (a shepherd), and I try my best to be a good shepherd, I know that I am not the Good Shepherd.  At the seminary I was taught that our role as pastor is that of an under-shepherd.  We are not the true shepherd of the sheep.  We work under the direction of the Head shepherd; Christ the Good shepherd. 

If the Good Shepherd and the under-shepherd were to put themselves at opposite ends of a field and start calling out to the sheep, it would be wrong for the sheep to follow the voice of the under-shepherd instead of the Good Shepherd.  If this was to happen the under-shepherd would in fact be a thief, taking from the true Shepherd what rightfully belonged to Him. 

There are some preachers and teachers who do not speak the Word of God but a word of their own.  And because their congregations have gotten used to the sound of their pastor’s voices, they prefer it to the sound of our Good Shepherd’s voice. They may even confuse it for the voice of the True Shepherd. How can God’s people keep the voice of the Good Shepherd clear in their head?  By spending time in the Word.  By searching the Scriptures to see if what the preacher proclaims is in concord with the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

This is what the Berean congregation in the Scriptures was known for.  When Paul came to them and proved to them from the Old Testament that Jesus was the promised Messiah, The Savior of the world, they didn’t just take Paul at his word.  Instead, they diligently searched the Scriptures themselves, and by their diligence they recognized that the same voice of redemption they heard in the Old Testament was the voice that they heard in Paul’s proclamation of Jesus as the Christ.

What does this mean for all of you?  It means you can’t trust me.  You can’t just take my word or any other pastor’s word at face value.  If something I say sounds good to you, it is your responsibility to check it with God’s voice in His Word.  If something sounds bad to you, it is your responsibility to check it with God’s voice in the Scriptures.  If I or any other person is preaching or teaching something that is contrary to God’s Word, the only way for you all to know that it is a lie is if you are intimately familiar with the voice of Your Good Shepherd.  You need to know God and love God, and honor and obey God even better than you obey your earthly parents and other earthly authorities.  

When Jesus speaks of the shepherd and the sheep, He talks of how He leads the sheep both in and out by His voice.  He also says that once they are all out of the pen He goes ahead of them and leads them forward by His voice.  Christ doesn’t just call them in and send them out.  He is with them and leads and guides them every step of the way.  He doesn’t just follow them and wander with them.  He knows where He wants to lead them and He guides them every step of the way. 

If  they wander away He calls out to them.  He calls them back to Him.  If they don’t return, if they fall into danger, or are attacked, He pursues them with His goodness and mercy all of the days of their life.  Christ our Good Shepherd sacrificed life and limb, in order to retrieve and save us from all of the sin, death and destruction of this world.  As we quoted in The Introit, “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” He saves us from ourselves, and from those who attack us. 

Yes, Christ goes in and out with His sheep.  He is with us all the time.  And He goes before us to guide us in life, calling out to us as He goes.  But if the only time we listen to His voice is when we gather as the Church – when we gather in the pen as it were – then in truth, we are wandering around in life as if we had no shepherd.  As true as it is that we need to diligently search the Scriptures to see if the words we hear at Church are actually God’s Words, we need even more to be in the Scriptures throughout the week.  We need to stay in His word and pray to our Good Shepherd for guidance in all things day by day. Yes we need to stay within earshot of our Good shepherd, so that we don’t get drawn away from the path of our Shepherd, by following after other voices in our daily lives.

You see, the most dangerous time for the sheep is when they are outside of the pen.  Even though our Good Shepherd is always with us, we are surrounded by a world of trouble and danger and temptations.  If we don’t keep our ears tuned to our Good Shepherd’s voice it becomes easy for us to wander after the loudmouths in our world.   

For example, right now in our country and the world there are countless voices all weighing in on the Pandemic, and what appropriate responses and measures are.  Some voices call for protest, some for full compliance. Some call out for lawless defiance and some for forced submission.  From both sides there are extreme outliers calling for violence or imprisonment. People are belittling others who have differing views from theirs.  Perhaps the most disheartening thing for me to see is people I know (who know and love the Lord), saying hateful, hurtful words about others, or despairing and fearing of the future. 

I have my own thoughts on many of these matters, but at the end of the day what I think, or what your vocal Facebook friend posts, or what this or that media outlet says is not what is most important.  What is important is that we listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd. It is important that we follow where He leads and trust in Him to guide, and protect us.  We need to trust in Christ to judge and redeem us according to His goodness and mercy.

In our epistle reading from 1 Peter chapter 2 we heard words encouraging us to follow in the footsteps of Christ.  They speak of submission to earthly authorities, even those who may be wrong…even those who are acting against you unjustly, or punishing you for doing what is good. I want to back us up just few more verses so that we can better hear the context of these holy words. Listen, beginning at verse 12:

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1Pe 2:20-25)

With all of this extra time we have on our hands, many of us find ourselves getting into online debates, having accusation thrown at us for taking this or that stance on this or that issue. How do you silence the ignorance of foolish people?  Do we do it by reviling others who revile us?  Do we do it by hurling insults or threats at people who cause us suffering?  No, as Christians we are called to listen to and even to echo the voice of our Good Shepherd…to follow in His footsteps. You silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing the good God has given you to do.  Do the good, and let your actions speak the grace and wisdom of God through you.  Entrust yourself to God, who judges justly; the one who through Christ forgives the sins of all who confess them to Him; trust in the one who cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and raises us up to lives of goodness and mercy.

Here in the U.S., many people (many Christians) are upset because they believe that the freedoms our constitution promises to us are being discarded by some of the measures that have been taken by some of our national, state, and local leaders to try to combat the corona virus. People are afraid of how far down that slippery slope of restrictions this all might go. Some of them would use the call of freedom as a rallying cry to do evil in the name of that which they call good. But those of us in Christ are truly free.  We are not to use that freedom in Christ as a cover-up (or excuse) for doing evil.  No, on the contrary, all of us are called to be servants of God…servants of His goodness and mercy.

We are called to honor, serve, and obey, love and cherish the government authorities, whom God has placed over us for our good.  We are not called to obey them in such a way that would cause us or others to sin, but rather we are to obey God’s voice, doing good, and accepting the earthly reward, or even enduring the punishment that comes as a result of our good works. It is gracious in the eyes of God, when we suffer for doing what is good and right and yet endure in that goodness and suffering. 

When we feel under attack in this world, it is easy for us to scatter and wander from the voice and presence of our Good Shepherd.  It is easy for us to think that we know what is good and best for us.  It is easy to doubt that God’s goodness and mercy are with and for us.  It is easy to turn from the scary looking paths that He might lead us down.  To be sure, sometimes His paths look too dangerous, so we venture out on our own.  But God is faithful. He pursues us with His goodness and mercy, calling out to us with His voice, that we might follow Him.  We can trust Him. 

If we put our trust in others or even in ourselves the result is death and destruction.  But God’s desire is to give us life and to give it to the full.  Even when He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil for even there, He is with us.  As Christ says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though He die, yet shall he live.”

Christ calls on us to follow Him no matter where He leads.  There are times when He will lead us into scary or difficult or even dangerous situations.  It is in these times especially that we need to be tuned into His voice.  By His word He will guide us into the good he would have us do.  By His goodness and mercy He will give us the strength to endure whatever evils might come against us.  Even if we die, especially if we die, He alone can save us and redeem us from the jaws of death. 

All of this is possible because we have a Good Shepherd who indeed laid down His life for us.  Amen?  All this is possible because Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!) Our Good Shepherd Loves us and He is able to keep us safe and even to redeem us from sin, death and every evil.

And so, let me strongly encourage you.  Learn the voice of Your Good Shepherd.  Know it well.  Listen to His voice daily, trust in Him, and follow in His footsteps. Spend time in His Word, and in prayer each day.  Spend time in conversation and study with others in His flock.  Check to confirm that you and they are all speaking in unison with the voice of our Good Shepherd. Search the Scriptures diligently.  Trust in the Lord.  Follow His voice.  Do the good He calls you to do. In Jesus name.  Amen.

Please pray with me: Christ our Good Shepherd, you laid down Your life for me and You took it back up again.  Give me faith in You, that I may follow Your voice and example. Give us courage and humility to submit to the earthly authorities You have provided to us, whether in praise or in persecution.  May we never use the freedoms You have given us to do evil.  Help us reply to foolishness and hatred with the steadfast love and faithfulness you have given us to do; for we hear the voice of our Good Shepherd, even Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.