Sermon for Saturday, April 20, 2024

Sermon for Saturday, April 20, 2024

“I AM the Good Shepherd”

John 10:11-18

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

The text for our meditation this evening is the Gospel lesson from John 10:11-18. You’re welcome to look at it together with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

Two times in this very short passage, Jesus says, “I AM the Good Shepherd… I am the Good Shepherd.“ And a third time, referring to Himself, Jesus describes what the Good Shepherd does. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

The way Jesus says this is very important, too, for seven times in the Gospel of John
Jesus is quoted as saying, “I AM” and then saying what He is.
 - I AM the Bread of Life. (John 6:35)
 - I AM the Light of the world. (John 8:12)
 - I AM the True Vine. (John 15:1)
...and on and on. The fact that He begins each of these statements with the words “I AM” is also very significant.

In Exodus 3, in the Old Testament, Moses is called to go and help the people of Israel in slavery in Egypt. Moses is reluctant to go and tries to make excuses not to go and even says, “If I come to the people and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me,’ and they asked me, ‘What is His Name?’ what shall I say?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And God said: “‘Say this to the people, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.’”

And ever since that time, by far the most common name for the One True God in the Old Testament is that name. Most scholars think that it was pronounced YAHWEH, and it is a form of the Hebrew verb “I Am.” I have not counted it, but scholars say it occurs 6,820 times in the Old Testament, and in English translations, it is the LORD (capital LORD).

And Scriptures like Psalm 105:1 say, “O give thanks to the LORD (capital LORD); call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples.” The Lord never asked His people not to speak His Name, but rather, as the 2nd Commandment says, “not to misuse it or take His Name in vain.” As Martin Luther explained it, “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His Name, but call upon It in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”

But between the time of the Old Testament and New Testament, many Jewish people were so fearful of breaking the 2nd Commandment that they avoided the true name of God and substituted another name or something else. They might say, “By heaven we pray,” instead of “By the Lord we pray.”

How different that is from our OMG society, where many people just throw around God’s Name without thinking or even meaning to talk with Him in a serious way or at all. His Name becomes a way only to emphasize something  - often not good things at all.

So, when Jesus in the New Testament began to use the true Name of the Lord, in reference to Himself, with His “I AM” sayings, the religious leaders were very upset. When in John, Chapter 8, Jesus said, “I AM the Light of the world” and spoke of doing His heavenly Father’s Word and will, the religious leaders said, “Abraham is our father, and we follow him….” “You, Jesus, are a Samaritan and have a demon.” Jesus finally had to say to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” The reaction of the people was to pick up stones to stone Jesus for blasphemy, but He was able to escape.

Jesus had to say and do these things because He truly was God the Son, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity, and was involved with the Creation and everything since, even long before the time of Abraham. And again, in the Old Testament, the Lord often had to send many prophets to warn the kings and other leaders that they were being terrible shepherds of their nation and leading the people astray. Even the spiritual shepherds, the priests and the Levites and others were often condemned for not caring for their flock, their people. Finally, the Lord Himself said, in passages like Ezekiel 34, “I Myself will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”

So, God the Son came into this world and became man, Jesus, to help the people, the sheep of this world. Sheep are not the smartest of animals and can easily go astray. Their struggles are a good picture of our human struggles, too, as the imperfect people we all are. Jesus had compassion on the people, for they were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Jesus was the Good Shepherd, healing and helping and teaching many people as much He could. But He also wanted to bring to people the promise of eternal life beyond this life. “This charge (this calling), I have received from My Father,” Jesus said at the end of our text.

That’s why, several times in this passage, Jesus says He has to do even more. He was the only truly Good Shepherd, living a perfect life in our place as a substitute for our failures. But even more was needed. At least five times in our text, Jesus says that the Good Shepherd also lays down His life for the sheep. Jesus had to suffer and die willingly, again as a substitute, in our place, to pay the penalty for our sins and the sins of all sheep in the world. Only Jesus, as true God as well as a true man, could forgive us completely.

It may seem as if Jesus’ life was taken from Him by cruel and evil people. But Jesus says, “I lay down my life. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down of My own accord.” That’s why Jesus says, God the Father loves Me. I am willingly doing everything He wishes and is needed for the salvation of sheep, of people. But there is still more for Jesus to do.

He says, “I lay down My life that I may take it up again.” “I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Jesus is predicting that not only would He die for us, but He would rise again in victory over sin and Satan and death and earn for us the gift of eternal life, as we trust in Him as our Good Shepherd. Jesus has His life again through His resurrection from the dead, and he can continue to help us always, through this life, to eternal life with Him.

We still face many troubles and dangers in this sinful world. There are “hired hands” who care only about themselves and can desert us and disappoint us in times of need. There are wolves around, too, who want to do us great harm. These are usually described in Scripture as false teachers who follow the ways of Satan and want to lead us away from our confidence in our Lord.

Yet, in the midst of all this, we have our living Lord, Who loves us and will help us through. Jesus said, “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.” Jesus uses Himself as an example. The Father sent His Son into this world to lay down His life for us - not at all an easy thing to be doing, but Jesus trusted His Father and His Father’s plan completely, no matter what - and even in the agony of the cross and death, Jesus prayed, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” And the Father enabled Jesus to take up His life again in His Easter victory over death. In the same way, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He knows us, and we know Him and trust that no matter the circumstances, He will be with us, as He knows us and loves us, and we listen to Him and His Word.

In the Epistle lesson for today, we heard that even if we mess up and fail, as sheep sometimes do, and our hearts condemn us (and our conscience troubles us), God is greater than our hearts, and he still loves us and forgives us and restores our souls, as Psalm 23 says.

In fact, everything that David spoke of for himself is ours, too, in Jesus our Good Shepherd. Jesus is the great I AM, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He can provide for what we really need and lead us in good and right ways as we listen to Him and His Word. Even if we have to walk through dark valleys, He is with us. He has given us goodness and mercy in our Baptism and blesses us with the table of His Presence in the Lord’s Supper. He is with us all the days of our life, and even death is only a gateway through Him to our heavenly home, where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And there’s one more great promise in our text from John 10. Jesus says, “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.” If we have family or friends who are still not following Christ, there is still hope for them. We don’t have to give up on them. We can still pray for them and encourage them and try to love them, as our Epistle lesson said, in deed and truth, as well as in Word and talk.

Let us pray: Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe, only where they are safe, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:9)