I WILL FOLLOW WHERE HE LEADS!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Historical Lesson;
Acts 6:8-60
Gospel Lesson;
John 10:1-10
Sermon Text;
1 Peter 2:19-25
When one of my little boys was a newborn baby, he received a gift. I don’t remember whom it was from, but it was one of the favorite gifts that he received, (especially favorite to me). It was a cuddly, soft, little lamb that was lying on its side. You could wind it up and it would play, "Jesus loves me, this I know." At nighttime, we would put him in bed and we would wind up that little lamb, lay it beside our dear little son, and that little lamb would play, "Jesus loves me, this I know."
To me, it was such a beautiful picture of how Jesus takes His little lambs in His arms. He protects them and keeps them safe. It was a kind of warm, fuzzy picture. However, following Jesus our Savior is not always warm and fuzzy. Being a sheep is not always warm and fuzzy. In the springtime of the year, after the sheep has grown its wool and it is long and fluffy, the shepherd takes that startled sheep, sits it down, takes the sheers and sheers the wool off the sheep. That sheep is frightened, while it is happening. And when the wool has been sheered, that spindly, little, sheep walks away, totally uncovered. Not always a warm and fuzzy thing. Sometimes the sheep get sheered. They may be startled. And, they may be frightened.
In today’s scripture reading, as we talk about following Jesus our Good Shepherd, Jesus makes it very clear to us that following Him is not always going to be a warm and fuzzy thing. There will be times when we will be startled, we may be frightened, and we may go through a time of sheering.
What today’s scripture reading is referring to is this. As sheep of the Good Shepherd, we want to follow Jesus. Just as Jesus did good to all people, we want to do good to all people. However, when we do good to people, sometimes the result is that we suffer, because we have done good to somebody else. We are sheered, because of the good we did in following Jesus. Martin Luther put it so succinctly, when he explained it this way. He explained, we are sheep of the Good Shepherd. We want to follow our Shepherd in doing good to all people. We, as sheep of the Good Shepherd, know that our goal is Heaven and we are so happy. We want everyone else in the world to have that same happy goal of Heaven. We do not want them to burn in Hell. We want good for all people.
And so, Luther says we must do our part. We must not remain silent. To remain silent would be to be negligent. And so, we must tell the world that they are on the broad, easy, road that leads to destruction and Hell. We must tell the world, because we want good for them, that they must repent of their sin, and believe in Jesus as their Savior.
But then Luther says, "But, when the world hears that, it is antagonized and we incur its wrath" and we are shorn, like sheep being shorn.
I can tell you many, many examples of how that has happened in people’s lives.
Think of our missionary, over in Russia. He wants to do good to all people. He wants the people in Russia to know Jesus, their Savior. And so, he preaches about the broad path that leads to Hell and destruction. He preaches about repentance and faith in Jesus. But, as he walks along the streets of his city, he is spit upon. He suffers, as a result of doing good. He is a sheep that is shorn.
Or, some years ago our missionary down in Peru, wanted to do good to all people. He wanted to talk about the broad path that leads to destruction. He wanted to talk about repentance and trusting in Jesus. One day he had to hide himself in a little room in the Andes Mountains. And through the cracks of the door, he could see men with machine guns, looking for him, to take away his life, because he was trying to do good to all people. He is a sheep that was shorn.
Or, one of the students in our school has a relative over in Africa, who wanted to do good to all people. He shared his faith in Jesus, as his Savior, and was beaten so badly that now he has lost his hearing. He wanted to do to all people, and follow the Good Shepherd, but was shorn, and now has suffered for doing good.
Or, people in our congregation who want to do good to all people, and have spoken to a relative or a friend about the broad path that they are on, which leads to Hell and destruction. They tell the relative or friend they should repent, and believe in Jesus. As a result, they bore the antagonism, and the wrath of the people they spoke to. And now those relationships have grown cold. Shorn, they are sheep that are shorn.
Or, high school students and college students, here at Holy Cross, who at school, in face of the pressure to do what is wrong, stood up for their Good Shepherd, followed Him, and wanted to do good to all people. As a result, they were shorn and suffer for doing good.
Now, our scripture reading goes on and it says, "It is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God."
And then it says,
"To this you were called."
Not only were we called to want to do good to all people, and witness about Jesus our Savior, no matter what the cost, but also then we are called to endure it and to bear up under it. And, even when the world pours out its antagonism against us, and its wrath against us, because we want to do good for them and tell them about Jesus, Jesus tells us, "rather than give up, rather than say we don’t want to do good to them anymore, rather than say, let them go to Hell, we are to bear up under it. We are to endure it. We are still to long for their good." Which is why Jesus says,
"Love your enemies."
"Pray for those who persecute you."
"Bless those who curse you."
"Do good to those who spitefully use you."
That, my friends, as sheep of the Good Shepherd, is what we are called to. Now, that is a difficult thing. And, so our scripture reading tells us this.
"To this you were called,
because Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example,
that you should follow in His steps."
To this
you
were called,
because Christ suffered for
YOU,
leaving
you
an example,
you
should follow in His footsteps.
I love the Greek work for where it tells us, ‘Jesus left us an example.’ The word for example is hipo gramma. It is hard to put that into English. But basically, hipo means under and gramma means picture or writing. It is the idea that there is a masterful picture, which we want to copy in our lives. And so, we put a piece of paper over it and trace that picture, just the way the picture looks.
That reminds me of when I was a little boy. My dad, who is a great artist, drew a picture, which is my favorite picture of Christ (and I don’t think it is my favorite, just because my dad drew it). It is an awesome picture! It is a picture of the head of Christ, drawn in pencil. He has the crown of thorns on His head, with blood streaming down His face. There is a look of sorrow and love in His eyes.
As a little boy, I would look at that picture and think, "I wish I could draw a picture of Jesus like that."
I would set the picture on the table, get out my piece of paper, and I would try to draw it. But, it never came out looking anywhere near like my dad’s.
Then one day my mom brought home some tracing paper. I took my dad’s picture out, put the tracing paper over the top of it, and then I could trace it. It still didn’t look exactly the same, but when I followed his pattern, it was much closer.
Now, our scripture is talking about us suffering for doing good, and bearing up under it. It says, "Jesus has left you a hipo gramma," a picture to trace. Only, we don’t trace it with a pencil. We trace it with our footsteps. We trace it by following after Jesus in our lives. Jesus is the ultimate example of someone who did good to all people, suffered as a result of doing good, and bore up under it.
Let’s think about that. Jesus did good to all people. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He talked about that broad path that leads to destruction. He talked about repentance, and believing in Him.
As followers of the Good Shepherd, it is our goal to trace the steps of Jesus and to do good to all people. Now, we can’t trace that perfectly, but we can trace it, weakly. We want to follow that example of Jesus.
As a result of doing good to all people, what happened to Jesus? When He healed the sick and raised the dead, the world was antagonized and their wrath was stirred up. When He preached the Gospel of repentance and faith, the world was antagonized and their wrath was stirred up. Jesus suffered on the cross, more intensely than we can ever comprehend. He suffered without limits on the cross, when He bore the entire wrath of the whole world against sin. Jesus suffered. And, one drop of Jesus’ blood is greater than all the suffering you and I will ever have to do for Jesus.
Scripture tells us to follow, to trace that example of Jesus in our lives. However, we can’t do it perfectly. When Jesus suffered, our scripture reading says, "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats."
It reminds us of that passage in Isaiah 53, where it says, "Like a sheep before its sheerer is silent, so He did not open His mouth." Jesus was shorn too. He did not open His mouth. He did not retaliate. He did not make threats against those who made Him suffer, nor against His enemies. Instead, Jesus bore up under that suffering and He still wanted good and blessings for His enemies. And so, from the cross He prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
That is the example of Jesus, which we are to trace in our lives. We do not trace it perfectly. In fact, when we look at our lives, as we think about us tracing that picture of Jesus with our footsteps, how often our lines have gone astray. In fact, our scripture reading says, "You were like sheep going astray."
Oftentimes, when I knew I should do good to all people, how many times has my tracing gone astray? I have not done good. I have not witnessed about Jesus to those who needed to hear it most. And, I left them headed on their path to Hell. That is a sin. And, for that we should be condemned.
How many times have I not traced that pattern of Jesus the way I should? When I have tried to do good to all people and witnessed my faith in Jesus, and as a result in one way or other I have had to suffer, I have not endured it gladly. Instead, I have complained to God and against God. That is not following the pattern of Jesus and that is a sin. And, for that we should be condemned.
How many times, when we have witnessed our faith in Jesus and we have incurred the wrath of this world, instead of keeping our mouths silent and continuing to wish for their good, our blood has begun to boil? We have been filled with resentment and anger, and said things we should not say. There, we have not followed the pattern of Jesus. We have gone astray. That is a sin for which we should be condemned.
How many times, when we have witnessed our faith in Jesus and now we suffer for it, have we failed to endure and bear up under the suffering and continue to want good for those people who now have become antagonized toward us? We don’t pray for them. We don’t continue to do good to them. We don’t continue to love them and bless them. Our tracing has gone astray and that is a sin. And for that, we should be condemned.
But, the awesome thing about Jesus is He didn’t just leave us an example of how to suffer. He suffered for us, as our Savior. And so our scripture reading says,
"He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree;
by His wounds
you have been healed."
That is an awesome picture! If I think of all the times I have gone astray, it’s been like cutting myself. It is self-inflicted wounds that could lead me to die for eternity. Imagine if you had some gapping, gashing wound and you longed to be healed from that. And somehow, miraculously, somebody could take that wound off of you and put it on him or herself. That is what Jesus did, as our Good Shepherd. The Bible says, "He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree." All the self-inflicted wounds that I have put on myself have been miraculously taken off me. And there on the cross, as you see the wounds of Jesus, you see your sins. You see Jesus there, suffering, for your sins. By His wounds we are healed. His intense suffering for sin has taken away God’s anger. We are forgiven, because of what Jesus has done for us.
We are dearly loved by our Good Shepherd.
Not only is He our example,
but also He is our Savior.
That is the reason that we follow Him, no matter where He leads. How comforting it is, and how happy we are to know that we have a Good Shepherd. How comforting it is to know that no matter what trouble this world may bring we have a safe refuge to go. And that is the arms of our Good Shepherd. How comforting it is to know that no matter what this world may throw against us, we are safe and protected in His arms, from all harm and danger. The devil and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against us. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Let us gladly follow where He leads.
Amen.
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