Church Sermon - May 7, 2006

JESUS, SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP

Rev. Bernt P. Tweit

Historical Lesson; Acts 4:23-33
Epistle Lesson; 1 John 3:1-2
Gospel Lesson; John 10:11-18
Sermon Text; John 10:11-18

The other night, we ordered a pizza at our house. On the cover of the pizza box were some questions that the company encouraged you to talk about as you were eating pizza with your family. One of those questions was, "If you could be any animal, what would you be?" As we were sitting around the kitchen table, it was kind of fun listening to the animals that each of us chose. And then, we talked about the reasons why.

Later that night, as I was contemplating my sermon, I thought to myself, "Probably not very many people would choose to be a sheep. If we could be any animal, we would probably not choose to be a sheep."

Sheep are not the most intelligent of animals. Sheep are stubborn. Sheep need guidance and protection. Sheep are easily confused and frightened. Sheep are dirty. Oftentimes they get lost. They are defenseless and dependent upon others. If we could be an animal, probably not very many of us would choose to be a sheep.

While it may not be complementary to be called a sheep, how comforting it is to know that Jesus is the Shepherd of the sheep. Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Always on the fourth Sunday of Easter, or three weeks after Easter, we celebrate the picture of Jesus Christ being the Good Shepherd.

What is it that makes Jesus the Good Shepherd? Well, it is not very often that we see a shepherd. It is not very commonplace in our day and age. But, it was in Jesus’ day. Have you ever seen a real, live, shepherd, before? I know I haven’t. We could probably go through our whole life, without seeing one. Now, as we travel today about, we see many 18-wheelers out on the highway. Back in Jesus’ day, they would not have seen those 18-wheelers. What is commonplace for us was not commonplace for them, and vice versa. Every day, as you traveled back in Jesus day, you would have seen a shepherd going about doing his work. And the shepherd, gave water to the sheep when they were thirsty, gave food to the sheep when they were hungry, protected them from ferocious animals, kept them warm when it was cold, kept them cool when it was hot, and ultimately brought them back to that sheep pen for safety.

There is a difference, though, between a shepherd who had stake in his sheep and a shepherd that was only a hired hand. When a ferocious animal would come along, the shepherd, who had stake in its sheep, would fight off that predator. While, on the other hand, the hired hand was more concerned about his own skin than the skin of those sheep.

Today in our text Jesus says a couple of times,

What is it that makes Jesus the Good Shepherd? In our language, we probably use that word ‘good’ to mean many different things. Let’s say that there are students in my classroom who had just taken a test. Let’s say one of them got 100%, one got 90%, and one got 80%. We could ask each of them, "How did you do on the test?" And, they could all say, "Good."

You could go out to your garden, pick some rhubarb, make it into rhubarb crisp, and serve it to everyone around the table. You could ask them, "How was the rhubarb crisp?" Everyone could say, "Good," whether they liked it a lot, or only a little.

It might be better for us to say, from our text for this morning, that Jesus is the Spectacular Shepherd, or Jesus is the Most Excellent Shepherd, because nobody can compare to Jesus the Good Shepherd. This phrase in Greek actually says, "Jesus is the Shepherd, the Good One." Jesus is the Shepherd, the Good One, because He laid down His life for the sheep.

God, our Heavenly Father, loves His Son, Jesus. Jesus was perfectly obedient to the Will of His Father. And, Jesus also laid His life down in place of the sheep. Jesus was willing to lay down His life, in place of the sheep, even to the point of death. Jesus suffered death. Jesus endured the agonies of Hell. And, that was according to God, the Father’s, plan. But God the Father’s plan, was also that Jesus would rise from the grave, having triumphed over sin and death, and our greatest predator, Satan and Hell. It would be foolish for a shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep, because if the shepherd lost to the predator, that ferocious wolf would have easy pickings with the sheep. You might even say that those sheep would be ‘sitting ducks.’J But, not only is Jesus the Good Shepherd who has laid down His life for the sheep, Jesus also picked that life back up again, when He rose from the grave on Easter morning.

As we are sheep, following the guidance of the Good Shepherd, I have some questions for us to answer.

Oftentimes we are like that sheep in that we have gone astray from His Word. We have sinned against Him.

But, thanks be to God that Jesus continues to be our Good Shepherd, pulling us in, when we have gone astray, and leading us to that sheep pen of eternal life. You see, not only is it important for us to see Jesus as the Good Shepherd, but it is also important to know that we are the sheep of His flock! The Good Shepherd says that He knows us, and that we know Him. Jesus, the Good Shepherd knows you! He knows your name. He knows your wants, your desires, and your needs. Jesus, the Good Shepherd knows your pain. Jesus, the Good Shepherd even knows the number of hairs that are on your head.

Jesus, our Good Shepherd, also says that we know Him. This isn’t just simply a head knowledge of who Jesus is, but rather, this is a heart of faith, that looks to Him as our Savior, that looks to Him as our Good Shepherd and puts full and complete trust in Him.

The most awesome thing about our text for today is that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has become one of us. Our text says, Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has laid down His life for the sheep. Some other ways of saying that is: Jesus, the Good Shepherd, lays down His life in place of the sheep. Or, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has laid down His life instead of the sheep.

This beautiful teaching in scripture is called the vicarious atonement of Christ. The word vicarious means substitute. Think of it in this way. When I first came to Holy Cross, my title was Vicar. Vicar simply means substitute. Christ is our substitute who brought us back into a harmonious relationship with God. He made us at one with Him, we who once were God’s enemies. To think that our Good Shepherd became one of us, a sheep, being our substitute, going to the cross, and there suffering the death and the agonies of Hell. Why?

Jesus has many sheep, sheep that are not of this sheep pen. Salvation is for sheep of the Old Testament and the New Testament, sheep that are men and women, sheep that are Gentiles.

If you could be any animal, what would you chose to be? Probably not many of us would choose to be a sheep. They are not the most intelligent of animals. They are stubborn. They are easily frightened and confused. They are dirty and go astray. They are defenseless and need protection. While it may not be a compliment to be called a sheep, which we are, how comforting it is to be reminded, once again, that Jesus is the Shepherd for the sheep.

We close,

Amen.

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