[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE FOURTH SUNDAY of EASTER 03 May 2009 "Listen to Your Good Shepherd" John 10:11-18 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

In the Smalkald Articles written by Martin Luther in 1537, he said:

. . . for, thank God, a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd. 3 So children pray, "I believe in one holy Christian church."¹

We picture children as lambs. Perhaps you think of yourself as an adult sheep, a ewe or a ram, but you're really still just a lamb. So all of us are sheep. While sheep have excellent senses, that is, their wide angle of vision allows them to see predators and their ears are sensitive to the direction of sound and their noses allow them to smell their predators, they really are pretty defenseless. They are categorized as prey animals. Their instinct is to flee because they really can't fight back against a vicious predator. Instead, they'll gather in a group as herd animals do. We call that a flock.

Sheep need a shepherd to care for them, to guide them and protect them. They need health care in addition to food and protection. Here's an interesting fact that I just learned about sheep: they never walk in a straight line. Their winding tracks allows sheep to observe their backsides first with one eye and then the other. So they are always looking behind themselves for predators. Sheep also need other sheep. They are touching animals, that is, when young lambs sleep they will seek out their mothers and lie close to them. I found a photo of a mother sheep resting her head on her lamb and that lamb nuzzling at his mother's neck. It makes a wonderful picture for Christians and their Good Shepherd, Jesus, and his flock, the holy Christian Church. You need your Good Shepherd and you need the other sheep of his flock. It's the way God has arranged it in the holy Christian Church.

Jesus says of himself,

"I am the good shepherd." (John 10:11a, ESV)

"He 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. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep." (John 10:12-13, ESV)

You need to be together with the other sheep because a sheep by himself becomes more of a prey than the whole flock. A sheep by himself probably does not have the protection of the shepherd because he's wandered away. Getting back to the shepherd might be difficult because sheep don't walk in a straight line; they amble, they stray. So it is that the prophet Isaiah aptly said:

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way;" (Isaiah 53:6, ESV)

You're tempted to listen to other voices, maybe your friends, teachers, or other so-called "authorities." Satan continues to tempt you to ignore the voice of your Good Shepherd. Sadly, there are those who were once members of Christ's flock but who no longer are part of his flock. They have wandered away, been lured away by other voices, or gotten just plain lazy. They have so focused on themselves that they have become deaf to the Good Shepherd's voice. They have put their souls in danger of eternal death. Being a member of the flock is not like a "get out of jail free" card! It's not a guarantee that you can listen to others or do what your sinful flesh likes to do and still have the comfort of your Good Shepherd. In 2004 the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 224,200 sheep were killed by predators in the US, coyotes being responsible for 51.7% of the total losses. If you don't listen to his voice then you will be "wolf meat!"

It is imperative that all of you, as sheep, listen to the voice of your Good Shepherd-always! No one else has the words of eternal life [John 6.68f]. All others have only the words of death. It was the Apostle Peter who spoke these words in his testimony before the Sanhedrin:

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12, ESV)

Did you ever think: what can a shepherd do against a lion? If he has an automatic weapon like an M-4, he can probably kill the lion quite easily, but such weapons were not part of the ancient shepherd's arsenal. He had a rod and a staff. He had to be "more creative" we might say. We think that if a predator came after the sheep the shepherd couldn't do very much, but the discussion leading up to David's slaying of Goliath is interesting. When the shepherd boy David volunteered to fight the giant Goliath and kill him when all the hardened soldiers of Saul's army had failed, Saul answered that David is just a shepherd boy. What is he against a man of war who has practiced his art from his youth? David answered:

"Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God." And David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you!"" (1 Samuel 17:33-37, ESV)

This Good Shepherd is "David's greater son!" [LSB 398.1] If David slew lions and bears as well as the giant Goliath, then what can David's greater son do for us? What has the Son of God and Son of Man done for us? He has slain the roaring lion and the ravenous wolves who come from Satan himself. He will also protect those who he has redeemed with his precious blood.

But how does he do this? How does your Good Shepherd protect you today? Christ is truly present whenever his Word is preached in its truth and purity and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution. In Word and Sacrament you hear the voice of your Good Shepherd. That's why there is the Office of the Holy Ministry.

While the term "pastor" means shepherd, I really think we're more like the working dogs who have guarded sheep for centuries. There are guardian breeds, like the Great Pyrenees, the Akbash and Anatolian Shepherd, Komondor, Maremma, and Tibetan Mastiff dogs. Most are large, weighing at least 75 lbs, many of them well over 100 lbs. Shepherds bred them to match the color of the wool of the sheep so that they would blend in with the sheep, making identification of dogs more difficult for predators. They are not allowed the privileges of a pet, but they are to bond with the sheep, living among them. Then I remembered what Luther said about the work of pastors. I have had it posted on the wall of study for many years.

Therefore someone must be selected to strengthen them, lest wolves come and tear the sheep to pieces. For a pastor must not only lead to pasture by teaching the sheep how to be true Christians: but, in addition to this, he must also repel the wolves, lest they attack the sheep and lead them astray with false doctrine and error. For the devil does not rest. Now today one finds many people who can let the Gospel be preached, provided that one does not cry out against the wolves and preach against the prelates. But even if I preach in the right way and tend and teach the sheep, this protecting and guarding does not suffice to keep the wolves from coming and leading the sheep astray. For what is built if I lay stones and watch someone else knock them down? The wolf can surely let the sheep have good pasturage. The fatter they are, the more he likes them. But he cannot bear the hostile barking of the dogs. Therefore to him who takes this to heart it is important to tend the sheep in the right way, as God has commanded.²

The appointed Psalm for this week is Psalm 23, a psalm that most Christians know by heart. It speaks about what our Good Shepherd does for us. Luther had this to say on the words "rod and staff:"

Therefore he is speaking here about the office of preaching in the New Testament, which proclaims to the world that "Christ came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15) and that He has gained this salvation for sinners by giving His life for them. Whoever believes this should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). That is the rod and the staff by which the souls obtain rest, comfort, and joy. In spiritual sheepherding, that is, in the kingdom of Christ, one should, therefore, preach to the sheep of Christ-the goats one must govern with Moses and the emperor's rod and staff-not the Law of God, much less the ordinances of men, but the Gospel, which the prophet with metaphorical words calls a rod of comfort and a staff of comfort. For through the Gospel, Christ's sheep obtain strength in their faith, rest in their hearts, and comfort in all kinds of anxieties and perils of death. Those who preach this way conduct the office of a spiritual shepherd properly, feed the sheep of Christ in a green pasture, lead them to the fresh water, restore their souls, keep them from being led astray, and comfort them with Christ's rod and staff. Where men hear such preachers, they should believe for certain that they are hearing Christ Himself.³

So, here in the Divine Service is where you hear the voice of your Good Shepherd. It is in the Office of Preaching, says Luther. You know it as "the marks of the Church," and where you find those you find Christ himself who is your Good Shepherd.

When you continue to listen to the voice of your Good Shepherd in Word and Sacrament, then you have his promise that he will always surround you with his love and protection. Only Jesus has the words of eternal life. Only in his name is there eternal salvation. I speak to you all, "Listen to Your Good Shepherd!"

¹Theodore G. Tappert, The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 315 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000, c1959).
²Martin Luther, vol. 30, Luther's Works, Vol. 30 : The Catholic Epistles, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 30:135 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1967).
³Martin Luther, vol. 12, Luther's Works, Vol. 12 : Selected Psalms I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 12:171 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1955).