My Sheep Hear My Voice
John 10: 22-30
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the fourth Sunday of Easter is the Gospel reading John 10. Reading a good book or watching a good movie can be a great experience. Stepping into a fictional world can allow you to follow the characters in the story as they face all sorts of dangers. By living through the characters you can slay dragons, capture criminals, solve the mystery, and sink the pirate ship. In other words you can face danger without the danger being real. But eventually the book or the movie ends, and you find yourself back in the real world. As we live in this world what we will find is that the threats and dangers that we face are very real.
Every time we get into a car there is a possibly of an accident that could happen. Natural disasters such as tornadoes can strike at any time. There is always the possibility that we will face sickness and poor health. Getting a disease like Parkinson’s or cancer could happen to any one of us. Having a heart attack or a stroke can also happen to us. The things that I have mentioned have either happened to you or to someone you know. We live in a fallen world with all sorts of real dangers and threats.
Even more serious than the physical dangers that we face are the spiritual threats all around us. Satan is always on the attack. We will be tempted day and night to fall into sin, doubt, and discouragement. There is always the lure of the false idols of this world that will try to turn us away from God. The lure of money, for example, is very powerful. We will also hear many false messages and false doctrines. In our reading from Acts, Paul was leaving Ephesus and going to Jerusalem. Before he left, he gathered the pastors of the church in the area to speak to them. He warned them about false teachers who will speak twisted things in order to deceive the people of God. Paul calls these false teachers wolves. False teachers are all around us in our day as well and they will try to deceive us. The last and greatest enemy that we face is death. We will need more than courage to face all of these dangers. The enemies, threats and dangers that we face will continue to attack us. Our worst enemies, Satan, sin and death cannot be stopped by us alone. I am saying all of this not to get us discouraged or for us to live in fear.
I am speaking about these threats and dangers to remind us that we need a Shepherd. What we need is a Shepherd who can face the threats and terrors around us. We need a Shepherd who can forgive sin, who can make us new, who can overcome death and the grave, and who can bring us to heaven. What we need is to be in the flock of the Good Shepherd. The fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. On this day we are reminded that our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, has overcome all the enemies, threats and dangers that we will face in this world.
Remember what Jesus said in our Gospel reading. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
So let us turn to the Good Shepherd and trust in Him. Let us hear the voice of our Lord and follow Him. For it is the Good Shepherd who has overcome all of the enemies, dangers and threats that we face in this world through His death and resurrection. Satan will tempt us, but he cannot overcome us because he has already been defeated by the Lord. He can no longer accuse us of our sins because our sins have been forgiven by God. If he tries to get us to fall into despair what we do is look to the cross of Christ and we will see God’s great love for us. Satan is on the prowl to be sure, but we are armed with the Sword of the Spirit, and we wear the Armor of God. That is we stand on the Word of God.
We listen to the voice of our Savior as He speaks to us in His Word. As we listen to the Word of God, we will be able to identify the earthly idols and false teachers around us and turn away from them. As we study and inwardly digest the Word of God we will receive the truth. It is our Good Shepherd who speaks the truth. That is why we come to church. We want to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. The Lord continues to give His flock the assurance of His presence through His Word proclaimed in church. In our reading from Acts, Paul encourages the ministers of Christ to remain faithful to the Lord and to care for the flock of God. The Lord Jesus does indeed work through His under-shepherds, the Pastors, to proclaim and teach the Word of God. The job of the Pastor is to point people to the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ the Lord. The job of the Pastor is to remind the flock of God that Jesus is their Shepherd who guides them here on earth.
The Lord forgives, restores and gives the gift of eternal life. If He does these things He will certainly be with us when we face the physical dangers of this world. We will experience accidents, natural disasters, and diseases in this life. Yet, the Good Shepherd remains with us. He is the One who guards us, and heals us, and gives us the strength to endure any trial we might have. The last enemy that we will face is death, but death will not overcome us either. Jesus has defeated death by His death and resurrection. It is through Christ Jesus that we too will be part of the final resurrection on the Last Day. It is the Lord who gives us the gift of eternal life.
Palam 23 says it well. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
We get a glimpse of dwelling in the house of the Lord forever in our reading from Revelation. It is a glorious site. The people of God whose sins have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord are there in the heavenly throne room. The Lord is there standing in heaven with His people. No harm will come to those who are in His heavenly flock. Those who believe in Christ will live a perfect life with God forever. The Good Shepherd will indeed guide and shelter His people.
As we wait for the Lord’s return, we continue to live in this world that has many very real threats and dangers. That is why we look to the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who has overcome sin and death and brought into the hands of our heavenly Father. Amen.