Good Shepherd Good Sheep s2

“Owner of Sheep”

Acts 4:1-21 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18 4th Sunday of Easter

[Jesus said:] “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”

Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A men.

Bridge

I’m not convinced that there are bad sheep; just mis-guided ones. Shepherds, however, are either Good or bad and the bad ones seem to be those who consider sheep just products to use, whereas the Good ones are invested, most-often by ownership or a relationship so tight as to be willing to sacrifice for them fully.

Our text says that by His own authority, Jesus laid down His life and took it up again … willing to do-so for sheep’s sake … and He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Sheep of this earth (and that’s every body of any religious thought or financial situation, level of civility, age, sex or intelligence) have the gift of a Shepherd who’s Good (who’d stepped in the way of danger and took the wolf-attack of their blows, getting mauled for them all). Instead of a shepherd’s staff, though, Jesus used His human body as shield for the vicious attack, ripping at

His limbs and throat as He let them. He provided His own body so that vicious animals wouldn’t, immediately, be able to get to the throats of sheep … because sheep are defenseless against an onslaught like that.

Between those wolves of Hell and (for instance) the defenseless bomber at the Boston

Marathon, Jesus once stepped to stand-in and spread out His arms, saying “Take Me” instead … and, so, Hell did. Between the wolves of Hell and every even-earthly-despicable person (the beheaders of ISIS if you want to picture some), Jesus stepped in the way of Satan’s initial eternal threat to them. Adolf Hitler had Jesus and His cross between him and Lucifer 2,000 years ago … for Suddam Hussain, Jesus stepped-in to protect him, also, from that harm. For sheep He did that.

In a sense, sheep haven’t been the issue, other than that we’re vulnerable. It’s inappropriate (bad) shepherds who are the problem … and that we vulnerable sheep are susceptible to whatever shepherding-influence leads the loudest at the moment. Sheep follow, sometimes, most anything (including shadows) … and, before you know it, even us sheep can get off by ourselves, too close to caves and wolf-packs, and, probably, forgetting how to get back to the safety of God’s fold and the safe Shepherd.

But the Good Shepherd (as other shepherds do) knows that about us and, so, He, too, is never far away. Jesus has the authority to offer Divine safety … and He’s close enough to give it. He is the “Good Shepherd”, and He wants sheep to know what He did that makes Him

Good and Good-for-them. He wants sheep to hear and recognize His voice so that His

Goodness can “abide” with and through them, now and forever.

The ultimate in security is the benefit … and that’s given both in the safety of salvation and the travels of earth, even, that are within rich pastures needing only to be recognized.

Jesus called His offer “life and it abundantly”. Walking behind Him who, only, is The Good

Shepherd (familiar with His voice and close-enough to hear it constantly) that treasures this security. Wandering away dangerously, (beyond Jesus’ shadow) puts all-of-it at-risk. The best- that-there-is got offered to anyone who’s willing to, just, walk in His footsteps and stay under the umbrella of His care.

The fact is: every sheep began under His cross … we all started there. But staying there has proven not to be a human tendency. Bad shepherds abound away from there; and they do so because there are plenty of us sheep willing to look away from Jesus who gave His life for us and allow our eyes to look toward them who wouldn’t do that. Sheep empower bad shepherds by allowing them to influence.

We’ve been reading about bad shepherds in our Wednesday morning Bible class through

Revelation. Named in that book are shepherds who are encouraged by demons, but developed by mankind. Power, wealth, clinging-too-tightly to this world, and the religious homage we pay to ourselves or ideas all badly-shepherd sheep. The “four horsemen of the apocalypse” (as they’re called) dangle fake security, but consume all strays, even when they travel in bunches. Lumping-together several similarly vulnerable, a “misery-loves-company” mentality prods entire populations by using the bad-shepherding “devise” of “majority rule”.

Masses, even, get shoved around by bad shepherds, cornering-them to prepare them-all to be feasted-upon by nothing short of demonic forces. And sheep submit to that kind of shepherding constantly by making bad decisions, being neglectful, or, even, by being stupid.

Some of the bad shepherds that God warned most-about were ones who seemed to mean well. How scary it is to wonder how, often, damaging the shepherding of parents and friends can be. In Old Testament Ezekiel’s chapter 34, God promised to reverse the negatives of even those kinds of shepherds by coming to do the task Himself … properly. Jesus came to redeem, even, the influence of care that should have been eternally Good, but tends to concern itself with this life primarily.

“I am the Good Shepherd”, Jesus said, “and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Parents imagine that they’d die for their children (and, maybe, we all really would) … but Jesus did.

He died for your children … also for you … and, also, for His enemies. His activities were

Good Shepherding activities … and they still are. He laid down His life for sheep … every one of them … and there are a lot of us sheep out there.

And He has the authority to make an eternal Good out of that (baptizing sheep into that

Good and, then, keeping them there if they let Him).

Application

But not all sheep receive the Lord’s branding, so Good ownership hasn’t been established with all those that it could be. Interestingly, sheep have such thick wool that painting their extremity has become the means to brand the animal. I suppose God’s baptism would look more penetrating if it used heated iron rods to dig-in a more obvious (and obviously- memorable) claim, but (like with sheep) a little painting on, just, the extremity (of water, this time) does the job (something which amazes people: some to the point of unbelief). Faith is stretched to accept the “taking of possession” which that subtle move facilitates, but there’s a reason why God requires that we believe that occurs through this means: “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” … and He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

And texts like today’s define sheep by the benefits of their brand. “The Lord is my

Shepherd” some can say, and, because of that (assuming we stay close to the fold), we who are so-branded do not need anything further. Psalm 23 says that ownership by the Good Shepherd means that our daily needs are met and we can be satisfied in that (thankful to

Him). Calm (still) waters are where the Good Shepherd leads His following-sheep beside, and there we have rest even if hurricanes try to beat at our back-side.

It seems like a dumb question, but why would we want to wander-off when it’s “green pastures” that God gives us to “lie down in”? That’s a great question, but there’s, even, provision for when we do that. Jesus told a parable about His Father chasing-down wandering-off branded sheep … and Psalm 23 ends that way: “surely Goodness and Mercy” (capitalized names for that Good Shepherd, Himself) “hunts me down in order to capture me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. The Good Shepherd never, just, follows His own sheep … He pursues them in order to keep them.

Sheep branded into the possession of the Good Shepherd can get away, though, and

(Scripture says) Satan “prowls around like a lion, looking for someone to devour”. We, even, spend wayyy too much time letting other things shepherd us … so we threaten our own safety.

But we have a really accessible way to get back to the fold. The “green pastures” and “still waters” we don’t need, much, to remember how to return-to ourselves. Jesus comes to get us if we, just, drop to our knees … if we forget Him, He’s not forgotten us. When we let Him, He replaces us back into His Word where our baptism started us. Through it He remembers us and, so safety is, always, as close as He is.

Thanks be to God for that. In +Jesus’ name. Amen.