Knowing and Showing the Love of the Good Shepherd John 10:11-18; 1 John 3:16–24; Psalm 23
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd.
We’re going to talk about knowing the love of our Good Shepherd, and showing His love…
… based on today’s Gospel, especially verses 14, 15 and 17: 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep… 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again.
Also based on our Epistle, especially verse 16, 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
And based on Psalm 23, verse 1: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
This analogy of Jesus as our Good and loving Shepherd, and us as His faithful flock, is one of the most comforting in all of Scripture.
Perhaps this is why Psalm 23 is one of the, if not the, best known and most loved of all the psalms.
As the sheep, the lambs, need their shepherd always and entirely, so we need the Lord, our Shepherd, always and entirely.
Although it’s thought of as a children’s song, I Am Jesus Little Lamb, is comforting for God’s children of all ages.
I am Jesus’ little lamb; ever glad at heart I am; for my shepherd gently guides me; knows my needs, and well provides me; loves me every day the same; even calls me by my name.
Can’t be said much better than that!
Jesus says in John 10, verses 2 and 3: The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out.
In Holy Baptism, by our name, in His name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God calls us to Himself; eHe makes us His own children in His Family…
… or lambs in His flock, we can also say.
He keeps us and guards us, by the power of His Spirit, in the truth of His Word, and in the fellowship of His people.
In verses 7 and 8, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
God sent His Son at a time when there was a fervent yearning for the Messiah.
Before Christ was born, a number of unscrupulous people had claimed to be the Messiah… typically, power hungry men, aspiring to be political Messiahs… but their fraudulent bids for power failed.
Jesus came, never claiming to be a political Messiah, but rather the spiritual Messiah and Savior sent by God for Israel… and for the world.
He says in verse 16, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son…
That’s how He showed Himself to be the one and only, true and promised Messiah, sent by His Father in Heaven… He revealed it by giving Himself for our salvation.
He proved to be the Messiah Scripture said He would be… doing what the Old Testament prophecies said He would do, laying down His life for the sheep…
… only to pick it up again, to rise from death.
The would-be Messiahs who came before Jesus, and those have come since, all have the same thing in common: they all died… and didn’t rise.
The true Messiah would make Himself known by, not only dying for us as our Savior, but also rising for us, to be our Shepherd.
Jesus says in our Gospel, 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down… the authority to die for the sins of the world… and I have authority, the power, to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
He is the true and only Son of the Father, the very Son of God, very God of very God, as we confess in our Nicene Creed.
He showed His perfect and divine love by dying for us, and His perfect and divine power, by rising for us.
In this way, He has made Himself known to us, as the One sent by our Father, His Son to be our Savior.
Knowing who He is, our God and Savior, and how He is, loving and mighty to save us, now our calling is to make His saving love and power known to the world… to those not yet of our sheep pen, and Jesus says.
There are an estimated 1.2 billion sheep in the world. That’s a lot of wool, and a lot of lamb chops.
In contrast, there are 8.1 billion people in the world… and Jesus loves and died and rose for each one.
There will be an estimated 8.5 billion people by 2030… Christ would call each one by name.
That’s a lot of names to keep track of, but Jesus can do it… He rose to do it. He would be a personal and loving Shepherd to all.
He would have us all to confess as David did, The Lord, is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He cares for me in body, mind and soul… as no one else or nothing else can.
Christ would have the whole world, hear, know, repent and believe the good news of the Good Shepherd… and so it’s the mission of His Church to know Him, and make Him known.
It’s the task of His flock to show the love of our Great Shepherd, in word and deed, as our Epistle says.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
Jesus didn’t just come as a prophet, teaching us the Word of God, He also came as a Savior, putting the Word of God in action, as He helped the poor and healed the sick… and most of all, died and rose for the sinful, for us all.
In our Epistle John is encouraging us to learn from what Jesus has done for us, and with God’s help, put it into practice in our daily lives… and in our daily relationships.
And so let us not just say to others that God loves them, and we love them, but show them that we really do…
… show them in how we relate to them… how we treat others… what we do for them…
… what we sacrifice for them, as Jesus sacrificed everything for us all…
…and how we talk to others… and how we talk about them, with love and truth.
May we always know the amazing love of our amazing Shepherd, and in joy and gratitude, with boldness and compassion, make His saving love known, by the words we say, and the deeds we do.
And as we share and show His love in the world, His peace, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our Great and risen Shepherd! Amen.