Shepherd King of the Universe

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father, and Jesus Christ His Son, our king and shepherd.

Shepherd King of the Universe is the title of our message, taken the liturgical verse: Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe.

It’s an amazing universe we live in. It reflects how great and awesome our God is. 

The farthest star from earth that has been seen by the Hubble Telescope is MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1, also known as Icarus, an estimated 9 billion light years from earth. 

One light year is about 6 trillion miles. So 6 trillion times 9 billion is … a really long trip, more miles than I can count…

As long as it would take to get to the star, Icarus, it’s just a fraction of time compared to God. Not even that, because the existence of God can’t be measured in time.

Likewise the vastness of God can’t be measured in meters or miles, because God is infinite.

As vast as the universe is, compared to the King of the Universe, it’s small.

Existing beyond the universe, beyond creation, God shepherds and orders the universe, and all creation. 

Our divinely created universe exists because God wants it to, and as we’ll talk later, it exists for a benevolent purpose. 

God willed the world into existence, and it became real, the reality we live in and experience. And He causes the physical universe to function according to the laws of physics and forces of nature that He made the world with, and that we try to discover and understand.

Time and space, energy and matter, gravity and light and life, He imagined and created it all by His divine power and command, according to His wisdom and will. 

Should God withdraw His blessing on the universe, or no longer will the world to be, it would all be gone in an instant, without a trace.

But not to worry; God is faithful, not fickle. He made everything by His grace, and He sustains what He made by His mercy.    

Our triune God is maker of the universe, ruler of the universe, and keeper of the universe. Or to put it another way, Shepherd King of the universe. 

As the risen Son of God, who has ascended into Heaven, Jesus is King of the world, and Shepherd of the Church. 

Ephesians 1 tells us that God has raised Him, and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…  22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

To be under the feet of a tyrant king is a terrible existence, but to be under the feet of a benevolent shepherd king, is a joy and blessing.

How blessed the world is that the great king of the universe, is also the loving shepherd of the universe.

We’re just specks in the universe, yet God made it all with us in mind. 

Psalm 8 says, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.

                                                                                                                                                    We may be very small, but we have something within us that’s greater and grander, more vast and awesome than the whole universe; we have the very image of God breathed into us. 

The soul God breathed into us changes our place in the universe, and our place in eternity.

Everything in the universe, God made to pass away, except that tiny fraction of the universe that He made in His image, with an immortal soul, us, humanity. 

He crowned His creation by making a man and a woman in His image, to multiply and fill the earth with life and love, and for the universe to support and sustain that. God’s goal, His intention has always been life and love unending.

A key part of God’s keeping or shepherding of the universe, is His work of redemption. Everything that exists is for that purpose. 

The universe exists for God’s Son to come into it as a creature, a man, to die and rise for the life of His children.

God created the universe as way for humanity to exist, and if after falling into sin and losing our right to live, God would have terminated human life, then the universe would have had no purpose, no reason to be.

But because God knew He would send His Son to redeem humanity, He kept and keeps the universe as He made it be, and for our sake. 

How amazing all this is. How amazing God’s creation is, especially the creation of life, and life in His image, human life, so complex, yet so small and simple. And Jesus is Shepherd King of it all.

The creation and continuation of the Universe, and the miracle and redemption of life, it’s all vast and complex beyond our comprehension, yet God did and does it all for Avery, and for Leo, and for Avery’s and Leo’s mom and dad, and Avery’s big brother, Troy, and Leo’s big brother, Carter, and big sister, Grace, and their cousins and family, and for all God’s baptized children, all of the family of Christ.

God, who is so vast and powerful to create and rule the universe, is also so close and personal, that He would send His Spirit, Himself, to live and dwell within little Leo and Avery, and all His baptized children.

What a joy and what a mystery, that the God of the vast universe would make me His dwelling place. 

I’m just a speck in the universe, yet He puts me in the center of it, when He comes within me, and makes me His dear child, a royal heir, with an eternal inheritance.

And when this universe disappears and ceases to exist, the children of God live on in glory, joyfully loving and serving God and one another without end.

Because of what God did for and in Avery and Leo this morning, as they grow and continue in faith in Christ, they will live on beyond the ages of this world, to have what God created and redeemed and baptized them for, life and love and joy that is perfect and forever, a world far more amazing than this one. 

So what’s our response to all of this?

God who made and ordered this vast universe for our good, and Christ who entered into it, for our salvation, what is our response?

1. Awe and amazement, that God has the power and wisdom to do this, and the love to follow through.

2. Praise and thanksgiving, give glory where glory is due, to God; lift Him up with thankful hearts, that the world might know that God is God, and no one nor nothing else. 

3. Let the world know what God has done in the world through his Son, and His Spirit, that Christ is the center of the Universe, and the Savior of humanity.

4. Use the resources of the universe that God has given us for the good of all. We try to better understand all that God has created, that’s science, so that people might benefit from it, all the while remembering the greatest needs of humanity are forgiveness, life and salvation. In the end, it all serves the Gospel that saves. 

5. Be good caretakers of the world God has made for our sake. Knowing that He would create and keep the universe, and the miracle of life for us, makes us appreciate the world we live in all the more.

If the universe is just some random thing happened, then it’s no big deal. But if it’s something that God intentionally created for us, and it is; and if by His will, He sustains it all for our blessings and salvation, and He does, then it means much more to us. 

Then we recognize the gift it is, and the godly purpose it has, and we strive to live as God’s stewards and caretakers within the world, until we live we as stewards and caretakers of Heaven. 

What an amazing universe we live in. How much more amazing is our God who made it for us, and redeemed us in it, that we might live someday in an even more amazing world, one that never ends. 

Until then, let us joyfully serve our amazing God in this world He has created for us, and as we do, may His peace, which passes understanding, guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who is King and Shepherd of the universe.