Follow The “Good Shepherd”

Title: Follow The “Good Shepherd” By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:    John 10: 22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter,  23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.  24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."  25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me,  26 but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.  27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.    INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, The animated film Robots gives us an beginning to understand our text. The main character heads out to Bigweld Industries to become an inventor like Mr. Bigweld. In the process, discovers a plot to take over the company and do away with antiquated Mr. Bigweld. Video [In the board room of Bigweld industries, the voice of Mr. Bigweld tells his audience, "So, remember, whether a bot is made of new parts, old parts, or spare parts -- you can shine no matter what you're made of." Ratchet, a shiny new robot, steps up and, with his voice dripping with sarcasm, remarks about Bigweld's "remarkable legacy" of his concern for everyday robots. "You don't come across old-fashioned values like that anymore, friend," he tells the employees, "and for good reason. THERE'S NO MONEY IN IT! Hello?            Memo to Bigweld: “We're not a charity!" Ratchet says that this is why Bigweld no longer sits in the big chair, "he's a relic!" Ratchet makes fun of the people who keep crying for the good old days, and when an employee stands up for Bigweld, Ratchet presses a button and has him ejected from the room. "Now, let's get down to the business of sucking every loose penny out of Mr. and Mrs. average knucklehead." Ratchet presses a button and asks where the money comes from, "Upgrades, people, upgrades. That's how we make dough. Now if we're telling robots that no matter what they're made of they're groovy, how can we expect them to feel crummy enough about themselves to buy our upgrades and make themselves look better?" Ratchet says he has invented a new slogan for the company, "Why be you when you can be new!" Ratchet says he finds the new idea "brilliant" then asks the remaining "employees" what they think. Frightened of being ejected, they all laud the idea. Obviously Ratchet has no concern for his custumers or his employees.
I.   And because of his overbearing ways the employees were acting like sheep.  And, we too are so often like sheep in the worst ways.
	A.  This morning we can start by focusing on characteristics that we human beings share with sheep, especially when were are faced with a “leader” like Rachet.
			1. Many people consider sheep to be rather dumb animals. But, sheep are not dumb because they are unintelligent, but sheep are dumb because they have a herd instinct that becomes stronger than their reasoning and intelligence.  If one sheep goes over a cliff, the whole herd will go over the cliff as well. Do you know that is literally true?   2. Likewise, we as human beings, often suffer when our herd instinct becomes stronger than our intelligence.  I would like for you to play a game. It is kind of fun. It is to think of illustrations in ourselves as human beings where our herd instinct overrules our intelligence. An example: early in the morning, driving to work on an icy cold morning, you pass a school bus stop. standing on that corner, waiting for the school bus, is a group of older children, half of whom are wearing skimpy t-shirts, even though it is cold outside. Right? The herd instinct dominates over intelligence and we do rather dumb things.  And I’m sure you can think of more examples.
	B.  Sheep are vulnerable. Left to themselves sheep have a very limited life span. Their lives depend on following the shepherd’s lead.
			1. They wander off, eat poisonous weeds, become lost and exhausted, and have no way of rescuing themselves. 2. It is an apt description of us too, isn’t it?  What happens when people try to find their own way through life? They end up lost and hopeless. Or it can be worse like this: While on a guided tour of the Holy Land the passengers on the bus had been told time and time again that the shepherd never drove the sheep like cattle but always walked in front, leading them.   As the bus came around a curve they looked out the window and saw a herd of sheep being driven by a man. The tour guide was clearly flustered and stopped the bus. He went over and had an extended conversation with the man driving the sheep. He returned to the bus with a triumph smile on his face as he announced to the tourists, “He’s not the shepherd. He’s the butcher!” Not unlike Rachet; not unlike so many who drive us in the wrong direction.
II.    In our text the people of Jesus’ day were so caught up in following the butcher that they reject the Shepherd they were really looking for.
	A.  They refused to be part of His flock, they refused Him as their shepherd.
				1. The people of that day should have recognized Jesus.  John emphasizes two elements that should have given them the message.
					a. The time is the festival of Dedication, or Hanukkah (v. 22) — the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus desecrated it while trying to force Greek religion upon them.   b. The place is the portico of Solomon  — the only remaining relic of Solomon’s sacred temple which still stood, and the place where the Jewish king would make judgments and exercise justice.  Jesus is doing this in the very place where God’s kings had always spoken to God’s people.   c. So there’s no suspense. They know exactly what he is saying because of when and where he is saying it.
				2. We’re considerably more polite. Crucifixions are a thing of the past and wouldn’t pass muster today because they are cruel and unusual punishment.
					a. We’re more inclined to ignore Him, and marginalize Him. Leave Jesus safely on a shelf somewhere. Out of sight, out of mind.   b. We’re more inclined to turn our attention on our needs,  we’re looking out for #1 (meaning me). Jesus’ call to follow Him is drowned out by what seems to be more urgent calls.
	B.   But Jesus really is our Good Shepherd from God.        We know this because His Word tells us He is:
				1. • Someone who works in the “Father’s name.”     • Someone whose sheep “hear his voice.”     • Someone who “knows the sheep.”     • Someone who “gives to his followers eternal life.”     • Someone who “defends his sheep, because no one will snatch them out of my hand.”     • Someone who is “one with the Father.”  So He is nothing like Ratchet, nothing like a butcher.
				2.  WE can summarize who this shepherd is this way: There is an amazing story that comes from the Wycliffe Bible Translators. This story concerns a tribal people in Cameroon called the Hdi.  Translator Lee Bramlett, working with the Hdi people, discovered that verbs in the Hdi language consistently end in one of three vowels: i, a, or u. Even more interesting, the ending vowel determines the true meaning of the word. This appears to be true of every word in the Hdi vocabulary except for one the word which means love. When it comes to the word love, the Hdi people use an “i or a,” for the last letter. However, no word for love ends with “u.” In other words, the two words for love are dvi, d-v-i and dva, d-v-a. There is no dvu, d-v-u.   Lee Bramlett asked the Hdi people for help in understanding this discrepancy concerning the word love. He asked, “Could you ‘dvi’ your wife, [d-v-i]?” “Yes,” they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was now gone. Then he asked, “Could you ‘dva’ your wife, [d-v-a]?” “Yes,” they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.   Then Lee Bramlett asked the question that truly puzzled him, “Could you ‘dvu’ your wife, [d-v-u]?” Everyone laughed. “Of course not!” they said. “If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.”   Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, “Could God ‘dvu’ people?” There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded. “Do you know what this would mean? This would mean that God would keep loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.” Do I need to tell you that the word dvu was added to the Hdi translation of the Bible to express God’s love for all the people of the world?
III.  Jesus dvus his sheep. Jesus dvus us. He keeps loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, even when we reject his love. He is compelled to love us, even though we continue to cling to our own ways.
		A.  He makes you one of His sheep.  In His Word He comes to us.  We are baptized.  We are made his sheep.  And Christ knows his sheep by name. For you, His sheep there is a promise. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
		B.  Those cross-scarred hands of Jesus hold your life in a way that you cannot.
				1. Your hold on your life is a tenuous hold at best.  One day, you will lose your grip on your life. We all eventually will, like it or not.   2. But Jesus holds your life wholly and entirely, in a way that you cannot. a. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He has your life in His hands, and nothing can ever snatch you away from Him.   b. You see, it’s not about your grip on Jesus, but His grip on you. It’s the grip of your Baptism by which you were buried in Jesus and joined with Him in His death and life.
CONCLUSION:   So I have the privilege of proclaiming Jesus to you. He is your Good Shepherd, who has laid down His life on the cross to redeem you, and who has taken up His life again for you. He has suffered the guilt of your sin, and so He declares you forgiven. He has promised faithfully to deliver you to heaven. And where no one else can deliver you from death.  He declares to you,  "I give you eternal life, and you will never perish; neither shall anyone snatch you out of My hand." The promise is for you and it is sure, for it comes from your Good Shepherd.

"Who Are You To Judge Me?"

By Pastor Lohn Johnson, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, www.gslclexington.org   Text:   John 20:19-31   To His disciples Jesus declares, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained."   INTRODUCTION:  My dear friends in Christ, the movie Simon Birch is a study of an unusual boy who has an unusual faith.  [Clip one] There is a scene where little Simon has a run in with his Sunday School teacher.  [Clip two]  Here we see the stereotypical Christian who judges someone without love and a lack of understanding.  This teacher and Christians like her give Christians a bad name all too often.  I’m sure Simon could have said to the teacher: “Who are you to judge me?”  Especially when you find out more about her as the movie progresses.
I.  We hear these words spoken from time to time: indeed, judging others is "out" in our world today.
	A.  Tolerance and acceptance are watchwords of the day; we are not to be critical of the behaviors and practices of others.
			1. We have even reached the point where missionaries are criticized as "intolerant" for trying to share the Gospel in foreign lands, because they aren't accepting of the false religions that they find there.   2. "Who are you to judge me?" It is an automatic defense when anyone is criticized, when we want to set the critic back on his heels.
					a. It is a deadly trap for the critic because according to our society today, there are few things worse than being judgmental. The label itself can ruin you.    b. And in this sensitive world that doesn't want to be judged, we hear our Lord’s words of our text and cringe. Is the practice of forgiving and retaining sin an appropriate thing to do in a non-judgmental world?
	B.   Well, first let us deflate a highly-annoying myth. We do not live in a non-judgmental world, despite how so many voices preach the virtue of tolerance.
			1. People make judgments all the time.  By the judgments they make, they choose if they will attend a church and what church they will attend; by their judgments they decide where they will send their children to school; by their judgments they decide what causes they will support, and much, much more.   2. And those in the world who preach that we must tolerate everything also condemn those who don't tolerate everything. They themselves are making judgments.
					a. No, don't be misled: When someone says "I tolerate everything and anything," they are saying, "I do not have any values and standards  that are worth standing up for. There is nothing that I consider to be beneath me."   b. How absurd. That means you have no standards at all. Your life is adrift with no foundation.  Nothing is too low for you.   c. The virtue for life in this world is not to be non-judgmental; the skill is to make sound judgments based on truth.
II.   We need to set the myth of toleration aside, and move on to what is true. The truth is from God’s Word from words like what Jesus says in our text.  So what does it mean to forgive sins and retain sins? Is this some rarely-practiced, mysteriously shrouded ritual of the Church?
	A.  It's true, in this world that denounces anyone who judges anything at all, we see a Jesus who commands His Church to forgive sins and to retain sins. And in this world someone might put up with being "judged" forgiven: but tell someone they are not forgiven, and you're likely to hear "Who are you to judge me?" But we must remember forgiving and retaining sins is nothing else than to declare to people the Word of God. It means to tell them what the Law of God says about them, and the consequences of their sin. It means to tell them what the Gospel says about them, that Christ has died for their sin.
				1. So, let us take the example of a man who has been caught, oh, spreading rumors about someone else.  In speaking with the man, we say, "You know, God declares in His eighth commandment that spreading rumors is wrong. He commands, `Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Therefore, according to God's Word, what you are doing is sinful." This is hardly a prejudicial judgment. It is a statement of fact, a statement of what the Lord says in His Scriptures.   Let us say that the man responds, "I don't care what the Bible says. I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing." How do we respond? Once again, with the Word of God not ours: "Then I must tell you, according to God's Word, that because you are not repentant you are not forgiven. I would urge you to repent, cease this sin and confess it, or else you will face God's judgment." This is what it means to retain sins: It means simply to declare what the Lord says about a person's unrepentance. It means to tell them that since they want nothing of God's forgiveness for their sin, they do not have it.   If you're in a conversation like this, you are likely to hear, "Who are you to judge me?" The answer is simple: "I am no one, and I am not judging you. I am simply declaring to you what the Word of God says about you; in fact, I am proclaiming God’s love and concern to you about your actions.” This is quite true: We are merely messengers, not the Judge of heaven and earth.   2. On the other hand, let us say that when the man is confronted with God's Law, he says, "You're right. What I am doing is wrong and sinful. I repent and will not do that anymore." How do we respond? With the Gospel! "Then I have the joy of telling you that Jesus has died to take away your sin, that God doesn't hold this sin against you, and that you are forgiven!" This is what it means to forgive sins: To announce to them the forgiveness that God has for them, for the sake of Christ.   Let us go further to make this important point and imagine for a moment that the man smiles and wryly remarks, "Well thanks, but a fat lot of good it does me if you forgive me. Who are you to forgive me, and how does that count before God?" Our answer is back to God's Word: "You're right!  It doesn't matter much that I forgive you, because I can't take away your sin. What matters is that, for the sake of Jesus who died for your sin, God forgives you!"
	B.   This is what it means to exercise the forgiving and the retaining of sins. We do not set ourselves up as mind-readers or writers of new laws; the Church is simply called to tell the world what God declares in His Word.
				1. The pastor does so publicly, on behalf of the Church, especially on Sunday morning. Take, for instance, the confession and absolution at the start of the service.
					a. How does the absolution go? "Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins." Note the phrases here.   b. The pastor says he absolves you by virtue of his office as a called and ordained servant of the Word. He is not the one forgiving you; he is a servant of the Word, declaring God's Word of forgiveness to you. And so he goes on to declare that he forgives you in the stead and by the command of Christ; he is announcing that Christ, not he, is taking away your sins. This goes right back to our Gospel lesson.  The apostles were not to forgive sins on their own authority or by their own power: That would mean nothing! No, they were sent as Christ's ambassadors, announcing to people that God forgave them for the sake of Christ.   c. Though not an apostle, the pastor carries on this apostolic ministry publicly, on behalf of the Church.
				2. But that does not mean that only the pastor can exercise the forgiving and the retaining of sins.
					a. Any Christian, in conversation with another, is set free by Christ from sin to declare God's Word, to tell people of His holy Law and wondrous Gospel.   b. Maybe we can look at it like this: When Leonardo da Vinci was painting his masterpiece, "The Last Supper," we are told that he had a quarrel with one of his companions. In revenge for the wrong he had received, he painted his companion's portrait as Judas in his great picture. After he had done this, his work was complete except for the face of our blessed Lord. It was da Vinci's ambition to paint the noblest and most perfect portrait of Christ that had ever been put on canvas; but try as he did, he could not succeed. In the meantime, his conscience was working, and at last he took his brush and painted out his companion's portrait and forgave him his wrong. That night in his dreams da Vinci saw a glorious vision of Christ which thousands have gazed at in wonder ever since.   Forgiveness given gives peace.  Forgiveness from a pastor, forgiveness from a lay person brings us to see Christ.
		C.  So until the end of time, the Church is to proclaim the Word of God, His Law to accuse and His Gospel to absolve. We do not do so to judge, but to save.
				1. To that end I declare to you your sin, but I do not do so with joy. I do not do so to make you angry. Indeed, I do not do so to judge you, for I am not the judge. Any opinion that I have about you, you are free to disregard and ignore.   2. But whatever God says about you is true; and to ignore His Word and continue in sin will bring judgment upon you. Not from me, but from Him.
CONCLUSION:   Our Lord Jesus has died for your sins. He is risen from the dead. He lives and reigns to all eternity. This same Son of God is present with you today, forgiving your sins and granting you life and salvation. When He died for you at the cross, God judged Him guilty for all of your sins. And because He has died for you, God the Father declares you "not guilty" because Jesus has died in your place. We rejoice that Christ has unlocked the door, that the gates of heaven are opened. There is no sin too great that the cross does not cover. You are forgiven. Now that same word of forgiveness we have received we speak to others.  We speak His Word not as those who judge, not like that Sunday School teacher, but as those who are delivered from judgment. We speak not as those who wish to condemn but as those who in Christian love desire that others be delivered, too. And deliverance is ours this day, we want as many others as possible to receive that same deliverance, too. Amen.