Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : May 2, 2004

How Blessed to be the Good Shepherd's Sheep

Easter 4

If you could be any animal in the world, what would you choose to be? Before you choose, though, be careful -- don't forget the negatives that go with the positives. For example, you could choose to be a snake. You'd be known for your craftiness and wisdom and cunning; you'd be known for your lightning fast attacks. The drawbacks are considerable, though: crawling on your belly; eating dust all your life; associated with evil because the devil chose to appear to Eve in the form of a snake; and maybe worst of all, you could easily be stepped on and squashed. Maybe being a snake wouldn't be all that great. You could be an eagle. You wouldn't get stepped on because you could fly away from danger. You'd be the king of the air and a predator of others instead of being the prey. Of course, very few eagles make it out of the egg because predators like snakes love to eat eggs. Maybe it would be much less trouble to be a cow. It would be great -- you could eat all the time and just stand around all day. But even the laziest person would get bored of that after a while. It seems that for every good thing that you might think of when you think of an animal, there is always at least one bad thing that goes along with it. Except maybe for sheep. The way I look at it, there really isn't any redeeming feature in a sheep that would make you want to be one. They follow other sheep blindly and stupidly, going wherever the rest of the flock is going. It is said that if one sheep goes off a cliff, the rest will follow because they are just such blind followers. Yet sheep are also known for wandering off by themselves, so they're prime targets for wolves. You certainly wouldn't be known for your wisdom as a snake is; instead of being a feared predator like the eagle, you would be easy prey for all kinds of animals; and the life of a sheep might even be more boring than the life of a cow, if that were possible. And yet, we are glad, overjoyed, in fact, to be called sheep when our shepherd is the Good Shepherd, Jesus. And that's what we'll focus on this morning: How Blessed we are to be the Good Shepherd's Sheep. Why? Because even though the sheep will stray, Jesus keeps on the narrow way.

I would say that of all the promises that our Savior makes as our Good Shepherd, surely the promise that we find in the second half of our text is one of the most impressive. He promises that we who are his sheep will never perish, and that no one will ever be able to pluck us out of his hand. Now if we believe this promise -- and of course we know that we should believe every promise of the Lord -- then it would seem to follow that we can then be sure that we will never fall away from the faith. Is it true that once you are a Christian that you can never fall away from the faith -- once saved, always saved? That is what it seems that Jesus is telling us. But then what would we do with the other passage of our text which says, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"? It would seem from this passage that you certainly can fall away from the faith. And if that's true, then how can we be sure we're going to heaven? So which teaching is right? As we look at the dangers confronting the Christian today, I would guess that there are many of us who have from time to time worried about this danger of falling away. And this is a very real danger. Jesus himself spoke about this in his parable of the Sower. Some seed that he sowed fell on rocky soil and sprouted and grew up but withered away as soon as the weather got hot and dry. Jesus said that seed represented those who receive the Word of God with joy but are not deeply rooted in the faith, people who believe for a while but in time of intense temptation fall away from the faith.

Then we think of actual examples from Scripture like David who is described as a man after God's own heart. But we see how he fell into temptation and adultery and murder. But we hear that David later repented of his sin and was forgiven. Then we think of David's son, Solomon, who built God's temple in Jerusalem, but who, in the last years of his life fell away into the worship of the false gods of his many wives, even to the point of building places of worship to them. But we are never told that he repented of his sins. Maybe we ourselves know of people who used to be good Christian friends and faithful Christians, but who have fallen from the faith as well. When we look at all these people, we see that this warning is a good one, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"

But then we also look at ourselves and the enemies that face us and we might be led into despair. The devil is constantly plotting to rob us of our faith. He is described as our enemy who "prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he may devour." We look around us and see the world with all its attractions that seem much satisfying and gratifying than picking up our cross and following Jesus. And on top of these, we have our own sinful flesh which constantly wants us to follow its own sinful desires and give up the faith. We then have to realize that if the matter of staying in the faith depended on us, we would have no hope at all. Heaven would be unattainable.

But that is the very lesson the Lord is teaching us with the words, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" There is danger in not knowing that a certain thing is dangerous. We might read of a child who comes across a rattlesnake and doesn't realize his danger, yet he tries to play with this new thing because it intrigues the child. In that case, what you don't know can hurt you. Sometimes Christians, too, can play with the rattlesnake of sin because they forget how dangerous it is. They become careless of their soul's salvation, reckless and overconfident in their own strength and say that their faith can't be harmed. Then they are ripe for the devil to come along and convince them that they have more important things to do than work out their salvation with fear and trembling, more important things to do than to study God's Word at home and with other Christians. Then when they are warned against a sin that they fall into, they either become angry, or they say, "Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself." What would you do if someone confronted you with one of the numerous sins you commit everyday? Would you say, "Thank you for your admonition," or is our first thought, "Who are you to be telling me about what I do?" Then we need to hear the words, "Be careful that you don't fall!"

And so, as we look at our weakness and the great power of our enemies who seek to rob us of our faith, we might feel that we can never be sure of our eternal salvation. But it is just that acknowledgement of our own weakness that our Good Shepherd wants because in our own weakness we need to turn to the strength of our Lord and rely completely in him. It is when we recognize our own worthlessness and powerlessness that drives us into the arms of our Good Shepherd, who says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." Even though the sheep may stray, Jesus will keep them in the narrow way.

We know that we cannot hope to remain faithful to the end and receive the crown of life if we are trusting in ourselves to guide us through life. After all, we are sheep, and we would wander far from the faith in our weakness and sin. But we have a Good Shepherd to remind us that even though we are weak with sin, yet he is strong. He reminds us that even though our enemies are powerful, yet he is all-powerful. We see that even though our hold on him is often feeble, yet the hold that he has on us will never be broken, and no one can pluck us out of his hand.

It reminds us of the boy who is walking on ice next to his father. He continually slips and falls on that ice, so he realizes that he needs to hold on to his father's hand to be safe. But then he is amazed to see that he continues to slip and fall on that treacherous ice. It is not until the father grabs hold of the boy's hand and firmly grasps in his own protecting hand that the boy is truly safe from slipping.

How can we be so sure that we will not fall when our Good Shepherd has taken hold of us? Simply because we see that our Good Shepherd has already loved us so much that he shed his own precious blood for us. He came to this earth to save weak sinners who could do nothing for themselves but who were falling all the time into sin. Jesus never fell even once as he lived a perfect life under God's holy law in our place. But Jesus didn't keep his perfection to himself. He gave it up to us when he died on the cross while he was also dying for all the times we fell down in sin and arrogance against God. He even paid for every time we relied on ourselves and our own strength to keep ourselves faithful instead of relying on him alone for our salvation and strength.

Then we can hear the many places in Scripture that repeats his promise that he will keep us faithful to the end: Peter wrote in his first letter, "[You] through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5) and Paul who says that we can be " confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) That is why we can say with that same apostle, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

When we look at the passages before us this morning, they might seem to contradict each other. But, in fact, they do not, and we need them both. If we begin to trust in ourselves and think that it's not so important to hear God's Word regularly and to make use of the Lord's Supper frequently and to be careful in our Christian life, then we need to hear the warning: "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" But when we have despaired of our own strength and realize that we are lost without our Good Shepherd every moment of our lives, then he assures us of our salvation by saying, "Don't be afraid. No one can pluck you out of my hand."

Like it or not, you are a sheep. But that will bring us joy throughout our lives when we know and trust in the one who has us in the palm of his hand, our Good Shepherd. As St. Jude closed out his epistle, so there is no better way to close out this sermon, "To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy -- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." (Jude 24-25)