Listen To The Shepherd - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (May 11, 2025)

Scripture Readings: Acts 9:36–43 | Psalm 23 | Revelation 7:9–17 | ​John 10:22–30

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” (John 10:27-28a).
 
As you may have guessed by the sheep-themed language in some of our readings this morning, today is Good Shepherd Sunday... where we recall that Christ Jesus is not simply the crucified and Risen King of Kings and all Creation… He is also our Good Shepherd, the One who cares for us, and nurtures us, and leads us together into God’s New Life. It is an image of the Living God’s intimate understanding, and investment in the lives of His people… and it reminds us of an important aspect of our relationship with Him:
 
If Jesus is our Good Shepherd… we His sheep are to follow Him.
 
Shepherding is not like the kind of farming where the livestock are kept in protective pens, and just wait around until their fed. Shepherding is free range… open to the wide world, with all it’s surprising joys and dangers…
 
Shepherding relies on the care and diligence of the shepherd, who knows what the sheep really need, and where they can get it. But it also relies on the sheep trusting the shepherd… and constantly paying attention to where the shepherd is leading them. To live, the sheep need to follow.
 
And for thousands of years, God’s people have used this image to think about how the Living God relates to us: He does not invite us to just sit around waiting to be fed, while sheltering behind the walls of our pen. He invites us to trust Him… to trust that He knows what we truly need, and where to find it… and that, as we make our ways through the wide open world, with all of it’s surprising joys and dangers, to trust that God loves us, and He will not leave us… and He longs to lead us to share in His New Life… but we need to stick close to Him, and follow Him every step of the way.
 
This morning we read Psalm 23 together, an ancient Hebrew poem explicitly calling God our Shepherd, and praising Him for His steadfast love and guidance… an enduring source of comfort and hope in times of distress and uncertainty.

As we know, God’s people have faced many times of distress and uncertainty over the centuries. Times when we could not see a way forward. When we did not seem to have enough of what we need… or when our sense of security and peace was being shaken. When we faced the shadow of death.
 
And as we know, many today, both inside and outside of the Church, are feeling overwhelmed by the distress and uncertainty that our world is facing these days… and many of us are finding it really hard to know where to turn for help.  
 
Thankfully, our Scripture readings this morning offer us all an invitation to trust in God’s steadfast love, and in Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd, to guide us… and to give us what we really need to share in God’s New Life.
 
In our Gospel reading today, we hear about an encounter Jesus had in Jerusalem around the time of the feast of Dedication… which we know better as Hanukkah.
 
This was a celebration that highlighted the victory of God’s people in their war against their Greek oppressors… with the Maccabean led revolt of devout Jews recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, which had been desecrated… events that had occurred in the centuries between the Old and New Testaments.
 
For a sense of the general mood that this festival stirs up, think of the American Independence Day, the Fourth of July: joy and patriotism, combined with a sense of national destiny, and blessing… all wrapped up together with a message of military victory.
 
But in Jesus’ day, Judea was not independent… it was under the thumb of the Romans, another pagan Gentile Empire, even greater than the Greeks before them. Imagine for a moment the mood of a Fourth of July celebration if somehow America was taken over by some other nation. Imagine the tension… the sense of frustration… and maybe the rising anticipation that someone would come along again to lead another revolt and win independence again.  
 
I say this because this is how many people felt in Jesus’ day. They knew God had good plans for their people. They knew they had once before thrown off their pagan oppressors, and that God had promised to one day raise up a descendant of King David’s line to rescue God’s people once and for all… and to establish God’s Kingdom on earth… and they were eager for this new King, this Messiah to get to work. To gather his forces, and overthrow their enemies, and show the whole world that God’s people will be victorious. They were wanting a military Messiah… but then Jesus of Nazareth came along.
 
And Jesus messed with a lot of their expectations about what God’s King and God’s Kingdom looked like: He performed amazing signs and miracles that showed God’s power at work in Him… but He also said and did things that did not mesh at all with the vision they had for their future. One minute, He would be feeding thousands of hungry people from just a few loves of fish and bread… (just imagine how well He could provide for Judean armies in their fight against Rome with that kind of power!) but the next minute He’s talking about being the bread from Heaven… and that to have God’s life, we need to eat His flesh and drink His blood… or He’s forgiving people who were clearly caught in their sins… or He’s confronting the influential spiritual leaders of God’s people.
 
And so, in this passage, during the patriotic celebration of the Dedication, as He walked through the Temple courts, and some Judeans “gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’” (John 10:24). Stop messing around, and speaking in riddles. Are you the Messiah, they ask, or not?
 
Maybe some of us can identify with the people asking Jesus this question. When we look around our world… at the deep divisions, distress, and uncertainty, shaking not just our corner of the world, but seemingly everywhere… we might be wondering: ‘OK Jesus, what gives? We need a Saviour right now. Are you the One we can trust to get us through this mess? Are you really God’s chosen King? Or should we be following someone else?’
 
But Jesus responds to this question in a way that turns the table around on us all. Instead of saying yes or no, He drives home the necessity of faith.
 
John 10:25-30, “Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
 
You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
 
For those willing to see, Jesus had already tipped His hand. His works… what He had been busy saying and doing told the whole story… but that story wasn’t the one that they wanted to hear. In other words, Jesus was the Messiah… but not their kind of Messiah… and unless they could let go of their own expectations, and listen to Jesus… and learn from Him what God’s Kingdom was really about, they were going to miss out on the real victory.
 
What began as their demands for an answer, Jesus turns into a question for them, and for us all: Will we listen to His voice and follow Him, wherever He will lead... or not?
 
Like a good shepherd, Jesus leads His sheep somewhere… away from where they are, and towards where they need to be. Will we listen to His voice, even when we’re not sure where He is leading us?
 
This is not an abstract question, but one that we as Christian disciples today… as individuals, and as a parish family need to keep asking ourselves again and again throughout our lives: are we still listening to our Shepherd’s voice? Are we actually trying to obey Him, and walk in His ways? Or are we content to just wander off on our own… or to follow some other voices instead?
 
This is of course a real danger for us as Christians: there are many who want to claim that Jesus is their Shepherd… but they don’t want to go where He’s leading them.

They might be happy enough if He will keep giving them green pastures and quiet waters, but are not so sure about walking through those valleys of the shadow of death… or of sitting down to eat with enemies all about the place. They might be more eager to start a fight, and force their own vision for the future on those around them.
 
But Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is leading us somewhere… He has His own destination in mind for His people… one that will challenge and change us all so that we will begin to become something we cannot become on our own:

Jesus our Good Shepherd is calling us His Sheep to become more and more like Him.  
 
This is where we turn to our first reading today from the Book of Acts Chapter 9, where we see St. Peter following closely in the footsteps of the Risen Lord.
 
In this story, which takes place in the days after Pentecost, St. Peter is summoned to the house of an elderly believer named Tabitha, who had been sick, and had died before Peter’s arrival. When he gets there, he is greeted by mourners, but puts everyone outside, and prays… and then he calls Tabitha to get up, and she does. She comes back to life.
 
Now this story is amazing in its own right. But if it sounds a bit familiar, that’s because St. Peter is simply doing what he had seen his Master do before him. Peter was following Jesus’ lead.
 
The book of Acts is the sequel to the Gospel of Luke, written by the same author, telling the same extended story… and back in Luke Chapter 8, we see Jesus summoned to the house of a father whose daughter had been seriously ill, and who had died while he was on the way.
 
Luke 8:49-56, “…someone came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer.’ When Jesus heard this, he replied, ‘Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be saved.’ When he came to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him, except Peter, John, and James, and the child’s father and mother. They were all weeping and wailing for her; but he said, ‘Do not weep; for she is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and called out, ‘Child, get up!’ Her spirit returned, and she got up at once. Then he directed them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astounded; but he ordered them to tell no one what had happened.”
 
And now St. Peter, having seen first hand the resurrected Lord Jesus, and having been sent by Him into the world to share the Good News, and to care for God’s people… and having received God’s own Holy Spirit at Pentecost… follows Jesus by doing what He did: He calls his sister in Christ Tabitha back to life.
 
Once, Peter had followed Christ out onto the waves… walking out on the water with His Master. Doing the impossible, not in his own power, but through his faith in Jesus. And now, Peter was carrying on Christ’s own work… Christ’s signs and wonders were revealed through Peter, so the world could see that the Risen Lord Jesus really is the Saviour we have all been waiting for. That Jesus has achieved God’s victory, and even death cannot defeat or get in the way of His Kingdom.
 
The significance of this story from Act’s Chapter 9 is that the same Spirit of God that was at work in Jesus, is now at work in His Church… and now, in and through His people, Jesus is continuing His Kingdom work in the world.
 
This is where He’s leading us. This is the journey that Jesus is calling us to travel as we follow Him.
 
By God’s Spirit and grace, the sheep are being remade in the image of their Shepherd. Calling us to take part in the work of His Kingdom, and empowering us to live His way in the world. Not necessarily with signs and wonders like St. Peter, but there are lots of ways God’s Spirit us at work in our lives: freeing us from guilt and sin, so that we can also forgive others, like He did. Stirring up our hearts with compassion to care for the needs of those around us who are in trouble. Standing up for the truth, even if it puts us in conflict with those who would rather give in to popular lies. Loving our neighbours, and even our enemies, instead of insisting on our own way.
 
Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”
 
As we listen to Him, and follow Him, He gives us the eternal life of God… the hope of the resurrection, and God’s New Creation, which He shares with us even now… by re-creating us His sheep to be more and more like Him.  
 
And as we listen to Him, and follow Him, and become like Him… God’s Holy Spirit works in and through us to  confront the world around us with the same choice we had to make: will they trust in and follow the One we are following? Will they believe and join the flock, or not?
 
We can’t make that choice for them. But we need to recognize that, as the Christian Church today, Christ Jesus is graciously calling our neighbours, our friends, our family, and even our enemies to follow Him through us!  
 
We the Church today are how God’s steadfast love and new life are to be made known and shared with the world. We His sheep, transformed by the life of our Good Shepard, are the way He has chosen to draw all peoples to Himself… not just those like us, but people from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9). 

So with this all in mind, let us listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd! Let us not go running off ahead of Him, or wander away from His side. Let us not lag behind… lingering when He calls us to move forward.
 
And instead, let us actively acquaint ourselves with Jesus… seeking to understand how the Apostles and Prophets tell His story throughout the Scriptures… taking time regularly to pray for His guidance and presence in our daily lives… putting into practice His way of life… following His teachings in all we do… trusting that, when we do, that Jesus our Lord is leading us where we truly need to go… and helping us become what we need to become… and working through us to help others in our distressed and uncertain world come to know His saving love as well. Amen.