Today in the Spirit: Easter 4C (Good Shepherd)
Though the Fourth Sunday of Easter contains the same readings in most contemporary three-year lectionaries, only in the BCP 2019 do we find the title “Good Shepherd” for the week. The Gospel readings across the three-year schedule cover all of John 10 where we find the explicit references to Jesus as the “good shepherd”. In Year C, the assigned reading at the end of the chapter, John 10:22-30, features the statement, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (27), followed by that most comforting promise, “‘My Father, who has given [my sheep] to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one’” (29-30).
From the assigned Acts reading for this Sunday, Acts 13:14b-16, 26-39, we hear much of Luke’s recording of Paul’s sermon to the people of Pisidian Antioch on his first missionary journey. This reading contains one of the most succinct examples of apostolic gospel preaching found in the NT: “‘Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses’” (38-39). (Note: It might be best to begin this reading with v.14a to provide context).
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The assigned OT reading from Numbers 27:12-23 covers the narration of dialogue between Moses and YHWH concerning the commissioning of Joshua as Moses’ successor to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. Related to the good shepherd theme, we will hear Moses’ plea to God to assign a godly man, “‘that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd’” (27).
For Good Shepherd Sunday, Psalm 23 is assigned in Years A and B. In Year C, we will sing or say Psalm 100, a song of praise which includes the line in parallel: “Be assured that the LORD, he is God; it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (2).
Continuing our series in the Book of Revelation in Easter Year C, the assigned NT reading is Revelation 7:9-17. This signature passage is required every year on All Saints Day with its reference to “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (9). On Good Shepherd Sunday, our attention is given more to the song of “the elder” about the company of martyrs: “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (17).
The assigned Collect for this Sunday will name Jesus “the Good Shepherd of your people.” The petition expresses the tension Christians experience hearing the declarations of John 10 about the sure preservation of the people of God under the Shepherd’s care. While we trust in the promises, we still pray, “Grant that when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls each by name, and follow where he leads.”
The Collect
O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Forgiveness of Sins is Proclaimed to You (Acts 13:14b-16, 26-39)
26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,
Acts 16:26-39
“‘You are my Son,
today I have begotten you.’
34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,
“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’
35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,
“‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’
36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
Here we have Luke giving us a complete sermon of the apostle Paul in the earliest stages of his ministry. We do well to take note of its content. Similarly to Peter earlier in Acts (2:22-41), Paul declares the guilt of those responsible for the execution of Jesus: “And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed” (28). Then Paul proclaims the resurrection of Jesus: “But God raised him from the dead” (30). For Paul, the resurrection of Christ is not just a great miracle of God but an act of defiance against the will of the people to eliminate him. But, ironically and triumphantly, that defiance becomes the means of forgiveness of sins. So, the invitation of Paul is for the people of Pisidian Antioch to take their rightful place among those who are guilty of executing Jesus and receive forgiveness: “Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sin is proclaimed to you” (38).
Devotionally, we find in ourselves the need to approach our walk with Jesus Christ always and only on the basis of the good news as expressed here by Paul. Am I continuing to always count myself among the sinners who nailed Jesus to the cross? Am I hearing the news of the resurrection, not merely as a miracle, even the greatest miracle, but as an aggressive response of God to overcome and overwhelm the unbelief I demonstrated in killing the Son of God? And, most of all, am I continuing to hear the surprising invitation to receive the forgiveness of God, which no amount of law-keeping and do-gooding can achieve for me, given the depth of my wretched, murderous spirit?
Today, Holy Spirit, hearing Paul’s sermon in our worship, draw us in once again to those facts we need to hear continually about our unworthy condition, that we are in need of “forgiveness of sins” which only repentance from wrongdoing and clinging to the cross of Christ and the truth of the empty tomb can provide.
Take Joshua the Son of Nun (Numbers 27:12-23)
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. 13 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, 14 because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) 15 Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, 16 “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17 who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” 18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 20 You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.” 22 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, 23 and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.
Numbers 27:12-23
We know from earlier passages in Numbers that Moses is already aware he won’t be entering the promised land due to his past sins at “Meribah.” One can only imagine, therefore, that he would be concerned about the future leadership of Israel once the people have crossed over the Jordan. See how YHWH in this passage responds to Moses’ request to “appoint a man over the congregation” (16): God identifies Joshua; he instructs Moses on the way to make a transition of leadership; he gives assurance to Moses that the people of Israel will follow Joshua after a public commissioning.
Here is some assurance for those of us in Christian leadership who may be concerned about the future of our ministries after we have moved on. Maybe you have planted some new Christian work that you believe might not be established enough to be assured of a transition of leadership. If you are in that position, you should know God has the matter well in hand. Moses desires that a new leader should be appointed “who shall go out before them and come in before them” (17). That is Hebrew imagery for freely relating to the people with confidence so that they will respond. Here is a similar language from Psalm 121, which is all about assurance from God for the future: “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (8). Our God has our “going out” and the “coming in” of what is next in his sight.
Today, in the Spirit, let me rest in the truth of your word, assuring me, as it does Moses, that the future of my work is in the mind of the Father and the Son.
Worship the LORD with Gladness (Psalm 100)
1 O be joyful in the LORD, all you lands; *
Psalm 100, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.
2 Be assured that the LORD, he is God; *
it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
3 O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; *
be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.
4 For the LORD is gracious, his mercy is everlasting, *
and his truth endures from generation to generation.
Or, “Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs” (2, NIV). On a Sunday in which the bulk of the Bible readings are centered on the theme of God as Shepherd, there is, perhaps surprisingly, not much explicit joy. Here in our psalm is the exhortation to “serve the LORD” (or “worship the LORD”) with gladness.” This is the place in our worship on this particular Sunday where those of us who have pleaded the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus and believed in his resurrection can let loose. We are “assured that the LORD, he is God” (2). We have “entered his courts with praise” (3). We feel the assurance the psalmist feels, “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Praise the Lord!
One devotional challenge of this psalm is never to permit our contemplation of the death and resurrection of Christ to keep us in a constant state of wondering: Have I attained sufficient knowledge of the depth of my sin? Have I let go sufficiently of dependence on my own ability to win God’s approval? Have I surrendered myself to God enough? The response of Psalm 100, and almost every psalm in the Bible, is to stop looking in the mirror so much and praise the Lord. It is in peace and joy over the generosity of God that we grow in Jesus, not in any misguided venture of self-examination that hearing the good news might send us on.
Holy Spirit, let the affirmation that you are the Good Shepherd in my worship today produce the fruit of peace and joy you intend for me to experience.
For the Lamb in the Midst of the Throne Will Be Their Shepherd (Revelation 7:9-17)
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 7:9-17
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
At the end of this passage, we may pick up a puzzling conflation of Jesus’s identity as both “Lamb” and “shepherd” (17a). It is the only reference to Jesus as “shepherd” in Revelation, and the only explicit coincidence of Jesus as both lamb and shepherd in the NT (but see 1 Pet. 2:24-25). There is also here a conflation of Jesus’ activity: He is at once “in the midst of the throne” and “will guide” the great multitude of martyrs “to springs of living water” (17b). The future tense would have reminded Jewish hearers of this vision of promises out of the OT prophets (Isa. 25:8, 49:10). Here it is given in the context of the prediction of “the great tribulation” to come for Christians.
Devotionally, we can only measure this curiosity in the passage against our own experience. Do we not here and now always find our Lord leading us out of trouble and into greener pastures? Though “the great tribulation” has still not come, we know what it is to find “springs of living water” in dry land. It is on the strength of those experiences that we come to understand, though ever so tentatively, that “the shepherd” who guides is also at the throne of God. We see him there as “Lamb” because we know that the good shepherd’s faithfulness in delivering us from trouble happens not because we have earned his help but because he has mercifully pulled us out of the parched deserts of our own making.
Today, in the Spirit, I put aside all inconsistencies of thinking of you as lamb and shepherd and simply enjoy what I know to be true. You are worthy of praise for making me by your death on the cross “Shepherd and Overseer” of my soul (1 Pet. 2:25).
Among My Sheep (John 10:22-30)
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 among my sheep. 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. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
John 10:22-30
Jesus twice calls the stubborn “Jews” to whom he speaks those “who do not believe.” He bluntly states that they do not believe because they are not among the community that the Father God has called to himself. This is one of Jesus’ clearest statements on the election of Christians. Christians are Christians because God has designated them to be part of the society of Jesus followers (“among my sheep,” 26). Passages from Paul’s writings which are more expansive and less metaphorical come to mind:
For [God] chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Ephesians 1:4-5, NIV
And this:
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:13
Devotionally, we must be careful to evaluate the certainty of our faith in Jesus Christ on the foundation of truth expressed in these scriptural passages and not on our feelings of faith, which vary moment by moment. In our deepest periods of doubt and frustration, we may think of ourselves as being very much like the unbelievers in John’s Gospel. But Jesus would have not only unbelievers but also believers understand that there is a stark difference between the attitudes toward Jesus of the chosen and the unchosen. We cannot pass judgment on the faith of any other person, but let us stand on firmly on the judgment Jesus has made on us: You who believe “hear my voice;” I know you; you have eternal life; and nothing can keep you from what I have determined you should have.
In his autobiography, C. H. Spurgeon, the renowned English nineteenth-century preacher, writes on the personal conviction which stands behind his strong Calvinist views:
I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine.
Today, Holy Spirit, grant us the assurance of Spurgeon as followers of Jesus, our Shepherd, trusting in the election of the Father God.
Today in the Spirit
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