"There Is Only One" Third Sunday of Easter Misericordias Domini Commemoration of Friedrich Wyneken, Pastor and Missionary May 4, 2014 John 10:11–16
There is only one who has laid down His life for the sin of the world. Only one who has risen from the grave no longer to succumb to it. All through the ages there was one God pointed His people to who would be the Savior. There was only one born of a woman who was born not of man but of God. He is the only one whose entire life on earth was set on death, but a death for the life of the world. He is the only one who has taken death and put it to death in His resurrection. There is only one and He is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He is for you. He is the Good Shepherd because He is the Shepherd who has laid down His life for you. There is only one who has laid down His life for the sin of the world, and that means there is only one who has taken on Himself all of your sins. He is the Good Shepherd, and even more, He is your Good Shepherd. God loves everyone. Jesus died for everyone. That’s the Good News. But on Judgment Day God is not going to ask you about some person who lives in Nairobi. He won’t ask your opinion about a shoemaker who lived in the thirteenth century. You love your family but He’s not going to address their status as you stand before Him. There is only one who will be at the center of attention and it is you. There is only one who will be accountable for you as you stand before God and it is you. Others can’t advocate for you. Your family members who love you won’t be able to appeal to God as to how much they love you and desire your salvation. There is only one and it is you. Jesus is your Good Shepherd. He died for you. He rose for you. On Judgment Day He will be your advocate. The one Lord, the one faith, the one Baptism, is the one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, for you. No one can be Baptized for you. No one can offer extra faith to help you along. No one can step into the shoes of Jesus and be your Savior. Jesus alone is your Savior. Your faith is in Him alone. Your Baptism alone is your new birth. God loves the creation He has made. God loves the people He formed in His image. That means He loves you and cares for you. But this isn’t just a “you and God” thing. It’s not just that God loves you and has an individual relationship with you. His children He created He restores to His eternal family. In sin we are children of wrath. He saves each person individually so that we may live together in eternity. Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” That Jesus died for the sins of the world means that He died for every single person out there. Every person is blood-bought in God’s sight. He desires that everyone be saved. So Jesus says that He will bring His other sheep also and there will be one flock, one shepherd. There are seven billion people on the planet. The population is increasing faster than one person per second. There are a lot of people out there. But the thing that can really get to you is that there are a lot of people out there who do not know Jesus as their Lord. He is the Good Shepherd, but they don’t believe He is their Good Shepherd. There is only flock, one Shepherd. We know who He is. We believe He is the Savior, the Good Shepherd, the one who has laid down His life for His sheep. How will they know? How will we be able to share this Good News with so many people? It’s a daunting task. If you think about how many people die who reject Jesus as Lord it can be discouraging. Here is good news for you. You don’t need to think in those terms. Jesus doesn’t. He simply says, “I am the good shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” He simply tells us, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” You and I cannot have faith for anyone else. You and I will not stand as advocate for anyone else on Judgment Day. What you and I do is be the sheep that God has called us to be. Our Good Shepherd knows us and we know Him. We know His voice and we hear His voice. His voice goes out to the world through us as we speak to others of the Good Shepherd who has laid down His life for the sin of the world. Of the Great Shepherd of the sheep who rose from the dead so that death no longer has the final say. There are billions of people on the planet and you are only one person. Millions upon millions of people are groping their way through life or simply content without Jesus. We are only one congregation. How many religions have sprung up in the history of the world, and although Christianity certainly is one of the major religions, it is weak in the eyes of the world. How is it that we can have any hope of what Jesus says of there being one flock and one Shepherd? The hope is in Him. It is not in you or me. It is not in bringing to people a Christianity that conforms to their notions of religion. It is not in altering the teachings of the Bible to fit their needs. It is in realizing that as you go through life there is only person you need to be concerned about. You certainly can and should pray for all those people in the world who are lost eternally. But God has not given you the job of saving them. He has given His Son to do that and He has already done it. He has given you the job of making this known to others. It’s simply impossible for you as an individual to do this to the millions and millions of people in the world. As a congregation we are unable to meet the spiritual needs of all the people of the world, let alone the city of San Diego or even our community of Allied Gardens. No, the answer is in the one God has called you to serve. There is only person you need to be concerned about and it is the one God places in your life at any given moment. Your spouse is that one. Your father, your mother. Your son, your daughter. Your brother, your sister. Your next-door neighbor. Your co-worker, your doctor, your teacher, your friend. All of these people aren’t part of the masses but are individual people whose sins have been paid for by the Good Shepherd who has laid down His life for them. And God has placed each of them in your life. They may know this and believe this, and we rejoice if they do. We continue to encourage them in the faith and pray for them and help them in their needs, serving them as individuals not just as one among the masses. They may not know who Jesus is. They may know but not believe. You can’t share the Gospel with nameless masses of people but you can tell a specific person in your life who Jesus is and what He has done for them. There is only one. He is the Good Shepherd. He has laid down His life for the sin of the world. He has risen from the grave. All this He has done for all those people out there, each one. All this He has done for you. He is the Good Shepherd, He is your Shepherd. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
