190505 Sermon on John 10:11-16 (Easter 3) May 5, 2019
One of the principles that Americans have held most dear is
the freedom of religion. The government
does not force anyone to go to any particular church. The government isn’t even supposed to advise
the citizens which church to go to. This
is a personal matter for us Americans. Some go one place. Others go someplace else. This has also enabled the churches to manage
their own affairs according to their own lights. That is the greatest blessing that has come
with the formation of our American government.
Our church would not be the way that it is—we would not be able to
believe, teach, and confess the Bible the way that we do—if what we do was
dictated by the will of the majority.
The state churches of Europe, where the government is
involved in the teachings and practices of the Christian churches, have totally
apostatized. They won’t believe anything
that has not been cleared by the skeptics who have the power in the
universities. The governmental control
caused the educational institutions and the positions of authority in the
churches to be filled by skeptics. But
in our country we have had the ability to choose the professors and leaders
whom we want. This has allowed us to
choose believers to occupy these positions, and even some very outspoken,
aggressive believers—especially in times past.
Whatever strength and health that still remain in our church was made
possible by this freedom.
But the freedom of religion has also had its negative
effects as well. The worst of these is
the powerful impression that is given to people that religion is
unimportant. When things are not
required by those who are in authority over us we can’t help but unwittingly
think that these things are more or less unimportant. The government cares about schooling and laws
and paying taxes. Accordingly you find
that the average citizen considers this stuff important. They don’t play around with it. But the government says nothing about
religion. Everybody can do what they
want.
This gives the impression that religion is like other things
that the government doesn’t care about.
The government doesn’t care where you go on vacation. It doesn’t care what food you eat. It doesn’t care what car you drive. We all know that it would be silly to argue
with people about their vacations, food, and forms of transportation. This is the way that people also look at
religion. It is as though religion is a
dessert. You can take it or leave
it. Our own people in our congregations are
not immune to this either. In our
families jobs and schools and sports and a whole bunch of other things are much
more important than what is taught in church.
The freedom of religion means that we are on our own when it
comes to impressing upon our people the importance of what we believe. If fathers, especially (to whom the duty is
given), but also mothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other authorities
God puts into the lives of our people do not show reverence for the Gospel,
then it is only natural and inevitable that it will fade away. That is the tradeoff with the freedom of
religion. We are free to believe, teach,
and confess as we please, but we also are responsible for how we conduct
ourselves. The government won’t do it
for us. If we don’t do it, then it will
die out.
Another negative effect of the freedom of religion is similar. Our people are given the strong impression
that what is taught in churches doesn’t really matter. One church says this, another says that. You say tomato, I say tomato. Who cares?
There are bigger fish to fry.
Subtly and unintentionally our people are taken in by the idea that the
Word of God doesn’t actually have anything to say about how we live our life. Each can believe and do as he or she pleases,
because that’s what the government says.
But this is one place where God’s Word very explicitly and
emphatically disagrees with our founding fathers if they are understood in such
a way where it doesn’t matter what a person believes or does. The second commandment strictly forbids
people from claiming to be speaking God’s word and operating under the cover of
God’s name, but then to speak lies instead of the truth. There is no greater sin that can be committed
outwardly than when people claim to be speaking the truth about God and his
Word, but they are not. Instead they are
twisting the Scriptures or even vomiting up the stuff that comes from their own
brains.
It matters whether God is triune—one God in three
persons. There are a lot of folks who
claim to be Christians, but they do not teach this. And so even though they swear up and down
that they are Christians they are actually worshipping some other god or gods
even while using the Christian vocabulary that sounds so familiar.
Or there are some Christians who say that baptism doesn’t
save. Well, does it or doesn’t it? Or the Lord’s Supper is mere bread and
wine. If that is the case, then surely
we can’t trust bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins. Or is the pope the vicar of Christ on earth,
and are we duty bound to be served by priests who have received a special
anointment from him that enables them to sacrifice the mass? Are we saved by Jesus's atonement on the
cross alone or is there something that we need to add to it? Or do we need to prepare ourselves to receive
his grace or was our baptism as a child not good enough and we need to be
baptized again as an adult?
If a poll were conducted on these matters the overwhelming
answer would undoubtedly be, “Who cares!?”
A lot of smart people would want us to believe that this apathy is a
great advance—that we aren’t fighting about these kinds of things anymore. They want to portray it as a great
advancement that we have made in our learning.
But that is not what it is at all.
It is just plain laziness and boredom.
People don’t want to go to the trouble to find out what is true. People are apathetic because they believe
that this stuff doesn’t matter. They
have no fear of God or of the devil.
This uncaring attitude is not an advancement. It is a degeneration. But this way of looking at things is
incredibly widespread.
When we take up our Gospel reading, therefore, most can
understand very little of the truth contained therein. What they take in is a pleasant idea, a
pleasant picture. Jesus is the good
Shepherd. He is a good option for
people, therefore, if they should ever need him. But all the seriousness and danger has been emptied
out of the picture. Sheep are helpless
against wolves. They have no fangs or
claws and they aren’t hardly fast enough to get away. Jesus is the good Shepherd because he fights
the wolf and lays down his life for the sheep.
Either the good Shepherd protects the sheep or the sheep are dead. There is no middle ground.
That makes Jesus more important than even those medicines or
technologies or other advancements that could save our earthly lives. He saves us from the devil and hell. We are even more impotent in fighting against
these fierce foes as we are against death.
Nobody can win the war against death, and so what chance is there that
we sheep can defeat these other enemies that go along with it. Jesus, the good Shepherd, is therefore not
just an option or a dessert, whom you can take or leave and it makes little
difference either way. Heaven and hell
is on the line.
The way that we interact with the good Shepherd is also very
important. Jesus says that his sheep
know him and they follow his voice.
Jesus’s voice is the Word of God.
But the true Word of God has to compete with all kinds of other
voices. Some of these voices are outside
of the Church and would have you believe false things about life and its
meaning. Some of these voices are within
the Church and would have you disbelieve the things that you should believe in,
and believe in things that you shouldn’t believe.
For example, there are voices that say that baptism is only
a sign of your obedience or that being baptized in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is not valid, but that you must be baptized
in Jesus’s name. These people disturb believers’
faith in the very place that it should be—in God’s saving actions towards us in
baptism according to his very own Word and institution. If that isn’t a case of thwarting Jesus’s
voice, then I don’t know what is. Jesus
says one thing, but they say another.
And it is not as though he is unclear.
He tells the apostles to baptize all nations in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
He says “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, whoever does
not believe will be condemned.” But
these enemies of Christ turn people away from what Jesus has told us to believe
in to other things that will fail. Your
baptism in the name of the Father and the of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
will not fail you, so long as you continue to believe it. You have Jesus’s own promise in that
regard. I’d much rather trust Jesus than
some so-called expert.
The devil’s specialty is to engage in these kinds of
spiritual lies. Our flesh has its
lusts. The world offers us empty
philosophy. The devil is right in the
heart of the Church and engages in deceptions whenever and wherever he can. This is why the Christian Church is so
fragmented. The truth unites, but these
lies drive apart. And he is an
incredibly good liar. A very large
amount of my preaching and teaching with you is for the purpose of exposing
these lies so that you may hold to the truth.
He is even such a good liar that there isn’t a single Christian who
perfectly withstands them all.
And so it is necessary for us to clean out our ears so that
we can hear the voice of the good Shepherd.
We would go a long way towards that goal of listening to Jesus if we
shake off the common notions held all around us that religion or Church isn’t
really a big deal—that there are much more important matters to which we should
attend—stuff that makes money, for example.
And also that it doesn’t matter what the churches teach—that they are
all pretty much the same. Maybe they
seem the same to those who deliberately don’t pay attention, but they are by no
means the same. And to realize that they
are not the same and that these differences matter is part of being instructed
by the voice of Jesus. How can you tell
the difference between Jesus’s voice and liars’ voices if you never learn from
God’s Word what that voice actually is?
In order for the voice of Jesus to continue to be heard
among us we have to recognize that there are higher requirements that are
placed upon us than there are for other citizens. It’s normal and natural to just go with the
flow and to allow the authorities to tell you what is important and not, what
you should and shouldn’t do. But in this
country we have freedom of religion, which is a very great blessing. Our authorities aren’t going to tell anybody
anything about going to Church. And with
the increasing dechristianization that is overtaking one family after another, other
places of authority in our families are no longer impressing the importance of
hearing Jesus’s voice. Therefore, we
must be deliberate and intentional in our speaking and teaching and
examples. Nobody is going to do it for
us. If we don’t do it, then it won’t get
done. It is a very good thing that the
government keeps its nose out of our business as a church, but then we also
have to recognize our responsibility.
Engaging in this work is not for the purpose of maintaining
a culture or heritage—kind of like a museum—as though being German or
Scandinavian or even Lutheran is what is important. What’s at stake is the voice of the good
Shepherd. That voice is heard through
Christians—fathers, mothers, friends, fellow members of the congregation,
pastors and professors. That voice is
the way that we are able to follow Jesus.
Without that voice we are lost and defenseless. And so we must change the way that we think
and have this change also carry over into our lives.
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