Midweek Lenten Worship: Jesus the Good Shepherd: Sacrificial Care

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

Lent Sermon, Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Tonight, we speak about Jesus as the way and the whole context of this whole conversation with His disciples has to do with a disturbing incident for them. Now these 12 had been with Him for three years. Now just imagine this whole circumstance. When He came to their village, to their region, wherever they were, where they were when Jesus called them, they were in the midst of their lives, careers, professions and when Jesus said, “Come, follow me,” they dropped everything.

Now we read that as a story and it doesn’t seem too remarkable but just imagine if it was you, if somebody showed up at your workplace and said, “Come, follow me,” what would your reaction be? You’d probably think, “Well, gee, I can’t quite go yet but let’s make an appointment for next week.” Or you’d have all kinds of things that were holding you back, all kinds of reservations, all kinds of strings, things tying you to your work and your career and your location and even your family. And when Jesus came to these 12, those strings, those attachments were all severed.

Somehow, they knew that when the Savior said, “Come,” they needed to go. They had to do it. It was what they were there for, what they were designed for, what they were on earth for. They knew when He said, “Come,” they needed to go. Imagine the turmoil that created in their lives, walking away. Now some of you guys would be glad to walk away from your jobs because they’re so stressful and difficult and you’d love for some extended time off, but this isn’t like that. This is an overpowering message from God saying, “You need to go now.” It turned their lives upside down.

I can’t hardly imagine what the relatives were thinking. “Peter, where are you going? You’re a fisherman. You’re supposed to be helping with the family fishing business. Where are you going?” “The Master has called me, and I must go.”

That’s how it began for them three years earlier. And then, of course, they saw all of His ministry. They saw all of the things that were going on as Jesus walked and talked and preached and taught the message that He’d come to say, “The kingdom of God is near.” And how people challenged Him, and He answered their questions with wisdom that was not from this world.

And then the miracles. Another description of the miracles is “signs.” That’s a good way to describe them, because they were signs identifying Jesus as the Messiah. He wasn’t just another popular preacher or smooth talker. He was the Messiah, and all these things that He did and all the things that were happening in the ministry around Him were signs to the people to let them know the one God has promised had come.

So they watched this for three years, these disciples, and I can’t hardly imagine what their anticipation was like. “Look, the crowds are getting bigger and bigger. He’s raising people from the dead. He started out with changing water into wine. Remember when He walked on the water?” All these miracles they witnessed. Their imaginations must have been running wild about what was yet to come. What was the future going to be like if they were in on the ground floor? They were the 12 disciples. They were His closest friends and followers.

So when all of a sudden, in that upper room, the Last Supper, Jesus says He’s going to be leaving them and He makes it clear what He means, that His life is going to be taken, that He’s going to offer Himself as a sacrifice, that’s what He came to do, when He said those words to those 12, it rocked their world. It shook them up, and they said things like, “Look, we’ve left everything to follow after you. What are you talking about, you’re leaving?” It wasn’t what they had imagined. They thought things were going to get even more glorious and grandiose, but it wasn’t the plan. That might have been a temporary good thing, but Jesus came to do an eternal good thing. And so He told His disciples, “I am going to be leaving you.”

Imagine the reaction for the disciples, thinking these things over. The scripture says literally, “Their hearts were troubled.” And then Jesus knows that so He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Easier said than done, right? “We’ve left everything. We followed you for three years. We’ve given up our lives to be with you and you’re telling us not to worry about it and don’t let our hearts be troubled.” The Greek word there has the description of stopping an action that’s ongoing. The action was their faith, their joy, their hopes, their dreams, their service to God, their teaching and sharing the word. That was the action but in their, I don’t know what to call it, upset, they were stopping what God had called them to do. And Jesus says, “No, do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Have you ever been in something like that, something happens in your day or your week and your heart is troubled? You’re scared, you’re upset, you’re worried. I have to tell you, my wife is sitting right here. We’ve had a week like that. We’ve had one of those weeks. Nothing really huge but a lot of depressing things and annoying things. On Monday, we find out that we owe more than $2,000 more in taxes than we anticipated. Oh, great news. Tuesday, we found out that our car, Kim’s car, needs more than $2,000 worth of repairs. All I could say was, “We’ll get through it.” But our hearts were troubled. Not huge problems, not like illness or the loss of a loved one or divorce or things like that. But our hearts were troubled and we didn’t sleep well. We were thinking negative thoughts and things like that. But God got us back on track. We prayed and talked about it with each other. Today is a better day, right? “Yes,” [from Kim.] It is a better day.

But as you think about it, we go through those troubling times, don’t we? We go through those times when our hearts just about stop with the news we just heard about our grandchild or our children and their marital difficulties or our job loss or a diagnosis or something. We go through those times when our heart just about stops and Jesus speaks to His disciples and He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” And He speaks to us, too. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Well, how are we supposed to do that? How are we supposed to take all those worries and put them on the shelf or just pretend nothing bad is going on? How are we supposed to do that?

Well, He gives us some direction. He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe in me.” It doesn’t seem to be very helpful. I believe in God, but I’m still upset. I still worry. I’m still troubled by this. I’m a pastor and I’m still worried about our taxes and things like that. He says, “Believe in God,” because it’s at those moments when we think our problems are bigger than Him, our belief has shrunk. Our focus on Jesus has been distracted to our circumstances. So what He’s telling us is, “Don’t let your circumstances or the events happening in your lives distract you from your faith or make you forget what you know to be true.” He even says this, “In this world, you will have trouble but take heart. I have overcome the world.” Believe in God. Reflect on what He’s done for you already. Think back over the years the tough things He’s gotten you through, the difficult times He’s helped you to overcome, the blessings He’s brought into your lives. Think back to the message of salvation, the wonderful things God has done for you eternally, giving you forgiveness and eternal life in a beautiful paradise that we can’t even comprehend it’s so wonderful. And remember what promises God has made to you about the future. “Surely I’m with you always to the very end of the age.” He does not abandon us when our hearts are troubled, when we can’t sleep, when things, like the wheels, seem to fall off. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

He goes on to explain, “Because I’m going to prepare a place for you.” You remember that passage. “In my Father’s house.” The Greek says literally, “are many dwelling places.” “I go to prepare a place for you.” Well, how does He do that? How did He prepare a place for you? He did it by dying on the cross, right? Dying on the cross. Taking our place, paying for our sins by being nailed to the cross, punished for our sins. He prepared a place for us in His death and in His resurrection and in His ascension and seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you.

So don’t let your hearts be troubled about these temporary struggles that we go through here on earth. Everything is temporary here. Everything. Now it might not seem that way when we go through these major losses and struggles and challenges. It might seem like an eternity of suffering but compared to what we inherit in heaven, it’s just a drop in the bucket. An eternity of peace and joy with all of your loved ones who trust in Jesus and all my loved ones, all together in joyful praise of God and living in the wonderful place that He’s prepared. Do not let your hearts be troubled because He’s gone to prepare that place.

And finally, He wraps it all up with that wonderful passage, “Do not let your hearts be troubled because,” Jesus says, “I am the way. No one comes to the Father except through me.” No Jesus? No way. He is the only way to heaven. Have you ever been lost? You’ve heard my story about being lost, but there are a lot of lost people and you run into them everywhere. You see people coming from small town Iowa to big city Des Moines and you can tell they don’t know where to go. A friend of mine was going to meet me at my house and he’s from down southeast Iowa. I’m driving down Douglas. He’s supposed to go over to my house off of Aurora and I see him going south on Merle Hay. I called him up, “Where you going?” He was lost. He got turned around. But I gave him a few directions, and he got back.

Another time, I was downtown at the hospitals and I saw this elderly couple and you could tell they were lost. They were just like, “Where are we supposed to go?” And I said, “Are you looking for something?” “Yeah, we’re looking for this office.” Well, I had been to that office. I knew exactly where it was. It was a very easy thing for me to be able to help them find where they wanted to go.

Well, God has called you and I to help find the lost and to bring them to the way, the truth and the life, Jesus, the Savior. He’s the way. There’s no mystery. There’s no guesswork involved. There’s no wondering if we’re on the right track. It says in the scriptures, “There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” No wiggle room here. There is no other name. You can’t put another name or substitute or another idea or philosophy or religion or any other name or anything else in this sentence. There’s only one name. Jesus. It’s the only way.

It’s not like a GPS where you punch in the destination. We’re all going to heaven, and you can go any number of different ways and get there. It’s not what the bible says. The bible is very clear. There’s one way. Aren’t you glad you know that way? Did you ever wonder what it would be like not to know or to be uncertain if you were to die tonight, what would happen to you? “Well, I hope I get to heaven.” Hope? It’s way more than hope. In Jesus, we have a guarantee because He did it all on the cross for us. What was the last thing He said? “It is finished.” He did it all.

If there were all kinds of other ways and other possibilities, then why would He have to hang on the cross in agony? It’s because that’s the way God chose to save the world, give His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. And now from here until the time we join Him in heaven, we have one job. It’s to point the way, to show people the way, to help them with directions. And you don’t have to imagine who’s out there that’s lost. Statistics in our own area are like 66%. Pretty good odds on just whoever you strike up a conversation with, they’re lost. So we have a lot of work to do, don’t we, to show the way?

That was a very easy thing for me to help that elderly couple find where they wanted to go. And with the Holy Spirit and what you know in your hearts, it’s a very easy thing for you to share your faith, too. Because you know Him. You know the way, the truth and the life, Jesus. Amen.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church