Sunday Worship
Welcome to our Worship on the fourth Sunday of Easter. Our Parish Eucharist is at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and Revd Lyn Woodall will be preaching and presiding. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn this morning is "The King Of Love My Shepherd Is"
The Gospel
John 10:11-18 [NIV]
"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. "I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father - and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down My life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father”.
Prayer:
Father God, we pray that as we reflect on this; Your living Word, that You will speak to our inner-man and make Yourself known to us in a very real way. Help us to understand Your Word, according to Your will.
Holy Spirit, please interpret these things and bind them to our hearts.
We want to know more about Jesus and we want to do the Father’s will; even as Jesus did the Father’s will.
We ask this, in the mighty Name of Jesus our Saviour and Teacher.
Amen.
Reflection
We are fortunate to live in an area of exceptional beauty and where sheep are commonplace. Some of us might even see shepherds as they tend their flocks. Similarly, in Judea and Galilee, sheep were also commonplace. It is therefore natural that, as Jesus taught His Disciples and His followers, He would use familiar imagery, the better to make His point.
About Himself, He could not be clearer:
“I am the Good Shepherd.” [v11]
Not any old shepherd!
Nor even ‘a’ shepherd…. but THE Good One!
It is abundantly clear, too, that He knows He is heading towards His death as the Sacrificial Lamb. [vv11,15,17,18]
Jesus is both clear and difficult to understand. We have the benefit of the New Testament and hindsight when we read His Teachings…and it can still be confusing at times. But His followers, in the year 33AD, had no such help. As Jews, they certainly understood the concept of the Sacrificial Lamb. It being an important part of the Jewish Faith. The Blood Sacrifice an established ritual in their understanding.
Remember, though, that they were a captive race. They had been invaded by and were ruled by the Romans. They were second-class citizens in their own land and they were definitely hoping for a conquering hero who would lead them out of bondage. They were expectant for a political or military leader. NOT a Shepherd!
And Not only a Shepherd but also the Sacrificial Lamb.
A few weeks ago we read of Jesus’ Baptism where his Cousin, John the Baptist declared, “Behold!, the Lamb of God “, [John1:29] as Jesus approached him in the River Jordan.
To add to the Sheep and Lamb imagery, in the preceding verses of John 10; Jesus refers to Himself as The Sheep GATE! [vv7,9] Commenting that NO-ONE can be saved from Hell and damnation UNLESS THEY COME THROUGH JESUS the SHEEP-GATE.
In John 10:11-18, Jesus warns us about two things:
i) That we should be aware that the hired hand is NOT the same as the Shepherd NOR is he the Owner of the Sheep. He is just someone paid to do a job. This does not mean he cares for his sheep either. (Of course, this can most definitely be Satan.)
ii) That the hired hand cannot protect the sheep from the wolf (You can decide if the wolf symbolises, Satan, life, sin, self or something else).
The mark of the GOOD SHEPHERD is that He knows His sheep by name. Not only that but the sheep KNOW the Good Shepherd.
He likens our relationship with the Good Shepherd (Himself) to His relationship with His Father, God. That short phrase, ‘I know My sheep and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father – and I lay down My life for the sheep’. [vv14b, 15] is so rich and valuable and unfathomable! That we might know God in the same way as the Son of God knows His Father! How amazing is that information?!
Then, almost out of left-field, He tell His listeners that He has OTHER SHEEP. Sheep that are not from the same sheep-pen as us. So, from going from the information that the only way to God is through the Sheep-Gate (Jesus), He tells us that there are some other sheep who belong to Him wo have not come through the same way as us! And He tells us that He MUST bring them! He is COMPELLED! He is clear. They will listen to Him and that though they are a different type of sheep to ourselves, nevertheless, ‘THERE SHALL BE ONE FLOCK AND ONE SHEPHERD’, [v16b]
I leave you to ponder who and what this might mean.
One thing He makes clear, the reason His Father loves Him is because He lays down His life: freely and of his Own volition. Not just that….He lays down His life only to take it up again. He says, ‘No one takes it from Me but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.’ [v18] He acknowledges that this is a command from God and yet He is also saying He is free to choose His path.
Jesus is both God and Man.
He is both perfectly divine and perfectly human.
At this juncture He had walked and talked on this Earth as man and boy for 33 years.
Let me throw this out there…. into the mix….
Can this point be the beginning of His embodying His transition from Mary’s Son to God’s Son? Of course, He is both. But His followers do not know this. As He approaches His Crucifixion He grows more and more obviously divine and God-like. He does this, in part, to gain the superhuman strength He will need for His death on the Cross. In stating that He has the authority to lay His life down and to take it up: He is already publicly making Himself on a par with God. This was MASSIVE. This was so shocking to suggest from a Scriptural (Old Testament) point of view to a Jewish audience.
It could appear that the more we know about Jesus: the more there is to know about Him!
May God and the Holy Spirit help us to open our eyes and heart to find out and know as much as we can about our Jesus.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross, that has given us eternal life.
We thank You for Your Holy Spirit Who reveals Your love and Your Word to us.
Thank You for being our Father and our God.
In Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
The final hymn today is "Lift High The Cross"
