Pastor D successfully navigated his brother network to get the sermon from Pastor Y's ordination. I even have the Chinese version! In reading through it again, I was struck anew by the power of simple truth and the lessons one can glean in his comments to the new pastor. You might even gain a few more insights on the concept of pastoral care, for here is another who believes he—as all pastors should—stands as undershepherd to the flock God brings to his care. Bringing the Word of God to even a lonely sheep sitting at the back of an ordination service....


Sermon text: John 10:11-16
Sermon title: The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
Preacher: Rev. Michael Paul

The text for today’s message is John 10:11-16, about the Good Shepherd and His sheep. Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

According to our text for this afternoon, sheep need a good shepherd. They don’t need a hired hand, for when the wolf comes, the hired hand runs away. Sheep need a good shepherd——one who knows them, cares for them, and lays down his life for them.
Sheep are very DEpendent animals. Without a shepherd they’re in big trouble. They can’t survive long on their own, especially when the wolf comes. They are NOT INdependent, but rather DEpendent on their shepherd. But although this is surely the case, sheep are also not very bright…They ARE dependent creatures, but they don’t know that they are. They don’t know how much they really need a good shepherd…So they easily wander from the flock and from the shepherd, and thus become an easy meal for the wolf.

Now what does this sheep-shepherd relationship of our text have to do with us? Looking at all of John chapter 10 and indeed the whole of Scripture, it’s obvious that the Good Shepherd is Jesus and we are the sheep. Yes, we are sheep. Sheep are DEpendent creatures. And so are we. Our physical existence on this earth is wholly dependent on our Creator God from start to finish. Our spiritual relationship with God through Christ is likewise totally dependent on God for its creation and preservation. If the shepherd-sheep imagery doesn’t make this clear enough, a few chapters later in John Jesus uses another image and leaves no doubt about this truth. Jesus there says: “I am the vine. You are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing.”

Like sheep, we ARE dependent creatures…creatures dependent on our Creator God. I mentioned earlier that although sheep are surely dependent, they’re also not too bright, and thus don’t KNOW that they’re dependent. What about us human creatures? Well, we may be smarter than sheep, but we use our smarts to imagine something actually dumber than sheep could come up with. Sheep simply don’t know that they need a shepherd. But we incredibly imagine that we are the shepherd. Sheep don’t intentionally wander away from the flock and the shepherd, but we take the first chance we get to “do our own thing” and “have it my way.”
This is simply the first sin once again. Satan said, “Eat that fruit, and you become like God…You sheep can become the shepherd.” Well, Eve and Adam gave it a try, but they certainly didn’t become like God or even become independent of God…They were still very, very much, actually now even more dependent on Him for all things.

Ever since the days of Adam and Eve, we dependent human creatures have fiercely resisted admitting that we are in fact dependent on God, as we, in truth, are. Even we Christians often fail here. We often live as if God were irrelevant to us, and we simply go our own way. The apostle James, for example, writes to Christians: “Come, now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (4:13-16 ESV).

We are dependent sheep. Jesus is our shepherd. But we often forget this, or even deny this and go our own way. We’re sinful sheep, not cute, innocent, little lambs. As Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way” (53:6 ESV).
We often go astray from our Good Shepherd Jesus. And what does He do? Does he just let us go our own way, all the way until the wolf devours us and we perish? No one would fault him if he did that to such stubborn, obstinate sheep, who madly imagine that they can live independently of Him. But, He doesn’t abandon us. Jesus isn’t a hired hand. He’s not even just an “average” shepherd. No, He’s the one Good Shepherd, who is good in that he lays down His life for us, His wayward sheep.

It really is amazing that Jesus doesn’t just let us wander away, but instead lays down his life for us. We sheep want to become the shepherd. But the one true and Good Shepherd becomes a sheep for us. He becomes “the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). To do this, He first takes our sin upon Himself. Satan, that evil wolf, sees Jesus on the cross with all our sin, and thinks he can snatch and devour this prime sheep. After all, Jesus is there all alone. He’s a sheep abandoned by His shepherd. He cries, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!”

Jesus is suffering the pangs of hell—separation from God. Satan moves in to devour him. But just as he opens his jaws, Jesus cries out, “It is finished.” It is finished. Our sin is atoned for. And when Jesus rises from the grave three days later, Satan is fully vanquished, death is overcome. And 40 days later Jesus ascends back to His Father, and sends His Holy Spirit, who through God’s Word and Baptism brings sheep like us into His flock. And Jesus promises to preserve us in this one true church, making us sheep to lie down in green pastures, leading us beside still waters, until we finally dwell in the house of the LORD our Shepherd forever. We have such a wonderfully Good Shepherd. We have no need to go our own way. To be able to depend on Christ, trusting alone in Him, is such a blessing.

Today’s sermon text from John 10 is always good for sheep like us to ponder. But it’s especially appropriate on this day on which Chris Yang is ordained into the office of the holy ministry. For this is one of the two most common Gospel texts for ordinations throughout the history of the church…the other one I’ll read later.

Now why is this a good ordination text? One reason might well be that it reminds us that no matter who the pastor is, there is only one Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. That’s always good to remember, especially for pastors. But another reason this text is used for ordinations I think must be that while Scripture over and over uses the shepherd/sheep image for God and His people, Scripture also often calls shepherds those men who are called by God to serve God’s flock, the Church, in a special way under the one Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. These pastors are thus sometimes referred to today as “undershepherds.”

Well, what, then, can we learn from our text about these shepherds and the sheep for whom they care? First of all, it’s very clear that pastors must deeply CARE for those they serve, even sacrifice himself for them, as Christ did first for all of us, including all pastors. Pastors need to deeply know their sheep. Otherwise how will they know how best to USE God’s Word to feed, to nourish, and to lead them? The pastor is not a hired hand. This is true in more ways than one. The way in which our text here refers to is that when the wolf comes, the pastor does not flee and just let the wolf devour and scatter the flock. No, he protects the sheep and faces the wolf, not allowing it to harm the sheep.

Now how does this all apply to us? Well, whenever Scripture mentions wolves in this context it’s always referring to false prophets or false teachers. I’ll give just one example here. The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians elders (or pastors) in Acts 20 (:28-31 ESV) to: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert.”

The wolves are false teachers. Scripture, especially the New Testament Epistles, is full of warnings to guard against false teachers and all false teaching. This is crucially important for all Christians, and especially all pastors. And really, by guarding against such wolves, pastors are precisely caring the most for Christ’s sheep.

Chris has received good training in this regard at the seminary. He now needs to put it into practice and keep up his own study of God’s Word, and then clearly teach and preach it to you, members of Jesus’ flock. And what does Chris, soon to be Pastor Yang, teach? Put most simply, two things: First, he reminds you all that you are sheep—sheep dependent on your one Good Shepherd, Jesus. Especially when Pastor Yang, because he knows his sheep so well, when he sees that one or more of you are straying, wandering away on your own, leaving the flock, leaving the Good Shepherd, then, Pastor Yang must use God’s Law to wake you up. Yes, he must condemn your sin. This, of course, is not easy—not easy for him, nor for you. But he must do it! For if you keep wandering away in defiance to God and His Word, eventually the only thing that awaits you is to be devoured by that most hideous of wolves, Satan himself. The Good Shepherd Jesus doesn’t want this, nor does his under-shepherd, Pastor Yang. So Pastor must keep alert and proclaim God’s Law when needed.

A pastor, then, as necessary, must first remind the flock that they are sheep, and not the shepherd. But when this first message of God has done its work, and the sheep realize their sin once again, then the pastor proclaims God’s second, and most important, message. Yes, we are all sheep who often go astray. But the Good Shepherd laid down his life for us, suffered for our sins, and forgave our sins. To be able to trust and depend on this one Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, is such a blessing…We have no need, no reason, to go our own way. This is the all-important Gospel message, which itself is God’s power to save and preserve us as His beloved sheep…and to preserve us all the way until we dwell in the house of the LORD our shepherd forever in heaven.

Now, to all of you members of St. Paul: You need to listen, you need to follow your shepherd, your pastor, Pastor Yang. For behind this “little shepherd” is the one true GOOD shepherd, Jesus himself, who speaks through Pastor Yang. This law and gospel which Pastor will proclaim…they are the words of the Good Shepherd himself, by which He cares for and leads you.

Chris, this responsibility is almost too great to bear, isn’t it? God’s requirements for us pastors, some of which we’ll soon hear in the ordination ceremony, are so high! We certainly serve—and must serve—with fear and trembling, for we know only too well, that, although we’re shepherds, we’re also always weak and dependent sheep. When you, Chris, see your weakness all too clearly, when you see your lack, when you see your sin, and you want to give up…You think: “How on earth can I, this mere sheep, also be a shepherd too?” At this time, remember that you, too, are a sheep of the one Good and Faithful Shepherd who laid down his life for you, to take away your sins.

Remember also how Jesus, shortly before his ascension back to heaven, blessed his disciples with a blessing that the Church has always understood as applying also to those who later would likewise be called by God to serve as pastors. This passage of blessing, then, is the second of the two common Gospel ordination texts, John 20:19-23. There we read: “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’”

Here, shortly before leaving them, Jesus gives his disciples the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Now certainly all Christians have the Holy Spirit, for only by the Holy Spirit is anyone able to believe in Christ. But this here is a special blessing of the Holy Spirit, particularly given to aid in doing the work of shepherding Christ’s flock, the Church.

Chris, today, the Good Shepherd gives you, His under-shepherd, the Holy Spirit to help you. Just as the Father sent Jesus to be the Good Shepherd, So Jesus now sends you as a shepherd under the Good Shepherd to shepherd His flock. The Holy Spirit will certainly be with you. The Good Shepherd Jesus will also be with you. He will feed you, care for you, and lead you. He will certainly not leave or forsake you. He is your Good Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd of all of us—God’s flock of sheep.

All thanks and praise to our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.