The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the tenth chapter:
At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Today, Good Shepherd Sunday, is all about election. Not the national election, though it might be nice if God actually told us who we should vote for instead of risking getting someone, anyone, who might just mess up the country in one fell swoop. But, this is God’s election, the election, the choosing of humanity to salvation.
Before the foundation of the world, God elected all of mankind into salvation. He knew exactly what would happen: He would create Adam and Eve, they would choose to listen to the devil’s temptations instead of trusting in God, they would fall into sin and away from the righteousness that was given to them and that they lived in, and there would have to be some way then to save them. God knew this was going to happen and He planned for it.
Of course, the question inevitably comes up, why God would let them fall into sin. The Biblical answer is that we really don’t know. God never revealed that information to us. Never. Some people try to say that it’s because God wanted a relationship, not a robot. Okay, that might make some sense. But, still, God could’ve had a relationship with Adam and Eve and just never let the devil set foot on earth. I mean, there are literally millions of hypothetical situations to which we’re never going to have the answers.
But, what is clear from the Scriptures is that God loves His creation. He loves the earth upon which we stand. He loves the plants that give us food and shade. He loves the animals He called out of the ground. He loves the birds, the insects, the fish, the flowers. But, of all of these things He’s created, He loves mankind, and He called only humanity “very good.” And knowing that we would fall into sin, knowing that we would choose our lustful passions over His loving kindness, before the world was even created, God had a plan: the Son of God would lay down His life for His people.
It was through Christ that all things were created, it was through Christ that all things were loved. By the very fact that Jesus would, as Peter says in his first epistle, in the latter times be made manifest in the flesh that the Father would love all that the Son had done, and that the Father would desire to save His people. Because Christ would come in human flesh to lay down His life, the Father would love all men and elect them to salvation.
Because He loves His creation, God never desires the death of the wicked, yet, indeed the death of the wicked still happens. We don’t know why it is that some people, in fact, most people, choose to reject the goodness of God in Christ Jesus. What is it about them that makes them so different than us? Why is that some people hear the Gospel and turn to Christ in repentance, receiving the forgiveness of their sins, and others turn quickly away, leaning upon their own understanding? Why is it that some people reject the gift of faith that the Holy Spirit brings, and instead try to save themselves by their works, and others grasp hold of that faith, and nurture it until the day of resurrection?
We can’t answer those questions. The “why some and not others” question has plagued theologians from the beginning of time, really. And there is no Biblical answer for this. We do know that God has not chosen some people for heaven and others for hell. The Scriptures are quite plain: God chooses all men for salvation, but many reject that gift, instead opting to spend their eternity with Satan and his minions.
It is, sadly, one of the worst things that can happen. We know, from the teachings of Jesus, that those whom He calls brothers are His sheep, and they are welcomed into the rest that has been prepared for them. And we know, that those who deny the brotherhood of Christ, are called goats, and are bid to enter into the place which was prepared for the devil and his angels at their rebellion. Hell was not created for mankind, but for those demons which rebelled against their Creator. But, by man’s desire to live sinfully and apart from God, these people decide for themselves to reject the gift of God in Christ Jesus and they walk into hell with their heads up high, confident in their righteousness, but only receiving eternal fire and torment.
This still happens. It happens every day. People live and die without Christ because they rejected Him, even though God worked in love toward them first. Jesus says that the world hated Him. Those who are of the world hate Jesus. And we are all born of the world. Every person, present company included, is born sinful, unclean, fallen away from God and hating Him and His work in Christ. They reject His election.
But there are some who grasp onto God’s election in Christ, present company included, if indeed you hold to the one true faith. By the gift of faith, we receive that election and it begins to change us. By faith, we receive the grace of God. By faith, we are transformed into the image of Christ. By faith, we receive the love of God now and always. Because you have the gift of faith in you, and you have not rejected it, because you listen to the Shepherd’s voice, you are indeed elect in Christ.
And when one is elect in Christ, there is all the confidence in the world that nothing evil will happen to them for eternity. Because Christ is the one who is calls people into salvation, His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. And since it is Christ, since He is the actor in all this, since it is by His work people are saved, since it is He who lived perfectly, since it is He who was crucified, since it was He who is risen, Christ then can be trusted. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! And because He is risen, because it all happened just as He said, He is the one to whom all creation may look for salvation.
And we do. As Christians, we look to God for salvation. And we receive it. But, we also look to God for proof of salvation, don’t we? I mean, let’s be honest. Don’t we all doubt at some point or another? Don’t we all wonder if this is just some big hoax?
I think we’d be lying if we said no. Doubting God is par for the course; it’s a holdover of the sinful flesh we still have in this life, the sinful Adam in us cursing God as he dies time and time again. Doubt and struggle is perfectly normal in the Christian’s life and Christ works in you until the day you die to give you certainty in Him. But, when doubt takes hold, when it gets in and it becomes a foothold situation, where the enemy is able to make camp in God’s territory, we begin to live and think differently.
When doubt becomes the normal way of thinking, then church becomes a social club. Church becomes a place where we gather with seemingly like-minded people who have kids our age that probably are going to kinda behave most of the time and the parents all vote the exact way we do. Church becomes a place where you’re supposed to feel good about yourself. Church becomes a place where you want the pastor to scratch your itching ears, tell you you’re a good person, you’re trying hard enough, we are all just one big happy family, we all just will always get along… so long as everyone does things the way I want them to do it.
Doubt creeps in, often undisturbed, and the church becomes a place that is utterly Christless. Doubt sets up shop where the devil works. Again, doubt is normal, but if we let doubt rage unchecked, doubt leads us away from Christ. There was a Presbyterian minister in the 1900s that said that if Satan took over a city, the bars would close down, all pornography would go away, streets would be clean and cleaner still would each person be. No swearing, no cussing, children would be polite, and the churches would be full every Sunday, but Christ would not be preached.
The devil convinces us that we can do things so well on our own. “Don’t you want to be like God,” he asks, “knowing good from evil… so that you can do all the good?” And we do, we do want to do all the good on our own and we doubt God’s ability to do good for us. But, apart from Christ, we can do nothing. And that’s why Christ Himself is preached in this place, because it is only the preached Christ who does any good through us. And we preach Him crucified and resurrected for, indeed, He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
And when Christ is preached, when He is present in the Church, doubts fade away, for doubt, which is nothing that the hand can grasp, is chased away with what your hand actually receives. When you doubt your salvation, when you doubt that God loves you, when you doubt that Christ has saved you, stretch out your hand and into it Christ will place His body. Open your mouth and Christ puts in His blood. Go to the font and remember that it was Christ’s nail-pierced hand that baptized you in His own blood, washing you clean from all your sins. Open your ears, and hear Christ speak to you His forgiving words of absolution.
When you doubt, Christ gives you gifts by which you remember His work. When you doubt, Christ chases away that doubt with His means of grace. And it is by those means of Christ that we receive His election, His free choice, His decision to go to the cross in your place. By Baptism, the cross flies to us from the past so that we may be covered over by the washing of regeneration. By hearing the Word, read and preached, we come to know that our Lord’s promise of forgiveness in Baptism is true. By receiving His body to eat and blood to drink in, with, and under the bread and the wine, that faith which clings to His promises is strengthened unto everlasting life.
And by the life of Christ, because He lives, so, too, shall you. Because He was raised from the dead, so too shall you be. That is a sure and certain promise. You are Christ’s sheep. He tends you. He feeds you. He takes care of you. And there is no one who can snatch you out of His hand. He knew you before the world even existed, and He has planned out all things that you would hear His Word, trust His promises, and be His forever.
Certainly, you may choose to reject Him. You can, if you really want to, choose not to remember your Baptism. You can put it up there with superstition. It’s not, but you can think it. You may certainly not come to the Lord’s Supper. You can think that it’s an optional thing. It’s not, but you can think it. You can refuse to hear God’s Word, to disobey His commands to the point that you are just getting by on your own. You’re not, but you can think it. You can take the gift of your Father in Christ and shove it back down His throat.
But, I wouldn’t recommend that. Jesus tells us what happens when, not that we are snatched out of His hand, but we choose to jump out of it on our own. And it’s not good. Jesus tells the Jews today that they are not of His sheep. They reject Him. They reject His gifts. They reject His Word. They reject their salvation.
But if you want to be different, if you want to cling to Christ, if you want to be saved, then grasp onto His gifts like a life preserver in the middle of the ocean. Don’t give doubt a foothold when you can so easily receive that which beats it back. Don’t give Satan the win here. Christ has won the war, He’s won all the battles, and He continues to bring you that victory through His gifts. So, by all means, if you want to fight the fight yourself, reject His gifts and reject His promises and do whatever it is that you want to do. But, if you’d rather trust the man who raised Himself from the dead, come on.
Come on and hear, remember, receive, eat, drink. Don’t go to the social club church. Come to the place where Christ is preached. That’s how doubt goes away. That’s how you’re certain you’re receiving the crucified and risen Jesus all the time. That’s how you can hold fast to the promises of Christ. He gives Himself for you, to you, so that you may be certain you are in His hands, you are His sheep, you listen to Him, you follow Him. You are saved. And you may know that you are elect, you may know you are chosen in Christ, for He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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