Pastor Timothy Patoka 4 Sunday of Easter: Good Shepherd Sunday; May 12, 2019 Simply Safe John 10:22-30 th
1) Because Of Who Jesus Is 2) Because Of What Jesus Gives Today is Mother’s Day, the day when we celebrate and give thanks to our mothers who give so much of their time and love to their children. Perhaps you plan to celebrate it with a reservation at her favorite restaurant. Maybe you’re going simpler and just plan to do something in house. Or maybe you didn’t know it was Mother’s Day until now and all of a sudden you’re thinking about what you can do after the service to let your mom know that you care about her. But no matter how you’re celebrating it, Mother’s Day is a big day in our country because it’s when we thank our mothers for all that they done and given to us. Today is also Good Shepherd Sunday. While this Sunday may only be observed in Christian churches, it is a big day for us as it’s when we see our Savior in one of his beloved roles – as our loving shepherd who watches over us and gives us far more than what we sheep need or deserve. While there are many ways we could talk about Jesus being our Good Shepherd, what we’re going to focus on this morning is the assured feeling that we are simply safe. And we get that assured feeling first because of who Jesus truly is and second because of what Jesus gives us. 1) Because Of Who Jesus Is We find Jesus in Jerusalem celebrating the Festival of Dedication, or as it’s better known to us, the Festival of Hanukkah. There are a lot of people in Jerusalem for Hanukkah and many of them already knew about Jesus. Some even thought him to be the Christ, the Savior that God promised from the Old Testament. Sadly many of them had the wrong idea about the Christ and what he would do. They were looking for a hero to restore independence to the Jewish nation and lead them to the glory days of King David. Not someone to save them from their sins. Evidently, there were some Jews who wanted to know what Jesus thought about himself, if Jesus thought he himself was the prophesied Christ. So they asked him, “‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me’” (John 10:24-25). Jesus knew he was the Christ and had already told people as such. And if that wasn’t enough, he also did a number of miraculous works to further support his identity. I did some looking in the first 9 chapters of John’s Gospel to see how many times Jesus said and did these things. By my count, there were 12 times that it was done in words. Usually it’s Jesus doing it where he calls himself the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, or the Christ himself. Sometimes it’s other people, like John the Baptist who called him the Lamb of God who would 1