Revised Common Lectionary: Fourth Sunday of Easter

Year A

Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23:1-6 or Ezekiel 34:7-15; Psalm 100:1-5; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

The Day of the Spirit’s Power

In Acts 2, we read about the Day of Pentecost. It was a great day. The Spirit was poured out on God’s people. Christ was proclaimed to the crowds. Many were brought to faith in Christ. What is to be our response to the God who worked so mightily on the Day of Pentecost. Let us pray for the Spirit’s power. Let us preach Christ. Let us look to God for His blessing.  

Preach Christ – the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd.

 * Jesus Christ has passed ‘through the valley of the shadow of death’ for us (Psalm 23:4).

Now, we rejoice in Him, our Shepherd of love –

(a) the Good Shepherd who died for us (John 10:11);

(b) the Great Shepherd who was raised for us (Hebrews 13:20-21);

(c) the Chief Shepherd who is coming again for us (1 Peter 5:4).

He restores us. He keeps us from ’straying like sheep’. He leads us ‘in paths of righteousness’ (Psalm 23:3; 1 Peter 2:25). He is preparing us for our glorious eternal destiny: ‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’ (Psalm 23:6).

 * God speaks to us in love. He says, ‘I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep’ (Ezekiel 34:15).

We rejoice in His love. We say, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ (Psalm 23:1).

Jesus is our Shepherd.

He is ‘the good Shepherd’. He laid down His life for us that we might receive the forgiveness of our sins. ‘Christ died for our sins’. He - ‘the Righteous’- died for us - ‘the unrighteous’- ‘to bring us to God’ (John 10:11; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18). He is ‘the great Shepherd’. He was ‘raised’ from the dead’. Through His resurrection, we receive eternal life. He says to us, ‘Because I live you will live also’ (Hebrews 13:20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:4; John 14:19).

He is ‘the chief Shepherd’. He will come again with ‘the unfading crown of glory’ for His ‘good and faithful servants’ (1 Peter 5:4; Matthew 25:21).

Let us look to God for His blessing on our worship.

‘Exalt the Lord our God... Make a joyful noise to the Lord’ (Psalms 99:5, 9; 98:4,6; 100:1).

We are to worship the Lord with joy. We are to glorify God. We are to enjoy Him.

In our worship, we must never forget the holiness of God: ‘He is holy!... The Lord our God is holy!’ (Psalm 99:5, 9).

In our worship, we rejoice in the love of God: ‘His steadfast love endures for ever... He has done marvellous things!’ (Psalms 100:5; 98:1).

The God of ‘awesome purity’ loves us with the most perfect love of all: ‘No earthly father loves like Thee...’

Let us worship Him with holy fear and heartfelt love: ‘O how I fear Thee, living God, with deepest, tenderest fears... with trembling hope and penitential tears! Yet I may love Thee too, O Lord, Almighty as Thou art, for Thou hast stooped to ask of me the love of my poor heart’ (Church Hymnary, 356).

Let us look to God for His blessing on our witness.

Being ‘God’s own people’is a great privilege - ‘you have received mercy’.

It is also a great responsibility - ‘declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2:9-10).

God’s people are described as ‘strangers in the world’ (1 Peter 2:11).

We must not think of ourselves as ‘superior’- ‘a cut above the rest’. We are not! In ourselves, we are ‘strangers’- ‘without God in the world’. There’s nothing ‘special’about us, There’s something very special about what God has done for us: ‘In Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ’ (Ephesians 2:12-13).

As those who ‘have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls’, let’s point others to Him who ‘bore our sins...that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (1 Peter 2:24-25).

Let us look to God for His blessing on our walk with Him.

The Christian life is not easy.

The devil ‘comes only to steal and kill and destroy’ (John 10:10).

Satan was working through the religious leaders. They were trying ‘to stone’ Jesus (John 10:31). ‘Again’, they failed (John 10:39). They could not take Jesus’life. ‘His hour had not yet come’ (John 10:18; 7:30; 8:20).

When Satan attacks us, we must remember this: God is in control. God has given us great promises (John 10:28-29).

Jesus saves. Jesus keeps. His salvation is eternal: ‘He didn’t bring us this far to leave us. He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown. He didn’t build His home in us to move away. He didn’t lift us up to let us down.’

Satan will cause us plenty of trouble. Be on the alert (1 Peter 5:8). Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Looking to Jesus, we are assured of this: Satan will be defeated (Revelation 12:9).

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Year B

Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23:1-6 (or Zechariah 10); Psalm 80:1-7; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

Jesus Christ – the Name of our Salvation

Peter preached Christ with great boldness: ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). This boldness came from the Holy Spirit. Peter was ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 4:8). Don’t say, ‘I‘m no Peter’. Peter failed his Lord and had to be restored (Matthew 26:69-75; John 21:15-17). Peter drew great strength from ‘the company of those who believed’. They ‘gathered together’ for prayer. They ‘were of one heart and soul’...’ (Acts 4:31-33). Why did God deal so severely with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11)? This was the start of something great. God refused to let His work be spoiled! There is a warning for us: Don’t pretend to be more holy than you really are. God sees what you’re really like. ‘Search me, O God...’ (Psalm 139:23-24).

Jesus Christ – the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd 

Jesus Christ has passed ‘through the valley of the shadow of death’ for us (Psalm 23:4). Now, we rejoice in Him, our Shepherd of love - (a) the Good Shepherd who died for us (John 10:11); (b) the Great Shepherd who was raised for us (Hebrews 13:20-21); (c) The Chief Shepherd who is coming again for us (1 Peter 5:4). He restores us. He keeps us from ’straying like sheep’. He leads us ‘in paths of righteousness’ (Psalm 23:3; 1 Peter 2:25). For God’s people, there is a glorious eternal destiny: ‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’ (Psalm 23:6).

Jesus Christ – our Strength

We read the words of the prophet Zechariah and our thoughts turn to Jesus Christ, our Saviour. In Him, we have God’s fulfilment of the promises given by God through the prophet Zechariah – “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph … I will strengthen them in the Lord …” (Zechariah 10:6, 12).

  

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

‘Restore us, O God, make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved’ (Psalm 80:3). This prayer for salvation is repeated with a growing sense of God’s greatness - ‘O God Almighty’ (Psalm 80:7), ‘O Lord God Almighty’ (Psalm 80:19). To those who are asking the question of salvation - ‘What must I do to be saved?’ - , God gives His answer - ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’ (Acts 16:30-31). What does the Lord say to those who look to Christ for salvation? - ‘The Lord will bless you and watch over you. The Lord will smile on you and be kind to you. The Lord will look on you with favour and give you peace’ (Numbers 6:24-26). Let us worship Him: ‘Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer’ (Ephesians 1:3).

Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. Receive His love. Share His love.

We must keep our eyes on Christ - ‘He laid down His life for us’. We have received His ‘love’. We must show His love - ‘Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth’ (1 John 3:7, 16, 18). Do you believe in Christ? Live the life. Be a believer - in deed’! ‘God is greater than our hearts’. When you are deeply aware of your sinfulness, remember - God loves you. God’s Word is brutally honest - about us: ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ God’s Word is wonderfully encouraging - about His love for us. He ‘knows everything’ about us - and He still loves us: ‘God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’ (1 John 3:20; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 5:8). What a great Saviour we have. He is ‘without sin’ - yet He is the Friend of sinners. He ‘receives sinners’. He ‘came into the world to save sinners’ (Hebrews 4:15; Luke 15:2; 1 Timothy 1:15). Whenever we start getting too full of ourselves, too full of our own importance, we must remember: ‘He first loved us’ (1 John 4:19) - before we ever thought of loving Him!

Looking to Jesus, we are assured of this: Satan will be defeated.

The Christian life is not easy. The devil ‘comes only to steal and kill and destroy’ (John 10:10). Satan was working through the religious leaders. They were trying ‘to stone’ Jesus (Johm 10:31). ‘Again’, they failed (John 10:39). They could not take Jesus’ life. ‘His hour had not yet come’ (John 10:18; John 7:30; John 8:20). When Satan attacks us, we must remember this: God is in control. God has given us great promises (John 10:28-29). Jesus saves. Jesus keeps. His salvation is eternal: ‘He didn’t bring us this far to leave us. He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown. He didn’t build His home in us to move away. He didn’t lift us up to let us down’. Satan will cause us plenty of trouble. Be on the alert (1 Peter 5:8). Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Looking to Jesus, we are assured of this: Satan will be defeated (Revelation 12:9).
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Year C

Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23:1-6 (or Isaiah 53:1-6); Psalm 114:1-8; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

Paul the Apostle points us to Jesus the Saviour.

Saul the persecutor become Paul the Apostle (Acts 13:9). What a great turning-point this was in the life of the early Church! When we read of Paul’s missionary journeys (Acts 13:1-28:31), we may be tempted to think, ‘What a great man Paul must have been’. In his letters, Paul insists that we must not think like this. He tells us that ‘nothing good dwells within’him. Paul never forgot his ‘past’: ‘I cursed Him, persecuted Him, and acted arrogantly toward Him’. Paul describes himself as ‘the worst of sinners’. Paul gives his testimony: ‘The grace of God was poured on me abundantly’(Romans 7:18; 1 Timothy 1:13-15). God’s true servants direct our attention to Christ. Ananias said, ‘The Lord Jesus... has sent me...’(Acts 9:17). Saul ‘preached boldly in the Name of Jesus’(Acts 9:27). Peter said, ‘Jesus Christ heals you...’(Acts 9:34).

Jesus the Saviour is our Shepherd of love.

Jesus Christ has passed ‘through the valley of the shadow of death’ for us (Psalm 23:4). Now, we rejoice in Him, our Shepherd of love - (a) the Good Shepherd who died for us (John 10:11); (b) the Great Shepherd who was raised for us (Hebrews 13:20-21); (c) The Chief Shepherd who is coming again for us (1 Peter 5:4). He restores us. He keeps us from ’straying like sheep’. He leads us ‘in paths of righteousness’(Psalm 23:3; 1 Peter 2:25). For God’s people, there is a glorious eternal destiny: ‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’(23:6). We ‘receive this blessing from the Lord,...the God of our salvation’(Psalm 24:5).

Jesus the Saviour was crucified for us and has risen for us.

In this remarkable prophecy (Isaiah 53), we see Jesus Christ, crucified for us - ‘the Lord has laid all our sins on Him’ - and risen from the dead - ‘After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life’(Isaiah 53:6,11). ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’(Mission Praise, 745). We might put this question to Isaiah. In one sense, he wasn’t there. He lived long before the time of Christ. In another sense, he was there. God opened his eyes. God gave him a glimpse of what was going to happen in the future. ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ In one sense, we weren’t there. These things happened long before we were even born. In another sense, we were there. It was our sins which Christ took with Him to the Cross. It was our sins which He left behind Him when He rose from the dead (Romans 4:25).

In Jesus the Saviour, we see the greatness of God’s love.

‘The Lord is high above all nations... Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high?... Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, who turns the hard rock into springs of water’(Psalm 113:4-5; Psalm 114:7-8). The Lord is greater than we could ever imagine. There is no greatness like the greatness of the Lord. All human greatness cannot even begin to compare with the greatness of God. His greatness is not only the greatness of His power. It is also the greatness of His love. When we sing, ‘How great Thou art’, we sing not only of His power - ‘Thy power throughout the universe displayed’. We sing also of His love - ‘And when I think that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die - I scarce can take it in, that on the Cross my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin...’(Mission Praise, 506).

Jesus the Saviour invites us to come to Him.

Christ invites us to ‘come’(Revelation 6:1,3,5,7) - and look at things through His eyes. With Him, we look at earth. With Him, we look at heaven. Troubled world, tremendous worship - These are the things we see when we look through the eyes of our Lord jesus Christ. Our world is deeply troubled. Heaven’s worship is absolutely tremendous. Of all our many ‘troubles’, the greatest is this: We are sinners, and none of us ‘can stand’before ‘the face of Him who sits on the throne’. Our earthly ‘troubles’are nothing compared with this! There is hope. There is a way of ‘salvation’. We can be saved through ‘the blood of the Lamb’. If, however, we turn from Him - ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’- there will be no hope. We will face ‘the wrath of the Lamb’(Revelation 4:16-17; Revelation 5:10,14; John 1:29). Will you be saved - or lost?

In Jesus the Saviour, there is eternal life.

The Christian life is not easy. The devil ‘comes only to steal and kill and destroy’(John 10:10). Satan was working through the religious leaders. They were trying ‘to stone’ Jesus (John 10:31). ‘Again’, they failed (John 10:39). They could not take Jesus’ life. ‘His hour had not yet come’(John 10:18; John 7:30;John 8:20). When Satan attacks us, we must remember this: God is in control. God has given us great promises (John 10:28-29). Jesus saves. Jesus keeps. His salvation is eternal: ‘He didn’t bring us this far to leave us. He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown. He didn’t build His home in us to move away. He didn’t lift us up to let us down’. Satan will cause us plenty of trouble. Be on the alert (1 Peter 5:8). Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Looking to Jesus, we are assured of this: Satan will be defeated (Revelation 12:9).