Fourth Sunday After Easter

Peter and John had healed a man lame from birth. They dramatically changed his life. The crowd was amazed by what they had seen and wanted to know how all this had happened. Peter recounts the many and various things God had done for the people by the teachers of the law and the prophets, who had urged the people to change their relationship with God.

In the midst of the sermon, Peter and John are interrupted by a group of religious authorities. They’re annoyed by what they believe is false teaching. But what’s really at stake is their perception that these two were urging a change in the status quo. So, these religious authorities have the two arrested and put into custody. In spite of the religious and civil authorities and their efforts, however, “many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand” (Acts 4:4).

The leaders ask, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” (v. 7). The Holy Spirit fills Peter. He addresses the authorities in a scene that looks like a courtroom drama. Peter tells them that it wasn’t his power that restored the lame man, but rather the life-giving power found in the name of Jesus. Peter is determined not to take the credit for the healing. Instead, all credit is due the power of God at work in the one whom the people had crucified. It is God and God’s Christ that has the power to heal, make whole, and give salvation. Peter shares the gospel’s conviction that only God can raise up what people have struck down.

Peter makes a clear connection of both the physical and the spiritual aspects of healing. Not only is the lame man healed of his affliction, but also those who are lame or sick in the spiritual sense can also be healed. This is the ultimate hope that God holds out for God’s people.

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), an English philosopher, once said: “A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.” Change for the sake of change is not a worthy goal. Change that improves our effectiveness is what we’re after. This is true of the church, too. It is naive to believe that today’s church can be just like the church depicted in Acts, though there is much to learn from the earliest church. In each generation, we as the church of Jesus Christ must learn how to take the gospel to a new group of persons who need to hear the good news. Our task is “to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Three people had adjacent businesses in the same building. At one end of the building the businessperson put up a sign that read: “Year-End Clearance Sale.” At the other end of the building, another merchant followed suit with a sign that read: “Closing Sale.” The store owner in the middle of the building knew he had to do something to keep his business from being hurt, so he put up a sign that read: “Main Entrance.” I’m not suggesting that we change our signage, but we need to be alert to the fact that there are now multiple generations who have yet to hear the story of Jesus.

To his contemporaries, Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher of the law. Men like him were expected to spend their time interpreting the law. It’s no wonder he was a source of frustration to the Pharisees. Because instead of discussing the law, Jesus kept talking about love. “Rabbi, is it okay to pull an ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath… or to pay taxes to Rome… and can we stone a woman caught in the act of adultery?” And each time, Jesus challenged them to quit focusing their mental microscopes on the letter of the Law, and to see the divine spirit of the Law. Jesus wants us to understand that you can keep the law in detail without loving, but you cannot love without being obedient to God’s law.

Jesus was the embodiment by love. It was the core of his earthly life. And the message of John’s letter is that Christ’s followers must also choose love as a life principle if we are to walk in his steps. If we are to share his life, we must share his love. What are the characteristics of Jesus’ love? True love is not a human characteristic; its source is God. When John talks about “God’s love” (v. 17)—he’s talking about God’s kind of love. It’s the love that has a divine author.

We use the word love too loosely in this culture. We love our wives, husbands, children, sure. And I can get away with saying that I love my cat, my dog, and maaaybe my guitars. But do I really love my carpet, my curtains, or my furniture? Too often we confuse love with infatuation, affection, lust, concern, or just really liking something a whole lot!

Love isn’t something we learn in a seminar or from a book. It’s something we must experience. That is why John says, “we know love”. We know it because we have experienced it in Christ.

The cross of Christ is the supreme expression of love. To know Christ’s sacrificial love, and to accept that cross as our own, is to open our lives to truly experience love for the first time.

Our culture knows so little real love, because we know so little of God. God is a God of love, and if we wish to know God we must be willing to be loved and to love.

Love goes beyond words. It is very practical. It’s something that must be applied in daily life, sometimes with people who are not very loving or lovable. Real love requires us to take our eyes off ourselves and see the needs of others.

We’re often guilty of talking about love but showing very little. One Christian author recalls his first encounter with a Christian. He was walking down a high school corridor when a young woman stepped into his path, held up a Bible to his face, and exclaimed, “You’d better get right with the Lord or he’ll condemn you to hell!” For years, his impression of Christians was wild-eyed fanatics carrying thirty-pound Bibles in wheelbarrows and screaming at people. His impression of Christ wasn’t one of love, but of anger.

What impression of Christ do we give? Loving, caring, concerned for people and their needs? Or is our Christ moody, distant, legalistic, disconnected from daily life? And is our love given freely, or does it carry expectations that must be met before we show our love?

Just as the source of love is God, the reality of love is action. As we demonstrate love, God becomes more and more real in our own lives.

Love isn’t cheap. God’s love comes at the expense of a cross. We must also expect to pay a price if we are to show authentic love. There’s risk involved with that kind of love. Risk of vulnerability, of misunderstanding, of rejection. We need to be willing to take a chance in order to love others. Some will reject it, others will misuse it, but there will be those who respond to it, and who experience Christ’s presence in our love. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger said, “Love cures. It cures those who give it, and it cures those who receive it.” The life of love is not an easy or a common one, but it is the road that leads to Christ, and to the abundance of life with him.

The good news of Christianity is God’s unconditional love for us in Jesus. Regardless of who, what, where, or when, God loves us. God loves us no more and no less than anybody else. God’s love is inclusive. Or as John puts it in chapter 3 of his Gospel, “God so loved the world.” Even people who are not yet in relationship with God are wanted by God. Jesus said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (v. 16). No one is to be left out of the wholeness, happiness, joy, and eternal security of life in the kingdom. That’s why Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He leads and loves people into confident living and eternal life.

What’s important for us to remember is that it’s the sheep who follow the shepherd. Not the other way around. That’s especially true with Jesus. He knows who he is (which is God). He knows who we are (which is people in need of his grace). And he knows what we need to be and do (which is to be like Jesus). He is Lord! We are his people. He is the Good Shepherd! We follow where he leads. He knows what we need and leads the way. It’s like the old song, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” He leads. We follow.

Shepherd is a metaphor for king. Jesus is the Shepherd-King. Describing the decision to become a disciple, 1 Peter 2:25 tells us, “25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” Practically, it means that Jesus isn’t asking for advice on how to run the kingdom. He doesn’t ask if we’d like to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and all of the rest. He tells us to do it. He directs us into the social responsibilities of the gospel. He leads as Lord.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Unlike a hired hand, who is paid to do a job, Jesus willingly, sacrificially, and selflessly wants to help. In his commentary on the Gospel of John, John Calvin wrote, “Christ declares that He is the Good Shepherd, who keeps His Church safe and sound, first, by Himself, and next, by His agents”. He leads because he loves. And he calls us by name, to follow him. AMEN