These are the readings and sermons of St. John's Lutheran Church of Park Rapids, Minnesota.
They are offered so that the Word of God would shape and strengthen you to be what He calls you to be, salt and light.
You can find us at stjohnspr.org.
Now, on to the Word.
For the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also as I said, known as Good Shepherd Sunday.
And so our first reading for the Fourth Sunday of Easter is from the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2.
Beginning in verse 42, it says,
They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the Apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common,
and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?
But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure?
This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By his wounds, you have been healed.
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
O Lord, have mercy on us.
Thanks be to God.
The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 10th chapter.
Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you,

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Grace to you in peace from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name, dear Christian friends.
Our text today is the gospel read before, especially verse 9.
I am the door.
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pastor.
This is the word of the Lord.
Some years ago, Robert Fulham wrote a book with the most interesting title,
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
Well, this morning, I can say, all I really know about sheep, I learned in church.
I don't have any personal experience at all with raising sheep.
The only thing I know about sheep comes from what the Bible says
and what preachers and teachers in Sunday school and church over the years
have said about sheep and how sheep are compared to us.
And the summary of all of those lessons was that sheep are pretty helpless

But when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to knowing God
and when it even comes to knowing ourselves and how we are related to God,
when it comes to knowing our spiritual condition,
then I'd agree that we are very helpless and not very smart.
We need help.
And God gives that.
God is the good shepherd who takes care of everything that a sheep needs.
And so every year we observe a good shepherd Sunday
because Jesus is that good shepherd for our souls.
Well, this year our text stops one verse short of where Jesus says,
I am the good shepherd.
That's John 10 verse 11.
We only go to verse 10.
And we're focusing on verse 9 where Jesus said, I am the door.

who climb in the sheepfold without using the door.
The leaders couldn't understand that they were those thieves and robbers.
Now in the Old Testament, God compared the leaders of Israel to shepherds.
The abundant life that those kings and leaders, the good pasture that they were supposed to supply for their people
was to keep them well fed physically, protected from their enemies physically,
but also spiritually to provide that Word of God, that worship in the temple
where the presence of God was to be found.
But those leaders weren't really feeding and protecting God's people.
They were enemies who were starving the people's spirits and harming their faith.
And the Pharisees didn't understand this.
They were very careful to keep all of God's laws.
And they were very diligent in making sure that the people kept all of those laws too.
But faith isn't about what people do.

Believers recognize God's voice in God's Word.
And they follow it.
So instead of throwing people out of the temple, God's voice, God's Word leads people to God's house.
That temple was also a place of protection.
You could find sanctuary in the temple.
You went through a door, series of doors actually,
to get to that safe place where you could be fed.
Jesus is the door, the door through which people come and go to find protection and pasture
and back and forth between those two.
Christ is the believer's door so that believers go out and come in to that abundant life.
Well, what about us?
I mean one very clear application of this text, these words that Jesus said,
is that pastors need to be very careful that when people hear us,
they're not hearing our opinions, but they're hearing God's Word.
They're having God's Word drawing them to God's house.

This is where we are actually a lot like sheep.
A sheep, main enemy is a coyote, and a sheep can't win in a fight against a coyote.
So they run. Coyotes are a lot faster than sheep, so they lose them too.
The Lord warns us about our enemy, the devil, the world, and even our own sinful flesh.
They're always speaking. Don't listen.
But we do.
Sheep follow the herd.
That's where we're like sheep.
Remember when we were kids and we did something because everybody else was doing it?
Remember what our mother said?
She asked if everybody else jumped off a cliff, would you jump off too?
And of course we knew the correct answer was yes.
The correct answer was no, but we're actually kind of thinking in ourselves,
actually if everybody else jumped off a cliff, I would too.

Recent surveys show that almost half,
some other door than Jesus.
And only about 35% believe that salvation is through faith in Christ alone.
I actually try to find statistics for the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod,
because I remember seeing a number recently that many of our own people
who believe that the Bible is that voice of God
also think that being good is another door to the abundant life.
But Christ is the believer's door,
so that we go in and come out to that abundant life.
And not only is Jesus the door, but he is a door that is well marked.
Going in and out through Jesus is the way of certainty and confidence.
Jesus said, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved
and will go in and out and find pasture.
There's no if and buts or maybes about it

When they would go to the temple, they would be walking together on the roads to Jerusalem,
and they would sing from the Psalms.
And one of those songs is Psalm 121,
which ends,
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever more.
That's the coming and going that Jesus said in our text,
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, go in and out and find pastor.
Jesus is the believer's door, so that we go in and out to that abundant life.
So what about us?
Jesus is the door for our coming in and our going out.
We call this area of the church, the sanctuary, a place of safety.
And we still come in here to hear the Word, the voice of God in worship.
We come to God's house to study the Scriptures, to hear God's voice.
But guess where we put those words that I just said from the Psalm about God going out and coming in this time and forever more.

So Christ is the believer's door so that we come in and go to eternal life.
All I really know about sheep, I learned in church.
And one of those sheep stories told by a pastor who actually saw it in the Holy Land
was of a shepherd who had a special sound, a special unique call that lasted 10 seconds
and that he repeated about every 40 seconds so that his flock always knew that he was with them, that they were safe.
There's a song in our hymnal.
Listen, listen, God is calling through His Word inviting, offering forgiveness, comfort and joy.
Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Thanks for listening to Lightly Salted.
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