Preparing for Worship - April 30, 2023

This Sunday is known as Good Shepherd Sunday, and most of our readings have to do with Jesus as our Good Shepherd, in all that He did and still does for us.

The psalm is, of course, Psalm 23, David’s beautiful words about the Lord as his Shepherd. The Lord, in His wisdom, provides all that David really needs in a spiritual way. He restores David’s soul, after difficult times, and provides him with spiritual food and drink. Even in the shadow of death, when in the presence of enemies, the Lord gives him comfort and courage. The Lord will give him goodness and mercy, and one day, he will live in the house of the Lord forever.

That is the promise of God for all of us, too, with Jesus as our Good Shepherd. In the Gospel lesson, John 10:1-10, Jesus says that He is “the door for His sheep.” Those who enter into the sheepfold through faith in Him will be saved and find good pasture and have abundant life, now and forever. There are thieves and robbers who can endanger the sheep, but the sheep of Jesus’ flock will listen only to Him and His voice, in His Word. He knows us all by name and will care for us always.

The first lesson, Acts 2:42-47, tells how those who were brought to faith in Jesus and were baptized on Pentecost were able to stay in faith and were strengthened. They kept coming together in worship and fellowship and heard the apostles’ teaching through the Word of God and had “the breaking of bread,” including the Lord’s Supper. They also prayed for each other and helped with each other’s needs in a generous way, and the Lord added more people to them who were being saved.

Peter adds, in our Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 2:19-25, that we can also expect some suffering and trouble as sheep of our Good Shepherd, even when we are trying to do good and right things. We are following in the steps of Jesus, who suffered and was reviled and finally died for us, carrying our sins on the tree of the cross. By His wounds, we have been healed. We were like straying sheep, but now have been brought to our Good Shepherd, the Overseer of our souls, who will care for us.