Third Sunday of Easter - April 19, 2026

Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

I know my own and my own know me.

We will learn today that just as a shepherd cares for his flock,

so also Jesus, your good shepherd, cares for you.

He gives you your daily bread He protects you He feeds you.

Today, we will first look at David, King David. He was both a shepherd and a king.

Then we are going to look at the bad leaders in Israel, the bad shepherds,

the kings and the prophets, who did not care for the flock and trusted to their care.

Next, we will look at the bad hireling, who also did not care about the flock.

And finally, we will look at Jesus, our good shepherd, who cares for you by

giving you daily bread and the gifts of life and salvation.

First, David. David was the son of one of eight sons born of Jesse of Bethlehem.

David was a shepherd.

He took care of his father's flock.

As recorded in 1 Samuel 17, David says, When there came a lion or a bear and

took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered the lamb out of his mouth.

And if the lion or the bear arose against me, I caught him by his beard and

struck him and killed him.

We learn from this that David cared about the sheep and trusted to him.

He fed them, but he also protected them.

If and when the lion came, he defended his sheep from the predator.

As time went on, God made David a king over Israel.

And God said in 2 Samuel chapter 7, I took you from the pasture and made you

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

ruler over my people Israel.

So David was once a shepherd and now God has made him a king.

He's called to shepherd God's people as their king.

Moreover, 2 Samuel 7 goes on to talk about the coming Savior,

that he will be born from the line of David.

And when David wrote Psalm 23, he says, the Lord is my shepherd. Who is his shepherd?

The Lord is. And David is identifying himself as a lamb, a sheep,

with the Lord as his shepherd. And the Lord he is referring to is the coming Messiah, the Savior.

Who we know is Jesus.

Now, let's look at the bad shepherds of Israel, the prophets and the kings.

God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel and declares, Woe to the shepherds of Israel!

These leaders failed in their calling. They fed themselves instead of the flock.

They did not strengthen the weak or heal the sick or bind up the injured.

They did not bring back the strain or seek the lost.

Instead, they ruled with force.

They did not care for God's people. They cared only for themselves. And what was the result?

The sheep were scattered and they became easy prey for the predator.

No one sought them. No one cared. and these so-called shepherds were very selfish and self-centered.

Woe to us when we are not faithful in the various vocations that God has given to us.

Woe to us when we turn away from God and unbelieve.

Woe to us when we neglect the needs of our family, our neighbors, or even the church.

Woe to us when we fail to love one another.

God cares for us and God wants us to care for one another. Thank you.

Now, let us look at the hireling mentioned in the Holy Gospel for today.

The hired hand did not protect the sheep entrusted to him. When he sees the

wolf coming, he leaves, he runs away.

And then the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

Like the bad shepherds of Israel, the hireling does not care about the sheep.

He is only interested in himself. he too was selfish and self-centered.

Jesus once said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing,

but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

The false prophet does not care about the sheep. He cares only about himself.

And his message is not based on God's word, but on the culture and its ideology.

There's no preaching of sin because he doesn't want people to get offended.

There's no preaching on repentance because he doesn't want to make the people uncomfortable.

He does not preach about the cross because that, he thinks, is a sign of weakness.

Instead, he preaches what the people want to hear, a message shaped by their

feelings or by their emotions or by the world.

Beware of such false prophets even today. Thank you.

Woe to the pastor who does not protect his flock from false doctrine.

Woe to the pastor who is not faithful to Scripture.

If you ever happen to relocate, then seek out a church that is faithful to God's

word and which confesses the truth of the gospel.

After the hireling leaves, the wolf comes along and snatches them and scatters the flock.

The Apostle Paul warns in Acts chapter 20, he says, I know that after my departure,

Acts 20 · chapter mention

fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

The wolf is the devil.

The devil wants to destroy the church.

He wants to take your faith in Christ away. He wants you to doubt God's word

and to follow false doctrine. He wants to scatter you away from the church.

He wants to deceive and mislead you into false belief, despair,

and other great shame and vice.

Therefore, be watchful, study God's word so that you are able to refute false

doctrine and confess the truth.

The problem is not merely outside of us, but is also inside of us.

The prophet Isaiah speaks the truth. He says, all we like sheep have gone astray.

Each one has turned to his own way.

And just so just as sheep like to wander, so also there are times we have listened

to Satan, the world, our own sinful flesh.

We have sinned in thought, word, and deed. We are children of Adam.

And there are times, too, when we are selfish and self-centered.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, do not think that you can save yourself.

Do not think that you have the strength to resist the devil and the world on your own.

Do not think that you have no need for a savior.

As repentant sinners, we hunger for the green pastures of the gospel.

We thirst for the righteousness of Christ.

We need protection from the devil. We cannot survive on our own. We need a savior.

We need a good shepherd.

Finally, let us now look at Jesus.

Jesus' coming into the world was foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

And listen and think again about Jesus.

He says behold the Lord God will come he will tend his flock like a shepherd

he will gather the lambs in his arms he will carry them in his bosom and listen

also what God says through the prophet Ezekiel and again think about Jesus.

Actually, our Old Testament reading for today. Behold, I myself will search

for my sheep and will seek them out.

I will feed them in good pasture.

I will bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak.

These prophecies from Isaiah and Ezekiel were fulfilled in Christ.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the city of David from the line of David.

And who first heard the good news of his birth?

Shepherds. They were out in the field watching their flocks by night.

And after Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist identified Jesus as a lamb.

He points to Jesus and says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus became a lamb like us, yet without sin, having no spot or wrinkle.

He is our Passover lamb who took upon our sins and our guilt upon himself like

a lamb led to the slaughter. So Jesus does not resist. He doesn't complain.

Rather, he lays down his life there on the cross willingly.

Our epistle lesson says that he bears our sins in his body on the tree.

Every selfish act, every guilt, every sin is laid upon him and he takes it all

and he pays for it by his blood, his precious and holy blood.

Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead. Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

Alleluia. Jesus died as a lamb, but he rose as your good shepherd.

And what does he do? Just as David cares for the flock, so also Jesus cares for you.

Just as David defeated the lion and the bear to rescue the lamb,

so also Jesus has defeated Satan by means of the cross and the resurrection.

Jesus has rescued you from sin and death. Jesus came to seek and to save you who were lost.

He found you. He brought you into his fold. He brought you into his church.

He washed you clean in the waters of holy baptism. He clothed you with his robe of righteousness.

He heals your wounds. He forgives your sin, and he protects you.

Here in his church, you hear the voice of your good shepherd.

He has words of eternal life, and there is no other voice that gives you the

certainty of forgiveness and salvation.

Furthermore, he feeds you with his body and blood, and you then gladly live

a godly life with joy, with faith in Christ.

Jesus leads and you gladly follow him on his path of righteousness,

You live a life of repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins He is good

and merciful to you all the days of your life And from that you then are good

and merciful to others You gladly serve the neighbor You help the needy You

show compassion to the sick and the dying.

So we learned this morning that Jesus deeply cares about you.

He provides for all you need. He restores your soul. He protects you from every enemy.

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, He will be with you.

His gift of life and salvation comfort you.

And in the end, you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We just sang, And so through all the length of days Thy goodness faileth never Good Shepherd,

may I sing thy praise Within thy house forever God grant this.

Amen. Please stand.