II. BECAUSE THIS IS THE RIGHT ATTITUDE OF MIND WITH WHICH TO APPROACH REVEALED TRUTHS. Modesty, humility, purity. III. BECAUSE SUCH FAITH SHALL HEREAFTER INHERIT THE BLESSING. THREE VIEWS OF THE RESURRECTION I. CHRIST HAS NOT RISEN AND HIS BODY WAS TAKEN AWAY. This was the Jewish falsity and makes the Apostles liars. II. CHRIST WAS NOT REALLY DEAD, AND AFTERWARDS REVIVED FROM A SWOON.* III. CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD AND APPEARED TO HIS DISCIPLES. The many proofs are infallible. The historic evidence is complete, and sufficient to satisfy every candid mind. * Godet, "Defence of the Christian Faith," and Kennedy, "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," both deal conclusively with this objection, which assumes a modern philosophical form. 269 Second Sunday after Easter. EPISTLE. "YE WERE AS SHEEP GOING ASTRAY; BUT ARE NOW RETURNED UNTO THE SHEPHERD AND BISHOP OF YOUR SOULS" (1 Peter ii. 25). WHO would expect such allusions in an address to servants, urging them to propriety of conduct? Evidently, from the beginning, religion was mixed up with practical life. Oppressed bondsmen were reminded of the example of Christ, and were expected to follow Him in patient endurance of wrong, remembering that they themselves had been the occasion, through their wanderings, of the Shepherd's weary, painful quest. I. A PICTURE OF OURSELVES. 1. What we were. Even sheep going astray, according to the familiar image met with so often both in the Old Testament and the New. 2. What we are. Now "returned," by divine grace, from our wanderings to the fold, and so to happiness, safety, and abundance. Happy they of whom this is true. II. A PICTURE OF OUR LORD. 1. The Shepherd, as represented in the paintings in the Catacombs. He exercises the pastoral office mainly in the recovery of the lost of the flock. Observe-(1.) His pity for the flock. (2.) His search for the lost. (3.) His suffering for the lost. (4.) His rescue of the lost. 2. The Bishop of our souls, i.e., the Overseer, Protector, Guide, and Ruler. (1.) Christ controls His people whom He has restored. (2.) And leads them in the paths of peace. (3.) And feeds them in His plenteous pastures. (4.) And protects them, i.e., with His "rod and staff.” Lessons.-I. Self-distrust and abasement, for, when left to ourselves, we wander. 2. Gratitude to Him who, at the cost of His own life, saved us from death. 3. Faithful and loyal attach ment and dependence upon Him to whom we owe our present safety and privileges and our future prospects. "CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE" I. CHRIST IS OUR EXAMPLE IN SUFFERING. 2. There is a great difference between the sufferings of the wicked and the righteous. (1.) The first are penal, to bring to repentance; the second, disciplinary, to perfect holiness. (2.) The first avoid persecution; the second are willing to suffer "for conscience' sake." 3. We are called to it because Christ has suffered for us. II. CHRIST IS OUR EXAMPLE IN LOVING. 1. His life was without sin. 2. His life was without malice and revenge. 3. His life was a life of trust in God. III. CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE IN DYING. 1. His death was a self-sacrifice. 2. His death was that we might die to sin. WHAT THE EXALTED CHRIST IS TO HIS CHURCH (1 Peter ii. 21-25). IN the Gospel of the day Christ called Himself the Good Shepherd, and to this accordingly there is an allusion in the close of the Epistle (ver. 25). And it declares that Christ proved Himself the Good Shepherd by dying for us; and thus both Epistle and Gospel are designed to remind us in the joyous Easter-tide that we are not to forget His sufferings and death. The Christ of the resurrection bore the nail-marks in His hands and His feet and the wounded side, out of which flowed water and blood for the salvation of His Church. And so much the less ought we to forget the sufferings of Christ, seeing that we are called to suffer after the same pattern. If the Head of the Church is exalted to heaven, His suffering members still remain upon the earth, and for their strength, encouragement, and joy, they are called upon to look up to their glorious Head. I. THE EXALTED CHRIST IS THE PERFECT PATTERN TO HIS CHURCH (vers. 21-23). 1. He has suffered for us. Should we not, therefore, willingly follow in His footsteps, and, as His disciples, bear the cross? But to be fashioned like Him we must look well into the holy passion of our Saviour, that we may be changed into the same image," and be made conformable to His death." 2. Christ suffered though perfectly innocent. He suffered the just for the unjust (ver. 22). We are sinful, and yet called upon at times to suffer wrongfully and "for conscience' sake" (ver. 19); and Christ has left us an example of this. 3. Christ suffered patiently (ver. 23). The word of the prophet was fulfilled. "He opened not His mouth." There was no word reviling or threatening. How this example shames some of the best Christians! II. THE EXALTED CHRIST IS THE COMPLETE REDEEMER OF HIS CHURCH (ver. 24). 1. The offering of Christ is here regarded in its atoning aspect. He has reconciled us to God (Isa. liii. 5; Col. i. 14). 2. The offering of Christ is also regarded in its sanctifying efficacy. "That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." III. THE EXALTED CHRIST IS THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD OF HIS CHURCH (ver. 25). 1. Man is as a strayed and lost sheep. What a picture is this of the natural man! Here St. Peter doubtless recalls the inimitable parable of our Lord recorded in St. Luke's Gospel-the Pauline Gospel, as it has been called—but from this evidently all within the knowledge of St. Peter, even if not recorded in the Gospel of St. Mark, where His influence is traceable. 2. Christ is the true Seeker of the lost sheep, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. GOSPEL. "I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD, AND KNOW MY SHEEP, AND AM KNOWN OF MINE" (John x. 14). To represent the intimate and cordial relations between Himself and His people, Christ here makes use of a similitude furnished by the facts of pastoral life as existing in the East. The mutual knowledge of the shepherd and his sheep serve to set forth the close, intelligent, and affectionate intimacy between the Shepherd of souls and the flock which He has rescued at the cost of His own life. I. THE GOOD SHEPHERD'S KNOWLEDGE OF HIS SHEEP. 1. This is a proof of His deity and omniscience. If a shep herd can recognise and name every sheep in his flock, if a general knows every soldier in his army, such instances of large and intimate knowledge are as nothing when compared to the knowledge which the Lord Jesus possesses of every individual member of His Church in every land and throughout all ages. 2. A proof of His special interest. We often know in a general way the members of a society with which we are connected, but we know individually every member of our own family and household. It is with this latter, this individual, particularising knowledge that we are known by the Great and Good Shepherd. 3. A proof of the possession by Christ's people of special spiritual marks by which they are distinguished and identified. "The Lord knoweth them that are His;" for they are sealed with His own signet. 4. A proof of spiritual affinity. We know our own kindred, our own countrymen; so our Lord sees Himself in His own. II. THE KNOWLEDGE THE SHEEP HAVE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 1. This is inferior to the knowledge the Father has of His Son (Matt. xi. 27). 2. But superior to the general knowledge the world has of Christ. 3. Not a mere speculative knowledge, but personal, sympathetic, experimental, intimate. 4. A knowledge which is akin to love. 5. Therefore a knowledge which leads to willing, cheerful, grateful obedience. THE GOOD SHEPHERD I. THE GOOD SHEPHERD KNOWS HIS FLOCK (ver. 14). 1. It is a comprehensive knowledge. He knows all His sheep. 2. It is a minute knowledge. He knew Nathanael, the woman of Samaria, Zaccheus, the Pharisees. It is the perfect knowledge to which St. Peter paid the tribute of adoration, "Thou knowest all things." (1.) What a comfort! (2.) But also, if we do not know Him, what a reproach! II. THE GOOD SHEPHERD LEADS HIS FLOCK. "( My voice" (ver. 16). They shall hear III. THE GOOD SHEPHERD PROTECTS HIS SHEEP (vers. 12, 13). 1. There is need of protection in cases which the mere hireling will not face. 2. He protects even to the death. IV. THE GOOD SHEPHERD INCREASES HIS FLOCK (ver. 16). |