Sunday, April 26, 2026… Fourth Sunday of Easter
“A Life Full of Life”
Psalm 23; Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:9-15; John 10:1-10
Service Order: Responsive Prayer 2, Lutheran Service Book
Hymns: “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice and Sing” #475; “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” #709; “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” #711; “He Is Arisen! Glorious Word #488; “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today; Alleluia” #463
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Is life worth living? Should our lives be more than just a daily slog from one day to another? Get up, get dressed, go to work (of if you’re retired, to whatever you may have planned for the day); then the day is over, and you drag yourself from napping in your chair and shuffle off to bed; and then you get up and do it all again, day after day after day until you… die. Is that really all there is? Being alive is one thing – but living is another. If we lived our lives without faith and hope and purpose, our lives would be empty indeed – but Jesus, our Good Shepherd, calls us to be His beloved lambs, and promises that life with Him will always be a life worth living; that we’ll have not only life, but a life that is so much more. Jesus offers us “life and life to the full.” Our Scripture readings today tell us about how to have that “life full of life.”
Our reading from the Book of Acts is about the first Christians, the early Christian Church, in the years just after Jesus was raised from the dead and taken back to Heaven. Would you be surprised if I told you that a full life, first of all, is a life full of Church and a regular habit of worship? If you’re in the habit of being here on this fine Sabbath morning, you’re doing it right.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer,” the Scripture says. Those first Christians were devoted, they were steadfast, they were diligently persevering, in what the good apostles had to teach them; they were learning and growing in their faith.
The beautiful Greek word for fellowship is koinonia – which, to give it the long definition, means that what we believe and share in common becomes the basis of our fellowship and the reason for our being together. One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. No matter what other differences there may be between us, the fact that we all believe the same thing about Christ is the koinonia that binds our lives together. How lonesome life would be without that holy fellowship.
The “breaking of bread” certainly does refer to the Lord’s Supper, but it can refer just as well to our potlucks and dinners and such when we sit down to eat together. I suspect, for these early Christians, it was both. Sharing food has always been one of the best ways there is to express our love for one another; that’s why God invites us to eat at His table.
And they were in the habit of prayer, and of praying together, which is such an important component of a full and abundant life. Especially when we pray for one another, the focus is taken off of ourselves, and onto the needs of our brothers and sisters and the people around us. That “outward looking life” is a life full of love and friends and blessed relationships, and those are the things that make life good. (They are for me, anyway).
The word for “awe” in our reading in Acts literally means “holy fear.” You wouldn’t think fear would have any place in a full and abundant life; but in this case, we’re talking about a reverent and holy respect for Almighty God and for who He is. God is a God of miracles, wonders, and signs; He’s the Sovereign, creating God of the universe, and there’s nothing He can’t do. He can and will punish our sin, if correction is what we need, so do fear that. But He will also bless us, lift us up, and do marvelous things for us in answer to our prayers. So a full life also has to be a humble life, knowing that “I am weak, but He is strong.” That’s a relief, really, when I come to understand that I can take all the worries and fears in this life of mine, and leave them in the hands of a really awesome God, who really does love me.
Now, some have read the words, “All the believers were together and had everything in common,” and concluded that the early Christians were practicing a form of socialism, or even Communism; but that isn’t what this was. In socialism and Communism, the “sharing” and distribution of goods is done by way of coercion or force. Things are taken or confiscated from one group and given to another, based not on work or merit, but on someone’s idea of what “equity” is. (That system has been a disaster wherever it’s been tried; look it up). What was happening in the early Church is that they were sharing because they wanted to, which is a totally different thing. They were “selling their possessions and goods, and giving to anyone as he had need,” because they wanted to, and because their hearts were right with God, which is a beautiful thing. Greed will only leave you bitter and angry; but having a heart that’s willing to give makes for a full and happy life.
Life was good for the early Church, because they were living in the pattern God gave them. They were honoring the Sabbath Day and keeping it holy, and meeting together on the days in between, in their homes and in the Temple. They were eating together and sharing food together, and their hearts were full of that profound yet simple joy that only God can give us. And the people around them were noticing, and wanting the joy and happiness they had, and the Lord was adding to their number and bringing others into their fellowship. And for Christian believers like us, that’s as joyful a thing as life can offer. That’s what Christian life to the full looks like.
Take a look at our reading from First Peter. St. Peter also believes that we have life, and life to the full, because of what God our Father had done for us in Christ. Who are we, as we live these born-again lives God has given us? We’re “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” And why would God choose us?
To declare His praises! To thank Him aloud in the world for calling us out of the darkness of sin, and into His marvelous light. A full life is a thankful life, and a life full of praise to God for everything He’s done. Again, it’s not a selfish life, not a life about ME; it’s all about Jesus. I get to be one of God’s people, one of His chosen ones, not because of any goodness in me, but because God is good! A merciful life is a good life, isn’t it? God had had mercy on us and put all our sins away, and now we get to go out and be merciful, and put anger and resentment and all that miserable stuff behind us.
We’re strangers here, St. Peter says, aliens and foreigners in this place. “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home,” the old hymn says. St. Paul says, “our lives are now hidden with Christ in God.” So, says Peter, we abstain from our sinful desires; we don’t get our souls stuck on wanting the stuff of this world, because we know it’s only stuff. That war is over, once we come to understand that our real home is in heaven, and that there’s nothing in this world we can keep, and nothing here that we’d trade for the life God has waiting for us. A really full life isn’t made up of having things; it’s being able to let go of our love for those things and being free to love and serve God. And again, as we heard about the early Church in Acts, the lives we live for God bring others to want to know our Savior, too. And again, helping that to happen is our everlasting joy. “I have no greater joy,” good St. John says, “than to hear that some of My children are walking in the truth.”
We still have to live in the world, mind you. We’re still citizens of a country, bound to be obedient to government and civil authority, and praying all the while that those who lead us (please, Lord!) will be godly and good. Yet we’re obligated to God’s truth first of all, whether those in power want to hear it or not. “We must obey God rather than men” is part of the full Christian life, too. It’s not about living apart from the world, but about trying to be a light in it.
So what does our Gospel reading today have to do with all this? A full and abundant life, a “life that’s truly life,” is a life that has Jesus the Good Shepherd at the heart and center of it. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says; and He does bring us truth, always. The world is full of thieves and robbers, false teachers and liars, who love to tell you how you can have a better life, how your life should be, and how you can have “your best life now.” Take this pill, and it will change your life. Try this diet, use this magic wrinkle cream, drink this beer; watch this podcast, listen to the latest influencer, and your life will be everything you want it to be. The world is full of false religions and false teachers, who’ll tell you can work your way to heaven, or that sin doesn’t matter because everybody’s going there in the end. (Neither of those things is true). There are people who only want to exploit you and use you, people who don’t really care about your life at all, people who tell you they love you, and all it is, is lip service. The devil who wants to use you until your life is all used up. But we don’t have to fall for any of that nonsense; not anymore.
Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and He is the gate, the Door, the Way and the Truth and the Life, the one and only way to be saved and get to heaven. The world is full of voices, some that whisper, and some that yell, telling you that this is the way, or this is the way, or this is the way. But a good and joyful life is life with the Shepherd, life as a sheep, life as part of the Shepherd’s flock, life as “Jesus’ little lamb.” Jesus calls us His own, and He goes ahead of us, and we follow Him because we know His voice. That’s a life we can live with confidence, and with blessed assurance, and with sure and certain hope. We don’t have to worry about getting lost, or about being devoured by anything the devil or the world try to do us -- because we know the truth that sets us free.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” Jesus says, “but I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The Greek word for “to the full,” the word perissos, means “abundant,” but a great deal more. Super-abundant would be closer to it. Exceedingly, extraordinarily abundant. More, much more, than just sufficient, it’s a “cup runneth over” word. It’s a life that’s good beyond measure, a life that Jesus promises will be “more than we can ever ask for or imagine.” It’s the life that Jesus took up again when He was raised from the dead, now given to us, and poured out on us on the day we were baptized and brought to faith.
So, is life worth living? Oh, this one is! We’re blessed with lives that have purpose and meaning and joy, blessed with good work to do for our Lord while we live in this world, and then blessing with life forever with a God who loves us, when our lives in this world are over. How can we ask for more?
Heavenly Father, thank You for the life You have given us, and help us to live our lives with joy for You. In Jesus’ name; Amen.
Rev. Larry Sheppard, M.Div.
Trinity Lutheran Church, Packwaukee, WI
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Oxford, WI
pastorshepp@gmail.com