Nobody expected Jesus to rise from the dead, not even His disciples and those closest to Him expected Him to get up and walk out of the tomb.  It did not matter to His disciples that Jesus said that He would “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise from the dead” (Mark 8:31 ), because what He said fell upon deaf ears at the time. On the day of Jesus’ death, everyone believed that He had lost, and evil had won.  There was no coming back in the minds of all who watched Him die, and for good reason!  When a person was sentenced by Rome to be crucified, it was a sentence that was equally horrible as it was terminal. Jesus died and was buried in a tomb.

When Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to Jesus’s tomb, they went to anoint a decomposing and dead Jesus to cover up the stench of death while His disciples mourned. What these women were expecting was a very dead body.  When they arrived at the tomb and found the stone moved, they were alarmed not because they expected the resurrection, but because they thought someone messed with the body (see Mark 16:1-5).  This is why the young man, who most likely was an angel, said to them: “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; see, here is the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).  What was their response? They were terrified: “...they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).

What the disciples saw as defeat, the angels viewed at the edge of their seats, if Peter and the rest could have heard the chatter from heaven, maybe they would have heard: “You just wait and see what’s coming!”  If it were possible to hear the angels, and if they were listening closely enough, maybe they would have heard all of heaven ask: “Did you not hear what Jesus said when He was with you?  Did you not hear Him say, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.... No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.’” (John 10:14-15, 18)? 

Some of you are feeling the way the disciples and those closest to Jesus felt in the wake of His death.  Some of you are feeling like the disciples did when they woke up on Sunday morning: stuck, unsure, afraid, frustrated, angry, and hopeless.  I want you to know today that there is a hope within your reach that can swallow up your paralysis, uncertainty, fear, frustration, anger, and hopelessness.  For me to do that, I need you to see some things in the 23rd Psalm.

Everyone Experiences the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Death is the great antagonist and for some strange reason, we act as though we will never experience it, and when it does come... we are surprised by it.  Just before Frank Sinatra died, he said, “I’m losing.”  The comedian, Groucho Marx’s last words were, “This is no way to live!” Caesar Borgia (chay·zaa·ray bor·zhuh) said on his deathbed: “While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die and am unprepared to die.” 

In Psalm 23:4, we come to a very familiar sentence that has served to comfort the anxious and fearful: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  Death is something that we all must face and not one of us will be able to escape it. 

The “valley of the shadow of death” is not only death, but the deep darkness of sin, and it is a deep darkness that “envelops all humankind.”[1] The valley of death is a darkness that no one is exempt from, even if you are a Christian.  You see, the valley of deep darkness represents the curse our world is under and the curse that affects us all, and that curse is sin. This is why our world is a mess, this is why there is sickness and disease, and this is why we have to say “goodbye” way too often and sometimes way too soon.  The Bible says that all of us are guilty of sin (Rom. 3:23 ), and that it is something that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Here is what the Bible says: “...through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned.... Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam” (Rom. 5:12 , 14). 

What the valley is to you really depends on whether or not you can say with the Psalmist: “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need.”  You see, there is one group of people who will be swallowed up by the valley and then there is another group of people who will walk through the valley.  The question is this: “What group do you belong to?” 

Not Everyone Remains in the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Jesus said of the 23rd Psalm: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11 ).  Here is what the Bible says about all of us: “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...” (Isa. 53:3). Or to say it another way, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 ).  All of us have sinned and fall short of meeting the standard of a Holy God.  So what was God’s solution to address our sin problem?  Listen to the rest of Isaiah 53:3, “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the wrongdoing [sins] of us all to fall on Him.”

Jesus said, “I am the Lord of the 23rd Psalm” but He did not stop there, He went on to say, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep” (vv. 14-15).  The way that you know that the Lord of the 23rd Psalm is your Shepherd is whether or not you believe who He claimed to be and that when He laid down His life for you because of your sins, that His death on a cross is sufficient for the forgiveness of your sins.  And listen, if you really believe in Jesus, if you really belong to Him, and if you really know Him... you will believe the things that He said about Himself:

“I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35 )

“I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12 )

“I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25 –26)

Anyone can say the things Jesus said, and everyone will die one day.  If all that Jesus did was lay down his life for the sheep, then all that He is... is a dead martyr and nothing more.  But consider what Jesus said to the disciples that they missed, most likely because of how impossible they found it to believe what He said to be:

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.” (John 10:14-18)

What the disciples missed was the most important part of what Jesus said: “I lay down My life for the sheep.... I lay down My life so that I may take it back.... I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back.”  In other words, “I will die for your sins to redeem you, and then I am coming back by way of a resurrection!”  It should not have surprised any of the disciples or the women who knew Jesus that the tomb was empty on the third day, but because the resurrection was so impossible and so beyond the limitations of their imagination that the Good Shepherd, the Lord of the 23rd Psalm, could die for sins and then conquer death by rising from it.  This is why the angel said to the women when they arrived at the place Jesus was buried: “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; see, here is the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).

Conclusion

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