The Good Shepherd vs. The Thieves and Robbers

The Gospel of John and the Good Shepherd

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message.

From Pastor Chris Roseborough. The Holy Gospel according to St. John the 10th. Glory to you, O Lord. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, The sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Here again the words of our epistle text, the last words of it. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.

Sheep, Children, and the Need for Protection

I've heard it said many times by those who keep sheep that sheep are not exactly brilliant. They're not smart. They're kind of, well, dumb animals. And if you think that somehow, well, that's just sheep and that's not human beings, I would remind all of you who have children, who've gone from infants to toddlers, your life changes dramatically, not when your children first arrive.

Your life changes dramatically when they begin to walk. And the reason why is this, is because you've known, if you remember this, when your children begin to walk, they're like drunken sailors. You know, they're this way and that way.

And they have this thing that they do. They go for the most dangerous things in your house, whether it be fire, poison, stairs, things like this. And what ends up happening is that your life goes from caring for an infant to being a full-time lifeguard.

And that is a stressful job. Because during those days, I remember just collapsing in bed. And I've got to tell you, I kept crying out to God and saying, why, oh why, Lord, did you give me such stupid children?

And then I'm sure if God could speak from heaven, He would have said, and you were any smarter, and you are any smarter, right? You'll notice that we human beings, because of sin, we have a tendency to be either completely oblivious when it comes to danger, or even worse, we don't think danger is danger.

And so from time to time I mention the fact that I have bouts with insomnia. Me and insomnia are very familiar friends. And back in the day when I would have insomnia, I didn't want to just sit there and look at the ceiling because it was dark and my wife was asleep snoring.

And so what I would end up doing is going downstairs and turning on the television and watching infomercials. But now I don't have to do that anymore because I have an iPad. I just put it on my nightstand and I turn on YouTube.

And when I turn on YouTube, oh man, I have this new guilty pleasure. It's like viral videos. And a few of them actually give me heart palpitations. I saw a viral video of a whole bunch of good catches by dads.

I think it's called something like that. And it's a whole series of little vignette videos where a toddler is heading towards danger. They're heading towards the stairs. They're on the second floor. And dad realizes what's going on and at the last second makes the diving catch and grabs the kid by the back of their clothes and hauls them up.

And here's the weird thing. When you watch kind of like the resolve on that, everyone who knows what's going on is like,.

Good night.

That was a close call because that kid tumbling down the stairs, we know that's a hospital visit. And what does the kid do as soon as the kid is caught and saved from danger? The kid gets angry.

Okay.

Throws himself back on the ground and has a fit. Thanks for nothing, you know. Now I'm going to tell you this because I've noticed this in the church. And that is that Scripture so clearly warns us against those who are visibly in the church who are wolves in sheep's clothing.

They are there to devour the sheep. They are thieves and they are robbers. And here Jesus is warning us about them. And we stupid sheep, we have this tendency to go, Oh, come on, Jesus. It's really not that bad.

I mean, yes, I understand that so-and-so on television doesn't really teach the gospel that well, but I've learned how to spit the bones and chew the meat. And I'm fully expecting my breakthrough next week after I send in my $1 ,000 seed offering, you know.

And, yeah, we like sheep, all of us, we're straying. But now the shepherd and overseer of our souls has returned us to the flock. And we still continue to be in danger. You'll note that famous Psalm, Psalm 23.

He leads me besides still waters. He makes me lie down in green pastures. But even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

That's referring to the Lord's Supper. And you'll note then that we, Christ's sheep, are wandering through, passing through, sojourning through the valley of the shadow of death. And Christ himself feeds us, prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

So we would do well then, and I mean really well, to pay attention to good shepherd Jesus. Because good shepherd Jesus knows what he's talking about when he is warning us about the thieves, the robbers, those who've jumped the fence.

And so let's kind of set up the juxtaposition this way. There's a couple of things I want to highlight as we look at our Gospel text. And most importantly, you're going to note that Jesus later in John 10 says that I am the good shepherd.

I lay down my life for the sheep. One of the ways in which you can tell when somebody is in the church and they're in it for themselves is they do not lay down their life for the sheep. They expect the sheep to lay down their lives for them because they're there to devour the sheep.

That's kind of the idea. And if you remember the context of John 10, the context begins back in John 9, at the very beginning, when there's a fellow who was born blind and the disciples asked Jesus, who sinned, this fellow or his parents, that he was born blind?

And you can hear, you're kind of like a BB in a balloon. You ever put a BB in a balloon? Maybe that's just me. You put it in there and you go, right? You can hear the Pharisees' false doctrine running around in their brain like a stray BB.

And Jesus is going to blow their minds and basically say, neither. He was born this way so the power of God may be demonstrated in his life. Whole different category all together. And then you'll note Jesus heals him.

He puts mud in his eye, sends him to the pool of Siloam. He comes back seeing, we covered this gospel text just a few weeks ago. And he comes back seeing and no sooner is he healed by Jesus, oh, he's under arrest, man.

By whom? The religious leaders. Now, let me ask you this. How does one become a religious leader and be so cruel and unkind and abusive and hateful and spiteful towards somebody that Jesus has healed?

Doesn't make any sense, right? Well, the thing is they made up their own rules. And here's the thing. When you make up your own rules, it's all about establishing you, your self-righteousness, your goodness, your amazingness, your power, your authority, and all these kinds of things.

And so Jesus has this really bad habit. He keeps breaking all the man-made rules. Wouldn't you know that about Jesus? He only obeys God's rules because he is God in human flesh. So they interrogate the guy, put him under the French fry lights, interrogate him, and they're not satisfied, and they're thinking some kind of trickery has been going on here.

And so they call in his parents. His parents are completely freaked out by the situation. And all they affirm is, yeah, he's our son. He was born blind. How he sees, we don't know.

We're out of here.

Why was that the case? Because they were terrified. They were fearful of being excommunicated from the synagogue because these fellows, these yahoos, had basically come up with a rule. If you confess Jesus, you're out.

You're out. And so you'll note that false teachers, they rule via fear. They rule via abuse. They bully.

They beat.

They threaten. This is what they do. And they're all about feeding themselves. Let me remind you what the prophet Jeremiah writes about fellows like this. This was a problem all the way back in the Old Testament.

In Jeremiah 23, opening verse, here we read a prophecy that God gave Jeremiah against such type shepherds. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people, you have scattered my flock.

You have driven them away. You have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares Yahweh. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of the countries where I've driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold.

And they shall be fruitful. And they will multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them. And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed. Neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

I would note this. One of the major features of false teachers today is they will not suffer, allow themselves to suffer, to be questioned, to be challenged, or anybody to ask theological questions that could somehow show them to be false.

And so you come up to one of the false teachers and you say to him, you know, I was thinking about what you were preaching there about that thousand-dollar seed offering that would somehow show God that I had faith in order to receive my breakthrough.

I see in Scripture that we're supposed to give not under compulsion, but from a willing heart. And you no sooner bring up a biblical point that contradicts their theology and their nonsense that they're spewing, and out come the crazy eyes.

Thou shalt not touch God's anointed.

Right?

And, you know, the problem with you, the problems with you, you have a religious spirit. Oh, you're just a Pharisee. And out comes the slander and the abuse. And what ends up happening is that you are just asking a theological question.

I mean, they're a Bible teacher after all. How come the Bible contradicts what they're saying? And all of a sudden now you're being assaulted, you're being abused, you're being threatened. And it's all about, well, you keep this up and I'm going to cast you out of here.

I've heard many stories of people who, when they stopped tithing, their pastors stopped caring for them. In fact, I remember reading a story a few years back about a pastor who sent invoices to members who had fallen behind on their tithing.

Not a joke. Google it. You'll find it, okay? That's how horrific this is. But Jude also, the half-brother of Jesus, prophesied about such fellows. In Jude's epistle, verse 8, it says, in like manner, these people, these false teachers who've crept in among us,.

He says,.

Yeah, by the way, if you've been watching the videos of Ken Copeland and others decreeing and declaring the coronavirus, obey them. That's an example of what Jude said here. These people blaspheme things they don't even understand.

They're like, well, they do things instinctively like unreasoning animals. Think of Kenneth Copeland.

COVID -19, you get down on your belly.

You know, it's nonsense.

Nonsense.

Utter nonsense. So these people, they blaspheme all they do not understand. They are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. And then he says this, woe. Woe is a big word in the Bible, man.

It's basically calling down judgment. Woe to them. They've walked in the way of Cain. Remember, Cain is the guy who has a lot of religious activity, no faith at all. You know, he offers sacrifices to God but has no faith or trust in God.

In fact, kind of hates him. And they've abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's heir. If you remember him, he's the prophet for profit in the Old Testament, hired to call down curses on Israel.

But God himself appears to him and says, you will say only what I tell you to say and it's going to cost you everything. And then, of course, they perished in Korah's rebellion. And if you're not familiar with Korah's rebellion, that's a rebellion against the authority that God has instituted.

And so the idea here is if you've ever heard anyone say, the church is a movement, it's not an institution. They're lying. The church is an institution, instituted by God, and there are offices within the church.

And these offices have been established by God to be filled by men who are qualified to hold those offices for the sake of caring for, feeding, tending, binding up the wounds of Christ's sheep. That's their job.

They're not to rule and to reign, they are to serve. But there are people who even rebel against this authority structure, the authority structure of slaves and servants for the body of Christ, and they are like Korah's rebellion.

So Jude then says, Let that one sink in. Again, they do not lay down their life for the sheep. They want the sheep to lay down their lives for them. They are waterless rain clouds. They are swept along by winds.

They are fruitless trees in late autumn. They are twice dead, uprooted. They are wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame. They are wandering stars, which means you cannot navigate by them, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

Their fate is hell. And so keep that in mind. So here this fellow, coming back to our Gospel text in the context, he's been called back in for a second interrogation regarding this healing that he has received from Jesus, and he stands his ground and confesses that if Christ, if Jesus were not of God, that he can do nothing.

And they screech to high heavens, cover their ears, and excommunicate him. You were steeped in sin from birth, you know, and all this kind of nonsense. So they cast him out. Talk about abuse. No love, no mercy, no care, no kindness.

And by the way, that is the natural type of leadership that comes from those who believe you are saving yourself by your obedience. There is no mercy. The law does not give you mercy at all. It cannot.

The law always accuses. It always condemns. And those who have no concept of what the Gospel is, all they can do is accuse and condemn. They can never console or comfort. That's the idea here. And this is why Jesus stands in stark contrast, because those whom the Pharisees condemned using the law and somehow silly in a very weird way thought that they were somehow pulling it off, those whom they condemned, Jesus had this really interesting habit of finding and forgiving.

Those who were condemned because they were born with illnesses and diseases,.

Jesus healed.

Those who were declared unclean because of leprosy, Jesus made clean. Those who were dead, Jesus made alive. Those who were sinners, you know, like the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the hookers and the drug users, think of it that way, Jesus sought them out and he forgave them.

The demoniacs, he cast the demons out and gave them a right mind. All the people who the Pharisees had pushed to the margins using the law and they refused to show any mercy to, Christ comes and he does nothing but show mercy, kindness, love.

What is he doing? He's finding his lost sheep and showing through his actions that he loves and he cares for them.

Big difference.

And so, any church leader who doesn't look like or act like Jesus but acts like a self-righteous abuser, well, then now you can see the distinction. And then note, remember the kindness in the resolve in our gospel text from just a few weeks ago, where having been excommunicated, Jesus seeks this fellow out and he has never seen Jesus with his own eyes yet because, remember, he was healed when he washed in the pool of Siloam.

And so Jesus seeks him out and says, Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered, Who is he, sir, that I may believe him? And Jesus said to him, You've seen him. It's he who's speaking to you. Total kindness, tender moment.

The good shepherd now comes to comfort and assure his sheep that although he has been cast out of the synagogue by the Pharisees, he has not been cast out from his love. And so he said, Lord, I believe.

And it says the man worshiped Jesus. That's a big statement. To worship Jesus then means that this guy is confessing with his actions, his words, his body itself, that Jesus is his God, his good shepherd.

And then Jesus says this, For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. And, of course, the Pharisees standing by are about to allow themselves to be criticized.

Thou shalt not touch God's anointed, and that's us. So the Pharisees near him heard these things and said, Are we also blind? And Jesus, in a word, you can notice the Roseboro Summary, basically says, Yeah, you are.

And he says it with these words, If you were blind, you would have no guilt, taking their theology and shoving it right up their nose.

It says this,.

But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. So although you were not born blind, you claim that everybody who was born blind sinned. Well, even though you have eyesight, you are a bunch of guilty sinners.

And then, note, chapter 10 just picks up in that same discourse. There is no pause in the narrative. It's a weird thing that we do. You know, we seem to have forgotten that the chapter headings in our Bible are there just to make it so we can find passages quicker.

They do not necessarily reflect a logical break in the narrative. And so chapter 10, there is no break. So Jesus, then, after saying, Because you say we see, your guilt remains. Amen, amen. I say to you, And who's he talking to?

Who's the you there?

The Pharisees. I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. And who's he looking at when he's saying it? The Pharisees.

Because that's exactly what they are. They jump the fence. There are no Pharisees in the Old Testament. These people are not tasked by God to teach in the synagogue. The Levites are. The Pharisees are usurper.

They jumped in the fence. They've now jumped over and are taking care of the sheep by stealing from them. You're a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Think of it this way.

Think of it this way. If you were to go to the grocery store because it's time to kind of stock up on supplies that you can continue to weather the pandemic, right? And while you're away, somebody breaks into your house.

Are they going to just walk in the front door?

No.

How do robbers come into your house? They break the window, right? They break the window or they crush down the door or something like that. They enter via nefarious means. But because you're the owner of the house, when you come home, you put the key in the door.

You unlock the door and walk in. And so Jesus is basically saying these guys crept in at night unnoticed. They jumped the fence. They're not supposed to be here. God did not call them. They are not tasked with this job.

They are here for one purpose. They are here to rob, to steal, to abuse, to kill the sheep. But he who enters by the door, that's Jesus. He's the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.

Isn't that interesting? Here, the thief doesn't care anything about the sheep. He doesn't know their name. They don't know his voice. They're terrified at his presence. They're terrified at his voice.

But Jesus shows up, and he knows each of his sheep by name, each of them, showing his tender love and care for them. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them. The sheep follow him.

They know his voice. And the stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the stranger's voice. Now, this figure of speech, Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying.

And that's kind of the punchline of the first part of our gospel text, verse 6. Listen again. So who's Jesus talking to? He's talking to the Pharisees, right? Now, a lot of people twist this part of Scripture and say, well, see, it says the sheep hear his voice.

So have you heard the voice of Jesus? Have you learned how to tune into that still, small voice within you? That's not what he's talking about. This is not it at all. This is an abuse of the text to kind of say that.

And you're going to note, if you want to hear the voice of Jesus, remember what Jesus in the Gospel of Luke says to his disciples, the one who hears you hears me. The one who hears me hears the one who sent me.

Hearing Christ Through the Apostles and the Church

This is why, in our first reading today, in Acts chapter 2, consider what happens in the aftermath of the day of Pentecost. Pentecost is just a few weeks away, by the way. Actually, more like a month, but we'll get there soon enough.

But on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes. They begin proclaiming the wonders of God to all of the different people in Jerusalem in their own native languages so that they can hear the Gospel being proclaimed.

Peter stands up, preaches this brilliant sermon inspired by God the Holy Spirit, accusing them of being guilty of killing the Messiah. They're cut to the heart, and they say, brothers, what shall we do?

And he says, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, for the promises for you and for your children and all who are far off and all whom the Lord God will call to himself. And thousands were baptized that day, brought to the waters of baptism, had their wounds healed, their sins washed away, and these newly minted Christians, fresh from the waters of baptism, still have water behind the ears and their hair is still a little bit wet.

What does it say that they did? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.

Why?

Because the one who hears the apostles hears Jesus. Remember, Jesus didn't write any Gospels. He didn't write any of them. They did. The apostles did. So they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

This is what the church does. By the way, if you have the apostles' teaching, you have fellowship, you have the Lord's Supper, you have prayers, guess what you got? You got church. And it could be done anywhere.

It could be done, well, in a small church building out in rural Oslo. It could be done all the way in this tiny little church building off in Radium in Minnesota. It can be done in a basement. It can be done in the catacombs.

It can be done online. In fact, you can do church, well, kind of like that green eggs and ham thing. You can do it in a box. You can do it with a fox. You can do it at a house. You can do church with a mouse.

You can do church here or there. You can do church anywhere, anywhere, as long as you have the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Indeed, indeed. And so you'll note then this wonderful text points out that Jesus' voice will be heard by his sheep.

And now watch the punchline.

Listen. Okay.

My sheep know my voice. I call my own sheep by name. I lead them out. And when the shepherd has brought them all out, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him. They know his voice. And the Pharisees are sitting there going, We cannot understand you.

All right?

Because it says this.

This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they didn't understand what he was saying. Why didn't they understand? Because they ain't his sheep. That's the point. That's the reason they're not getting it.

And so then Jesus just continues. Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers. He's looking at them. He's looking at the thieves and the robbers.

But the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in, and he will go out, and he will find pasture. But the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And so you'll note then that Christ has not come so that you can be healthy, wealthy, and wise and all this kind of stuff in this life, but have the abundant life that is taken from you by the thieves, by the false teachers, by the robbers, by the stealers.

And you'll note then it begins with you having peace with God. And so note, this is an important thing for us to consider. Do not let Jesus' words ricochet off your head like a BB against a brick wall.

Let them sink in. There are real thieves and robbers. There are real abusers and false teachers. There are real wolves, and they're not out there. They're in the visible church. They are denying the words of Christ.

They are overturning what Jesus has said. They are usurping His authority. They are taking advantage of you. Compare them to Jesus. Jesus loves you, and He wants you to be protected from them. So if we were to repent of anything today, we should repent of having a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to the dangers that exist today from false teachers.

And thinking, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, really, it is. Because after these sheep have been devoured by these thieves and robbers, their eternity is in hell. Not only do they lose their life here, they lose their life in eternity as well because their faith is misplaced.

But note, then, that even this sin, which is related to idolatry, even the sin of not heeding the words of our Savior, of taking the words of Christ, His apostles, and even the prophets of old, and casting them behind us as if they really don't matter today, that Jesus Himself has even bled and died for that sin.

The Cross, the Good Shepherd, and the Call to Repentance

So consider the kindness of your Good Shepherd. He committed no sin, none whatsoever. No deceit was ever found in His mouth. Jesus never once, never once made merchandise of people or preached so that He would become wealthy.

He never taught false doctrine for the purpose of shameful gain. In fact, when He died, He was so poor He couldn't even afford a tomb, and it had to be given to Him, a borrowed tomb from somebody who was rich.

So Jesus dies naked, poor, not even able to afford a burial plot. It had to be given to Him. But then note this, that no deceit was found in His mouth, and when He was reviled, He didn't revile or threaten.

When people challenged Jesus, Jesus didn't sit there and say, how dare you touch God's anointed, because He was God's anointed. And so rather than revile in return, He did not. So instead, when He suffered, He did not threaten, but He continued entrusting Himself to him who judges justly.

And He bore your sins, and He bore my sins, in His body, on the tree, on the cross. And He did this so that we might die to sin, which is not freedom, it's slavery, so that we might live to righteousness, which is truly freedom.

And by His wounds, you have been healed. You have been raised from the dead, and you now have peace with God because of what Christ has done for you. For all of us, we were straying like sheep and still struggle with that straying, but we've now been returned to the shepherd and the overseer of our souls, the Good Shepherd who's laid down His life for His sheep.

So if you are ever, ever in a situation where you're wondering, is that person I'm listening to on the internet, or on the radio, or on the television, is that person a true teacher of Christ's Word, or is he one of the ones that Jesus warned me about, go back and ask yourself, does this person exemplify the sacrificial love of Christ for me?

Does He love and care for people, or does He only love and care for Himself? Does He willingly confess His sin and assure you of the forgiveness of sins by Christ, or has He got you believing that if you send money to Him and decree and declare like He does, that you can become a bazillionaire like He is?

If that's the case, this person only cares for himself. He's an abuser. He's a thief. He's a robber. Flee. If you want to know what love looks like, the Good Shepherd, then look to the cross, the broken and dead body of Christ, hanging naked and dead, being pierced for your transgressions so that you can live, He laid down His life.

So Lord, help us to repent of not seeing the dangers that You have warned us of, and may we ever look to You, our Good Shepherd, who leads us out and brings us to pasture, so that we may finally finish traveling and sojourning through the valley of the shadow of death, so that one day we may enjoy the safe pasture of a world without end in the new earth and the new heavens that You are bringing with You on the day of judgment.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Closing Thanks and Donation Notice

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And again, thank you for listening.