A Shepherd in Sheep's Clothing

The Good Shepherd in John 10

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 Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. John, chapter 10, verses 11 -18. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

The wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. 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. So there will be one flock and one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

This is the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

Christ the Good Shepherd Versus False Teachers

In the name of Jesus. Amen. I think there is no better enduring picture of our Lord Jesus Christ than this one that he has painted for himself as the good shepherd and we his sheep that he cares after.

Here again the words from our gospel text. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Think of it this way. Scripture refers to false teachers as wolves in sheep's clothing.

But you're going to note that because of the sacrificial tone and the explicit sacrificial statements made by Christ that he is the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep, that Jesus is painting himself as a shepherd in sheep's clothing.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And it is truly marvelous in our sight and oh so comforting. So as we work through this text and then hook in our epistle text together with it, it's important for us to remember that as familiar as this text is as a stand alone where Jesus is talking about himself as the good shepherd, that there is a context into which he said these words.

And that context is very important for us to rightly understand it. Because Jesus is actually comparing and contrasting himself with false teachers. And the real context of this passage begins all the way back in chapter 9 verse 1.

But we will not go all the way back to the beginning of that story. We will note that in chapter 9 you have the account of the fellow who was born blind. And Jesus' disciples asked Jesus who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?

And this is a question that was prompted by the false teaching of the Pharisees. And it's important to note that Jesus chose neither of those answers as the right answer. Instead said that he was born blind in order that the glory of God may be displayed in his life.

Kind of a fascinating concept, but this is true nonetheless. And we'll note then that this fellow after he was healed by Jesus, that he was put on trial by the Pharisees for being healed. Which is a fascinating thing if you think about it.

And so we'll pick up at the beginning of chapter 10 and the aftermath with the Pharisees kind of in Jesus' face and the Pharisees having kind of run this guy out of the synagogue. Here's what Jesus says in chapter 10 verse 1.

Truly, truly, amen, amen, 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 he's referring to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the ones who jumped the fence.

There is no office of Pharisee in the Old Testament. They show up between the intertestamental period. We've said this before. And these are people who had no authority to be doing the things that they were doing, and yet they had literally taken over the church in Israel at the time of Christ.

They were the ones running the synagogue, and with no commission from God to do so. And so Jesus is contrasting himself with them. And basically saying, they, the false teachers, they are thieves and robbers.

However, he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. What an endearing picture.

And it's comforting for us because we recognize that not only does this text infer it, but other passages of Scripture make it clear that our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, knows us each by name.

And that is important because our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Isn't it funny that that's what it's called? Good connection, right? Of course he calls us all by name. So, when he has brought out all that is his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him.

They know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, they will flee from him. For they do not know the voice of strangers. And this is a figure of speech that Jesus gave, and that's what the text says.

And he used this with them. However, they did not understand what he was saying. And the reason they didn't understand was because they weren't his sheep. So Jesus again said to them, Amen, Amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me, these Pharisees, not Moses and the prophets, but the Pharisees, they are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.

And I will go in and out, and he will go in and out and find pasture. However, the thief, the false teacher, he comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I came, though, that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

And if you want to know what that abundant life looks like in this lifetime, then we would be wise to refer back to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He meets all of our needs. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. This is truly the abundant life referred to here. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, which each of us do, I will fear no evil.

For you are with me, and your rod and your staff, your discipline, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Funny place to set a table, is it not? You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows.

And surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is a perfect picture of the abundant life that we experience now, protected by our good shepherd as he leads us through the darkness into the light of the new day that is coming, and the new creation.

False Teachers as Wolves, Hirelings, and Idols of Self

So, as we look at this text then, our context makes it clear that Jesus is not merely distinguishing himself from the false teachers by basically by way of saying I'm a better shepherd than they are. He's saying they're not shepherds at all.

And they care nothing for the sheep. His description of himself is that he is kind of in a league of his own. There is none like him. You see, Jesus is the good shepherd who, unlike the false teachers, they are doing the work of the wolves.

And we'll note that in the text, the work that they're doing for the wolves is pretty much preparing the sheep for them to be torn apart and scattered by the wolves, because false teachers truly care only about themselves.

So, the text then continues. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep, and he flees. The wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he is a hired hand and he cares nothing for the sheep. And so you see these hired hands, these false teachers who have no authority to be doing the things and saying the things that they're saying and doing, that they actually end up opening the door for the wolves.

And the wolves come in and they snatch and they scatter the sheep. We noted, as we've been working our way through 1 John, that in week one that how the Apostle John was writing 1 John against the Cyrenthianites.

Cyrenthus being a proto-Gnostic who was teaching heresies. And these heresies appealed to the Platonic worldview of the ancient Greco-Roman world, and they sounded so reasonable. They sounded so rational and believable.

However, the result was that these heresies tore the church in Ephesus apart. Literally ripped the congregation in two. And this is what John said. Let me remind you what he said in 1 John chapter 2. And what a sad, sad state of affairs.

Cyrenthus, who had no authority to say or to teach the things that he was saying or doing, literally opened up the door for the wolves of the demonic, and they came in and scattered these sheep and took them away from the place where they could hear about the Good Shepherd and instead were led off and picked off by the devil.

And it's important for us to recognize this. That heresies and false teachers still continue to divide the flock and expose people to the snatchings and the scatterings of the devil. And the question that I think we need to consider is, what motivates people to mistreat Christ's sheep in such egregious ways?

And I think that it all boils down to satanic, and watch the way I say this, idolatry. It's all about me. Satanic idolatry. The hirelings care nothing about the sheep. They only care about themselves.

They only care about their ego-driven interests. And their interests may include but are not limited to money, power, prestige, success, oh as well as the accolades of the world. Consider that. All of those things are idolatry driven.

The hirelings, they're slick. They oftentimes claim, and this is kind of how they work. So when a hireling shows up, the hireling will say that they have secret knowledge, secret insight on how to work with the scriptures.

And they assure you that they will help you in this lifetime obtain the same kind of money, power, prestige, success, as well as the world's accolades that they have achieved. So their rhetoric may include phrases like this.

Those backwards, traditional Bible-believing Christians who believe that the Bible is the Word of God. They are so irrelevant and not with the times. And they would instead have you focus rather than these people who believe in the Bible, they would have you focus on the eternal life.

But what good is salvation if it doesn't make your life better in the here and now? This is how they talk. So the hirelings claim that their secret insights, their spiritual keys to achieving success, will give you for instance, power.

And this is a very interesting word that is thrown about a lot nowadays in the visible church. Dunamis power. So that you can receive direct revelation from God. Why should you not have the ability to plug your finger right into the electrical socket to experience the electrical dynamite power of God?

And they promise that you'll have your own prayer language so that you can slay the Goliaths in your life so that you can live the victorious Christian life and live the life of an anointed one as you take your place in the Christian Hall of Fame.

This is how they talk. But I would remind all of us that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 says this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. However, it's the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven who will.

And we'll talk about what is the will of the Father here in a minute. But on that day, many will say to me, the day of judgment, many will say to Jesus, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And did we not cast out demons in your name?

And do mighty works of signs and wonders in your name? Jesus will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Now, another way in which the rhetoric will then play out with the false teachers, they might promise you that God has created you for a unique and specific purpose or a destiny so that you can change the world.

But I would remind them that Ephesians 2 .10 says that we are God's workmanship and that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Nowhere in Scripture are we told that we need to change the world.

We are instead told to make disciples, to proclaim Christ, and to serve our neighbor in the humble good works that we are given to do in our vocations. The person who sets out to change the world oftentimes will change the world the same way that Hitler did.

Important to note that. Or, the false teachers might promise you, listen, what good is salvation if it doesn't give you in the present, in the here and now, divine health and divine wealth so that you can be the head and not the tail and never experience weakness, nor feel the dependent need to beg God for daily bread like all those weak and miserable ordinary Christians.

And of course, they'll point you to their private jets and their mansions and all of the clothes and expensive watches that they have as proof that what they're saying is true. But yet, the Apostle Peter, who had no such things, says this in 2 Peter 2 .3, in their greed these false teachers will exploit you with false words.

And that's what they do. It's all about scratching your itching ears so they can make themselves rich. And Peter says of them, their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

The Shepherd’s Sacrificial Love and the Will of the Father

There's another way in which false teachers divide the body of Christ and scatter Christ's sheep. There are false teachers who claim that they have a more loving understanding of God than what those Bible-believing Christians will teach.

And so, they claim that if God is love, he would never condemn anybody to hell. Therefore, sin doesn't really matter as a category. And God would bless and affirm same-sex marriage. They engage in gender identity politics.

They espouse evolutionary theory, deny the doctrine of hell. And in so doing, well, they are no longer offensive to the world. In fact, many people in the world give them accolades. And they're invited to parties and things like that so they can hobnob with the world's elite.

However, I would note that Scripture is very clear about people like this. Romans chapter 1, 28 -32 says, Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil.

What a fascinating phrase. Could you imagine having a patent on something that was evil? Yeah, I invented that one myself. Yeah, this is what happens with people, though. They are inventors of evil. They are disobedient to parents.

They're foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And although they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, and the reason they know this is that the law of God is written on our hearts, they not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them.

And they give approval to pastors who will tell them what they want to hear, that none of that stuff is evil. But Scripture is clear. All of it is evil. You see, false teachers are nothing like Jesus.

And Jesus is nothing like them. Because Jesus doesn't care about himself. He cares about you. He didn't come to tell you what you wanted to hear. He came to bleed and die for your sins so that you might have life.

And so Jesus is not motivated by satanic self-interest or idolatry. He truly cares for the sheep. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own they know me. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

No hireling does this. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. So that you understand what that means, Jesus is speaking to Jews at this point. But he's talking about the fact that his sacrifice and laying down his life for the sheep is not referring merely to those who are genetically Jewish, but to Gentiles as well.

He says, I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life so that I might take it up again.

No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. That's right. When Jesus was bleeding and dying, ultimately that was his decision. Not the decision of Pontius Pilate or of the crowd. That was Jesus' decision to lay down his own life.

He says, I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. So this charge I received from my Father. And so with these words then in our minds of Jesus' sacrificial love for us, and this is kind of an important thing.

You're going to note that love is clearly defined for us. Often times when we talk about love, we have a weird abstract kind of soft idea of what love is. And you'll note that Jesus isn't talking about love in the sense of pink heart emojis and girly soft things with frills or teddy bears or care bears or things like that.

No, think of it this way. The love he is describing the manly job of shepherd. The love he is describing involves wood, nails, blood, thorns, pain. This is a completely different kind of love. It is not something abstract or soft.

It is manly and it is firm and it is hard and it is rugged. It even smells bad. That's the kind of love he is describing. The sacrificial love of our good shepherd. And so then with the image of Christ on the cross, bleeding and dying for us, laying down his life for the sheep.

This then informs us as those who have been brought from death to life. From the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light. Into the fold of the good shepherd who cares for us. He now informs us through his death how we are to love each other.

Love in Deed and Truth: 1 John 3:16-24

And so with that we return to our epistle text. John writes 1 John 3 16. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us. Therefore we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And the brothers here is a reference to all the brothers and the sisters within Christianity.

And you'll note that this assumes patriarchy. This assumes that humanity was made as mankind. With men being the leaders of their family units. And we each other. So when we recognize the brothers and lay down our lives for the brothers, we also lay down our lives for our brothers' wives and sisters and mothers.

That's this beautiful picture. See, if we are in Christ he has loved us. We love each other the exact same way. And notice the manliness of it. Notice that there are no frills or soft edges. This is hard and difficult and sacrificial.

If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Oh boy, are you saying that this kind of love is going to cost me money?

You betcha. In fact, it will cost you everything you have. And that's the point. Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.

For whenever our heart condemns us, and it's important to note here that this is talking about how the law of God is written on our hearts. Isn't it fascinating that out of the heart comes our sin and yet that's the very place where God has written his law inside of us?

And so it seems like we have kind of two streams running out of our heart. The one stream that desires evil and the other stream that says that was evil. Fascinating that it all happens within us. So, when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart.

Why? Because Christ has bled and died for us. He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us and it doesn't condemn us because we are in Christ, we have confidence then before God and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

And now you're saying, but what do I need to do to please God? Well, it's fascinating. This text actually clears this up for us. Remember, it's the one who does the will of the Father who will be brought into heaven, not those who perform miracles.

Here's what John says, and this is his commandment, Christ's commandment. Are you ready? That we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ. That's the will of the Father, that you believe in the one whom he has sent and because of this, you love one another.

Straight up. This is why we as Christians, we bear with one another. We bear each other's burdens. This is why we are instructed that love covers a multitude of sins. This is why we forgive each other when we step on each other's toes.

I've noticed that when sinners dance with each other, they have a tendency to step on each other's toes and if that has ever happened to you, you know just how painful that is. But rather than stopping the dance and screaming in their face, you forgive it and take the next step and continue the dance.

We are called then as Christians because of what Christ has done for us to dance with each other, even as awkward as that is and as difficult as it is for Norwegians to do. But that's the idea. And it's beautiful and it's awkward and it's painful and it's hard, just like Jesus' cross was, all of those things.

So, we believe in him and we love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

The Marks of a Good Pastor and Jude’s Warning Against Scoffers

So, our text today again reminds us of the great love of Christ. Our hard-working shepherd who tends to ornery sheep, who lays down his life for them and has been given authority to take it back up again.

And he compares himself then to the false teachers and paints himself into a category that is a category of one where Jesus is. And it's important to note then that how you can tell when you have a good pastor as opposed to a bad pastor.

Bad pastor is going to point you to himself rather than Jesus. Bad pastor is going to have you not listen to Jesus' voice but listen to his own. Give you his own opinions, his own ravings, his own stuff.

Give you his secrets and all this kind of stuff and you depend on him rather than depending on Christ. Those who are under shepherds of the good shepherd always point you to the good shepherd knowing that even they themselves are actually one of Christ's bled for, died for sheep.

So, we remember then the words of John the Baptist, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. And as for the false teachers, we will let Jesus' half-brother Jude have the last word regarding them.

Jude writes starting in verse 17, you must remember beloved the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you that in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

You can put into there their own idolatry. It is these who are the ones who cause divisions, who scatter Christ's sheep. They are worldly people and they are devoid of the Spirit. But you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

And right now, the belief that Christ has bled and died for us, that he has had mercy on us is an article of faith. But when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead and we see our good shepherd face to face for the first time, that mercy that we believe by faith will give way to sight.

And we will experience that mercy in the person, in the flesh, in Jesus Christ. So keep yourselves in the love of God while you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed that leads to eternal life.

And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. And to others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment that is stained by the flesh. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are our good shepherd.

Teach us, Lord, to love in the same way that you have loved us. We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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