If you’re only casually familiar with the Bible, you might be surprised to find out that one of the major themes of the New Testament is false teachers. Under this general category fall false shepherds, false prophets and false apostles.
You see, the Bible claims to be the truth about God and our relationship to Him. And the key truth that we must all understand to be saved and have a right relationship with God is about Jesus—that Jesus is the God man who died for our sins and rose again.
The reason that false teachers and their teachings become such a major subject in the Bible is that, number one, there are a lot of them. and #2, what they try to do is deadly. They attempt to dissuade us from the truth and have us believe a lie about who the true God is and what He has done to give us eternal life. In other words, our ability to recognize all forms of false teachers and false shepherds and their false teaching becomes critical. It can become a matter of eternal life or eternal death. If we fail to know the difference between false teachers and false shepherds and true teachings and reliable shepherds, we are spiritually vulnerable. We can be deceived, and having been deceived we may, as a result, experience eternal destruction.
So this morning we turn to a passage where this subject comes up. It’s John chapter 10, and in many respects it’s one of the most comforting passages in all of Scripture. Jesus identifies Himself for us as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. But in the midst of all the good vibes, we might expect, the passage serves as a warning about, in particular false shepherds, some really bad guys, spiritual thieves and robbers.
And basically what we’re going to find out about them is how to discern the difference between a true shepherd and a false shepherd. Basically, that we’re to Follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus, as the only one who can save. Reject any so-called shepherd who denies that Jesus is the only one who can save.
Now to be honest with you, I have never fully understood this passage as I have in the last couple of weeks. That’s all because of the chapter break. As I’ve read through the Gospel of John, I’ve always assumed when I got to Chapter 10, an entirely new story was being told, unconnected with the events in Chapter 9. But, as many of you know, the chapter breaks in Scripture are not inspired—they are not from God. They were added for our convenience by Bible scholars somewhere around the 14th or 15th centuries, A.D. As John wrote John 9 and 10 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the first century A.D., there was no chapter 9 or chapter 10. There was just one continuous manuscript, without chapters and verses. And even today, when you look closely at the end of chapter 9 and the beginning of chapter 10, you’ll realize that chapter 10 is simply a continuation of the events that occurred in chapter 9. If you were with us two weeks ago, you know that chapter 9 was all about how Jesus healed the man born blind and the controversy that stirred up among the Jews, the religious and political leaders in Jerusalem at the time. The man born blind had been taken to the Pharisees, one party among several who were part of the ruling council of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, to explain what had happened to him. The Pharisees, as well as the scribes and the Sadducees were unalterably opposed to Jesus and had already determined to eliminate Him from the scene. The man born blind who has received his sight from Jesus totally befuddles them, and at every turn demonstrates to them that Jesus is indeed the Light of the World and the Messiah, just as He claimed. And in response to this the Pharisees revile him, put him down, and then put him out—expelling him from the Synagogue. Then Jesus, the great Shepherd and lover of men’s souls, goes and finds the man born blind, instructs him about who He, Jesus, really is, and the man believes. Some Pharisees are watching this entire process take place, and even begin to enter into the discussion with Jesus in verse 41. They have just finished spiritually misleading and abusing the man born blind. And chapter 10 is simply a continuation of this discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees, as Jesus looks them in the eye, and takes dead aim at exposing who they really were and what they were really like in contrast to who He really is and what He is all about.
And in this story Jesus is going to make a number of comparisons. He gives us an allegory in which he continually refers to those who will come to have or have come to faith as sheep. He’s going to compare the Pharisees and their ilk to, first of all, thieves and robbers, then to a stranger, then to a hireling, or a hired man who has been paid to watch over the sheep. And he’s going to compare himself to the true shepherd of a flock as the Shepherd par Excellence, the ultimate Good Shepherd who lays down his life to save the sheep.
Jesus takes up his discourse to and against the Pharisees in verse 1 of John 10. And once again, he advises his hearers that he’s dead serious, that what he’s about to say is absolutely true: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.”
Now as Jesus speaks, He paints a picture that was very familiar to all those who heard Him speak at this time. Shepherding was a common occupation. And nearly everyone knew what a sheepfold was—it was an enclosure that almost always in Palestine consisted of rough rock walls to protect the sheep from thieves and robbers, wolves, lions or bears or whatever danger might beset them in the course of a night. There was one gate on the typical sheepfold. Through this gate sheep and their shepherds would pass. It was the place where shepherds would bring their flocks for the night and leave them in the care of a porter, or the person identified here as the doorkeeper. In the morning, when it was time to pasture the sheep, the shepherd would come to the door, the doorkeeper would recognize him and open the door at which time the shepherd would call the sheep of his flock. There might be several flocks of sheep that would spend the night in the sheepfold. When each shepherd came, his sheep, as has been well-documented, would recognize his voice, and most of the time, would come running. He would move his sheep, one way or another out of the fold, or pen, and then in the Middle East back then, would move ahead of the sheep who would then, having recognized his voice as their shepherd would follow him.
And basically what Jesus does here is contrast the typical behavior of a true shepherd with that of someone who is a thief and a robber. The thief or robber would have to try to climb over the wall at some other point than, of course, the gate, to gain access to the sheep. They would cross the legitimate boundaries which separated them from their objective. Meanwhile, the true shepherd, who truly owned the sheep, simply walked to the door of the fold, and having been recognized by the doorkeeper, would have the gate opened to him, and his sheep, out of all the flocks that might have spent the night there, would recognize his voice, and come running. And He would put them all out of the pen, and then they would follow him as he led them away to good pasture.
Now remember that what’s happening here is that Jesus is telling this allegory against the Pharisees that He’s speaking to, the very Pharisees who had tried to mislead the man born blind about who Jesus really was, the very Pharisees who had spiritually abused the man born blind. And He’s indicating that these Pharisees are the very people who qualify as spiritual thieves and robbers. They are spiritual thieves and robbers in the sense that they try to lead the sheep away from their true shepherd--they try to steal the sheep for themselves and their own selfish purposes.
But what had happened with the man born blind? He wouldn’t listen to them. He refused to believe their contention that Jesus was a sinner, insisting that He was, at the very least, a prophet. And so now Jesus explains for the Pharisees what had happened—why the man born blind wouldn’t listen to them. He didn’t recognize their voice as his true and rightful shepherd. Verse 4: “When he, the true shepherd, puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
And so it had been for the man born blind. He did not follow the spiritual thieves and robbers, the Pharisees. They were strangers to him, whose voice he did not recognize. Rather, He demonstrated Himself to a true sheep by listening only to the voice of His true Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and following Him.
At this point, Jesus has identified the Pharisees and all the Jewish leaders as spiritual thieves and robbers, false shepherds who attempt to steal the sheep by misleading them about Jesus. And what He has said about them is that Spiritual Thieves, False Shepherds violate God-ordained boundaries in order to steal sheep. Now place that carefully in your mind,because it is a vital principle to remember, it will serve you well in discerning between true shepherds and false shepherds. Spiritual thieves, false shepherds, violate God-ordained boundaries to steal sheep, to take potential believers away from the truth.
Now, you might wonder, what God-ordained boundaries they violate. Well, think back to the debate between the man born blind and the Jewish religious leaders in John 9:13-34. What did the Jewish religious leaders try to get the man born blind to do? They attempted to dissuade him from believing Jesus was anybody special at all. In fact, they attempted to persuade him that He was a sinner incapable of doing the miracle which He had so obviously just done. This gives us a clue as to the kind of God-ordained boundaries false shepherds will violate to steal away potential believers—they will attempt to discredit Jesus, identifying him as something less than God, and they will also attempt to discredit what Jesus has done. He didn’t really perform that miracle of giving you sight, did He? And that’s exactly the nature of false shepherds today. They will violate God-ordained spiritual boundaries, Biblical teachings, as to who Jesus is—the God-man, and what Jesus has done for us—He’s died for our sins and risen again. These are two issues that are essential for each of us to believe in order to go to heaven, in order to be saved.
And so this is where we need to be careful. False shepherds are spiritual thieves who will violate God-ordained boundaries, God’s teachings in order to steal the sheep.
Well, not surprisingly, the Pharisees don’t get it at this point. After all, they are spiritually blind, as Jesus had just indicated. So Jesus changes his allegory slightly and becomes much more pointed and bolder in his explanation. Verse 7: “So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”
Notice, what Jesus says is again preceded by truly, truly. It’s another incredibly important statement of earth- and life-shaking proportion. Now Jesus states emphatically that He is the door—the door of the sheepfold, and if anyone enters through Him, they will be saved. Again, it is an incredible statement, a statement that no ordinary man would every in his right mind make. Jesus is claiming to have absolute authority over the destiny of every man, and more than that, to be the means by which any of us can have eternal life. Notice, here, He does not mention any other door as the means of eternal life. He mentions that He is the door, the one and only door—that’s the use of the article here which does appear in the original language. And for these Pharisees, He is claiming to be the only way, the only means to heaven. This is entirely consistent with His teaching throughout John, and especially in the series of teachings we’ve seen from John 4 on—He says I am the bread of life, He says I am the light of the World, and He says simply I Am the I AM. And now He says he is the door to eternal life—he is the one and only means by which a person can be saved.
And in the process, He discredits the Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders who had rejected Him. He says in verse 8, “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear Him.” And we may wonder who He is talking about when He’s speaking about all who came before Him. Obviously, He could not be speaking of the prophets—they predicted the Messiah’s coming. Some think He’s speaking of previous false Messiahs who had come to Israel claiming to be the true Messiah, and there had been some. This is a possibility, I suppose, but I think he’s referring to the very people He’s talking to and about—the spiritual leaders of Israel. They have obviously acted as false shepherds to the people, as spiritual thieves and robbers. Just as they had done with the man born blind, they sought to mislead the people, they sought to lead the people away from belief in Jesus. They were jealous of his popularity and feared that they would lose their position of authority and the wealth they gained from it among the people. But the true sheep, those who were destined to believe, did not hear them. And they were coming to faith in Jesus as their Messiah and Savior, as the only one who could save them from the consequences for their sins.
In verse 10 he says he will not only save those who enter through Him, but that they would go in and out and find pasture. He would provide for them. And then he contrasts his goal for the sheep to that of the false shepherds, the very Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes he was addressing, along with their kind. And he says these false shepherds come only to steal and kill and destroy, but He came that his sheep, those who enter the sheepfold by Him and Him alone would have life and have it abundantly. In other words they would experience not only eternal life, but an abundant quality of life in the midst of their eternal life.
Now just to note something here: Jesus says that these false shepherds have come to steal and kill and destroy. I’ve always thought that kill and destroy were two ways of saying the same thing. But as I pondered over the exact Greek words used here, the word translated for destroy in John 10:10, apoluo, is also the very words used in John 3:16 for perish. John 3:16 reads “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish. should not be destroyed, should not be apoluoed, but have eternal life. In other words, it’s used as the polar opposite of eternal life. And what is the polar opposite of eternal life? Eternal death. Eternal destruction. The word is used in the same way in John 10:28 when Jesus promises that His sheep will never perish where He’s speaking of perishing or being destroyed in the sense of experiencing eternal death. So I think it’s very possible what Jesus is saying here is that the ultimate purpose of the false shepherd is to steal, to kill physically and then to kill or destroy eternally.
And so essentially what Jesus is saying here is that Spiritual thieves, also known as false shepherds, come to steal sheep from the true shepherd, and when they steal sheep from the true Shepherd, the result is that they both die physically and die spiritually, they forfeit their temporal lives and they forfeit their eternal lives. So this is an incredibly serious issue, this matter of false shepherds.
And you know the other thing He implies—given the actions of these Pharisees? He implies that spiritual thieves ultimately deny that Jesus is the only door through which people can be saved. He says, I am the door to eternal life. The False Shepherds say He is not the door to eternal life. And as Jesus puts it here, where you fall in your opinion between these two opposing teachings determines whether you will have eternal life or eternal destruction.
And so at this point, we have our second point. False shepherds, spiritual thieves, deny that Jesus is the only way to be saved. False shepherds show they are spiritual thieves by this one activity—by claiming that He is not the only way, the only means of salvation.
And that’s exactly what these Pharisees did. They claimed they were right before God and thus saved either on the basis of the fact that they were the physical descendants of Abraham or their claim that they kept the Law of Moses, or some combination of the two. The truth of the matter, according to Jesus, is that neither of those were doors to eternal life. The truth of the matter was that Jesus, and Jesus alone, through his death for our sins and resurrection, is the only door to eternal life.
So I want to ask you a question this morning, and I want you to answer me. How many doors are there to eternal life, according to Jesus? Yes, Just one. And what is that door: Jesus Himself, who makes the way for us by dying for our sins and simply asks us to trust that He did so as the means to gaining eternal life.
So if someone spiritual leader or self-professed teacher comes to you and says, there are other doors to eternal life. What would you say about him? Is he a good shepherd or a false shepherd? Does he speak the truth, or is a thief and a robber? Right. He’s a false shepherd and He’s a thief and a robber.
And what if someone who believes there are other ways to heaven in addition to Jesus comes to you and wants to be part of your fellowship? At least not right away!
What if someone contradicts Jesus and claims that baptism, or the sacraments, or Mary or other Saints are doors to heaven? What are you going to say to them?
I’ll tell you what. You know who I’m going to believe? Jesus, and Jesus alone, because only Jesus among all the world’s men proved, without a doubt, He knew what He was talking about. Because only Jesus both predicted his death and His resurrection to the very day and pulled it off. Only Jesus proved He could overcome death for Himself, as well as for others, so until someone comes along and duplicates feat, I’m going to believe Jesus no matter what anyone else says.
Now remember what we’ve talked about here, because it has application to a serious issue, we’re going to discuss in our business meeting after church today. A good shepherd, or good shepherds, don’t go around the sheepfold assisting thieves and robbers in their attempts to climb over the wall. Why? Because, spiritually speaking, it’s a deadly activity, you could be aiding and abetting the enemy in his attempts to destroy the sheep.
And then Jesus comes to His great proclamation for John 10. He says, I am the Good Shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And of course what he’s referring to his coming death on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins. He’s talking about the very means by which he accomplishes our salvation, the very means by which He is able to give us eternal life—that he takes away the problem that exists between us and God—that is our sin. He takes it away by being punished for our sins Himself, even though He had no sin. And having taken away our sins, he makes us righteous in God’s sight with his own righteousness and guarantees us eternal life.
This selfless, self-sacrificing love stands out in stark contrast to the motives of the false shepherds, the Pharisees, and all who have been like them through history. Here, he compares them to the hireling, the hired hand, who gets paid to take care of sheep that re not his own. He does not love the sheep. He does not care about the sheep. His only interest in the sheep is the money he can make by taking care of them. And because he is not the real shepherd of the sheep, because he does not own them, when danger appears in the form of the wolf, his total self-interest is clearly revealed without question—he runs away, he flees, and he lets the wolf attack and devour the sheep, and the sheep are scattered.
And this was an accurate depiction of these very Pharisees and Jewish leaders. They were the spiritual leaders which Jesus had accused of making His Father’s house into a robber’s den, who plundered widow’s houses, who in their greed made laws which encouraged people to give what they would have given to their elderly, struggling parents to God--well, actually to themselves.
And this leads us to the third means by which we can discern The Good Shepherd, and his good under shepherds from false shepherds. The good shepherd lives and dies for the sheep instead of living off of them. The Good Shepherd, Jesus, proved he was the Good Shepherd by giving His life for the welfare of the sheep. And all good under shepherds demonstrate, when necessary a similar commitment to the welfare of the sheep, even at their own expense. But false shepherds demonstrate they are really hirelings by their lack of devotion to the sheep’s welfare, but will instead even live off the sheep, and that will be their primary motive for what they do.
And so what Jesus reveals here is not who we must believe He is, the God-Man, but what we must believe He did so that we might be saved—He died for our sins.
So this morning how can you the difference between a false shepherd and the true?
False shepherds will violate God-ordained boundaries to steel the sheep.
False shepherds will deny Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Good shepherd will live and die for the sheep rather than living off the sheep.
This passage should be a passage which brings us great comfort this morning—if we have accepted the Good Shepherd Jesus as the only one who can give us eternal life.
But for those of us this morning who haven’t accepted this, it may act as a harbinger, a warning that perhaps we have followed false shepherds, who like the Pharisees have only come to steal, to kill and to destroy eternally. This morning the good news is that you can have a Good Shepherd, no, the Good Shepherd as your shepherd. If only you will believe and follow the Good Shepherd as the God-man who offers the only way to eternal life. He gave his life so that you might live.
