Sermon
Jesus Christ -- The True Shepherd
February 23, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

Our lesson is taken from John chapter 10, and I'm going to read the first 6 verses.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them."

Now let's take our notes and we commence our lesson by at least giving the indications as to what this lesson, this illustration that Jesus uses, what the figures represent. First of all you'll note that the good Shepherd is Jesus Christ. The sheep are the Jewish believers, and I'll explain that in a moment as we consider the context of our scriptures. The other sheep are the Gentile believers. In verse 16 you'll notice in your scriptures it says 'And other sheep I have which are not of this fold'. Jesus is referring to Gentiles who will be brought into the fold, the Christian fold, and will become followers of Christ. So the other sheep are us, the Gentile believers. Now the sheepfold that's mentioned here in this illustration stands for Judaism. The gate is the office and position of the Messiah; the gatekeeper is God; the pasture is the abundant life found in Christ. The Wolf, that is the Pharisee, is the intruding destroyer of God's people. The hired hand is a selfish religious leader.

As indicated, in this parable, Judaism was the sheepfold, tended by God's shepherds, the last of which was John the Baptist, or God's prophets, I should say. The Pharisees and official Judaism were bad shepherds. They had not entered by the door into the sheepfold, but like thieves and robbers, they had climbed in some other way. Their power of the flock had been secured illegitimately. They were like thieves in their deceit and hypocrisy and like robbers in their violence.

Now let's stop here because each Sunday we have guests with us, and to really understand our text we must understand who those Pharisees are, because they play such a predominant role throughout the gospels. They were the religious leaders that had taken over Judaism, and they were controlling Judaism by all of their regulations and their rules. Let me tell you where they came from.

When we go back in church history, 450 years, you'll find that Judah is off in Babylon in captivity. And when they're there they realize that this is a judgment of God upon them, and they're there because they neglected to follow the ancient laws of God. So the scribes set to work and they go back and take the Torah, which is the original text of the Jewish people, and they began by making expositions of this ancient Torah, which simply was an expounding of those simple laws of God. And I'll tell you, God made it simple, but you leave religion up to man and he'll make it as complex as he possibly can. And that's exactly what happened! God laid down very simple rules, thou shalt not and thou shalt. One of them had to do with the Sabbath day, thou shalt keep it holy. Well those scribes didn't feel that God had said enough and so they started writing all of these regulations and rules that describe what you do when you make the Sabbath day holy. And I mean they made it complex. God said just keep it holy.

When you analyze the laws of God in the Old Testament they fall in two simple categories; one, reverence for God, and two, respect for your fellow man. That's how simple God made it, but those scribes began to put all of these regulations together, and when they finished they had over 50 massive volumes of regulations.

Now what happened about the year of 175 B.C. there was a man by the name of Antiochus Epiphanies; he was a world leader. And he decided, I'm going to eliminate Judaism, and I'm going to eliminate all the Jews. That was his dream; that was his goal, and of course, there became a deep concern for those in Judaism -- we must protect our faith. So they formed what was known as the great synagogue, and those who made up the synagogue were called the separated ones, which were the Pharisees. They decided that what they were going to do is make a commitment to keep all of those regulations in those massive volumes. And the reason why they were called separated ones, is because to separate yourself to follow that many regulations you didn't have time to live. You just lived with all those regulations. At no time is Jewish history do we find there were more than 6000 Pharisees. But with their regulations they had moved in, and when Jesus arrives on the scene, these Pharisees, committed to keeping all of these regulations, had made religion burdensome and had robbed it of all of its joy, and totally distorted what God really wanted from His people. They were the Pharisees.

What had happened in our text: a few weeks ago we were in chapter 9 as He has finished His confrontation with those Pharisees in the temple. They got so angry they wanted again to stone Him. What He did is He left those Pharisees, walked out of the temple, and outside the gate was this beggar man. The beggars always sat by the gate of the temple because Jewish teachings were you always give to the needy and you get credits with God by doing says. So the needy always sat outside of the temple because that was the place to remind them of God's law that they needed to be helped. So everybody knew the beggar.

The result was that Jesus does something very interesting. He spits on the ground takes the spittle and makes the clay, a little padding, and He puts it on the eyes of the blind man and says go wash. He went and washed and came seeing. And those Pharisees turned angry because in the writings of all of their scribes they had come up with a law that it was against the Sabbath to start any healing process of a sick person. You could keep them miserable for the day, but if you did anything to help them get well, you were sinning; you were violating the Sabbath.

And here Jesus had put clay in the eyes of a blind man and made him completely well. And they said, You violated the Sabbath. Now who is He? The blind man said I don't know who He is. I just know I was blind now I see. Oh, His name is Jesus. You remember what they did? Those Pharisees then went to the parents, because if anybody admitted or made any agreements in confessing Christ, they would excommunicate them out of the synagogue.

Now as we went through chapter 9 the central figure we were interested in was that blind man. He really fascinated us. He said, first of all He's a man, then he says He's a prophet, then he said He's more than that He's from heaven. The scene ended with the blind man healed, bowed, worshiping Jesus. And Jesus surely was thrilled along with that blind man has all the family was, but when He walks out of that temple what hurts Him the deepest is the attitude of those religious leaders. That's really what bothered Him. They've taken a scene that should have been a scene of joy and rejoicing; they should have had a party. But they turned it into an ugly scene of judging Jesus, calling Him a sinner, and then kicking the healed man out of church. And that hurt deeply the heart of Jesus.

Now that's what starts our text today, those first five verses. He is reacting to those religious leaders. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way. So what does He call them? Thieves and robbers.

Now in our notes I suggest that Jesus, on the contrary, when He comes on the scene He's on a divine mission and He fulfills the role of the Messiah. John the Baptist, a prophet, had given Him access to the flock. And as sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd, so like the blind man whom Christ had healed. Those who truly love God would gladly accept Christ as the Messiah.

They come out to follow Him and the result is that Jesus uses the figure of the Good Shepherd to differentiate His ministry from those of the false shepherds who were the religious leaders in Jerusalem. You see what He call them -- thieves and robber -- and He said they're climbing up some other way. Those Pharisees had made their own religion. They've got all of these regulations and they're going to get God's favor by doing all of these things. And what Jesus said, you're just trying to climb in another way, and you're nothing but a thief and a robber. You don't get to heaven that way. You don't get to heaven by man's religion. You don't get to heaven by following rules and regulations establish by man. You get to heaven by putting your trust in the good Shepherd, in Jesus Christ.

Now as we noted in our last study, Jesus has just witnessed the reaction of those religious leaders to the healing of the blind man. They should have been rejoicing, but instead, they reject Jesus for healing on the Sabbath and they excommunicate the healed man from the synagogue. Jesus calls them thieves and robbers. They had stolen the joy from what should have been a scene of joy and rejoicing, and they had robbed a man of his place in the society of his family and his friends. They kicked him out of the synagogue.

Last Sunday we went to Matthew chapter 23, and it's an entire chapter where Jesus tells us what He thinks about those Pharisees: they are whitewashed sepulchers, they're hypocrites. Look at some of the words He uses. "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation"

God has always had a problem, folks , with religious leaders. It's not something new. It's something as ancient as the Scriptures themselves. You say, why, pastor? Because God has to use mortal human beings, weak and frail, and sinful as we are. He makes us the channel through which He gives the divine message, and too frequently we fail Him. We are weak, the message is divine and it's eternal, and too frequently the religious man fails. That's true in the Old Testament.

Look at what old Jeremiah had to say: "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people; Ye have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of our countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase."

Look at what Isaiah says. He calls them his watchman. They're blind. They are ignorant. They are all like dumb dogs. They cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

So always down through time God has had the problem of trying to have religious leaders that would stay true and loyal to God. It's always been that way. And you know, as I studied this folks, this becomes very personal to me. I've tried to put myself in, as it were, in the heart of Jesus as He leaves that temple and those Pharisees have so injured a man who should've been filled with joy, and they use their authority and their power to rip all the glory out of that scene, and then turn around and...

I think Jesus was leaving that temple and I think He must have been crying because those religious people, those religious leaders, had so shamed the glory of God. And you know, ladies and gentlemen, I've been in the ministry now 53 years and I have watched life come and go and I have watched religious leaders rise to the top and drop to the bottom. When I see religious leaders who have so misused their position and their authority, I just stop and cry and say, God I'm sorry. I apologize. But God has always had the problem with religious leaders.

I picked up a book a few months ago. It's entitled Churches That Abuse. A man with a great intellect and a brilliant mind years ago decided he was going to crisscross the nation and he was going to find those scenes wherein religious leaders use their authority to manipulate the flock of God and so bring disgrace to the cause of Christ and hurt to people. It's a fascinating book. This is what he says: This book is about people who have been abused psychologically and spiritually in churches and other Christian organizations. Unlike physical abuse that often results in bruised bodies, spiritual and pastoral abuse leaves scars on the psychic and the soul. It is inflicted by persons who are accorded respect and honor in our society by virtue of their role as religious leaders and models of spiritual authority. They base that authority on the Bible, the word is God, and they see themselves as shepherds with a sacred trust. But when they violate that trust and when they misuse ecclesiastical power to control and manipulate the flock, the results can be catastrophic. The perversion of power that we see in abusive churches disrupts and divides families, fosters an unhealthy dependence of members on the leadership, and creates ultimately spiritual confusion in the lives of its victims.

He goes on to say, sociologist look for patterns in human behavior and in social institutions. Abusive churches, past and present, are first and foremost characterized by strong control oriented leadership. These leaders use guilt and fear and intimidation to manipulate members and keep them in line. Followers are led to think that there is no other church quite like theirs, and that God has singled them out for special purposes. Others, more traditional evangelical churches are put down. Subjective experience is emphasized and dissent is discouraged. Many areas of member's lives are subject to scrutiny; rules and legalisms abound. People who don't follow the rules are threatened with exposure or excommunication. For those who leave the road back to normalcy is extremely difficult.

It's really true. People who have been injured in a religious setting, often times in an injurious church experience, it leaves deep scars. Some of you folks understand that. And that comes about by misused by pastors of an assumed authority because they're supposedly men of God.

You say, Pastor, why do you bring this up? Because that's the thing Jesus was wrestling with. He's walking out of a temple were those Pharisees had totally misused and manipulated that nation with a false religion, a religion of their own with all of these dos and don'ts and regulations and rules. And Jesus is hurting because a nation has been deeply injured because of it.

What are you trying to say pastor? I'm trying to say this -- don't ever get your eyes on a spiritual leader, on a man, because they'll fail you. Always keep your eyes on Jesus. My prayer every day is, God, help me to be a good shepherd. I'll strive and struggle till I breathe my last breath to be a good shepherd, but never get your eyes on me, folks, because I'm a human being. And when you think I'm perfect, you'll find out how imperfect I really am. Jesus walks away from that temple and He's hurting because of the display of those Pharisees.

That's the setting. Now go to page 3 with me. As we study this portion of the chapter, we must recognize the particular aspect of the shepherd imagery upon which Jesus is playing in these first verses--which, by the way, is not the same as that used later.

Now you'll notice that verses 1 through 6 is one section. When you get to verse 7 in chapter 10 Jesus comes back to the subject because verse 6 says they don't understand what He said. And He comes back and He starts a whole new picture painted with the imagery of the shepherd. There are two different kinds of sheepfolds is this chapter.

The first kind of sheepfold was that found in the countryside. It was nothing more than a circle of rocks into which the sheep could be driven. There was no door, just an opening across which the shepherd would place his body as he rested and slept during the night. Any entry would require that the shepherd's body must be crossed. This is the kind of sheepfold that Jesus is thinking about when He says, "I am the gate for the sheep."

In other words, if we were out in the countryside, what would happen is that shepherd would... Because most shepherds in Palestine didn't have a flock more than 20 to 30 sheep. They were small, little flocks. So what he would do is he would find rocks and twigs and sticks, and he would make this circular encampment in which he could put 20 or 30 of his sheep in. He would make it quite high so that the animals wouldn't try to get in, and then he slept in the opening of the door. He was the gate. Anything coming out had to cross his body. Anything going in had to cross his body. And thus, he used his body to protect, as the gate, the sheep.

Now on with our notes. You'll notice that the other kind of sheepfold was more substantial. This kind was found in the towns and in the villages and consisted of a room or enclosure with a regular gate or door. Now into such an enclosure many shepherds together would drive their flocks when they returned to the village at night, and at such a place at night the sheep would be in the care of a porter. In the morning each shepherd would come to the fold, call his sheep by name--they, incidentally, literally knew his voice and would respond to his call--and then lead his own sheep out to pasture.

Here's what Jesus was saying. If you had a number of shepherds and they were near a village where there was a house with an enclosure like a courtyard around the house, those shepherds would drive their sheep into that courtyard and then have a man that was called a porter. They would entrust him for the night to watch that gate. That porter knew the shepherds who had brought their sheep there, and he allowed nobody else in. And in the early morning, when it came time to take the sheep back out to pasture, the shepherds would come to the gate one at a time. One of the shepherds would start calling his sheep. Now this is really fascinating.

Many, many years ago I had the joy of being in Palestine and I was down on the river Jordan and I was watching the shepherds as they brought their sheep to be watered there in the Jordan River. They were standing over here on a ledge talking. I'm watching all of these sheep, maybe 100 or 150 sheep. As the day wore on it became time to take their sheep back to the fold, and so one shepherd would step forward and he would use his call. Each shepherd at a different call. This shepherd was like a sing-song, and I stood there and watched with fascination. One sheep came out and stood by the shepherd; another sheep came out of all that group. Finally, in a few minutes all of the sheep who knew his voice were standing there with him and he took them home. The next shepherd would come. They understood.

You see, there's such an intimacy that grows because in Palestine those shepherds didn't raise their sheep to kill them. They raised them for the wool, and as a result, they were with those sheep for many years. They became very intimate with their sheep. They called them by name, and those sheep knew their name by their shepherd. It's interesting when you study those shepherds and their relationship with their sheep. I think one of the most fascinating things that I found out is this: that shepherds respond in discipline to disobedient sheep.

Now if that sheep keeps wandering off he'll throw a stone right in front of the nose of the sheep, and the sheep knows that's as far as he should go because the next stone will hit him. So he turns around and comes back to the flock. But if he is a disobedient sheep and he has to constantly be corrected by the shepherd, do you know what the shepherd does? He just picks them up and breaks their leg. Just snaps it. Breaks their leg and then he with tenderness sets the leg, bandages it up, and puts that sheep under his arm. And for weeks he carries the sheep while it's healing, and that close affinity bonds the sheep to the shepherd. There is a relationship that grows while the shepherd is carrying the sheep that when the sheep's leg is healed, and he takes the bandage off, the sheep never wanders away again.

Now listen to the spiritual lesson that's there. Our good Shepherd also disciplines us at times, and sometimes there's a breakage in life; something so precious is gone. Maybe it's our health. Maybe it's our job, whatever it is there's a breakage. And the good Shepherd -- those are the times that we get close to God. Right folks? When we've got nobody else to turn to the Shepherd is the one we turn to. And often times it's in those breakage moments that our relationship with the good Shepherd becomes wonderfully beautiful.

Wednesday evening I was standing at the door greeting the folks and a lady came through and she said, Pastor, I know you haven't seen me for a while but I've been ill. But, she said, you know, this may sound strange to you, Pastor, but I thank God for my illness. And tears started coming down her cheeks, because she said in the last few weeks I have come to know Jesus better than I've ever known before. Some of us understand that.

Sometimes we move along so rapidly in life the good Shepherd allows something that breaks, something that stops us, and it's during those moments in life and those experiences where we grow close to the Shepherd. So here's the picture in this beautiful passage. Jesus is saying those Pharisees that we just left in the temple, they are false shepherds. They are climbing up into heaven by their own religion. They'll never make it. They are a bunch of thieves and robbers, and they'll rob you of everything that's blessed if you follow them.

But He said, the shepherd enters by the door and the sheep hear his voice and he takes them out. In verse 4 He says, And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. If we were reading this in the original Greek text, it's a very interesting phrase. It implies that once we become a part of His sheep fold, He launches us into a life where we are to live our Christianity out in the world. It's like sending us out on a divine mission. He puts them out. He doesn't keep them in the flock.

We live in the world in which we live at our Christianity, it says that a good shepherd, he puts them out. But also it says that he's already gone before them. There is something very interesting about sheep. And it comes out in the story of Jacob when he's coming home to see his brother Esau, and he's got his flocks, and he's told he's got to move along. He says, no. If I drive my sheep they'll die.

A good shepherd never drives his sheep. A good Pastor never pressures -- puts his congregation under pressure. A shepherd, a good shepherd, always goes before and the flock follows. You're always out in front of the flock. It's a tremendous challenge as a Pastor. I can only lift you spiritually to the point where I am. I can't lift you any higher. I'd be driving you because that's not where I am.

The sacred challenge of a shepherd is to be out in front of his sheep spiritually, pulling them along spiritually in their quest for God. My prayer is that I can so love God that my love for God pulls you people along with me. That's my prayer. And we'll all arrived there and that great sheepfold on that eternal day. But you'll notice what good sheep do. He said, they follow -- they follow. He said, they know my voice.

So what Jesus is doing in this little five verse picture, He's saying those are the false shepherds; they're trying to get in the false way. You follow me. We'll get into the sheepfold together when the night comes on. A man? Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for Your word. But we also want to thank you for calling us. You know us by name. And You love us. We know that. And I pray that we shall forever be grateful that we are a part of Your eternal flock, that You are our good Shepherd, and that You do watch over us. And there are times by discipline You have to bring us to a point of brokenness. We often resent it. We often resist it. We become angry, often times rebellious. But You do it for a purpose so that You can carry us and we can draw close to You.

Maybe there might be some here today who are going through that experience of suffering a brokenness which they cannot explain. May this be the time they draw close to You, dear Jesus. And before we go from the sanctuary today we want to tell You this, dear Jesus, we love You, and we know You love us, and that's eternally important. Thank you for loving us. And everybody said, amen. God bless you folks. God bless you.