John 10:11-18. Conflicts in Doctrine
Today there are many deviants leading churches whose emphases are not those of Jesus and his apostles. What a disaster this can be. There are leaders today who encourage others to expect God to answer their prayers for prosperity or supernatural healings. These preachers may get rich but their flocks are much the poorer spiritually. In this passage today Jesus contrasts himself with the false shepherds of his day.
The ‘Son of Man’
In John’s gospel John repeatedly emphasises who Jesus claimed to be. The term ‘Son of Man’ seems at first to be ambiguous but Jews of that day recognised that when their Messiah came he would be the both the Son of Man and the Son of God. The prophet Daniel had taught,
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13-14
John makes it clear that Jesus is this man. He wants all people to know that the Messiah is both fully human, the ‘Son of Man’ but also fully God, ‘the Son of God’. In the following famous passage Jesus emphasises this truth that he is both ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Son of God’.,
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life . . . I tell you the truth, a time is coming when and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.” John 5:24-27
‘I am . . .’
The repeated use of this divine title again emphasises what Jesus is saying about his divine nature. He is using the same name that the Lord God ascribed to himself when he talked with Moses at the burning bush. Moses asked, ‘What is your name?’ and God replied,
“’I AM WHO I AM.’ This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:14
Jesus uses this title to describe what he had entered this world to do for humanity. So far in John he has said,
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry . . .” John 6:35
‘I am the light of the world . Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. . .’ John 8:12
‘I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved.’ John 10:9
These are all familiar analogies. ‘Bread’ is the food that is vital for life, without ‘light’ we will always be stumbling around ‘in the dark’, and the ‘gate’ is the ‘gate’ of heaven, the only place of security and salvation. The only way to salvation is through Jesus.
Now we come to the fourth ‘I am’. Jesus asks us to think when he says ‘I am the good shepherd.’
False teachers
This famous chapter begins with a grim picture, the problem of false teachers. Their lives did not reflect their Lord. Remember how the Jewish leaders had excommunicated a man because he did not agree with them about Jesus (John 9:34).
In John chapter 10 Jesus exposes the false teachers for what they are, hirelings and strangers. In Matthew 23 we are given a whole chapter that describes where these religious people went so wrong.
“. . . they do not practise what they preach.” Matthew 23:3
“Everything is done for men to see . . .” Matthew 23:5
“They love the place of honour . . .” Matthew 23:6
“You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.” Matthew 23:13
“You give a tenth of your spices . . . But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.” Matthew 23:23
“You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Matthew 23:2
“How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will flog and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue them from town to town.” Matthew 23:33-34
When a jeweller wants to demonstrate some sparkling jewels he will often put them out on a black velvet cloth so that the contrast is most marked. Similarly it is against the dark backcloth of the false teachers that the glory of the true shepherd is best seen.
When John wrote his gospel, the churches were being troubled by false teachers. Most of the epistles focus on this problem. So it would have been natural for John to contrast the false teachers with true teachers. However, the contrast John makes is between the many false teachers and the one true pastor, the Lord Jesus, who says,
“I am, the gate. . . I am the good shepherd.”
Peter and Paul use the picture of a shepherd as the standard by which God’s under-shepherds of the churches should be measured. In the ordination services of many denominations the repeated theme is that chosen people are being commissioned to shepherd God’s people. The Latin word for ‘shepherd’ is ‘pastor’ which has been adopted into English. He is someone who serves and leads God’s people as a representative of the one true pastor, Jesus Christ.
For Jesus to talk like this would sound egocentric, if Jesus is not the Messiah. The Shepherd of God’s people in the Old Testament was their King. Jesus is claiming to be God’s one and only chosen king his Messiah. He claims that he alone can lead God’s people into the kingdom of God, that he alone can nourish them and that he alone can protect them for eternal life.
There are many ‘under-shepherds’ but their job is always to point people to Jesus. It is only Jesus who can save and pastor his people. John the Baptist understood this, saying,
“I baptise you with water. But one more powerful than I will come . . . He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:16
Dr Cranfield has written in his excellent commentary on Mark’s gospel,
“Every Christian minister ever since ought to say this at every baptism he takes.”
The minister can only perform an outward sign, it is Jesus alone who can baptise with the Holy Spirit, it is Jesus who is the real Baptiser. It doesn’t matter whether a baptism ceremony is undertaken in an Anglican, Baptist, Methodist or Roman Catholic church. All we humans can do is to make people wet, it is the Holy Spirit who changes our hearts and this is what baptism signifies. Of itself , the ceremony of baptism is just an outward sign. What matters is whether the heart has been changed through submission to Jesus Christ himself
I was on holiday in North-West Spain and saw a group of older teenagers sitting on the grass by a swimming pool and playing the card game‘Uno’. We started chatting, most of them spoke English. After a while I asked them if they were Christians,
“We’ve been baptised and confirmed,” they replied
I smiled and replied,
“That’s not what is important, what matters is if you are personally committed to the Lord Jesus and living for him.”
“Oh, then we are not.”
This led onto a fascinating discussion about who Jesus is and how it is Jesus who must be central if we are to be saved and go to heaven. There are false teachers in western churches that are not teaching what Jesus says and focus on the ceremonial and not on the substance.
In this short account there are five major themes that Jesus wants all to know.
1. The gate
The first need is for people to enter God’s kingdom through entering into a relationship with Christ. We can never enter God’s church unless Christ brings us in. He alone can give access. The church can only demonstrate this sacramentally. The Roman Catholic church has given the false impression that it has been given the power of the keys to heaven. After Peter had made a public declaration that Jesus is indeed God’s Messiah, God’s chosen king, he was told by Jesus,
“You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19
Peter was indeed given the keys to heaven, this is the message about who Jesus is, the message that Peter had just declared. At Pentecost, Peter used this key to unlock the door to heaven by preaching the gospel about Jesus. There is a door to heaven that the church must unlock for people, but Christ is the door and everyone who wants to enter God’s kingdom must enter through him. All the church can do is point people to this gate.
It is not in the hands of men to bring people into the flock of God. Jesus is very jealous of this right, if we want to be members of God’s people and be saved for eternity, we must go through Jesus.
2. Life
Jesus describes the false teachers in horrific terms, they are both murderers and liars.
“You belong to you father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.” John 8:44
How does the devil murder people? Surely it is by preventing them from receiving eternal life. He destroys people’s lives, removes light and happiness from people by telling lies. The devil also wants to get lies into our pulpits. In listening to false teachers, people will die. It doesn’t matter if they are atheistic false teachers or religious false teachers. The only means to bring people to the life God offers is to tell them the truth about Jesus.
Every person needs to ask themselves,
“Have I received eternal life for certain? Am I sure that when I die I will go to heaven and not to hell? Am I certain that my sins have been forgiven?”
No church can give this assurance, it is only available to those who have submitted to the rule of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
3. Knowledge of God
This is astounding.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” John 10:14-15
The Bible teaches that there is a wonderful intimate relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are three persons but because they are so close they are also one. Jesus is saying that we can enter into this relationship but there is only one way. We cannot find it by scholarship, by mystical exercises, by meditation or by religion. It is absurd to say that all religions point in the same basic direction since they contradict each other on the essential points about how to get right with God. Jesus is clear,
“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” John 10:9
The message of the church is that Christ alone can bring us to the truth, he alone is the way, he alone can give us eternal life.
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
4. Protection
Jesus says that he will go to the extreme limit to protect his sheep.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
When Paul was giving his last farewell address to the Ephesian elders he warns them about the problems they will face in the future. He said,
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherdsof the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truthin order to draw disciples away after them. So be on your guard!” Acts 20:28-31
The first directive was to the overseers or elders themselves,
“Keep watch over yourselves.”
Church leaders are especially at risk. Is is from inside the church that these wolves will come to drag people away from a simple walk with the Lord Jesus. These wolves are therefore likely to be church leaders! These false leaders do not totally oppose the truth, they simply distort it. The truth is what Jesus and his apostles taught and we find that in the Scriptures. Yet it is to such people, prone to error, that Paul says,
“ Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace.” Acts 20:32
How would God protect his flock? It is through the teaching of the ‘word of God’. This is the priority of church leaders.
5. Bring in the nations
Jesus knows that he is shortly going to be killed. He emphasises the evangelistic role that his people will have.
“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” John 10:16
How does Jesus have this power? It is only because he is the ‘King or Shepherd of the nations’. How will people hear his voice? It is through the teaching of god’s word.
In the book of Revelation, where Jesus is described as the ‘King on his throne’ the phrase, ‘he shall rule the nations with a rod of iron’ comes three times (Revelation 2:26-28, 12:5, 19:15). The Greek word used for ‘rule’ is ‘shepherd’. In Revelation to ‘shepherd’ the nations means to rule firmly. When we remember that the book of Revelation was written by the same John who wrote the gospel, any false sentimentality about what John means by ‘shepherd’ in John 10 is removed ; the shepherd is the king. Israel was always looking for a King like king David. The word Messiah means ‘God’s chosen King’. Today, people throughout the world are longing for such a leader who will honestly and selflessly shepherd their nations. Jesus is this ideal shepherd because he is the ruler of nations. The ‘rod of iron’ means that he will overcome all rebellion and opposition, he is the one in authority and will accept no opposition to his rule. This understanding removes all mushiness when understanding Jesus as the ‘Good Shepherd’.
This ‘iron rod’ will be used to smash all opposition to pieces when the time comes. Psalm 2 is all about the opposition the Lord and his anointed Son will face. Ultimately all his enemies will be utterly destroyed, just as pottery is broken to pieces when struck by an iron bar. The iron sceptre is a symbol of absolute authority.
“He said to me, ‘You are my Son’ . . . I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron sceptre, you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Psalm 2:7-9
The ‘rod of the shepherd’ is also mentioned in Psalm 23, which begins,
“The LORD is my shepherd . . .” Psalm 23:1
This psalm continues,
“Your rod and your staff comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
Some preachers have used this to reassure people how comfortable it is to be a Christian but in the Bible the rod is used either to measure or to rule the nations. Jesus does both. He measures up how we stand with him and our judgment starts now if we reject his control.
Of course we Christians do need the comfort that a loving shepherd gives to the sheep he cares for. When we face death, the comfort I need is the presence of the King whose rod rules death. Jesus is a real King – these are not just comfortable words. It is also important to know that the wolves, however outwardly attractive they are, will be destroyed when the King comes again to rule his world.
Who else can bring us into God’s kingdom but the King who entered this world to save us?
Who else can bring us knowledge of God but the King who knows his Father intimately?
Who else can protect us until we enter eternity but the King who gave his life to save us?
Who else can bring all the nations to worship him? This goal is being achieved now but will be fulfilled when he destroys all opposition. Nobody can achieve this but a real King.
Division
Jesus goes on to state clearly how his being the ‘Good Shepherd’ and the only ‘gate’ will be demonstrated.
“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again.” John 10:17
The death and resurrection of Jesus are incontrovertible proof of all Jesus says. What he says does resonate with our hearts subjectively but the objective evidence is the clincher. His love for people is shown in that he willingly sacrificed himself. He could have fled as the opposition mounted but he stayed to fulfil his commission.
“No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:18
Whenever this message is stated clearly, just as Jesus did, people become divided. Some thought then and some still think today that to claim to be God proves that he is ‘crackers’ and ‘off his rocker’.
“At these words the Jews were again divided. Many of them said, ‘He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why do you listen to him?’” John 10:19
Yet he had none of the stigmata of schizophrenia, he was the most balanced of individuals and he did go on to die and rise again. In addition he did fulfil all those prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures that describe clearly the features of the coming Messiah, where he would be born, his family tree, how he would die, his healing ministry and especially that he would defeat even death.
Yet even these critics of Jesus are wiser than many in the West who refuse to even think about the big questions of life. Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? What happens when we die? Jesus comes along and claims to be the only person who can answer the five points in this passage. Many just walk away and refuse even to consider the claims of Jesus. How foolish they are to turn their backs on the only hope we have, a hope that has so much evidence to verify it.
If he is the ultimate King, shouldn’t we all submit to his rule over us? He is the Good Shepherd, ‘the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin . Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished . . .’ (Exodus 34:6-7)
We must share this news that Jesus is the gracious shepherd for all people, we must submit ourselves to him who rules with rod and staff.
BVP
