Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. Read John 10:1-15. What identifying marks of false shepherds (thieves, robbers, hired hands) does Jesus provide here?
2. "All authority begins with submission." What are shepherds submitting to in this passage?
3. Why can we be confident that false teaching will never finally win?
4. Real authority cares about those under their authority. Can you share any stories of how you have seen those in authority over you demonstrate that they care about?
In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, we read about the generation of young German boys who fought in WWI. Remarque, a soldier himself, describes how the older generation of teachers and leaders failed them. Men who were happy to be in positions of authority, happy to tell others what to do, failed to use that authority wisely or justly. Instead, with impassioned speeches about valor and patriotism they encouraged young men to throw their lives into the grinding metal of a senseless and brutal war:
For us lads of eighteen [these leaders] ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress—to the future. We often made fun of them and played jokes on them, but in our hearts we trusted them. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.
Authority is a precious and dangers commodity. Like nuclear power. When used rightly, it can do an enormous amount of good. And when handled poorly, it can do an enormous amount of harm.
Time away from the pulpit gives a pastor time to think about his job, his calling. As I have been away I have been thinking about what the Lord would have for me as I look to the next year that He, Lord willing, grants me to lead this church. All the while, I knew that the Sunday I would be coming back would be the Sunday that we cover Jesus’ famous teaching on the good shepherd. The word for “shepherd” and the word for “pastor” are the same (poimēn), so it was difficult for me to read John 10 and not think about what God would have for me as one of your pastors.
The term “shepherd” is used repeatedly in the Old Testament for leaders, those who possess authority—kings, priests, and prophets are at different times referred to as shepherds of Israel. They lead, feed, teach, heal, and guide God’s people. Or, at least, they should. As we will see, one of Israel’s great problems is that their leaders fail to use their leadership and authority as they ought. A key passage that stands behind Jesus’ words in John 10 are the whole of Ezekiel 34, which opens with this condemnation:
The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. - Ez 34:1-6
“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 10 Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. - Ez 34:7-10
What is wrong with the shepherds of Israel? In a way, it is their overbearing authority; they have used “force and harshness” to “rule” the sheep, to exploit and devour them. But also, it is a total absence of authority—true authority. Where are the shepherds when the sheep need to be healed? Strengthened? Brought back when they have gone astray? When the wild beasts come to devour them? The shepherds are gone. There is no one stepping in as a leader in those moments. And so God Himself steps in to depose these wicked leaders and to be their shepherd Himself.
The answer to bad authority is not ‘no authority’; it is good authority.
What does good authority look like?
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“Truly, truly, 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. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 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, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 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, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” 19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
- John 10:1-21
The setting here presumably is the same as the end of chapter 9. Jesus has just healed the blind man and so has an audience of the recently healed man and the religious authorities who are spiritually blind.
And after pronouncing these teachers’ blindness, Jesus turns to His teaching here, beginning with a warning.
What Does Good Authority Look Like?
Submits
All true authority begins with true submission.
Truly, truly, 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. - John 10:1
Jesus later tells us “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” (John 10:7-8)
Those who try to influence the Church (the sheepfold) without entering through the doorway of Jesus Christ are thieves and robbers. They may have persuasive words and powerful rhetoric, but they are not there for the good of God’s people. The apostle Paul warns us about a group of people who care more about being perceived as teachers than they care about the actual doctrine they are teaching:
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. - 1 Tim 1:5-7
You do not need to be correct or wise to make confident assertions. You just need an ambition to be perceived as a teacher. We crave confidence. We are awash in so much information, so many layers of complexity, that having someone confidently tell us what is true feels so appealing. And the landscape of podcasts and Youtube are quick to provide confident assertions from people who desire to be teachers. Paul’s warning should sober us from confusing confidence with truthfulness.
In light of the immediate context, Jesus is speaking of the Pharisees who are so blind that when Jesus heals blindness, it makes their blindness even stronger. Though they are religious teachers and leaders, because they do not submit to Jesus they are thieves and robbers who only come to steal, kill, and destroy.
There is a kind of person who craves to be a leader, to have authority, but who wants to do so on their own terms. But Christianity is not a religion for spiritual geniuses who craft their own pathway to God. We are inheritors, not innovators. Which means humility to listen and receive are prerequisites for our entrance into the Church. And Christianity is stubbornly insistent that there is only one way to know God and to be saved: and that is to walk through the doorway of Jesus Christ. Later, Jesus will teach us: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6).
When Jesus calls us to submit to Him, He isn’t doing so needlessly; as if He just enjoys the power-trip. He points us to the one door of salvation because not only is it it is the one door, but because it leads to life.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. - John 10:9-10
The pathway to the life you are desperately searching for—abundant life, real life, satisfying life—is found when you submit to Jesus Christ, when you walk through the door of His finished work on the cross. Which means we enter through the gospel. And when you do that, you realize that the gateway is a gateway of honesty, reality, transparency. Elsewhere, Jesus teaches us, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,” (Mark 2:17). To walk into the Church, you do not need to be a saint, but a sinner. We fear submission because we fear being taken advantage of, of being exploited. If someone finds out our deepest, darkest secrets, we are afraid. If that person has authority over us, we are even more afraid. But Jesus shows us the abundant goodness of His authority by making the gateway of salvation both radical honesty—we confess we are sinners—and radical forgiveness—our sins are forgiven. So our submission to Him brings life, healing, a clean conscience—we aren’t hiding anymore.
May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins. (Luther)
And a proud person may be scandalized that there is only one way, but a humble person is surprised that there is a way at all.
Speaks Truth
But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. - John 10:2-4
The emphasis is clearly on the shepherd’s voice. The shepherd’s voice is the agent of leadership. He calls out his sheep by name, and walks before the sheep to lead them to pasture, each sheep following the sound of His voice. We tend to think of a shepherd walking behind the sheep and driving them along, but Jesus gives us a different picture. He does not use force. He has such an intimacy with the sheep that he walks ahead of them and only uses His voice to call them along. He is near to them, speaking to them, and their trust in Him is what grants their following.
Jesus, the good Shepherd, leads through speaking, through the Word. He is the Word of God. And His Word is Truth. And any other authority which seeks to pattern itself off this Good Shepherd likewise leads through speaking the truth.
The sheep become so accustomed to his voice, that they refuse to follow another.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. - John 10:5
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. - John 10:8
When, in vs. 6, we are told that the Pharisees do not understand what Jesus was saying, John is giving us a not-so-subtle clue that they are not one of Jesus’ sheep (cf. John 10:26). They cannot hear his voice, but are led by another.
In time, false teachers give evidence to their falsity. They may have melodious voices, but there will be suspicious timbre to their voice that the elect will pick up on; a way in which they will take the clear words of Christ and twist them into error and indulgence and the exact opposite of what they mean. And God’s people will walk away from such false teaching. Which is why we can be confident that false teaching will never win. Truth shines forth and God’s people see it because they love it, because for them truth is not an abstract proposition, it is a person: Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.” And our love for Christ overwhelms us, so we love truth, we care about truth, and that means that lies will never win. They always will reveal themselves to be the charade and sham that they are—even though it seems we are in a swamp of Babylon and there are no faithful left, God always will preserve His Church.
“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. 14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
- Jer 6:13-14
These leaders flatter their audience by refusing to tell them the truth, refusing to confront, to contradict, to call to repentance. These shepherds proclaim peace to the flock when God has pronounced judgment. Why? Because a message of repentance isn’t terribly popular. These are the teachers that Paul warns of: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths,” - 2 Tim 4:3-4.
Cares
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, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. - John 10:11-13
Jesus now alters the picture. Instead of painting the antagonists like thieves and robbers, he warns of a different kind of bad authority: the hired hand. The employee. The man who puppets the life-giving authority of a shepherd, but only for a paycheck. His true colors are revealed when caring for the sheep becomes costly, risky. A wolf comes along. Or maybe a thief or robber. A danger that wants to devour what a shepherd is called to protect. And those who thought that ministry would be a quick shot to money, influence, and ease run away. They do not do the risky, painful job of a shepherd.
Good authority, a good shepherd seeks out the wandering sheep who do no realize that they have left the safety of the flock and are in danger. Good authority uses their position and strength, not to secure comfort and popularity, but to save life and to fight against forces to destroy the flock, even at great cost to themselves.
This looks like pastors seeking out members who have stopped participating in the life of the church; showing up in the middle of the night when the husband is drunk and the wife is afraid and telling him he has to leave the house; warning the church about false teachers who have gained influence; having the hard conversation with the unrepentant who do not want to submit to Christ or listen to the truth; and bearing the costs of defending, feeding, and leading the flock. Why do pastors do this? Because they are not hired hands; because they care.
And church, as I consider the ministry of your pastors here at this church: of George Booth, of Eddy Frasier, of Aaron Burkhart, I am struck by how deeply they care about you. They have born costs that you do not know of as they have served as shepherds to this flock.
Why? Because they are undershepherds who are following the model of our Great Shepherd, Jesus Himself—who cares for them, and for you.
I almost titled this point “sacrifices”—good authority sacrifices. Which is true. But what has stood out to me in Jesus’ teaching is why He lays down His life for His sheep. Why does the hired hand flee when the wolf comes? Because he doesn’t care about the sheep. So, when Jesus stays to fight off the wolf, even at the cost of His own life, He does so because He cares about the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. - John 10:14-15
See the intimacy that Jesus describes between Himself and His sheep? He knows them. He is connected to them; in the same way the Father and Son are connected, Jesus is connected with His own. He loves them. He would die before He lost them.
We live in a profoundly lonely age. The more and more our life becomes mediated by screens, the less and less human-to-human interactions we have. And when they are not what we expect, we retreat even further into our digital cocoons. But we still crave relationship; to be known, loved, embraced. To receive more than a “thumbs up” emoji to a text message. ChatGPT may tell you that you are brilliant and thoughtful, but we long for more. Jesus offers you just that. We all crave for someone in authority over us to validate us, to demonstrate to us that we matter, that our concerns aren’t ridiculous, that our problems aren’t silly, that our gifts and voices and presence mean something. And here, Jesus shows us that He we matter to Him.
So much so that He lays down His life, dies so that His sheep are spared. His death is in their place. The paradox of the gospel is that the Shepherd of the sheep is led like a sheep to the slaughter so that the sheep could be spared.
Here is real authority: dying for love of those you lead.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. - Eph 5:22-30
Are you in authority?
Husbands, parents, pastors, bosses, leaders: does your authority look like Christ’s?
- Have you been humbled into submission to Jesus Christ? Do you see your authority as given to you by Him to be used for His sake?
- Do you use your authority to speak the truth? Even if it may be unpopular?
- Do you care about those under your authority? Would those you lead say confidently that you care about them? Is your leadership marked by your sacrifice for the life and health of those you lead?
