One of my favorite images of our relationship with Jesus in the Bible is the one of Jesus being the Good Shepherd and of us being His sheep. For the past thirty weeks in our weekly Bible study, we’ve been meditating in the book of John. As always, when we come together, it’s not to learn about the Bible, or to gain more Bible knowledge, but we come together to increasingly see and draw more intimately closer to Jesus, the Person, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
We have recently come to John 10 which covers what the Lord had in mind for us to see when He gave us this story/picture of the Shepherd and His sheep. I’ve been meditating on what was taught, and I’m feeling inspired to also share along in my own words, what the Lord has been unveiling in my heart. I believe it is important for us to understand about our relationship in Jesus as far as our personal growth and maturity is concerned, and for understanding when it is that He considers that we are ready to bear fruit and begin His ministry to others, and to understand what He considers to be false teachers during that process of growing in maturity in Him. False teachers can be saved, born-again believers, as well as unsaved, unbelievers, as is outlined in this message.
In my own life I have followed false shepherds as well as been one myself. For many years in my marriage, I tried to change myself and change my husband. I really thought after I became a Christian that God would somehow do something to change our marriage relationship, and when He didn’t, I thought I could assist Him through psychotherapy, marriage seminars, and when those didn’t work, through learning boundaries and even through separation. I was a “thief and a robber”…
“All who came before Me are thieves and the robbers, and the sheep did not hear him.” John 10:8
My husband died in 2002, and through that long process of his illness, I thought I had finally learned that God had always been in control, no matter what it had looked like. But the truth is that I still wasn’t aware of all the hidden ways I was still trying to control situations; I thought I was following the Lord and that it was “Christian” to be “helpful”. Recently, through an incident with my friend, I came face to face with more of the reality that the Lord didn’t need my help, and that actually I could be hindering Him by all my self-righteous “good” works.*
The following is some of what I condensed and edited from our Bible study, along with some of my own reflections. I am not a Bible scholar or teacher. I do believe, for the most part, in the context of what the whole Bible teaches, that the principles from this section of John about the Shepherd and the sheep are true and that Jesus is the answer for everything in our lives: He wants to be our all and in all. Whether, in the context of John 10, these principles as a picture stir your heart as it has mine is between you and the Holy Spirit. If it does not, as always, then surely listen to Him in the way He speaks to your heart about …
FALSE GODS EXPOSED – BIBLE STUDY MESSAGE #31 JOHN 10 EDITED AND CONDENSED
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
“I am the good shepherd; I know My own, and My own know Me.” (John 10:13)
The focus of this chapter is not on the revelation of the Good Shepherd, but the focus of this chapter is that He is exposing the false shepherd. The chief emphasis is not on Jesus the true Shepherd, but in contrast; He’s contrasting the false shepherds with the true shepherds. It’s actually a continuation of chapter 9 where He’s talking to the Pharisees.
“Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, ‘We’re not blind, too, are we?’ And Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you’d have no sin, but since you say, “We see,” therefore, your sin remains.’” (John 9:40)
The Pharisees were Christ rejecters…
“The Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.” (John 9:22)
So, it’s these Pharisees that are being exposed because they reject Christ, and yet they say, “You must listen to us because we’re shepherds; we’re the leaders; we’re the spiritual teachers, and if you want to know, you must listen to us because we’re shepherds.” They felt like they were God’s appointed shepherds over the people of God.
If we’re going to embrace God’s heart, we must look at this, not only as a revelation of Christ, the true Shepherd, but in contrast to these people who are claiming to be shepherds. This is a condemnation of those who pretend to be shepherds, and they are not, and they are contrasted with Christ.
“Truly I say to you, ‘He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, climbs up some other way. He’s a thief and a robber.’” (John 10:1)
Well, the Pharisees didn’t enter by the door…
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you I am the door of the sheep.’” (John 10:7)
And they already said that if you believe that, you are going to get kicked out and you can’t come to the synagogue and you can’t belong to us if you believe that Jesus is the door, the true Shepherd. So, they rejected Christ, and they rejected the door, and they climbed up another way. It’s good that it’s so general because there are many ways people, false teachers, get into the sheepfold, but they’re not teachers. According to this, they’re thieves; a thief is one who steals when you’re not around…
“The thief comes to steal and to kill and destroy.” (John 10:10)
They’re not friends of the sheep.
“He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who is not the owner of 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 is not concerned about the sheep.” (John 10:12)
“You do not believe because you are not of My sheep.” (John 10:26)
So, they are not only shepherds, but they aren’t even sheep; they aren’t even saved, these false teachers. There has always ever only been one Shepherd, and His name is Jesus. In the Old Testament it was Messiah.
We might think we can escape being false shepherds because, “We’re not Pharisees.” I want to dig a little deeper into false shepherds, and what is a false shepherd. In the New Testament, clearly, it’s the Pharisees, and they represent the other group, the religious leaders, and they’re not even sheep. So, that’s the extreme example, those who reject Jesus are false shepherds, those who come up some other way into the fold. We get the idea that the false shepherds are always unsaved. Are there pastors and priests and are there elders and are there teachers that don’t know Jesus and didn’t come through the door, and yet they’re trying to teach in the church? Indeed, there are, and every place you look!
“Jesus said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.’” (John 10:7)
“Those who climb up another way, they only do damage to the sheep.” (John 10:1)
There’s one Shepherd, and His name is Jesus, and if He’s not shepherding you, somebody is hurting you, and they’re robbing you and they’re out to kill you or destroy you.
Is it possible that a saved person can be a false shepherd, somebody that’s gone through the door, and they’ve trusted Christ, and yet they’re false shepherds? The answer is yes. Let me give you the Holy Spirit’s phrase to describe them.
“A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
The natural man is not necessarily a non-Christian. The natural man is one who looks at things naturally, who comes by nature, who is trusting his mind or something in the world. They’re not being taught of God and they’re not learning from God Himself; there are Christians who are leaning more on trusting their minds and emotions instead of trusting Jesus preeminently. So, they come at you with psychology and psychiatry and worldly wisdom and Bible academics and they throw out, “The Greek says this and the Hebrew says this and the Aramaic says this, and we’ve got the degrees and we’ve been to the schools and we’ve got the books and we are your shepherds and you’ve got to listen to us because we know and we’ve studied these things.” They may know the Lord, but if they’re coming as a natural man, they’ve come up another way.
“I’m the door. If anyone enters through Me, he’ll be saved,” that’s when you get through the door the first time, “and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
It’s not only once we go through the door (at salvation). We’re going in and out and in and out (during sanctification), and we better be dead certain when we go in during that process, that we go through the door, and when we come out, we go through the door. Let me say it another way. When we begin, it better be with Jesus, and when we end, it better be with Jesus, or we’ve come up another way, and we are not helping. We are going to damage ourselves and the sheep. So, you can be a false teacher, even if you’ve gone through the door once. It’s all about the Lord Jesus.
So, I say that the unsaved false teacher rejects Christ. The saved false teacher neglects Christ. You can reject Christ, or you can neglect Christ. Every time a true teacher is taught of God, it’s going to lead to Christ; it’s all about the Lord, the true shepherd.
But there are human shepherds who claim to be shepherds. Does God use His people as shepherds?
“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28)
Are there human shepherds? Yes, and we need to understand that. Paul addresses the elders who were among those that scattered throughout Pontius and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia, and He addresses them and here’s what He said,
“Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under a compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God, not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor as yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, proving to be examples to the flock, and when the chief Shepherd appears, you’ll receive an unfading crown of glory.” (1 Peter 5:2)
He hasn’t ruled out human shepherds. All human shepherds are not false shepherds. We need to see the place the human shepherd has, giving Him preeminence to be the only Shepherd, living it and teaching it. So, clearly God intends that there be human shepherds. We call them under shepherds. You know the Greek word translated “pastor” is shepherd, shepherd your people, and that word is not only applied to pastors, and it’s applied to elders, and in the New Testament it’s applied to every Christian. Every Christian is to be shepherd. It’s the same word. God is a Shepherd, but He wants to use us, but how does that work?
What qualifies someone, any Christian, or any office, what qualifies them to be an under shepherd according to the will of God?
“We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
“Those He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” (Romans 8:9)
“Beloved, now we’re the children of God, and it has not yet appeared as to what we will be, and we know when He appears we’ll be like Him, and we’ll see Him just as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
“As He is, so also are we in the world.” (1 John 4:17)
How am I conformed to the image of Christ? Is it that I see Christ as Shepherd, and then I see Him as the perfect Shepherd and I look at how He did it? In Ephesians 5, “He walked in love,” so we’re to walk in love? I look at Philippians 2, the mind that was in Christ, and He was humble, so I’m going to be a good shepherd and I’ll be humble? I look and see how He prayed, and I pray that way, and how He had compassion I have compassion, and how He didn’t neglect sinners, and that’s how I won’t neglect sinners? Is that what it means to be conformed to Christ, to follow His example? He’s the perfect illustration, so we study His life, and then we copy His life?
“Now, we are the children of God. It has not yet appeared what we shall be. When He appears, we’ll be like Him, and we’ll see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
Following the example of Christ is not being conformed to Christ; it’s the exact opposite of that. How can I be conformed to Christ; what does it mean, if I see Jesus by the Spirit, and I’m not just talking about academic? If I see Jesus as the great forgiver, will I become a forgiver? And the more I see Him as One who forgives, the more I’ll be able to forgive? Is that being conformed to Jesus? If I see Him as a teacher and I study how He taught and how He answered the Pharisees and the wisdom He used, is that going to make me a good teacher? If I see Him as the righteous One, does that mean I’m going to start being righteous now because I’ve seen Him as the righteous One? If I study Him as the shepherd, is that going to help me? Is He my model, so that I lay down my life for the sheep, and I feed the sheep, and so on?
“For this reason I say to you, her sins which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. He who has forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:47)
I see Jesus as forgiver, do I become a forgiver? She’s forgiven, therefore, she loves. That’s a strange response to seeing someone as a forgiver; they become a lover, not a forgiver.
I want to be conformed to Christ. I had a great revelation of the Lord and He’s omnipresent. How am I going to be conformed to His image if He’s omnipresent? If I see Him as the Potter, do I become a potter or a clay pot? Being conformed to the image of Christ, what if I see Him as divine? I’ve got to become like Him? What if I see Him as a miracle worker. How am I going to be conformed to Him? What does it mean to be conformed?
Let me suggest, if you see Him as a teacher, you become a student. If you see Him as Lord, you don’t become a Lord; you become a slave. If you see Him as a shepherd, you become a sheep.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23)
What if I saw Him as a shepherd? Psalm 23: 1, I would lack nothing. Psalm 23:2, I’d be at rest, “green pastures and still waters.” If I saw Him as a shepherd my soul would be restored. If I saw Him as a shepherd, Psalm 23:3, I’d walk in paths of righteousness, and I wouldn’t fear in the valley of the shadow of death, and I would be blessed, and my cup would be running over, and goodness and mercy would be following me all the days of my life. Why? It’s because I saw the Shepherd, and my being conformed to Him was not by me becoming a shepherd; it was becoming a sheep.
If you were a pastor or a priest or a teacher, and were at rest with the Lord and lacked nothing and was not fearing anything, and in the shadow of death were rejoicing and your cup was overflowing, would you resist that person ministering to you? That’s the one you want to minister to you; that’s the shepherd. The point is, if I’m an under shepherd, it’s not me learning how to shepherd; it’s me responding to the revelation of Christ as a Shepherd, so that He could be the Shepherd. He’s the only Shepherd. There’s no other Shepherd. It’s not me. That’s the whole idea of the exchanged life. The best thing any Christian can do for anybody is…
“Delight yourself in the Lord; He’ll give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4-5)
Parents, do you have some concerns for your children? The best thing you can do for them is to delight in Jesus. Husbands, do you have concern for your bride? Delight in Jesus. Wives, do you have concern for your husbands? Delight in Jesus. Shepherds, do you have concern for the sheep? Delight in Jesus. That’s the best thing you can do. You respond to the revelation, and you are conformed to Him by becoming not what He is but the results of that revelation. So, if I see Him as omnipresent, how is that going to show itself in my life? I’ll tell you how. I’ll never be alone wherever I go; you’ll never be alone wherever you go because He’s with you and He’s with you always. If you see Him as the righteous One, how is that going to change your life? Well, it’s His righteousness; you are not going to live in condemnation. You’re not going to live under the burden of sin. That’s seeing Him as righteous. If you are conformed to Him as Lord, you are going to become a servant and you are going to serve Him; He’ll be the One serving others through me. If I have a revelation that the Lord is a vine, and I need to be conformed, I don’t become a vine; I become a fruitful branch by being conformed to the vine, and then others look at me at rest and they say, “He must have a wonderful Shepherd.” They see the Shepherd. You’re not the shepherd. They see the Lord by seeing your service. That’s what it means to be conformed to Christ.
Here is what we’ve seen. There’s a contrast between the false and the true. The false shepherd is someone who comes up another way, and not through the Lord Jesus Christ. God is against those false shepherds, and an under shepherd is not one who shepherds. I mean, he does, he shepherds but he shepherds by allowing Jesus to be the Shepherd.
“I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them, also. They will hear My voice, and they will become one flock and one Shepherd.” (John 10:16)
I think that is one of the key verses, “…one flock, one Shepherd.” No pastor is the shepherd of a church; Jesus is the Shepherd of a church.
Once again, I want to get back to this exchanged life, that if I’m going to in any way help God’s sheep, it’s not by trying to be a Shepherd or a teacher; it’s by responding to the Lord Jesus, letting Him be the Shepherd. I’ve heard people say, “He has a Shepherd’s heart,” “He has a servant’s heart,” “He has a teacher’s heart.” Don’t believe it for a moment. Nobody has a servant’s heart except Jesus; He has a servant’s heart, and I have Him. He has a Shepherd’s heart, and you have Him. He has a teacher’s heart, and you have Him. He’s the One that’s compassionate, and He lives in you, and He wants to live through you, and so, it’s the exchanged life. That’s what John 10 is about.
There are false shepherds, and there’s a true shepherd. False shepherds come up another way; true shepherds have got to come through the door and out the door, and there’s one flock and there’s one Shepherd, and that’s all there will ever be, and Jesus is the Shepherd.
“I’m the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
He’s the good Shepherd.
“Now, the God of peace who brought from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus, our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight.” (Hebrews 13:20)
He’s not only the good Shepherd; He’s the great Shepherd.
“When the chief Shepherd appears, you’ll receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1 Peter 5:4)
He’s a good Shepherd, He’s a great Shepherd, He’s a chief Shepherd, and He lives in our heart.
You aren’t saved to serve the Lord. He wants to serve Himself. You’re not called to live for Jesus; let Jesus live for Himself. He lives in you, and He wants to be the great Shepherd, and if He’s the great Shepherd, I will be laying down my life in Him. And if He is the great Shepherd, then I will be the high priest praying in Him. And if He is the chief Shepherd living in my heart, He’ll be leading to the glory of God and to the reward. It’s all about Jesus!
*CLICK HERE FOR MY TESTIMONY ON SELF VS GOD CONTROL
(the unedited uncondensed audios and transcripts of Ed Miller’s Bible study messages # 31 -36 in John 10 can be accessed and/or downloaded at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com)