False shepherds

 John 10v1-10

He says they are thieves and robbers-v1, v8, v10.  They were self-appointed, not God appointed. They did not become spiritual leaders through the normal channels-they did not come through the door, at the invitation of the porter, as all other proper leaders had. Their intention was not for the good of the people, but for their own self-gratification.  Instead of giving to the people, they would fleece them.  In contrast, Jesus entered the realm of spiritual leadership in the right way. He came in through the door.  The keeper of the fold (the Porter-this is none other than God, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep- Psalm 121v4); only God can appoint spiritual leaders, for the welfare of His people is at stake. These scribes and Pharisees were never appointed by God; but God declared Christ to be the shepherd of the sheep.

“He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the Porter openeth and the sheep hear His voice…(Divine approval, and human acceptance)…and He calleth His own sheep by name and leadeth them out.”  Kept safe through the night in the sheepfold, the Shepherd calls his own sheep in the morning, and leads them and they follow him because they know his voice and they trust him.  

The rogue shepherds are seen as strangers-v5; “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.”   This is the second description of the false shepherds, they are strangers to the flock; they are distant from them; they are aloof from them. The sheep don't know them, they don't know their voice and they don't follow them.  When they speak, people shy away from them, because of their demeanour. 

“This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which He spoke unto them.”  His audience was spiritually thick and so He had to change tack, and explain step by step what He meant.

Jesus went on to explain, “Verily, verily, I say to you; I am the door of the sheep.  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.  I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.  The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.  I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.  But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling flees because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.  I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.   As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Having stated that He came in by the door, He is now the door into the sheepfold of all the true people of God.  The Pharisees closed the door of the synagogue to the blind man, Jesus opens the door to him and all true believers into the fold of God.  “Saved”, in this case refers to deliverance from a religion that was taking the members away from God.  Peter spoke of being “…redeemed from a vain manner of living received from the tradition of the fathers…”1^st Peter 1v18. Judaism had become an empty religion run by men, which strangled the life out of their members and kept them in bondage to extreme human rules.  Jesus saves from that and gives life, abundant life, to His people.  He saves them, He succours them, He strengthens them, He satisfies them, He secures them, He brings them in, He leads them into ever fresh pastures.  They go in and out and find nourishment, there is a liberty about their experience, unlike the heavy burdens placed on them by the scribes and lawyers.  He gives them life, a life that is abundant and growing in ever-increasing joy, beyond any life they anyone else can give.

Here He reintroduces the third characteristic of the false shepherd, he is an hireling-v12, v13, that is he does it for what he can get out of it. There is no heart in what he does; he does not care for the sheep, and when trouble comes, he will flee.  In contrast, the true Shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep.  We must get the force of what Jesus is saying here.  He is speaking to Pharisees and lawyers who have set themselves up as spiritual leaders of the nation; and He is calling them thieves and robbers, strangers and hirelings.  This is an ever present threat in the communities of the Lords people.   There are men, who have set themselves up, who were not appointed of God; whose purposes are evil, whose practises are evil, whose very presence is evil.   As thieves and robbers they are fleecing the people. As strangers they remain aloof from the people.  As hirelings they do what they do because they have to-someone has to do it.  He is laying all this at the feet of the public rulers of Israel, and He is charging this to the rogue leaders of today.

Thieves and robbers are not quite the same, although they have the same effect.  Thieving can refer to petty theft, deceptively removing from you what is your rightful possessions.  Robbery refers to theft by force, armed robbery if you like.  Both evils were being perpetrated in the nation, and the people were being robbed, and denied their spiritual rights.  What is it that these men were stealing from the people, which is their right?  They are stealing their life, their spiritual life, the abundant life that Jesus offers to every believer.  He said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”- there is no life like the life that Jesus can give us.  Men who are rogue shepherds want to strangle that life out of us, by controlling us through their petty rules.  They either do it by deception or by force. These are stealing the liberty of the people of God.  They steal our joy, they kill our dreams, and they seek to manipulate our destiny.  This is as close as we can come to Cult mentality.  Jesus came to give, they come to take; they feed themselves instead of feeding God's people.  Jesus said all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.  Notice the word “are”- He is not referring to spiritual leaders of the past. He is referring to spiritual leaders who appointed themselves in His generation. And there's not one of them who is a true shepherd.  Consider how the Pharisees and lawyers ruled the people of God.

·      Jesus said they “devoured widows’ houses”-Matthew 23v14; Mark 12v40; Luke 20v47.   According to the Law of Moses, the spiritual leaders were supposed to be taking care of the widows and orphans in the community, and providing for their needs-Deut 26v12.  But here they are doing the opposite. They are taking away from the widows what little they have left, leaving them destitute, without even a home to live in.  The word devoured is really defrauded.  When widows could not pay their dues, they took possession of their houses.

·      They “bound heavy burdens and grievous to be born and laid them on man shoulders, but they themselves would not move them with one of their fingers”-Matthew 23v4.  They took the interpretation of Scriptures to the “nth-degree”, adding to the law their own extreme interpretations, many of which were never intended by the original word.  These rules became traditions, which negated the word of God.  The extent of these man made rules was nothing short of outrageous.

·      They were the supreme evangelists because they travelled land and sea to convert one person to their way of thinking.  But when they found them they made them to be twofold more the child of hell than themselves-Matthew23v15

·      They were the ultimate hypocrites. Who presented a clean image in public but the reality was that they were corrupt on the inside. Matthew 23v26-27.

·      They were usurpers, who should not even have been in that position, for only the Levites, separated by God to this work were to be the teachers of God's people-Malachi 2v4-8.

·      They were using the devotion of religious people to promote themselves, much like the elite of today run things to their own aggrandisement.  The church is plagued today with self-appointed leaders and evangelists who are fleecing the people of God, as well as dominating their thinking to their own advantage.

The message is loud and clear.  Don't be taken in by breakneck public activity that serves only for the aggrandisement of would-be leaders.  The true shepherd cares only for the good of the flock, seeks only their betterment, leads them into fresh pastures, feeds them, tends them, protects them, opens to them abundant life, that only He can give.  He gives them love, He is prepared to lay down his life for the sheep.  He gives them life, abundant life, progressive life, eternal life as He says in v28.  He gives them liberty, freedom to go in and out, to explore, to enjoy.