John 10: 1 – 18
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.
7 So Jesus said to them again, “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 hear them. 9 I am the door; if anyone enters through 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 is not the owner of 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 is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down again on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
Introduction
In the above passage of scripture, Jesus begins by speaking in a parable. But His disciples do not understand it, so Jesus gives them an explanation. Jesus initially talks about himself and the false Jewish leaders who preceded him. But he then widens it into a general teaching about the relationship between shepherds and sheep.
In this text, we have one of the images that are used to describe the life of the Church. Other examples of this are the image of the body and the image of a building. In this instance, Jesus is using an agricultural idea to describe the life of the Church; shepherds and sheep. In this teaching from Jesus there are some very important principles for all Christians to understand. And the one I want to concentrate on in my teaching is shepherds.
But Before I talk about shepherds, I want to make some general points about this text for you to think about.
Notice how Jesus starts his teaching with the words ‘truly’ truly. When Jesus does this, He wants to get our attention because what He is about to say is very important. So, my first point is that this teaching by Jesus is very important. It tells us things that are vital for all Christians. Bear that in mind.
There are five characters involved in Jesus’ teaching, including the wolf. They are the Good Shepherd (Jesus), the sheep (Christians), thieves and robbers (false leaders), hired hands (fake shepherds) and the wolf (the Devil or one of his demons). Although it is not directly included in this passage there is a sixth character and that is the genuine human shepherd who is appointed by God to take care of God’s people in the Church.
In the image that Jesus uses here we see that the Good Shepherd (Jesus) leads His sheep (Christians). In modern sheep farming we tend to see the sheep being driven from behind. However, at the time that Jesus was giving this teaching the normal practice in that part of the world was for the shepherd to go ahead of the sheep and the sheep would follow him by the sound of his voice. This shows us that one of the most important aspects of Christian living is to follow Jesus and not go our own way.
When Jesus talks about the sheep He uses the word ‘My’. In doing so he wants us to understand that we as Christians belong to Jesus, the Good Shepherd. This means that we don’t belong to anyone else. We don’t belong to the Devil and we don’t belong to any man. Neither the Devil nor any man has a claim on us no matter what they try to say. I once tried to help someone from a church that I didn’t belong to and I got a phone call shortly afterwards from the pastor telling me to keep away from their sheep. To this pastor, that person belonged to them. They were exceeding their authority. Christians belong to Jesus alone and we should never forget that.
In verse 14 Jesus talks about the mutual knowledge that exists between Jesus and His followers. The key word here is ‘know’. In the original Greek language this knowing is about relationships. It is the kind of intimate knowledge that a married couple can have because of their closeness. To know someone like this is to know them through personal experience and not from what has been said about them. So, Jesus is telling us that true Christians have a personal relationship with Him. They have a deep personal experience of Jesus. Do you have such a relationship with Jesus? You should have.
As part of this close personal relationship with Him, Jesus also tells us that His sheep hear His voice. In other words, one of the key characteristics of a Christian is the ability to hear the voice of Jesus. Notice that He does not say, read His word. You cannot hear a voice with your eyes. So, what is the voice of Jesus and how do we hear it? The answer can be found in my teaching entitled, My Sheep Hear My Voice.
There is so much more in this passage that we could look at but I want to leave it at that for now and concentrate on the subject of shepherds.
Shepherds
The Concept
Shepherding is a major concept in the Bible. For instance, one of the most famous places we read about it is in Psalm 23 which begins with the words, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Shepherd is both a noun and a verb and it is used in both ways many times in both the Old and the New Testaments. The concept of shepherd is applied to God, Jesus and to human leaders. A shepherd is someone who rules, leads and feeds. One of the themes of scripture is that sheep without a shepherd are scattered (see Matt 9:36). Having a shepherd is vital for our wellbeing.
The New Testament tells us about two kinds of shepherd; the divine shepherd (Jesus) and the human shepherds (church leaders). The word shepherd is used of Jesus in the singular but when used of human shepherds it is used in the plural. Human shepherds are never referred to in the singular.
The New Testament teaches us that every Christian has a divine shepherd, who is Jesus. We see this in John 10:11, 10:14 and 10:27-28. A Christian does not need to go looking for a shepherd; he receives one (Jesus) automatically when he is born again. Jesus, as our divine shepherd, gives us total security (see Psalm 23:1). Through Jesus, we have everything we need. Notice the use of the word ‘my’. This means that Jesus is a personal shepherd to each one of us. The only source of our security is our personal relationship with Jesus, our shepherd. If we put our security in anyone or anything else it will fail.
Two Kinds Of Shepherd
Jesus is the Good Shepherd or Chief Shepherd and there are human under shepherds who work in the church. The roles of these two are not the same. The primary shepherd is Jesus and the human shepherds have a limited role compared with Jesus. They must not replace Jesus and they must not infringe on His role.
The ministry of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is unique and cannot be duplicated by any human shepherd. For instance, in Psalm 23:3 we are told that Jesus restores our soul. No human shepherd can do that. Then again, in John 10:27 Jesus says that He knows us. There is no human shepherd that can know us as well as Jesus. See Psalm 139:1-6 for a description of how well Jesus knows us. And one more example can be found in John 10:28 where Jesus tells us that he gives us eternal life. No human shepherd can do that.
In the life of each Christian, it is up to Jesus to either shepherd us directly himself or to delegate some of His responsibilities to human shepherds. But He never delegates it all. There are examples in the Bible where some believers were directly shepherded by Jesus. We see this in Acts 10 where Peter received direct instructions from God to minister to Cornelius; he did not consult a human shepherd. We also see in Galatians 1:11-17 that Paul received direct teaching and instruction from God after his conversion and did not go to any human shepherds. And finally, we see it in Acts 8 where Philip, a deacon, was told by an angel to go to a certain place where he would preach the Gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch. Once again, he did not seek the approval of a human shepherd.
The New Testament uses three different words to describe one and the same person. These are shepherd (pastor), overseer and elder. These words refer to the same ministry in the church. So, an elder is also an overseer and a shepherd. However, the biblical arrangement of this ministry has been corrupted over the centuries by creating three different roles from what should be one role. Overseer became known as bishop and the bishop became someone separated from and above shepherds and elders. The bishop came to be someone over a territory consisting of many congregations. And shepherds became known as pastors which were separated from elders in terms of their role. Often the modern-day pastor is seen as being the senior leader in the local church. So, today the one biblical role has become three roles with a hierarchical structure which does not exist in the New Testament. The single role described in the New Testament is what we should have in the Church.
Human shepherds are always referred to in the plural as the following scriptures show: Acts 11:30. Acts 14:23. Acts 15:2. Acts 15:4. Acts 15:6. Acts 15:22-23. Acts 16:4. Acts 20:17. Acts 21:18. Eph 4:11. Philippians 1:1. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13. 1 Tim 5:17. Titus 1:5. Hebrews 13:7. Hebrews 13:17. Hebrews 13:24. James 5:14. 1 Peter 5:1-3.
Nowhere in the New Testament is there any reference to an individual being The Pastor of a church. The New Testament churches always had corporate leadership. When Paul wrote to the churches, he never singled out any individual leader to be addressed. The idea of a single overall leader called The Pastor is alien to the New Testament church.
The correct biblical church leadership is the corporate or collective leadership of the elders who are the human shepherds. Pre-eminence by an individual leader should normally be avoided because it can lead to problems. However, there can be occasions when one of the leaders has exceptional spiritual authority such as James in the church at Jerusalem but this should not be the norm.
The Roles And Responsibilities Of Human Shepherds
So, what is the role of human shepherds? We see from Ezekiel 34:3-4 that they are to strengthen the weak, to heal the sick, to bind up the injured, to bring back the stray and to search for the lost. Notice that the lost do not search for the shepherd.
One of the roles of human shepherds is to disciple their flock. For instance, in the Bible we see that Moses discipled Joshua and Elijah discipled Elisha. And of course, we see in the gospels that Jesus discipled the first Apostles.
What are the main responsibilities of human shepherds? In addition to the responsibilities that we find in Ezekiel 34:3-4 there are others as follows:
1. To strengthen and mature relationships of individual believers with the Chief Shepherd; to teach them to hear His voice. The Lord may speak through a human shepherd or in other ways. Not everything the human shepherd says is necessarily the Lord’s voice.
2. Build strong harmonious relationships between the members of the flock. See 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13. There should be peace and harmony in the flock.
3. A human shepherd should never interpose himself in two places. He should never come between the sheep and the Chief Shepherd. Neither should he come between the sheep and the corporate eldership. The corporate leadership has the authority, not the individual shepherd.
Shepherding In The Church
There is no single system that is in place in the New Testament for how the human shepherds should be organised in relation to the congregation. It is a mistake to impose a particular system on a church. The Holy Spirit must reveal to each church how it should be organised. If the organisational system is not working, it is not from the Holy Spirit.
The New Testament does show the concept of house churches but we must be careful that we understand correctly how this is meant to work. See Romans 16:3-5 – this appears to show that the church lived in the house of Priscilla and Aquilla and that all of their activities took place there such as worship and fellowship. It shows that there was a local church associated with the home of Priscilla and Aquilla. This suggests that it was more than just a house where they had a bible study or prayer meeting. See also 1 Corinthians 16:19. See Colossians 4:15. This local church was associated with the home of Nympha who was a woman. And finally, see Philemon 2. Once again, the local church was associated with someone’s home. Although we see that there were house churches in the early Church, we don’t have any detail about how this worked and we have nothing that tells us that this is the one and only way to organise a church. Nevertheless, it is an important concept that should be considered by all local churches. No matter how the local church is organised, the system of shepherding must be judged by its fruit.
In the modern church we often have systems where the local shepherds have someone outside their church that they are answerable to. An example of this is the modern concept of bishop. However, there is nothing in the New Testament to support this idea. The New Testament portrays the local church as being sovereign. This, however, does not preclude the concept of another mature Christian outside the local church providing advice or counsel to the local shepherds. In fact, there is much good to be had from such an arrangement.
Conclusions
Much of what I have said above may come as a surprise to you because it does not match your experience of church and church leaders. However, everything I have written is biblical and if you want to obey God’s word then you need to reconsider what you think the church is, how the church should be led and what your relationship with Jesus should be as one of His sheep.
I have been a Christian for a long time and I have never come across a church that operates in the biblical way that I have described above. And I think that is a tragedy. One of the worst errors in the church today comes from a failure to understand the role and function of church leaders. Having any form of hierarchy in the church is fundamentally wrong. We are all equal in Christ and hierarchies go against that. The biblical model for the church is shepherds and sheep and the only difference between these two groups is the roles they have.
Having a dominant leader called a Pastor, Vicar, Priest or Minister is also unbiblical. There is only one leadership role in the church and that is the corporate eldership. However, almost all churches I know have one dominant leader who has a lot of power. When you put one man in this position it almost invariable leads to them dominating and controlling everything. They tend to guard their dominance and become intolerant of anyone who doesn’t agree with them. I once witnessed one of these dominant Pastors attack one of the elders publicly in his church. The elder had written a book which contained some things that he did not agree with and this Pastor made sure that the congregation knew this when the book was published. Having a corporate eldership that jointly shepherds the flock stops such vanity from developing.
As I have shown, there are only two kinds of shepherd in the Church and they are Jesus and the local elders. And the most important one of these is Jesus. All believers, whether elders or congregations are meant to listen to the voice of Jesus and to follow Him. We are all meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus and to walk with or follow Him through the Holy Spirit. However, I see little evidence of this in most of the Church today. Too often the Church is organised and led by human endeavour and not by Jesus. Because of this, most of the Church is failing and God’s will for individuals and congregations is not being done. When have you ever heard a Pastor teaching God’s people how to listen to the voice of Jesus for instance?
Over the centuries since the Apostolic Age, the Church has moved further and further away from the biblical model of shepherds and sheep. Instead, it has adopted many worldly practices which have ruined the true identify, function and purpose of the Church. It’s time to cleanse the Church of all this worldliness and get back the Church that the Apostles founded. Will you rise to the challenge and restore the Church?
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to Derek Prince for some of his teachings about shepherds. I have used many of his insights in this teaching.