The Works of the Good Shepherd

 

Text: John 10:25-29
Scripture Readings: John 10:1-15; Zechariah 13:7-9; Jeremiah 23:1-3
Confessional Reading: Canons of Dort V Articles 7, 9

© April 6, 2014 (Pasig Covenant Reformed Church) •  Download this sermon (PDF)

Introduction

Beloved congregation of Christ: Thus far, we have studied the first Four Heads of Doctrine of the Canons of Dort. From the First to the Fourth Heads of Doctrine, we looked with some detail at the doctrines of unconditional election, limited (definite) atonement, total depravity, and irresistible grace.

Today, we come to the last Head of Doctrine, the Fifth, which teaches that a person who is truly born again can never fall from grace; it is the power of God that keeps him to the end. The word preservation is mentioned in the Fifth Head ten times, perseverance 15 times. Believers are preserved in the faith by the power of the Triune God, yet they are responsible to persevere. They must persevere, but he must also recognize that it is God who preserves him to the end (Phil. 1:6, 2:12-13).

The popular evangelical view is diametrically opposed to this historic Protestant view. They believe that salvation is accomplished through the cooperation between God and man. God takes the first step, but he leaves it to man’s decision to believe. Since man decides by his own “free will” to accept Christ, then he can also turn away from Christ and fall from saving grace on his own.

The “Young, Restless, Reformed” movement first came to prominence in 2006 when Christianity Today published an article with the same title. But 30 years before, in the early 1970s, there was a “Young, Restless and Reformed” movement in my old denomination, the Unida Evangelical Church. Well, sort of. Some of the youth were going to a Baptist church that was teaching a new doctrine called, “once saved, always saved.” They said that this was Calvinism, and Unida was Arminian. Many of the Unida pastors agreed somewhat with this teaching, but cautioned that this was misleading, and even dangerous. So what followed was a big controversy, and some of the “restless” left the church.

How is this view misleading and dangerous? It can mislead a professing believer that he is saved no matter what kind of life he lives. This is what’s called antinomianism, or “against the law.” Christ can be one’s Savior, but not necessarily his Lord, what is also called “Lordship salvation” or carnal (versus spiritual) Christianity. This view is also very popular with dispensationalists like Charles Ryrie, Zane Hodges, and others.

But Scripture is very clear that although false Christians can and will be lost, a true Christian never can and never will. And although some people in the visible church have an appearance of having faith, they eventually turn away from God. But this means they had never been truly saved.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus performed many signs and miracles. He preached, taught, and did many works of mercy. In John 10:32 and 10:38, Jesus says that the works that he does are the works of his Father also. And in verse 25, he says that he does all his works in the name of his Father.

What are these works? In our text in John 10, Jesus tells us that he does three things for his sheep as the Good Shepherd.

So this Lord’s Day, our theme is, The Works of the Good Shepherd, which we will study under three points: (1) He Leads His Sheep; (2) He Gives Them Eternal Life; and (3) He Protects Them from the Wolf.

He Leads His Sheep

In the first five verses, he contrasts the good shepherd from a thief or a robber. The thief or robber does not enter by the door, because he enters the sheepfold to steal, kill and destroy. But the shepherd is allowed to enter in by a gatekeeper. The sheep know the voice of their shepherd, and they follow him. But if they heard a stranger’s voice, they know there’s danger, and they flee from the stranger.

In the Old Testament, God appointed shepherds for his people. Moses appointed those “who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that [they] may not be as sheep that have no shepherd” (Nm 27:17). Israel was as a flock led by its shepherd, the LORD through Moses, from Egypt through the wilderness into the Promised Land, “You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Ps 77:20; 78:52). But Ezekiel 34 is a prophecy against the leaders of Israel who were called shepherds who fed themselves instead of the sheep, scattering the sheep.

In verse 9, Jesus refers to himself as the Door of the sheepfold, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” This is the language of covenant blessings to God’s chosen people Israel, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out” (Dt 28:6); and the psalmist’s blessing, “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (Ps 121:8).

The shepherd not only leads his flock in and out of the sheepfold, but also leads them to peaceful pastures to feed them and give them rest. King David was appointed by God to “shepherd Jacob his people… With upright heart he shepherded them” (Ps 78:71-72). But David the shepherd praises the LORD his Shepherd, “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters” (Ps 23:2). When Israel was in exile, the LORD promised to restore them to peaceful and abundant pastures, “They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Is 49:9-10).

In John 10:11, Jesus assures us that he is this Good Shepherd, who leads us his flock in all our going out and coming in. He makes us lie down in green pastures so we may rest from all our labors, sufferings and afflictions in our pilgrimage in this barren and hot wilderness. He leads us beside still waters, where he will cleanse and refresh us.

He cleanses us from all our uncleanness. He leads us us in paths of righteousness to restore our weary souls. How does he make sure that we are in the waters of holiness and the paths of righteousness? Since we are his sheep, we know his voice and follow him. If we are not his sheep, we do not follow him, “but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep” (Jn 10:26).

This is a sober warning: if you do not obey his commands, you do not belong to him. All true believers cannot live in sin without repentance. No holiness means no salvation, and there is no such thing as a “carnal” Christian. This teaching will make a shipwreck of your faith. “Once saved, always saved” is a false saying, because it implies that following Christ is only optional—do whatever your sinful heart desires, but you’re still saved, even without repentance.

But the true flock of Christ will be shepherded by the Son of David, as Ezekiel prophesied, “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes” (Ezk 37:24). The true flock submits under the Kingship of Christ, walking in his laws and obeying his commands.

This is how they evidence their eternal life.

He Gives Them Eternal Life

In verse 28, we read this parallel saying, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish…” One who has eternal life will never perish. And eternal life means life without end and without interruption. You can’t have eternal life today, then lose your eternal life someday, then regain it. Jesus assures us that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

Jesus also taught that it is the will of his Father that he will “lose nothing of all that he has given me,” and “that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life” (Jn 6:39-40). He would lose none of those the Father had given him from eternity. And he would accomplish his mission completely and perfectly to give eternal life to all the elect.

How does he give them eternal life? Jesus explains, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (verse 11; also 15, 17, 18 twice). Five times he says he will sacrifice his own life for them. Of the three things he does for his sheep, laying down his life for them is the most important.

In the prophecy about Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, Micah wrote, “from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” (Mic 5:2). God sent his own Son to find his lost sheep and feed them and give them rest and be their King.

How did he accomplish this work? He first had to lay down his life for his sheep. His sacrifice was for his sheep alone. His enemies struck and killed him, and his disciples scattered like sheep without a shepherd, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’” (Mt 26:31). But that was not the end of the story. Even though his people scattered after his death, they all returned to him after he arose from the grave, except for Judas Iscariot. After they strayed like sheep, they “have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pt 2:25).

Jesus was speaking about his substitutionary atonement. On the cross of Calvary, he gave his body and blood for them as the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world! All of us who are elect are like lost sheep who have turned away from God. And to turn us back to him, Christ laid down his life for all our sins, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6). In laying down his life, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Co 5:21).

This is what John says in his first epistle, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 Jn 5:11-12). To be assured of eternal life, you must believe in Christ, that he lived, died and rose from the dead so that you may have repentance and be forgiven of your sins. If you do not believe, you have no eternal life.

Are you one of Christ’s lost and scattered sheep? Believe in him and return to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls! And he will lead you through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Ps 23:4). Through all your sufferings and afflictions, his guiding staff and rod of discipline will comfort you.

He Protects Them from the Wolf

Jesus is our Good Shepherd who leads us in and out of the sheepfold to find pastures. He gives his people life eternal not only in the age to come, but even now, in this present age. Finally, as he leads us in and out of the sheepfold, he protects us from our enemies so that he loses none of the sheep his Father has given him.

How is it that he loses none of his sheep? He says in verse 28, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” None of his sheep will ever perish because no enemy is more powerful than him to snatch them out of his Almighty hand. In verse 29, he repeats the same words, but this time, he refers to his Almighty Father’s hand, “My Father… is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

I heard an argument against this idea of God’s preservation of his elect. They argue that even if the Father is able to hold onto his sheep, they are able to escape the Father’s grip and jump out of the Father’s hand! It is hard not to die laughing at this silly argument. Why would God hold on tightly to protect his sheep from their enemies, when he would afterwards let the sheep who do not want to remain in their Father’s hand to simply jump out of his Almighty grip?

In reality, what this ridiculous argument says is that the sheep will not jump out, but someone will snatch them out. In verses 28-29, the verb “to snatch” has the meaning “to grab or seize suddenly so as to remove or gain control.”¹ Someone wants to seize the sheep and control them. And who wants to do this? In verse 12, Jesus says a hired hand does not care for the safety of the sheep, so that he “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.” In this verse, “snatch” has the added meaning of snatching with violence, “to make off with someone’s property by attacking or seizing.”² The wolf is anyone who forcibly snatches and scatters the sheep.

The wolf is Satan himself, and he leads a pack of wicked wolves to snatch, scatter and destroy God’s sheep. Who are these wolves? Jesus says they are false prophets who are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Mt 7:15). The disciples of Christ are like “sheep in the midst of wolves,” enemies of Christ who will flog them and drag them to the courts (Mt 10:16-18).

Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus to beware of false teachers who will arise among them after he leaves them:

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Ac 20:29-30).

This is a fearful prospect for all churches, even today, because false teachers will come from within the church, even from among the elders.

Great danger lurks from within the church. Jesus prophesied that in the last days from his first coming and his return, there will be many who will try to deceive even the elect, “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” (Mt 24:11). And most of them will come from within the church. There are many who profess to have great knowledge, but false knowledge and heresies that would destroy the church—prosperity “gospel,” mysticism, new revelations. There are many who act and speak with great piety, but like the Pharisees, their worship is only an outward and hypocritical show to gain the praise of men and even financial profit.

Beware of these wolves! They will destroy the church.

 

But take heart, dear congregation of Christ! The Spirit assures you that nothing in this world can separate you from the love of God in Christ. God the Father is able to hold you firmly in his hand till the end. From eternity past, “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6).

But not only will God preserve you till the day that Christ appears. He will also graciously and abundantly enable you to persevere till that day comes, as it is “God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” even as he commands you to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12-13).

On that day of Christ, as the shepherd David says, Christ will prepare a great banqueting table for you his sheep. But none of his enemies will be there because they will not be invited to this great feast (Ps 23:5). On the day of the LORD, our Good Shepherd will come, “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD… And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth” (Mic 5:4).

The Apostle Peter also looked forward to that day of the LORD, “And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Pt 5:4).

So on that day, we too can praise and thank the LORD, together with David the shepherd, “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever” (Ps 138:8). That day will begin your dwelling in the house of the LORD forever (Ps 23:6).

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1 Walter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 3^rd ed., 134.

2 BDAG, Lexicon, 134.