The Gospel of John

The Shepherd King

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 36- 70

Genre:

Track: 036

Dictation Name: RR197U38

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song and His praise in the congregation of saints. For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people, HE will beautify the meek with salvation. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all honor and glory belong. We Thy people come into Thy presence again to acknowledge that indeed Thou art God, that we rejoice in Thy government, that we thank Thee for Thy mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord. And once again we commit ourselves into Thy hands to be taught, to be blessed, to be furthered in our hopes and to be guarded all the days of our life by Thy sovereign grace. Our God we thank Thee, in Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 10:31-42. Our subject: The Shepherd King. John 10:31-42.

“Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,

40 And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.

41 And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.

42 And many believed on him there.”

Our text begins grimly, then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus had answered them as they had requested, if Thou be the Christ tell us plainly. They wanted Him dead and this they now revealed. Today religious leaders and scholars raise up stones of criticism against Him. They will accept Him only on their terms. Jesus raised the question ‘I have shown you many good works which obviously come from my Father, which of these do you stone me?’ again the religious leaders insisted on separating the man and His works. They said we are not stoning you for the miracles but for blasphemy, you a man makest Thyself God. They conceded that the miracles were good but they refused to connect them with His person and being. Their statement was a denial of causality. They had already called Him a devil and stated implicitly that God had worked the miracles through a devil. This was a strange position because it’s obvious implication was that they, God’s religious leaders had been bypassed by God in favor of a devil. They were the priests who guarded the Holy of Holies and yet God had somehow chosen to use one who they now called a devil. Theirs was the logic of insanity. In verses thirty four and thirty five our Lord now refers to Psalm 82:6-7. The reference in that psalm in verses one and six to gods is to judges who because they administer God’s law are called [unknown], authorities who are like gods.

Because they are faithless to their calling and judge unjustly they fail to defend the poor and fatherless, the afflicted and the needy, therefore they shall die like guilty men. When judges neglect or are faithless to God’s law all the foundations of the earth are moved and shaken the psalmist tells us. Which tells us our problem today. We have denied as a nation God’s law. The result has been a shattering of our country. More crime in any one big city then used to incur in the entire nation and more fearful crimes. And God says He will bring judgment especially upon judges and rulers because they have broken the foundations of life. So now He says the religious leaders of Judea are false judges who have shaken and altered the foundations of society. You, the religious leaders, are especially bound to judge all things in terms of God’s law and the scripture cannot be broken. This is your duty, nothing can change that. Instead of judging me by God’s law you judge me by your sin. To judge apart from God’s law is to destroy all religious and civil order. Public trust is shattered and society becomes a place of injustice. Jesus tells them that they have shattered the foundations of justice as men have today. Jesus makes clear that not only is He part of the eternal order but as the one by whom the Father sanctified the foundations of that order He is the one they will answer to.

He is the son of God and if saying so is blasphemy to them then by implication they are in blasphemy. Again our Lord states the causal fact. Did He or did He not do His Father’s works? If the works He did were godly miracles as these religious leaders recognized how could they deny who He was or deny Him His calling? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not, you who claim to be godly have admitted the validity of the miracles, why not then admit who I am? The Father is obviously very obviously with me and present in me. Again they tried to arrest Him but He escaped out of their hand. He left for the wilderness over beyond Jordan where John had earlier baptized and there He stayed for a time. Many who had earlier followed John now followed Jesus into that area. They compared John and Jesus, both seen as men of God but John the Baptist performed no miracles while Jesus did. As a result many of them believed on Jesus. Two aspects of our text require special attention. First, Jesus repeatedly in this chapter speaks of Himself as the good shepherd, especially in verse fourteen. For us this image is a purely pastoral one, we’ve lost its meaning. A few weeks ago I called attention to the fact that a sheep herder, a shepherd, lives with the sheep. Here in the west the sheep herder will be in the mountains eleven months out of twelve before he is relieved for one month when he goes to town and rests. During that time day and night he is watching over the sheep to protect them from wild animals.

He lives alone he cooks his food, he bottle feeds some of the lambs if the ewe dies, in various forms takes care of them around the clock. The cowboy against that is not a responsible person. Cattlemen, owners, are, but the cowhand is a drifter and usually goes to town once a year to burn up a year’s pay. As a result in antiquity especially in the near east it was common for rulers to call themselves the good shepherd. This was a title given to kings and emperors, it meant that they were taking very good care of their people, were looking after them, so it was a claim to be a good ruler and also a god upon earth. So that pagan kings commonly called themselves the good shepherd. As a result no one dared use the term unless he were actually someone who was tending sheep or a king. The good shepherd is the divine king, the shepherd king and the image is one of the fullest of religious and political oversight and care. The shepherd king is the ideal king, one whose care and concern is without equal. This Jesus Christ declares concerning Himself. He is the pastor, protector, the Lord, God on earth. So when He said I am the good shepherd they knew what He was saying, I am God incarnate. The image of shepherd king was one which even tyrants such as Anticus Epiphanies used as they tried to convince people of their benevolent purposes.

When Anticus Epiphanies as ruler over Jerusalem and Judea took his image and had it put in the holy of holies he was outraged at the rebellion that broke out. Because he felt he had taken very good care of the Jews and therefore he was their divine shepherd king. That was the meaning of putting his image in the holy of holies. The shepherd king is one whose care and concern for his people is continual. For our Lord to use this image was to say I am God incarnate. Also I am king over you and over all things. He declared Himself thereby to be the God-king. The use of Psalm 82 by our Lord reinforces His claim to deity and to the status of lawgiver. As the shepherd king, as God, He tells the religious leaders or judges of Israel, the Elohim, that they shall die like convicted men because they have despised both the law giver and His law. By referring to that psalm He says I am your judge, the God who shall judge you. Then second John 1:17 tells us the law was given by Moses but the law came from the triune God. It was and is the law of God the son no less than the law of the Father and the Spirit. In Matthew 7:29 we are told of Jesus at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount that He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Exactly. And why not? Because He was expounding His own law and that law was the expression of the nature of the God head. He spoke with authority and without hesitation. When asked about marriage and the resurrection He answered them in Matthew 22:23-33 with a full knowledge of life in heaven. So He spoke authoritatively as no one other person who has given us scripture was ever able to do. He stated what the fact was about heaven. When faced by Jesus the scribes and Pharisees who saw themselves as the guardians of the law found themselves face to face with the law incarnate. Jesus manifested the law of God in all His being. Not the pharisaic interpretations of it. In the hands of the religious leaders the law had become as Paul said in Galatians 5:1 a yoke of bondage, not what James calls it twice in James 1:25 and 2:12 the perfect law of liberty. The law as a burden was not God’s law but the pharisaic interpretation of it. In John 10:10 our Lord declares I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. The pharisaic interpretation had you wondering every moment did I break the law with this or that? And a vast code, a library almost of interpretation supplanted the law. As against the niggardly images of popular religions our Lord speaks of the fullness of blessing when one is faithful to Him and to the Lord. Full measures heaped up and running over.

Our Lord never minimizes the hatred and evil of our enemies nor the persecutions we may endure but He always tells us of God’s greatness and assured victory. The shepherd King is our Lord and Savior. Let us pray.

Our Father we thank Thee that Thou art our shepherd King. Ever mindful of us, so that while we may sleep be mindless or heedless Thou art ever waitful and vigilant in our care and in our behalf. Give us a grateful heart, make us ever aware of the fact that Thou art closer to us than we are to ourselves, that there is not an unspoken grief that Thou art not aware of. Thou art the good shepherd and we thank Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] What he is there saying first in thirty seven ‘if I do not the works of my Father believe me not’, you see they were separating the two the words and His person so He says you have to bring them together. Don’t believe me if the works I do are evil, but if the works I do are good they should point to my Father but if I do though you believe not me, believe the works! Recognize what the works are that you may know and believe that the Father is me and I am Him.

If you will look at the works which you are trying to put away and saying oh yes, that was of God but not connected with Jesus, but if you look at them and see that they are my works you will see who I am. So He’s calling attention really to their blindness. Even on their terms they are refusing to acknowledge cause and effect. This is of course the theme throughout John, the blindness is a self-willed thing. That people in terms of their religious position will judge facts. They cannot be objective. We always have a perspective. If I am standing here I can only see in that direction not in that and religiously we have to reverse field to see properly and that’s what repentance means. Repentance means you’ve reversed field you were going in one direction now you turn around and go in another. You were doing one thing and believing one thing now you’ve reversed yourself. Yes?

[Question] At this point He is not chastising anybody for not just having faith in who He is but it is important for this time and this time alone He proves Himself through these actions, miracles and…

[Rushdoony]Well what He is doing is to say you know who I am but you hate the Fat her therefore you hate me. So He’s calling attention to what they are and in what will follow next week and the week after, the healing of Lazarus, we will see this especially. He brings home to them in a dramatic way that nothing is going to change them because they love darkness and hate the light, they are totally against Him no matter what He does. They can see the miracle of Lazarus buried four days, resurrected, and what is their conclusion He’s got to die. Jesus must be executed.

So what our Lord is doing and the phrase is out of philosophy and particularly Van TIl is to force them to a epistemological self-consciousness. Epistemology means the theory of knowledge. Epistemological self-consciousness means knowing who and what you are, knowing where you stand. Most people don’t want to be pushed to their presuppositions, they want to think I’m a fair minded objective person I judge all things fairly and our Lord is saying no you don’t. An epistemological self-consciousness means that people are pushed to know what they are. And this is what the ungodly do not want to know. Some years ago a time or two I did preach in penitentiaries and it was very interesting to see the extent to which there was self-righteousness in prison. They had a social scale, certain types of criminals were despised by all the others. Others had a low rank and so on up to the top who felt they were really good people not like the scum below them. So everyone regarded those below them as scum. At the bottom of course were child molesters who of course claimed the child. So everybody was borrowing virtue by looking down on somebody below them. And what our Lord does is to bring us to epistemological self-consciousness, to realize that we are sinners saved by grace.

Well if there are no further questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for Thy mercies. We thank Thee for Thy word, it is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light upon our way. We thank Thee that Thy word shines so brightly and makes even the nights of our life turn into day. Teach us therefore to cast our cares upon Thee because Thy care for us never fails. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.