Wrapping up the Great Debate
Tom Shrader examines Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees in John 9-10, where He exposes them as hired hands who abandon the sheep when danger comes. Jesus contrasts their self-serving leadership with His role as the good shepherd who knows His sheep intimately and sacrifices His life for them. The teaching emphasizes how true spiritual leaders must prioritize the well-being of those they serve over their own interests.
“If you're ever trying to figure out what your pastor's supposed to do, here's his condemnation of bad shepherds: those who are sickly, you don't strengthen, the diseased, you haven't healed, the broken, you haven't bound up.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: John: The Essence of Life
Recorded: 2008
Duration: 43 min
Themes: shepherding, leadership, authority, sacrifice, hypocrisy, conflict, service, protection, pastor, elder, church leader, struggling with authority, facing opposition, new to leadership, mentor, navigating conflict
Scripture: John 2, John 5, John 6, John 7, John 9:38-40, John 10:1-31, Mark 7:5, Matthew 23, Luke 2:43, Ezekiel 34:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:22
Theological Themes: christology, pastoral care, biblical authority, servant leadership, ecclesiology, spiritual maturity, good shepherd, pharisaism
Full Transcript
This is session six of our study through John 9-10. If you look under point A on that outline, there's an ongoing struggle—this is a little bit of hyperbole—but there's almost this natural predatory relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees. By that, I mean they just do not get along. Now, there are moments where, for example, when Nicodemus comes, it's a little bit different. But when they're in a group together, Jesus and the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders, there is a collision that takes place.
We're going to look today at basically just two questions. What do you, Jesus, say about us? they ask. And then, what do you, Jesus, say about yourself?
The Ongoing Conflict
If you look under that point, I'm giving you a real quick summary. We looked where Jesus talks to them and they ask, "Who are you?" In John 2, "Who are you to do what you do?" That's when He's cleaned out the temple, driving out the money changers, and they're asking, "How do you have the authority to do this? Who are you in this process?"
Then in John 5, they ask the question, "Why don't you follow our rules?" There's a corresponding text from Mark chapter 7, where they come to Jesus—the Pharisees and the scribes. Mark 7:5 says they said to Him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders?" And Jesus says, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. This people honors me with their lips," He's quoting now from the Old Testament, "but their hearts are far away. But in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrine as precepts of man."
So often when we hear this idea of little baby Jesus meek and mild, we forget to get Him out of the manger. We forget those moments that we're looking at, and He comes right at them. If you want to read really a powerful indictment, in Matthew chapter 23, there are what I would say are the counterbalances to the blessings that we find in the Sermon on the Mount. But here: "Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you scribes, you hypocrites." There's a variety of them, but one of them captures it all: "You are like whitewashed tombs who look good on the outside, but you're filled with dead man's bones." So this is just building.
Questions About Jesus' Authority
In John 6, they're saying, "Could you really be from heaven?" And He has just said, "Of course, I'm the bread of life. I come down from heaven." And then there's this moment in John 7 that we looked at, where they said to Him, in essence, "How'd you learn all this stuff?"
That makes me think back to Luke chapter 2. Jesus, at this point, is about 12 years old. They take Him up to Jerusalem, and they're returning home, and He has stayed behind. Here's what Luke writes in Luke 2:43: "His parents were unaware of it, supposing Him to be in the caravan." So you get a sense probably—you could read into it—but probably a cool little community, and they just figured, if Jesus isn't with us, He's with the other guys, and everything's fine.
But then all of a sudden, they realize that they have—I was thinking about this when the girls were small. I don't remember ever losing them in a store or anything, but the movie *Ransom* was on the other night, and there's that moment where they realize the kid's gone, and there's this panic. So I think that would be intuitive of any parent, but it probably would accelerate when you realize you've misplaced the Messiah. You think, "Oh my gosh, we didn't just lose a kid. The whole plan of redemption is lost because we've screwed it up." So they carry an extra burden there.
All of a sudden, they see Him, and He's sitting in the temple, "and all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers." He's 12. So that stays current as they begin to interact with Him. There's a sense of amazement.
Two Key Questions
Well, I want to look at those last two questions. So if you have Bibles, turn to John chapter 9, verse 40. I want to look at two things: what Jesus says about the Jewish leaders, and then what Jesus says about Himself.
We need to give it a little bit of context. We looked at it last week. John 9 is where He comes in contact with the blind man. "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he's blind?" "Neither, it might be a display case." And then this man comes to an understanding of who Jesus is. We see in verse 38, he said, "Lord, I believe," and the blind man worshipped Jesus.
Verse 40: "Those Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said, 'Are we blind too?'" That's the condition that these guys are in. They are spiritually unable to see the truth that's right before them. They're in this position of power. Remember, that even comes up in the discussion with the blind man. Because they're asking the blind man questions, and they're saying, "This man, Jesus, is a sinner." And he said, "I don't get it. How can you be the religious leaders and not understand that He couldn't do these things if He wasn't of God?" So they're beginning to wrestle: "Who are we? Do we not see this?"
The Pharisees' Standing in Society
Remember, in that context—I'm going to use names just to give you a sense of it—these leaders, because we look back at the Pharisees and we see them in a pejorative sense or in a negative way, they were viewed by the people of their day as the leaders. So if you took a John MacArthur, a Chuck Swindoll, a Billy Graham, that's how they viewed the Pharisees.
Remember, there's one point where Jesus is trying to teach salvation by grace. And He said, "Listen, if you want to work your way to heaven, your righteousness—so your works—need to exceed those of the Pharisees." And then the disciples said, I'm paraphrasing here, "We're screwed then, because we can't possibly get to where they are, let alone exceed it." And Jesus is confronting these religious leaders and saying, "You're the guys that they go to for answers," and the indictment is even heavier than that.
Bad Shepherds and the Good Shepherd
John chapter 10 is a chapter of the Bible that you ought to know really well, because there's a lot of stuff in here. It deals with a lot of questions, and a lot of things come together when you master John chapter 10.
In this process, here's what happens. Look at John chapter 10, verse 1: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs over some other way, he's a thief and a robber." Verse 8: "All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep do not hear him." John 10:10: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."
Understanding the Shepherd Imagery
Let me give you the imagery. The imagery to us is probably lost. I don't know anything about sheep, to be honest with you, except what I read, and how the shepherds dealt with them in a variety of ways. But here's what would happen.
We're talking about the gate there, and the thief comes over the wall. They would frequently take different flocks of sheep, and they would commingle them, for example, at night. They'd put them in a pen with a wall maybe three feet high, and there would be one door, and that's where the shepherd would be. That's where the shepherd would lay. He's saying, if any other shepherds are coming in there, they would be thieves. He said, you come to kill and destroy. I've come that you have life and have it abundantly.
The Real Identity of the Thief
Now, I'm going to give you something here that is really insightful. When you read John 10:10 historically, without any context, my suspicion would be that when you read, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy," you begin to think of who? Satan. This is not about Satan. This is not about Satan coming to kill. That's how typically you would read it, and this is why context is important for Bible interpretation. If you read it without context, you would think logically of Satan. But He's not saying that.
The thief that comes to kill and destroy are the false teachers, the bad shepherds. It's an amazing truth. So when we go, "Oh, the church is under attack," and we start to think about the enemies—and I'm not saying this is my list, but I have friends for whom this is their list—they would say the ACLU and the liberal left, and they would go down these roads. Or you could go the other way and say you're in the church and think about the radical right. That's not what Scripture teaches.
Scripture teaches, here's the enemy you need to watch out for: the one that's right there among you. The one that's in the pulpit. The one that's charged with leadership.
A Word to Leaders
One of the things that happens more and more is we will get a lot of leaders in our Bible studies. Not so much on Wednesday morning, but Thursday noon, we'll get a lot of pastors and elders. So if you're in that category, let me talk to you a little bit about the solemn charge that you have.
He says that these shepherds didn't know their sheep. They were strangers. Verse 5 says, "A stranger they simply will not follow." Here's what they would do literally with the sheep. The sheep know the voice. What they would do is gather these sheep together, even though they're commingled, and here's the way they separated them: The shepherds would stand in different areas and simply call out to the sheep, and the sheep would recognize their voice and come to them. The imagery comes alive.
The Pharisees and Ezekiel 34
This may be for no one in the room but myself, but when these leaders heard that they were thieves and bad shepherds, one thing these Pharisees knew was their scripture, and their brains would go right to Ezekiel 34. You don't need to turn there, but I'm reading this yesterday and thinking, if you want to try to figure out what a shepherd is supposed to do, or if you're responsible for any people—even if you don't see yourself as a shepherd but lead a small group—let me just read you from Ezekiel 34 and the solemn charge that He gives to the shepherds.
"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, prophesy against the shepherd of Israel.'" Now these guys, remember the Pharisees? They'd hear this and know exactly what He's saying. "'Prophesy and say to those shepherds, Thus says the Lord, Woe, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves and not the sheep.' You ate the fat and clothed yourselves with wool and slaughtered the sheep."
The Shepherd's True Responsibilities
Ezekiel 34:4—and I'm sure everybody who's a shepherd would know this, but when I was reading this out loud yesterday morning, I thought, "Oh my goodness." If you're ever trying to figure out what your pastor's supposed to do, here's His condemnation of the bad shepherds: "Those who are sickly, you don't strengthen. The diseased, you haven't healed. The broken, you haven't bound up. The scattered, you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost, but with force and with severity, you have dominated them."
Isn't that an amazing verse? Listen to this—here's the result: They scatter for lack of a shepherd. They're spread all over; they don't know what to do. How many churches are you in where people are just lost and confused and running all over and don't know how to take the world and put it in some sort of perspective?
There's no biblical worldview and they don't understand how this all connects. So they've taken their faith and segmented it to Sunday morning and segregated it to that, and it's never allowed to infiltrate the rest of the week. I was listening to somebody this week talk and they were saying at one point in the Reformation, because they built these amazing cathedrals, right?
Some of you have been to these cathedrals and I have a lot of friends that'll walk back and they'll go, it is so inefficient. There's these big buildings, but they only seat like five or six hundred. These massive structures. You understand why? It was so you would walk into that building and be dwarfed by the awesome power of God.
Well, at one point in the Reformation, as they were trying to teach, no, it's the priesthood of the believer - we're all priests - they started locking the cathedrals on Monday morning. So people couldn't get into them and they would say to them, this is just a place to go. You need to go out where you live, where you work, whatever it is you need to do, you need to go out there, not come to the building, but get out there.
Living Faith Beyond Sunday
That's you, me, that's all of us. That's our responsibility, our privilege, to not segment that faith to Sunday and then go, you know what, it doesn't matter the rest of the day. We were in a meeting a couple of weeks ago and the guy was talking and he said, 9-11 was really, you know, that's that boom, there's that line in the sand. He said, I'll tell you what I think was a far more telling comment - kind of the 9-11 of where we are morally. He said that was the Enron failure because that was led by a guy who was supposed to be an evangelical Christian who was involved in teaching Sunday school class and leading stuff around and yet he was able to make this dissection and segment and not integrate his faith.
I am so sick, A-Rod and steroids. It's just falling apart all around us. Tom Daschle doesn't pay taxes. The Secretary of the Treasury, the head of the IRS doesn't pay taxes. Corporations are crumbling for immoral leadership at the top. And you all know, because you've heard me talk about it, they ought to kill them all. Now that's harsh, I know that's harsh and I'll back off a little bit, but there ought to be a severe penalty.
You know why? Because now what does everybody think? You're not even stunned when you hear that about A-Rod. Eh, they all do it. He doesn't pay his tax, my friends are going, where are the Republicans? Why aren't the Republicans leading this charge? I'll tell you why, because they're just as dirty. And now there's a cynicism that gets into the system and you can't function without that.
Bad Shepherds Neglecting Their Responsibility
It's all going to the shepherds who are neglecting their responsibility. So now you have people - look, your job is not just to know the scripture, it's to live it. It's not just to study the word of God, but to know the God of the word. And if the leaders aren't doing that, if they're not taking you through the scripture, and what we do here during the week, I don't do this on Sunday. On Sunday, it's chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
Some of you real Bible guys get tight on this and I understand it, but man, we're in the scriptures. Jesus is confronting these guys. Again, for some of you, if that resonates, hang in that Ezekiel 34 passage, because it's just amazing what you can pull out of there in application, especially for a leader within the context of the church. But these guys are bad leaders.
The Good Shepherd's Self-Sacrifice
Verse 11 of John 10, I'm the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. And then He makes the comment of Him as the good shepherd again. Verse 14, I'm a good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Look at it again, verse 17. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life. Verse 18, no one has taken it away from me. I lay down my life.
Here's that phrase over and over again. I lay down my life. Who killed Jesus? Jesus did, the father did. Jesus at any point in this could have stopped this process. He was not a victim of some plan that went awry. This was all part of God's divine plan before the beginning of the foundations of the earth.
And He said, I'm the good shepherd. Here's the characteristic of a shepherd. There is a characteristic in the good shepherd's life of self-sacrifice. Now, I hate that term. But like when I'm talking to parents, I'm sacrificing for my children. I hate it. You're not sacrificing. You're investing in them. You're investing in their lives. So understand when I say self-sacrifice, I don't mean it in some sort of a self-glorifying way. A shepherd understands that His primary responsibility is to the sheep, not to Himself, even if it endangers Him physically.
The Contrast: Hirelings vs. True Shepherds
Now, you contrast it with these Pharisees. Remember the context? You contrast it with the Pharisees. What they're like is here in verse 12. A hired hand, not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep. There's a big difference. If the shepherd owns the sheep, he is there with the sheep. When the wolf comes, he is there with them. He doesn't run away.
But a hireling's gonna go, wait a minute. Being a shepherd, by the way, is a very dangerous business. There is a lot of physical risk attached to it. But a hireling, it's a whole different story. He's gone.
I'll use the illustration anyway because it illustrates it perfectly. The worst McDonald's—and here's an organization or company that's pretty successful, good organization—the worst McDonald's in the universe is the McDonald's at Hayden and Indian School. It's the worst McDonald's in the universe. It is terrible.
So I'm in there one night. This is a true story. I can't make this stuff up. I'm in there one night and I said, "I have a double cheeseburger," and they said, "We're out of burgers." If you're McDonald's, I mean, at this point, well, I have an apple pie and a french fry. There's nothing left.
So I said, "Honestly, are you kidding me?" "No, we're out of burgers." And I ask one question: "Is this a company-owned store or a franchisee?" Well, I knew the answer. What's a company-owned store? There's not a franchisee in the world—are you telling me you'd run a McDonald's and run out of hamburgers? There is no way. But if you're just a company-owned store and you're just a company manager and you don't have a lot invested, maybe some silly bonus that's attached, but it's all everybody in the world. So you just hope in Bangkok, they're selling their share. You don't care.
The Problem of Hirelings in Leadership
That's what He's saying. You shepherd—remember the context?—you shepherds, you pastors, you leaders, you small group leaders, you directors of women's ministries, you whatever it is you are. You're not a hireling. It's just a gig.
I meet more and more people who are in the company slack on term, in the same industry I'm in, for whom it is a job. It's a gig. And as they get older, it becomes more important because they're not really employable anywhere else. That would be me, by the way. I think about it all the time. If something happened to me, I have no idea what I would do. I don't know where I could possibly be employed anywhere else.
But it's just a gig. Don't give a rip. Here you go. Think about how damning this statement is: "Ministry would be great if it wasn't for what? The people." The ministry is the people. That's what it is. It would be like saying, "McDonald's would be great if it wasn't for the hamburgers." Well, this is silly. This is ludicrous.
And that's what the deal has become. In a way, in terminology we can understand, religion for the Pharisees has become the gig. The people are not a concern of theirs. They're concerned about the law. Remember when Jesus healed the blind man? Their big concern was, "What day was it?" Not that the blind man could see. Not that God had demonstrated Himself in an amazing way. Just a gig. They're hired hands. That's what Jesus said about them.
What Jesus Says About Himself
Well, what does Jesus say about Himself? Look at John chapter 10. And you have your outline there. And I'm going to not really follow it, but kind of pull it out. It'll be in there.
John chapter 10, verse 25. Again, let me just reinforce it. This section of scripture is really important for you to know, because it has so many theological truths packed into it. So you need to really get it.
Look at verse 24. So they say, "Hey, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, tell us plainly." Got it? And He said, "I told you. I told you, and you don't believe. The works I do, I do in My Father's name, and they testify of Me."
If I go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22, Paul says the Jews asked for a sign. Greeks looked for wisdom. He said, "I've told you. I've taught you. I just healed the blind man. I just did this work. You don't believe, not because you haven't been told. You don't believe because you won't believe. You have all the evidence there is."
The Challenge of Familiar Truth
I struggle, and I share it all the time. With Christmas and Easter, I find those really hard teaching times in the sense that if you feel any burden to come up with something new, it's just pretty hard. I have now taught on 19 Christmases. And it seems like it always has something to do with a manger, you know? And Easter always has an empty tomb to it.
And my fear is, and I kind of do this almost every Easter, my fear is we're so familiar with it, we miss this. This is the message of Easter. Big message, singular, bottom line. Bottom line it for us, net it out. The tomb's empty. There's the net it out right there. The tomb is empty. And the big deal. That is a gigantic deal. That's something that demands your attention.
If you're here today, and somehow somebody connived you, they said, "If you come to this, I'll buy you coffee." And you thought they were actually going to pay for something. Or "You come to this, I'll meet you for breakfast." Or they do something like that. They get you here. And you go, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know this was going to be this. What am I doing? I don't like this." And you're sitting there going, "I think this is kind of a bunch of hooey."
The Vulnerability of Christianity
I'm going to tell you. Not many guys would do this. If you're in a game, you'd never give the other side your vulnerability, right? I'll tell you where we're vulnerable. If you're here today, and you're antagonistic, you only got to do one thing. And we say, "Uncle, it's game over. Close this down. Turn this building into a restaurant." All you got to do is disprove the resurrection. That's all you got to do. That's all you got. You do that, Christianity's over.
What is amazing over the years and centuries is the people who have come aggressively to try to disprove the resurrection, and God uses that inquiry to prove to them who Christ is. You want a sign? It's an empty tomb. Where'd the body go?
Theories That Fall Short
Well, there's all sorts of theories that have been developed over the year. There's the theory, the resuscitation theory, that He really never died. He was just really in bad shape. And then He just kind of shook Himself loose, got out of the wrappings, and moved the stone.
I will tell you what. If He did that, He's my Messiah. Honestly, I mean, He's beaten within an inch of His life. He resuscitates Himself. He shakes Himself loose from the clothing, and He picks up a
That's enough right there. So even if that theory was true, I'd take that one. And you got all the theories—the apostles stole the body, which makes no sense.
Here, think about this. In his little book called Loving God, written by Chuck Colson in 1983, there's an amazing chapter called "Watergate and the Resurrection." And again, this is not compelling evidence from the scripture. This is compelling evidence from human nature. Colson said, "I'm in a White House. This stuff with Nixon is starting to go down. And when it really now is the game's on, it wasn't a week before we all had our own lawyers going in 1,000 different ways." And you're telling me that these 12 guys ended up dying? They ended up dying for a lie? They stole the body and they're dying? There's no way. Human nature tells you that doesn't make any sense.
And you know what happens when you get at it, and you get at it, and you get at it. Here's the bottom line: The tomb is empty because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He's God. And that demands a response from you. I'm not kidding. You're here and you're thinking, "Wait a minute. There's a lot of ways to God." No. If Jesus rose from the dead, you better listen to what He says. And He said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life. There isn't any other way."
Jesus' Declaration: Why Some Don't Believe
Let's stay in John 10. You don't believe me. Here's why you don't believe: You're not my sheep.
Look at verse 27 and 28. Verse 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. You've got to grab these. I'm telling you this: Grab these verses. Understand what they say. Unpack them in their richness and fullness. And in terms of knowledge and theology, you're in the top 10% of church-going Christians in the world. Just grab these. And that ought to tell you right there that there must be more than what there is here. This ought to lead us into a bunch of areas.
So here's what Jesus said. My sheep—I think I made four points here. My sheep, one, hear my voice. Two, I know them. Three, they follow me. Four, I give them eternal life. And now the rest of it is kind of an expansion, especially on that last idea. No one will snatch them out of the hand. "My Father who gives them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
Jesus Never Said He Was God? Think Again
So let me make this point. It's not a primary point in the section we're in, but let's make it. Because people will still say to you, "Jesus never said He was God." Well, this John chapter 10, verse 30, "I and the Father are one"—if we just read it in our context, we might think this is some sort of new age thing. "I and the Father are one." What does that mean?
Well, you don't have to figure it out. Read the next verse. They picked up stones to stone Him. They knew what He was saying. And Jesus said, "Wait a minute, I did a lot of good works. For which of these are you stoning me?" And they said, "For good work, we don't stone you. But for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself out to be God." That was His claim. Now, if you want to dispute it and argue about it, that's fine. But don't start with "Jesus never said that He was God."
My Sheep Hear My Voice
So let's hang. Let's take this time now on verse 27. "My sheep"—those that are followers of Christ—"they hear His voice." I'm talking to a guy the other day whose son has been around church all of his life, who has never really believed, who's argued, rebelled, fought, who's been a mess, especially lately, not just with general lifestyle, but drugs in particular. You know how hideous those are. He went into a situation a couple of weeks ago. He's been saved by his own declaration. And one of the comments he made to his dad is, "I can't believe it. When I pick up the Bible and read it, I get it."
My sheep hear my voice. Now that's not to say—I mean, I struggle. I've got walls. Like if you come into my house and my office, I got walls of books and computer programs that help me break this out. I'm not saying you can give me any verse and I can get it, but you know what? The Word of God comes alive to you and me. It just—we begin to understand it.
The Intimate Knowledge of the Good Shepherd
"My sheep hear my voice" and then here's what happens: "And I know them." There's an intimacy there. It's in the imagery that Adam knew Eve. I know them in a personal way, and this is something that I don't even think you can get your arms around. The Creator God of the universe, who created it, launched it, continues to hold it together, is knowable in an intimate, personal way. He knows your hurts, your pains, your struggles, your sin, your victories. He knows the deepest desires of your heart. That's God. "I know Him." That's what He said.
These shepherds, they would know their sheep. They would inspect them every night. They would know, not just something about them, they would know that sheep. They would know their hurts, their pains, their needs. That's how God knows you.
Following Means Life Change
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." There is a point in which we understand that there is a life change that accompanies a converted heart. So here's the phrase I've been using lately—here's what we're after. We're after a transformed heart and an informed mind that results in us leading a radical life.
Now, here's the warning. Here's what I want you to see. This is really big. Here's what I would say right now with the students, junior high, high school kids. I would say this: Look up here. Because you've got to get this. You understand the Pharisees had the radical life part. That's really important to see. These guys are religious, man, but they didn't have a transformed heart. They didn't have an informed mind. And in reality, their radical life was filthy rags.
a guy named Tommy Woods. Some of you know Tommy. Tommy's a great guy. Tommy and I got saved about the same time. And for our one-year anniversary, we're down, the restaurant's no longer there, but it was a restaurant called Chubb's. Chubb's had like the best cheeseburgers in town.
So Tommy calls and said, let's go to Chubb's. We'll get a cheeseburger. We'll celebrate. We've been believers for a year. We're sitting in a booth, and I said, you know, Tommy, it's been an amazing year. My life has changed radically. I got saved in March, still was drinking and stuff, and then got really drunk at the Christmas party, and then whatever that day was, like the December, I think it was December 11, 1980. You all know, you've heard the stories a million times, but I won the centerpiece. I woke up the next morning wrapped around the centerpiece with cranberries all over me. I couldn't get the stains out for a month.
I mean, it was just amazing. And hey, man, who hasn't done that, right? So this table right here has done it. Let me tell you that. These boys have done it. I guarantee you that. I hope you understand, these guys are only 30. This is what hard living does to you. But their heads are bopping them down. They've done it.
So I'm saying, Tommy, that happened. You know, I quit drinking, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And there's nothing, quit drinking is nothing meritorious in it. You just get it. And I said, my life has changed so much, but it hasn't really changed with you, has it, Tom? Because if you know Tommy, Tommy is one of the world's great guys. He's always been one of the world's great guys. Great family man, great guy.
And he said to me, Tommy, now he's talking to me. He said, Tommy, my life's changed. And I said, but you're doing the same things. He said, yeah, but I'm doing them for a different reason with a changed heart. That's a big deal. It doesn't just matter what you do. It matters why you do it.
A Changed Heart Makes All the Difference
Because the Pharisees, what they're doing is good. In the Sermon on the Mount, they're tucked in the middle. Jesus says, when you pray, when you fast, when you give, don't do it like those guys, but do it. Do you see what He didn't do? He did not say, don't fast, don't pray, don't give. Do them, but do them with a different heart.
It's a transformed heart and an informed mind that results in a radical life, a counterculture life. You are swimming upstream in the world when you sit at a meeting. And this is why to be a follower of Christ in the marketplace has a particular challenge to it. When you're sitting around the boardroom or you're sitting in a sales meeting or you're sitting in one of those gatherings, your standards are different than everybody else in that room. They periodically bump up against each other in a positive way sometimes. But their core is radically different.
It's a very hard thing to begin to put together because for you, the bottom line is not the bottom line. I have a responsibility for the bottom line. I do. You see the tension in there? But the bottom line is not the bottom line. It's far more important to us, the process than the results. That's very difficult. And you can even challenge that. And I'm okay with that. Just don't do it publicly. But you're okay to challenge it.
God Cares About Process, Not Just Results
God is not concerned in our life about the results. He's concerned about the process. We live in a world that's obsessed with the results and doesn't care much about the process. So I'm not beating up on A-Rod. A-Rod's a wonderful baseball player. Here's the thing about A-Rod. This guy's going to be an all-star no matter what he does. Why in the world are you taking this stuff? Because the process matters more.
It's more important to God that your performance is less if to get to that performance you have to violate what is true and right and fair. The ramifications of that statement are gigantic, aren't they?
Common Questions About Faith
And there's one last point, and we have to close. And this is really important because it gets at, I've been doing this a while, and I'm in a lot of different settings. So I will do in some things like questions and answers. We don't do it in here for a variety of reasons, but we just don't.
So here will be the questions we'll get. The first group of questions that I will always get have something to do with eschatology in times. So it's like, is Bono the Antichrist? And obviously the answer is yes. But whatever. So Bono the Antichrist. And again, I disappoint so many people because I'm just not enamored with eschatology. Here's what I read. Nobody knows the day or the hour. Why am I buying a book that tells me the day and the hour? Because we want to know that and that's the weakness of it. I'm not saying end times aren't important because we can read about that, but that's the objective of it.
Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?
The second question. This is the question we'll get most frequently. Huge question. Can I, if I'm a Christian, lose my salvation? So here's what's important. Terms are important. So here's what we're saying. Here's a person who's a genuine follower of Christ. I want to read you. With that question in mind, let's just read the verse.
I'm not going to pull in any Greek because I don't think we really need it. We're not going to pull any outside resources. I'm just going to let us use common sense and let the words say what it says. Then I'll come back and ask the question.
"My sheep hear My voice. I know them. They follow Me. I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one is able to snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."
Now, I am not trying to manipulate you. I'm not trying to do anything but answer the question. If the question is, if I'm a Christian, let me put it in the context here, if I'm a sheep, can I lose my salvation? I mean, I don't even understand how you'd come down
with another side. There's some passages of Scripture that seem to indicate that's possible. Again, let me give you a basic rule. Whenever I'm interpreting Scripture, the explicit always trumps the implicit. This is explicit. I don't know how to make it any more clear.
Let's say it another way. At what point does eternal life end? I mean, it doesn't matter. I don't know how to say this in a way that you aren't driving. I hope you don't feel manipulated. I didn't manipulate you there, did I? I just simply gave you the question, framed it correctly. I didn't do a bait and switch. I didn't do what we see done all the time in politics. There's just a question. Can a sheep cease to be a sheep? I don't think so.
Why This Question Matters
Now, let me tell you why this is important. Give me two extra minutes here. Let me tell you why this is important. Because it's not about eternal salvation. It's about salvation itself. If you think you can lose your salvation, then you are saying somehow that you earned it, or at least sustain it.
Now, this is always dangerous. I'm not about beating up on churches and all that. But the Catholic Church is reinstating, in the process of reinstating, indulgences. A way for me to buy my way out of heaven or serve. All you've got to do is know that to know whatever else you're teaching, I don't care how much you say Jesus and how much you say grace alone, you don't believe in salvation by grace alone. You have a works component to it. You see that? That's gigantic.
That's what I'm saying, man. You get your arms around this passage of Scripture, and it's so sad. I see somebody who thinks they can lose their salvation. I mean serious. They're serious about their faith, serious about Christ, and they think they can lose their salvation.
The Problem with Thinking You Can Lose Salvation
Here's one of the things you'll notice in their life. Very little fun and a lot of rules. And that's almost redundant. But I mean I'm not a big rule guy. I don't like rules. I mean I was always at our house and I think I told you growing up we had essentially no rules at our house. And you would say well that's chaotic. No, we had a guy in control. But we didn't have a lot of rules. And when we made them, here's why I don't like rules. If you're going to make it, we're going to enforce it.
But if you think you can lose your salvation, you got a whole bunch of rules. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, do this, do this. I know guys my age growing up who were convinced by their pastors that to go to a movie was a sin and you'd lose your salvation. And I remember one guy saying I would go to movies and it would just be a terrifying experience for me to be in this movie knowing that if Jesus came today or I died in this movie I'd go to hell. If I really believed it then I don't think I'd go to the movie. You see that?
This is really important stuff because it gets to the essence of salvation itself. And here's why doctrine is important. I'm not an educated man at all but I really do believe doctrine is important not for the sake of doctrine but because it has huge ramifications on how you live.
Good Doctrine Changes How We Face Life's Trials
One of the things that amazes me about the people at our church, and I'm very proud of our church in the right sort of way. I love our church. There's not a perfect church in the world but this baby's a good church. I love it. And I will watch our people encounter incredible pain and suffering and it amazes me how they endure it. And the reason is not because they're disciplined, not because they're strong willed. They got great doctrine.
They understand that everything that comes in our life is either caused by or allowed by God and I don't understand it. I don't understand why I've lost my job. I don't understand why I can't make my house payment. I don't understand it. But I know this: God's work in His plan, what He wants from me is obedience. It's an amazing truth. That's why this stuff matters.
Jesus Declares Who He Is
So they say, hey Jesus who do you think we are? And He said you're hypocrites. Who are you? Here's who He says I am. He said I am the Christ. I'm the Messiah. I'm the one who came and did for people what they can't do for themselves. I died so that they could have eternal life. Huge stuff when you start to unpack it. We'll pick up there next time.
Father help us see these amazing truths. How they work and live and manifest themselves in our life. Let us be people who hear Your word. Who follow that word. Who fall in love with You. Who are driven to a radical life not by a set of rules and regulations but by a transformed heart. God we pray that in Christ's name. Amen.