FOLLOW THE GOOD SHEPHERD!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Epistle Lesson; I Peter 2:19-25
Old Testament Lesson; Acts 6:1-9; 7:2, 51-60
Sermon Text; John 10:1-10
Today I would like to help you get the full impact of the makeup of who it is that attends our synod conventions, since most of you have probably never been to a synod convention. A synod convention is the gathering of all the churches of a church body that get together. As a group they do the business, the work, the joint work of the entire church body. And so, in our synod, since all the members of all the churches can’t get together in one place, to do the work of the synod, the congregations send delegates or representatives to the synod convention. In our synod every congregation sends their pastor. (In most congregations there is only one pastor.) Every congregation also sends two lay people. Those are people who are not pastors. They are people who sit in the pews. That means there are two lay people for every one pastor, attending the synod convention. Two people, who sit in the pews, will attend the convention along with their pastor. This means that at Synod Convention, the balance of power rests in the hands of the lay people.
At synod convention, decisions are made regarding the direction our church body will go, how we operate our college, how we operate our seminary and how we operate our foreign missions. And, also, doctrine is discussed. Doctrine and teaching, Bible teaching, is also discussed.
Which gets me to this story. About 30 years ago at a synod convention (not our synod, but another synod convention) all the delegates were gathered together. And, at this synod convention one of the issues to be decided was in regards to a certain professor. This was a professor at the seminary who had been accused of teaching false doctrine. He was accused of teaching heresy. All of the convention delegates were there. These pastors and lay people were to decide whether this professor in the seminary was teaching false doctrine or not.
Now remember the makeup of who is at that synod convention. With that in mind, this professor who had been accused of false doctrine, walked up to the microphone at the synod convention, took hold of that microphone, looked out at all of the delegates, the people who were at the synod convention, and he said this, "You mean to tell me that some dairy farmer from WI is going to judge my doctrine?"
What was the professor saying? He was saying that pastors are so much more educated, so much more able to handle the Word of God that the lay person, the person who sits in the pew, does not have the ability, the right or the authority to judge the teaching of a pastor.
"You mean to tell me that some dairy farmer from WI is going to judge my doctrine?" Brothers and sisters, a statement like that should fill you with righteous indignation, because in today’s scripture reading, Jesus talks about false teachers, false shepherds. He says that His sheep, (That is you! He is referring to the people in the pew. He is referring to the lay people.) His sheep recognize the voice of the Shepherd and they run away from the voice of a stranger. Jesus is saying that the dairy farmer from WI has the authority, the right, the duty and the privilege of judging what a pastor preaches and what the pastor teaches.
You mean to tell me that the dairy farmer from WI, the housewife or factory worker from Madison is going to judge my doctrine? What else would scripture mean, when it says this, to the people in the pew, "Dear friends, test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world." There the scripture tells the dairy farmer from WI, "You judge and test the pastor. You test the one who teaches you, because there are many false prophets. It is your authority, your right and your duty to judge the teaching and the doctrine of the pastor."
You mean to tell me that the dairy farmer from WI can judge my doctrine? Why else would scripture say this? The Bereans were afforded noble character to the Thessalonians because the Bereans searched the scriptures every day, to see what Paul said was true. You see, because Paul was a profoundly educated theologian, and probably knew far more than they did about scripture, the Bereans could simply say, "He knows so much that we are going to take what he says hook, line and sinker." But instead, every day they would search the scripture, they tested what Paul said and compared it with the scripture, to see whether Paul was really preaching and teaching the voice of the Good Shepherd. Scripture holds that up as noble. It is noble when the dairy farmer from WI judges the teaching of the pastor. Why else would scripture tell us this?
Did you know that the very first "synod convention" (I suppose we can call it that) took place in Jerusalem because two pastors got into a doctrinal disagreement? Those two pastors were Peter and Paul. Peter was teaching that Jesus saves us, because of what he has done for us. However, some people had convinced Peter that Jewish Christians should not eat with Gentile Christians. He was saying we are saved by what Jesus did, but in addition we should not eat with certain people. So that means we are saved by what Jesus did, plus what we do.
Paul vehemently disagreed with him. Paul said that we are saved only by what Jesus did, and nothing else, not by our good works and not by following the law.
And so, a "synod convention" was held. Do you know who was at that first "synod convention", judging Peter and Paul? The Bible tells us the apostles, the pastors and the members of the church, (the simple dairy farmer from WI) attended that first "synod convention" and judged Peter and Paul. And, it was at that "synod convention" that they convinced Peter he had false doctrine. And, it was because of that "synod convention" that Peter submitted to them. Thank God for the simple dairy farmer from WI, who judges the teaching of the pastor.
Why else would Jesus tell us, in today’s scripture text, that we should watch out for false prophets, if the simple dairy farmer from WI can’t recognize false prophets? It is the right, the duty, the authority and the privilege of the people who sit in the pew, to judge the teaching of the pastor.
If you were to study church history, do you know where false doctrine almost always begins? Almost always, it does not start with the lay people. It doesn’t start with you. It doesn’t start with the people in the pew. Do you know where it almost always starts? It almost always starts with the most educated pastors, in the seminary. They teach it to their students. And then their students go out and begin to teach it to the congregations, which is why it is so important for you to recognize that it is your duty and it is your responsibility to judge the teaching of your pastor. You need to know that he is speaking with the voice of the Good Shepherd and not with falsehoods that could lead you astray.
So how do you, a simple dairy farmer from WI, judge the teaching of your pastor? There are three things that you should do.
We all recognize that the one place where we recognize the true voice of our Shepherd is in the Word of God. There is no place else where He speaks the pure, true Word of God. And so, you test everything by what scripture says. First of all you should see to it that your pastor never adds something to scripture, which is not in scripture. For example if I stood up here and I told you that it is a sin for you to drink alcohol, you should judge me, because the Bible never says it is a sin to drink alcohol. It is a sin to abuse alcohol, but not a sin to drink alcohol. I would be preaching and teaching with a false voice that could ultimately lead you astray. You should see to it that your pastor never adds anything to scripture.
Secondly, you should see to it that your pastor never twists the words of scripture. A pastor could stand up here and say, "Oh you can see the simple, plain, clear meaning of the words but that is not really what scripture means. I am far more educated than you are. I know a lot more about scripture than you do. I know a lot more about God’s Word than you do and you can’t take this passage at its simplest clearest plainest meaning. You have to take it in a different way." That is a twisting of the scripture. Jesus has given His Word, His voice to His lambs and His sheep so that they recognize the simplest, plainest, clearest meaning of scripture as how we should teach scripture. So if your pastor twists scripture, then he is a false shepherd who is leading you astray.
The third thing to watch for is the subtlest. False teaching doesn’t just happen when a pastor says something. False teaching can happen by what a pastor fails to say, what the pastor leaves out. You remember the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told. You remember how the robbers beat up that man and left him for dead. They sinned against that man. They hurt that man, by what they did. But then you remember that a priest passed by that man and he did nothing. That priest, that pastor sinned by what he failed to do. A pastor can sin against his congregation by what he fails to tell them, by what he leaves out. There are two things in particular, that you, as Jesus’ sheep and lambs are to watch for to make sure the pastor never ever leaves out.
Number one, it is a great temptation as a pastor looks out over the crowd on a Sunday morning or sits in the office and writes a sermon, to think to himself, "They don’t want to hear about sin. They don’t want to hear about the wrong they have done." It is a temptation to leave out sin. But I want you to listen to what Ezekiel says to the pastor. It says this, "Son of man I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. So hear the word I speak and give warning to them from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘Oh wicked man, you will surely die’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sins and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways, and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself." There scripture tells the pastor, "You need to point out sin. You must point out sin, so that the people will turn from their ways, look for their savior, and become hungry for the Good Shepherd." And if the pastor leaves out the teaching of sin, that is a false teacher who leads you astray, because then you won’t have a hunger for your savior and you won’t run to the Good Shepherd.
The second thing a pastor must never leave out, never ever leave out is the greatest teaching of all. The greatest teaching of all is teaching about the Good Shepherd. In today’s scripture reading, Jesus is speaking of a pastor and calls him a watchman. "The watchman opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice." It is the job of the pastor to open the gate for the Shepherd. It is his job to let the Shepherd in. It is his job to speak about Jesus. It is his job to talk about Jesus so that the sheep hear the voice of Jesus, find Jesus, follow Jesus and they trust in their Good Shepherd. It is the responsibility of the pastor to preach about Jesus Christ.
Once there was a young man who called me up. He told me that he had decided that he was going to attend a different church. (This was a church that belonged to a church body that is filled with false teaching.) As I was talking to him he said, "Pastor, this church teaches God’s Word. They talk about being kind to other people, helping other, people helping society." That is true. That is God’s Word.
I then said to him, "I really want you to listen to the next sermon and see if your pastor leaves out something. Does the pastor talk about the cross? Does he mention the cross? Does your pastor talk about what Jesus did for you? Does your pastor tell you that Jesus had to go to that cross to pay for your sins? Does your pastor tell you that your sins are all paid for, all taken away because the Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep? Does the pastor tell you that you are saved because of what the Good Shepherd did for you? Does the pastor point you to the cross, Jesus, forgiveness and salvation? Because if a pastor leaves that out, he is a false teacher and he will lead you astray."
It is the duty, the right and the privilege, of you, the laypeople, the simple dairy farmer from WI, to judge the teaching of your pastor. And, we as your pastors, certainly have a duty and a responsibility to watch over the teaching of this congregation. It is our duty and responsibility to teach you the pure, true Word of God, and to watch over your souls, as we speak and teach the truth. It is our duty and responsibility to open the door for the Good Shepherd, so He comes into your lives. But it is equally your duty and responsibility to judge our teaching, to make sure that we teach the truth about our savior, and that we teach the truth of God’s Word. When we work together as a team, we preserve the voice of the Good Shepherd and we follow His voice. We preserve the voice of the Good Shepherd for our sakes and for the sake of our children.
You mean to tell me that the simple dairy farmer from WI is going to judge my doctrine? Absolutely! That is the right, duty and privilege of every layperson.
Amen.
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