The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
John 10:1-21, Remsen Bible Fellowship, 09/29/2019
Introduction:
Last week our thoughts were centered on the previous chapter in John’s gospel, chapter 9. In that chapter we find Jesus leaving the temple, and on his way out he encounters a man who has been blind from birth. Jesus takes note of this man, and subsequently heals him. This man has been without sight his entire life, decades of blindness, living in the dark. And now has he sees. John, the writer, notes for us in v14 that this took place on the Sabbath day.
How do the Pharisees, the religiously serious and socially important people in the crowd, respond to this? Verse 18 tells us that they initially disbelieved. But even after it becomes obvious that this miracle is genuine, they refuse to embrace it as good news. Rather, they are upset that Jesus has overturned their religious apple cart. They demand in verse 24 of chapter 9 that the man, who once was blind but now can see, renounce Jesus as a sinner. They equate such a renouncing of his healer with giving glory to God.
The man doesn’t fall for it, though. He can see! Why would, and how could, a demon possessed man perform such a miracle? This man, who doesn’t yet understand that Jesus is the Messiah, has greater spiritual insight than the religious leaders of his day. Thus we see, when Jesus comes back to the man and explains to the man that he is the Son of Man, the one sent from God (9:37ff), the man declares his belief and worships.
Read: 9:39-41
The Pharisees are now not only upset by what Jesus has done, but further by what he is saying. Jesus has said that because they say they have spiritual sight, yet refuse to believe in him, their spiritual blindness is obvious. And this blindness is far worse than the physical blindness experienced by the man whom Jesus healed.
What we need to understand as the story progresses into chapter 10 is that there is no transition. This is the same setting, the same people are present. Jesus’ story and sermon are directed mainly at the audience around him who do not believe in him.
The Analogy:
Read: verses 1-5.
In the ancient near east there were two types of sheep folds, the type that existed in the country, and those that existed nearer to settlements. It seems to be the latter sort that Jesus refers to in this story. These sheepfolds would hold the sheep of multiple shepherds, multiple owners. Each shepherd would come in at night, and he would function as the door into the fold by checking each of his sheep as it entered, and then the group of shepherds would pay a hired hand, a gatekeeper, to guard the sheep all night. In the morning the gatekeeper would open to the shepherd, and the shepherd would then call out his own sheep by name, and they would come to him, and he would take them out to pasture.
Note that Jesus begins this story, this figure of speech, by pointing out that some people who are around the sheep aren’t shepherds. Indeed, there exist in the world thieves and robbers, those who want to steal from the shepherd. He who climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. The gatekeeper will only open to a true Shepherd, but some people try and sneak around that system. We read in verse 2 that the shepherd doesn’t need to sneak in. He simply can walk up and come through the gate. Not only that, but when he begins to call his sheep they know his voice. They hear that voice and they willingly, gladly, follow the one who takes care of them. What do they not follow? The voice of strangers.
A key to grasping Jesus’ point here is to understand that the leaders of the people in Israel had often been referred to as shepherds, those who were to lead and guide the people. Perhaps the most relevant of these Old Testament passages is Ezekiel 34.
Read: Ezekiel 34:1-16, 30-31 (pew Bible pg 676)
I realize that was a long passage. But with it as a backdrop, let’s think for a moment about the point of Jesus’ figure of speech. Jesus is using this figure of speech, this analogy, of sheep and shepherd to harken back to the Old Testament and tell these Pharisees, these men who would see themselves as shepherds of the people, that they are not the true shepherds of these people. Think of the man born blind. Does he heed the voice of the Pharisees, or does he come when Jesus calls? Jesus has placed these leaders in the same category as the false shepherds in Ezekiel who eat the fat and clothe themselves with sheepskin. They are robbers concerned with their own well being, not that of the sheep.
Speaking in Matthew 23:2-4, Jesus says, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat, so do and observe what they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
In other words, they treat the sheep not as those whom they are entrusted to care for, but as their personal beasts of burden. As a side note here-pastors and religious leaders today can be just like these Pharisees. Making high demands and offering no practical help. The Bible calls us to obey God in very practical ways, and if you ever feel like I’m tying up heavy burdens and not offering practical or useful help on actually walking in obedience to that, if I’m just tying up heavy burdens, please let me know. As the church, we exist to help each other walk in obedience to Christ day by day, not just in theory on a Sunday morning.
Back in our text, verse 6 tells us the Pharisees miss his point. They don’t understand what he was saying, so Jesus preaches a mini sermon to them.
The Sermon:
Rather than moving through the following section verse by verse, what I want to do as we look at verses 7-18 is to ask two questions: What does Jesus say about Himself? And two, what does Jesus say about the sheep?
Read: v7-10
The first thing we see Jesus say about himself in verses 7 & 9 is that he is the door of the sheep. Now, this is interesting. We are expecting, with the story Jesus told about Shepherds and sheepfolds and thieves, for him to jump right into talk of being a shepherd. Yet he begins by calling himself the door. What does he mean? Compare this to another statement Jesus makes in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Sheep need to be both in and out of the pen. They need the ability to go out and find pasture, and they need safety of coming into the pen at night for protection. Jesus is the only means to the spiritual life that comes from knowing God, he is the one who gives the ability to enjoy true pasture; he is also the only way to be forgiven of our sins and thus have spiritual safety under his protection. Without Jesus, our sins would leave us outside of the protection that we receive as God’s children, God’s sheep.
We also see in verse 10 that Jesus came that his sheep might have abundant life. He contrasts this with the thief, namely Satan, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came to give you an overflowing joy, one wherein you might rightly say my cup overflows. Do you picture the Christian life in this way? It’s very easy to look at Scripture or to come to church and hear sermons and think: I can’t do this, won’t do that, don’t want to make God angry. But while there are certainly those notes in the song, they shouldn’t be the dominant melody. Nehemiah 8:10 says, the joy of the Lord is my strength.
Do you know that you can’t earn God’s favor by not doing bad stuff? If you talk to folks about how confident they are in eternity, often what you receive in return are a list of bad things the don’t do: lying at work, cheating on their taxes, killing people, being unfaithful to a spouse. Now, if you aren’t doing those things, wonderful! Keep it up. And if you are, stop. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that people who murder and people who get angry with their brother are in the same predicament before God. In the same chapter he tells us that the philandering husband is under the same spiritual guilt as the man who enjoys checking out the women who pass by and entertaining his thoughts with them. With that sort of heart-level standard, none of us amounts to a a very impressive person.
Which makes life through the door, the entrance into God’s family through the shed blood of Jesus which washes away the penalty for our sins, such an immense gift. God doesn’t wink and nod at our faiures, our shortcomings, our sins. They receive the full punishment they are due, but he pours that out on his Son. The result for us is life, and life abundantly.
Does he promise material wealth, perfect health, perfect relationships, or the like? No. He is promising a different sort of abundance. One wherein we speak with the apostle Peter of a joy inexpressible, and filled with glory. Where we can obey the command of Paul in Philippians 4 to rejoice in the Lord always. Because he has provided the forgiveness of our sins, because he has given us access to God the Father, by whom and for whom we were made, we can now know an abundant joy that allows us to experience life as a gift, even in the midst of very difficult circumstances.
Read: v11-18
In verses 11 & 14 Jesus makes the claim which you are likely familiar with. I am the good Shepherd, he says. It’s interesting that the Greek word here for “good” is not the one that usually means “morally upright.” Jesus instead uses the word kalos which carries with it the idea of a winsome goodness. It’s a beautiful or a wonderful goodness. It’s as if he says, those other shepherds are acting in ways false and repugnant. But my shepherding is for your good, for your abundance, for your joy. And thus it is a compelling and lovely type of shepherding. It’s a type of shepherding, we see in verses 13 & 14, that is deeply concerned for the welfare of his sheep in a way that mere hired hands aren’t going to measure up to. A hired hand is going to run at the first sign of danger. But what does Jesus do to provide evidence of his goodness? We see it in verse 11.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. In laying aside his rights as a mere sheep owner, and instead demonstrating a personal interest in us and our well being as our good shepherd, Jesus comes to earth from the right hand of the Father and willingly offers himself up on the cross for us. Again in verse 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. And it becomes abundantly clear that Jesus does this willingly when he says in verses 17-18 that, I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, willingly offers up his life for the good of his flock. But of course this is also ironic, because in a normal sheep/shepherd relationship, if the shepherd dies the sheep will die, too. But in this scenario, it is through the Shepherd’s death that the sheep are offered life.
We also note in this the authority of Jesus, because he says no one takes it from me. Many in this crowd are involved in the conspiracy to kill Jesus, a conspiracy which appears to be successful a few short months later. But if they remember these words, the wind ought to have been knocked right out of their sails. Jesus says, you are not in control of if and when I die-I am. Jesus is not some helpless victim in coming to earth. Jesus came willingly, to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel 34:10 and rescue his sheep.
So what does Jesus say about himself? He is the door, the way by which we come to God. He is the Good Shepherd, the one whose leadership is beautiful, compelling, and brings us into abundant life. He cares about his sheep, loves them even, such that he knows them by name, knows their deepest needs, and lays down his life to save them. And he is authoritative and powerful, such that he does all of this because he wants to.
The Sheep:
What does Jesus say about the sheep in this passage?
The first thing we see about the sheep is that we are, well, sheep. This is a common metaphor in Scripture for the people of God, and it isn’t a very flattering one. It points to our helplessness apart from Christ. We need a shepherd. We see this in verse 9 where Jesus makes clear that we need saved. And by what means must we be saved? The Shepherd must die as our substitute. Do you see yourself in this way? Do you feel helpless in relationship to God, and in need of him to come pursue you, lead you, and save you? Or do you feel sufficient on your own, whether because of some particular competence, or the fact that you’re a good person, or that you’ve been going to church for decades? For judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (9:39). The blind need sight, and the sheep need saved.
We not only need sight, we need protection from wolves. We see that in verses 12-13, where Jesus explains that a mere hireling is going to hit the dusty trail when danger comes. If sheep are left alone when the wolf comes, they get scattered. And scattered sheep end up being dead sheep. Again, this points to our need for Jesus to lead us.
Again, though, this leadership is by no means a burden to the sheep. Why? Because the sheep are known by the Shepherd. In what way? Jesus says I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. This is a mind-blowing statement. The Father and the Son have always known each other with a perfect knowledge; from eternity past stretching into eternity future. And when Jesus unites us to God, when we come to him by faith and become a child of God, we are brought into a relationship where we are known in the deepest possible way. Which makes his love even more amazing. He knows all of me, and he still loves me.
And this love is not provincial. It’s not just for people of one certain ethnic group, race, class, or background. In verse 16 Jesus says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. We might seek to divide ourselves from each other for all sorts of reasons, be it cultures, race, political preferences, etc. Jesus says that he has people from other folds, and we understand going back to Ezekiel 34:13, and looking forward to Revelation 5:9-10 that Jesus’ people come from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group on the earth. This would have been outside the box thinking fo his original audience, those of the Jewish fold, who thought their show was the only one in town that mattered. Jesus pulls on a theme running all the way back to Genesis, though, in saying that he has other sheep. God had promised Abraham that in his Seed, in Jesus, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. So while we ought to enjoy the abundant love of Christ, we need to realize that it isn’t for us to hoard, but rather to shed abroad. It is meant for us to communicate and pass along, even to those who are unlike us. Because all of the sheep, all who trust in Christ, belong to one flock and we have one Good Shepherd.
The final thing we come to understand about the sheep is that their salvation was planned in eternity past. Note verse 17. Did God the Father not love the Son until the Son came to earth? No, in John 17:24 Jesus says that the Father loved him before the foundation of the world. I think what this helps us see is that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were planning the salvation of the sheep before the world was created, before sin entered the scene, long before you were ever born. He knew you. He knew you would rebel against him. And he planned to save you. The Son gladly submits to the direction of his Father to come save us, and in being saved we are brought into that eternal love.
The Split:
The final thing we see in this passage is the response of the crowds in verses 19-21.
We see, as happens so frequently in John, division. Jesus is constantly dividing. He unites all his sheep, all who trust in him. But for the skeptic or the scoffer, who could be more divisive than this man who claims to be equal to God and our only way to be right with God?
So we are left to conclude with this question: what is your response to Jesus? Are you one of his sheep? Do you hear his voice in the reading and preaching of his word and desire to follow him? Or would you rather heed the siren call of self, trusting the wolf to keep you safe? Remember that trusting these is precisely what Satan desires for you, and he is out to destroy you. The Good Shepherd beckons us to life, to salvation, to the green pastures of a right relationship with God.