The Shepherd Door
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Intro (pt. 1/2)
Intro (pt. 1/2)
*Recap the end of Chap. 9*
What is remembered of 9.35-41?
Why does Jesus call Himself “Son of Man”?
What was so important about the man’s response to Jesus? Why?
What did Jesus mean in v. 39?
Why were the Pharisees guilty for saying they saw?
This week. we find ourselves beginning the next chapter in the Gospel, and continuing this very moment in time. As Jesus as just finished uttering the words that the Pharisees are remaining in sin for their belief of being “seeing,” Jesus continues on into a very interesting parable: John 10.1-21
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 “When he brings all his own out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 “A stranger they will never follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. 7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches and scatters them— 13 because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 “And I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” 19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. 20 And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the words of someone demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
The Door (pt. 2/2)
The Door (pt. 2/2)
As is the case in many instances, Jesus explains the parts of this parable. This time, instead of just to the 12, He does so publicly! What does He says the explanation of the door is?
The Door is Himself! What does it mean for someone to try entering into the fold apart without using the Door?
Trying to get in to seduce the sheep away! This is where Jesus says that it is the robber who comes in that way, and the thief comes to “steal, kill, and destroy.” Interestingly, I see this quotation used as if Jesus was describing the devil — but He is talking about humans who sneak in among the flock, with the intent of leading them away from their shepherd. These are people who do not know the Lord God, because if they did, they would be a sheep among the flock! Whether an average sheep or a shepherd among one of us, we all have the Good Shepherd in common, and we all came into the fold of God through Christ!
Any ideas who He would specifically be referencing here? It seems to me quite plain, that He is taking another hit to the Pharisees, for they neither knew God nor were they leading the people in the ways of God! Instead, Jesus will actually them that their converts become “twice the sons of hell as you!” (Matt. 23.15). Leading toward death and destruction? Absolutely! And there are even those in our own day who are equally as wicked in their leadership over the flock, who come in and direct the flock away from God. But, Jn. 10.5
5 “A stranger they will never follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
The sheep, who are truly spiritually discerning, will not follow after anyone except for God — and that goes for those who given leadership by God, because they lead towards Christ and in His will, following Him as one of the flock! If anyone is not directing the sheep in the truth, as one designated by God, the spiritually discerning ears of the true sheep will know that which is not from God!
How do we hone this spiritual discernment? Through prayer and constant attendance to the Holy Scripture. This is the application to us in this first half of the parable, that we know the Shepherd so that none other would come in and seduce our spirits with sweet sounding words of hell. If we are to be this discerning people who hear only the voice Christ our Good Shepherd, we must also be willing to be dedicated to prayer and the Scripture!
The Shepherd
The Shepherd
What is the other portion of this parable with which Jesus identifies Himself?
The Shepherd!
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 “And I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
Jesus says He knows His own, and His own know Him — seemingly a continuation of the point we just made. He then says, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”
The one who is simply hired does not face danger on behalf of the sheep. But the one who loves the sheep and who owns them is the one who is invested in their well-being! Take David, as an example of what Jesus is saying here. We find in the Old Testament, 1 Sam. 17.34-36
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant was shepherding his father’s sheep. And a lion and a bear would come and take a lamb from the flock, 35 and I would go out after it and strike it and rescue the lamb from its mouth. Then it rose up against me, and I would seize it by its beard and strike it down and put it to death. 36 “Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has reproached the battle lines of the living God.”
We understand this parallel to Christ, I think. Jesus is saying that if it were someone who didn’t truly care for the sheep then at the first sight of danger, he runs. Christ is to the Flock of God as David was to his literal sheep — a parallel I don’t think is unintentional. David fought tooth and nail over his sheep to keep them from danger! And so does Christ! So much so, that He even gives up his own lives at the attack of the wolves on behalf of saving His sheep!
But what is even more profound, is that Jesus is doing this, what we know as going to the terrible cruelty of the Cross, for sheep of His that are not even yet among the flock! He is dying for sheep Who are not yet under His care and Lordship as part of His fold!
Of whom does He speak here?
Gentile believers! The first Gentile became a member of God’s flock in Acts 10!
“No one takes my life from Me, but Myself, I lay it down...”
Jesus, while being murdered at the order of the ravenous wolves among Israel and Rome, did not truly have His life stolen away. His dying was entirely of His own volition!
This is why John consistently will make note that they could not lay hands on Him because “His time was not yet come,” Jesus was always in complete control of His death! And He is also in complete control of being raised from the dead!
“I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This is the commandment I received from My Father.”
The Son, as we have seen, never does anything which He has not received to do from the Father Who sent Him!
This command of the Father was that the Son would lay His life down for ALL God’s flock, even those who were as yet not sheep, and also to take His life back up again so that death would neither have hold of Christ nor those who are IN Christ! He has the authority to take His life back up from the grave, and gives us our life in Him! He says “I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly!” What more abundance is there than all things received in Christ! Eph. 1.3
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Some of the modern thieves among the sheep twist this passage to say that Christ is come to grant us wealth and abundant physical blessing, yet Paul says they opposite. While some may be blessed with finances, the true wealth we have in Christ is “all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places!”
This is what occurs to us at baptism through faith — as Christ laid His life down and took up again, we lay down and die to the world and to sin to be taken up in the resurrection of Christ and newness of life: Rom. 6.3-6
3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
and we are in Christ, clothed with Him before God, Gal. 3.27
27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Jesus’ resurrection is the one thing in our faith on which everything else stands or falls. And He says He would take His life back up after death according to the command of the Father, then He offers to us a simple way by which through faith we join that resurrection and enjoy this life which He gives to us!
The lesson to us from this latter half of the parable? That Christ alone is the one Who died for us, Who took His life back up by the Spirit because He had the authority to do so. And this ties for us today because it is by this means which the Shepherd is also the doorway into the flock and into that abundance of life which our loving and gentle Shepherd gives. Just as the Psalmist says, “He leads me by still waters and through green pastures.” Are all this in life green and peaceful? No. Yet in Christ, we are assured that blessedness as His flock! If not always in this life, as we may need to take comfort in Him through the valley of the shadow of death, our life on the other side will be only green pastures and still waters! The goodness of Christ in this life, as incredible as it is, is only a taste of that which comes in glory.
Are you entered into the flock of God?
