The Good Shepherd
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It has been an interesting week in the Couch household. Last Saturday, my wife brought our new puppy Charlie home from Florida.
I was about 3 or 4 years old when the only dog our family ever had passed away, so I have no idea what to do with a dog.
People said, “It’s like having a newborn baby,” and I thought they were all crazy. Surely it couldn’t be that bad.
They were absolutely correct. We have lost sleep, we have listened to him cry because he doesn’t want to be in his crate alone, we have called his name 4,000 times, only to have him do the complete opposite of what we want him to do.
As the week has gone on, though, we have seen glimmers of hope. He is starting to respond to the cues we give him.
He is learning what our voices sound like and what the words we are saying mean. He is settling in to the rhythms of our life, learning when we do what.
He is learning to follow us as we begin to earn his trust. He is even curling up with Samantha when he feels tired or afraid.
We are far from perfect. We get frustrated and impatient and don’t always understand what he is doing, but we are trying.
Let’s think about our own lives for a minute.
As we try to figure out what direction to go in life, many of us are looking for someone to follow, even if that person we are following is ourselves.
How much easier would it be to follow someone who didn’t ever lose their temper or misunderstand us? Who always knew what was best and had our best interest in mind at all times?
In a world of politicians who try to manipulate, media personalities who spin, influencers and corporations who are trying to get you to buy things, wouldn’t it be nice to find someone you could trust completely?
In a passage that is familiar to many but comforting to all, we are going to see that Jesus is exactly that kind of leader.
Open your Bible to John 10 (page 952).
As we work our way through this passage, Jesus is going to identify two pictures we can use to think of him.
Through his words in this chapter, we are going to be both comforted and challenged with the reality that we can trust our Good Shepherd.
There is a lot for us to see, both as his sheep and for those who are called to lead others like Jesus leads us.
The chapter picks up in the middle of the discussion he was already having with the Jewish leaders in chapter 9.
We saw last week that they were unaware of their own blindness. In their blindness, they were trying to lead the people, but they refused to come to God through Christ.
He will use the picture of a shepherd, guarding the gate to the sheepfold.
Here’s how biblical commentator Warren Wiersbe describes it:
The sheepfold was usually an enclosure made of rocks, with an opening for the door. The shepherd (or a porter) would guard the flock, or flocks, at night by lying across the opening.
It was not unusual for several flocks to be sheltered together in the same fold. In the morning, the shepherds would come, call their sheep, and assemble their own flocks. Each sheep recognized his own master’s voice.
[1]
Jesus’s words, then, draw from this picture. Read verses 1-6...
These leaders who refused to follow Christ are just the current expression of people who had claimed to lead people to God but who didn’t truly follow him themselves.
There were false teachers who came before the leaders Jesus was speaking to, and many have come after.
He says that all those who aren’t willing to acknowledge Jesus as Lord are thieves and robbers, trying to get at his sheep without coming through the door.
They aren’t really shepherds, and so the sheep won’t follow them.
Those who truly belong to Christ won’t follow these false teachers.
There is a great reminder to us to be careful of who we are following and listening to. Make sure you filter every TV pastor, author, or YouTube preacher through the lens of God’s Word, listening to see if what they say matches with the voice of our Good Shepherd.
With the scene set, Jesus proceeds to give us two direct "I Am" statements. These statements give us two pictures that explain how Jesus relates to us as sheep.
The first of these two traits is that...
1) Jesus is the way into the fold.
1) Jesus is the way into the fold.
Read verses 7-10...
Here, Jesus calls himself the gate for the the sheep.
We have already mentioned the basic construction of a sheepfold - there is only one legitimate way in or out.
In verse 8, Jesus tells us that many have come before Him, claiming to be the way of salvation.
It was nothing new for someone to claim to be the Messiah, God’s promised person who would make things right. Lots of people had already come and said they were him.
Aside from all those who claimed to be the Messiah, there have always been people who tried to take advantage of people, claiming to have the secret to getting in to heaven, yet being in it for selfish gain.
Today is no different than it was then. People are still trying to tell you or sell you the way to heaven. Many want us to believe that there are any number of ways, all of them equally valid.
Yet, here, in an unequivocal way, Jesus establishes that He is the only way to salvation. Verse 9 clearly states that.
That’s what Peter reiterated to the Jewish leaders who had put him on trial in Acts 4:
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
Although this is a challenging truth to our current understanding, for those who trust Christ, it is actually a very comforting promise.
Back in John 10:9, he says that if you come to him, you will be saved. Look at it again…
This is what we have seen time and time again in our study of John’s gospel:
But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name,
who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.
There isn’t a question or hesitation in that; there is only the blissful, happy assurance that when you come to Christ, you will be saved, changed, and transformed!
That leads, then, into verse 10, which is a verse you may be familiar with, although likely not in its context.
Those who come, claiming some other way to salvation, Jesus here calls thieves, whose motives are to steal, kill and destroy.
Jesus, however, as the door to the sheepfold, comes not only to give life, but to give it abundantly.
Abundant life does NOT mean you have everything you want; rather, Jesus is saying that coming into a right relationship with God through him will bring you into a life that gives you the greatest satisfaction, joy, hope, and peace imaginable, as you are now living how you were created to live.
How does Jesus act as the door, though? How can he reconcile us to God? I’m glad you asked.
This takes us to the second trait of Christ He speaks of, where Jesus says He is the Good Shepherd, which means…
2) Jesus protects his sheep.
2) Jesus protects his sheep.
Read verses 11-18...
In this second “I am” statement, Jesus says that he is the good shepherd.
What makes a good shepherd? Here, Jesus points to one of the most vital characteristics a shepherd could have: the willingness to put his own life at stake for the sake of his sheep.
It was common for shepherds to encounter any variety of wild animals while they had their sheep in pasture or in the pen.
Sheep are really dumb, and they have absolutely no natural defense mechanism. They cannot run, they cannot kick hard enough to ward off attackers, and their bite is not strong enough to scare away a hungry wolf or lion.
That’s why they are in such dire need for a good shepherd.
We are no different. We are dumb, senseless, defenseless sheep. Jeremiah says we don’t even understand how bad off we really are:
The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
Yet, for us, as defenseless as we are, we are not left alone; Jesus is our good shepherd, willing to lay his life down for his sheep.
The Bible describes it this way:
We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
That’s what happened on the cross: Jesus was laying down his life, as my good shepherd and yours, and paying for all of my sin and your sin.
He was willing to sacrifice his own life for us, dying to protect us from the just consequences of our own sin.
Let’s make some observations about the sacrifice he made to protect us:
A) His sacrifice is personal.
A) His sacrifice is personal.
In verse 12-15, he gives us a beautiful picture of his nearness to us. Unlike a hired hand who gets scared and runs off, the shepherd loves the sheep and has a genuine concern for them that makes him stay when everything says run.
He says that he is as intimately acquainted with his sheep as he is with the Heavenly Father, which is incredible!
Jesus doesn’t just care about you in some amorphous, distant, general way; he specifically knows you and cares about you individually.
He doesn’t send someone else to rescue his sheep or let them fend for themselves; instead, Jesus comes personally and sacrifices himself to save his sheep.
Verse 16 seems a little strange to us at first, but this verse is extremely important to you and me. Remember how we said that the context here is Jesus speaking to Jews about their leaders.
In verse 16, then the “other sheep” are us! Jesus is saying here that this salvation, His laying down of his life, doesn’t just apply to the Jews, but to us Gentiles as well!
Praise God that He didn’t die for just a certain race of people, but that his sacrifice was enough for me.
There is more to his sacrifice that proves he is the Good Shepherd, though.
Lots of people die; that’s not that hard.
What makes his death so special? He tells us in verse 18...
2) His sacrifice is intentional.
2) His sacrifice is intentional.
Verse 18 makes it extremely clear that Jesus was not the unwitting victim of tragic circumstances.
He knew full well what would happen to him, and he allowed it to.
On the night Jesus was arrested, as Peter tried to stop what God had ordained to happen, Jesus tells him,
Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels?
A legion was between 3000-6000 foot soldiers in the Roman army (Webster’s dictionary), so here, Jesus is saying that He could call out to the Father and stop the whole thing as 36-72,000 angels would come to His aide.
Yet, instead, using again the picture of the sheep:
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.
This time, the good shepherd acted as a sheep and willingly laid down His life for His sheep.
C) His sacrifice is permanent.
C) His sacrifice is permanent.
After discussing with the Jews for a bit, He again picks up the shepherd motif in verses 26-30
Although Jesus laid down His life for the sheep one time, the effects of that sacrifice rock eternity.
Sheep who respond to the Shepherd’s sacrifice find eternal life that can never be taken away.
Look at how strong these statements are:
Eternal life
Never perish
No one will snatch them out of my hand
No one will snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
These are absolute statements made by the very one who would sign this guarantee with His blood.
As Dr. Adrian Rogers used to say, write it down plain, tall, and straight: Once you have entered the sheepfold through the gate of Jesus’ death for you, you are now and forever His sheep, and nothing can take that away.
In case you’re wondering whether or not your specific problem, issue, or struggle somehow is an exception to that rule, remember what God said through the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:35-39:
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I cannot be taken away from the care of my good shepherd, who died in my place and is the only way I can enter into a right relationship with God.
When we rest in this, it can change so much about how we experience the world around us.
We know that there is someone out there watching over us all the time.
There is not a thing in all the world that would make him stop caring for us or is able to take us away from him.
What’s the worst that can happen? Even if something kills us, all that does it release us from this life and usher us into the next, where we get to see our shepherd face to face.
What about you? Are you truly a sheep of his? Did you come in through the correct door?
Are you trusting in Jesus to be the only thing that protects you, sustains you, and carries you into His presence in glory?
Verse 27 points out a crucial truth: his sheep follow him. Does your life show your willingness to follow him, wherever, whenever?
If you aren’t, do you need to spend some time prayerfully considering, “Am I a sheep of yours?”
If you know that you have been saved, ask the Father this morning to help you follow the example Jesus set for you in a greater way.
Endnote
[1] The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Ten: The Good Shepherd and His Sheep (John 10))