The Good Shepherd and His Flock

When was the last time you went to a circus?

I’m not even sure there ARE circuses around anymore, and if there are, then they are surely not the kinds of circuses that most of us went to as children, or even the ones we may have taken our children or grandchildren to see.

In these days of animal rights activists and all, I don’t think a circus could get away anymore with having lion tamers and monkey wranglers and elephant riders and all those other politically incorrect acts.

But I want you to think back to the last circus you attended. Maybe there was a lion tamer. There were probably monkeys. And almost certainly, there were elephants.

But did you ever notice that there were no sheep?

Now, there’s a reason you never saw sheep at the circus. And that’s because you can’t teach sheep to perform in a circus. They just don’t have the brain for it.

Sheep are basically dumb. No other way to say it. They don’t know what’s good for them. And what makes matters worse is that they don’t KNOW that they don’t know what’s good for them. So they’re not just dumb; they’re dumb and stubborn.

Sheep are basically defenseless, and because of that, they’re easily frightened. If a rabbit hops out of a bush near a flock of sheep and startles one of those sheep, the startled sheep will take off at a gallop.

And the other sheep, who have no idea what startled the first one, will take off running behind it, blind not only to the “danger” they’re escaping but to any potential danger they might be running toward.

Sheep have a way of getting themselves into situations they can’t get themselves out of. Just this weekend, there was a story out of England about five sheep that became stranded on the rooftop of a farmhouse after having jumped across a gap from a neighboring field and onto that roof.

Firefighters had to be called in to build a makeshift bridge that the sheep could cross from the rooftop.

Not the smartest animals God created.

And yet, all throughout the Bible, God compares PEOPLE to sheep. Whenever we start to think of ourselves too well, perhaps we should remember this and consider just how smart we are in light of this comparison.

Today, as we continue our series on “The Church — Revealed,” we’re going to look at the first of several metaphors the Bible uses to describe the church. And, as you may have guessed by now, the first metaphor that we’ll consider is that of sheep following a shepherd.

Turn with me to John, chapter 10, and in a few moments, we’ll take a look at what’s often known as the Parable of the Good Shepherd.

But first, as always, some context.

In the chapter immediately before the one we’ll look at today, Jesus heals the man who was born blind, miraculously healing whatever physical deformity had caused this man never to see.

Now, this healing had taken place on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees were upset about it.

So they called the man’s parents before them and questioned them about. But the parents said they didn’t know how it was that he could suddenly see, and they suggested that the Pharisees talk to their son himself.

And so they did. And they told the man that Jesus must be a sinner, because He had worked this miracle on the Sabbath.

The man responded with one of the classic lines of the Bible: “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

Actually, this guy was just getting started with the Pharisees.

They had already asked him how he had received his sight, and he had told them how Jesus had mixed some spit with clay from the ground, rubbed it on his eyes and told him to go and wash himself in the Pool of Siloam.

So, when they asked him once AGAIN to explain what had happened, he Got a little bit snarky with them: “I already TOLD you how it happened, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want me to tell you again? Do you want to be His disciples?”

Well, this ticked the Pharisees off, and they said, “You’re His disciple. We are disciples of Moses, and we know that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t have any idea where this man is from or who sent Him.”

So the formerly blind man replied — and you can almost hear him snickering to himself as he spoke to them: “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you don’t know where He’s from, and yet He opened my eyes.”

John 9:32–33 NASB95

“Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

And the important thing in this passage — at least in regard to the storyline of John’s Gospel — is in the last line of the chapter: “So they put him out.”

These religious leaders of Judea — the ones who were supposed to be in charge of taking care of God’s people and protecting them and feeding them — excommunicated this man from the synagogue.

That’s what it means there when John writes, “they put him out.” They took away from him his right to worship and learn in the synagogue. And they did so solely because his healed condition threatened the power they held.

This was not a new situation in Israel. Way back during the times of the prophets, God had announced His coming judgment on the priests of Israel — the shepherds of His flock — because of the way they had treated His sheep.

We see that in the Book of Ezekiel, in chapter 34, where God says through this prophet:

Ezekiel 34:1–5 NASB95

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. “Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not 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. “They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered.

God had placed the priest of Israel in a position of protecting and feeding and caring for His flock. But they fed themselves instead of feeding the sheep. They ignored those who needed to be strengthened or healed or brought back after wandering from the fold.

Indeed, they treated them so severely that the sheep were scattered. What we see here is a picture of people so mistreated by the priests who were supposed to be serving God by serving them that those people were turned from God completely.

And this is exactly what has happened in chapter 9 of the Book of John, when this man who was blind from birth is given sight and then suffers the wrath of the religious leaders because they now realize that they have no further power over him.

And so, as we turn to the first verse of chapter 10, we begin to see Jesus making a contrast between Himself and the Pharisees, who claimed to be the shepherds of Israel.

Let’s read this passage together, and then I’ll make a few points about what we’ve read.

READ John 10:1-18

So, now that the Pharisees have demonstrated that they are not true shepherds of God’s people by hurting one of the sheep they were supposed to nurture, Jesus tells this figure of speech, this parable, to describe how the truly Good Shepherd interacts with His sheep.

He is the door for the sheep, He says. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by Him.

It is only through faith in Him that any of us can be saved from the penalty we are due for our sins. And it is only through faith in Him that we sinners can be reconciled to the holy God who made us to be in fellowship with Him.

The doorkeeper of verse 3 “was the person hired to protect the sheep from their enemies. In the case of Jesus’ ministry this person corresponded to John the Baptist. Normally there were sheep from several different flocks belonging to several different owners that stayed together in these large pens. The pen then symbolized Israel or Judaism.” Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 10:3.

So John the Baptist announced the arrival of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, and he was sent to prepare Israel for its promised Messiah and King. He opened the door for Jesus’ ministry.

And Jesus, with the door now opened for His ministry as the Good Shepherd, had begun calling His sheep, as He still does today through the work of the Holy Spirit and Scripture.

You can read about this online, but there are many stories of groups that have visited Israel, even in modern times, and watched as shepherds came for their sheep in the morning.

Normally, sheep from several different flocks are kept within a sheepfold or pen for the night. When it comes time for the shepherds to take their sheep out to graze and look for water in the morning, the door to the pen is opened, and one shepherd will stand outside and give some distinctive whistle or call.

When the sheep of his flock hear that call, they know it. They hear his voice and they begin coming out of the pen and go to him. Another shepherd will then do likewise with his own distinctive call, and his sheep will then come out of the pen and follow him.

And as each sheep leaves the pen, the shepherd is able to count them to make sure all of them are there. The same is true at night, when he returns them to the pen. As they enter, he counts them, and if there are any missing, he goes to search for them.

That’s what good shepherds do, and that was the contrast Jesus was making between Himself and the Pharisees, who had put the healed man out of the synagogue.

Now, look what it says the sheep do in verse 4.

Once the shepherd has called all of his own sheep out of the pen, he goes ahead of them, and they FOLLOW him.

Sheep are led by a shepherd. They don’t lead the shepherd; they are led. This becomes an important thing to remember as we see the word “shepherd” being used as a synonym for elders and pastors of the church in the New Testament letters.

One of the things that Congregationalism has lost during the past 450 years or so since its appearance among the people who would become the Puritans is the sense of a flock of God’s people being led by a shepherd — or more appropriately an under-shepherd of the Good Shepherd who is the true master of His flock.

There has been much damage done to the church by the idea that we are all independent and wholly capable of leading ourselves. That doesn’t describe sheep; it describes goats.

And we’ll talk more about this matter when we look at the Book of Titus in a couple of months. But I want you to remember this idea that we are all sheep, and therefore, we are all called to be followers.

So, Jesus is the door. He is the only one through whom we can be admitted to the Kingdom of Heaven. He is the only one through whom we can be saved.

And Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Unlike the priests of Israel, those shepherds who put such heavy burdens upon the people they were supposed to love and protect, He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

The Pharisees, like the thieves in this parable, came to steal and kill and destroy. They couldn’t offer life; they could only offer heavier burdens. But Jesus is the Good Shepherd who came to give life and to give it in abundance.

The Pharisees were great at religion. They had taken the 613 commandments that God had given to keep His people holy and added so many more that the average person just couldn’t keep up.

That’s what religion does. Religion says, do this and don’t do that, and maybe you can earn your way into heaven.

But Jesus came as the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep, carrying their sins to the cross and bearing the just punishment for them so that all who put their faith in Him could have eternal life.

He didn’t come offering religion. He came offering a RELATIONSHIP! The opportunity by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, to be adopted as sons and daughters of God Himself.

And all those who enter by this door, all those who hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him, will go in and out and find pasture.

That’s a picture of peace. A picture of contentment and satisfaction and fulfilment.

This world doesn’t really offer much in the way of those things. In this world, what you’re going to find is striving and disappointment and emptiness.

That’s because you weren’t made for this world, at least not the way that it is now. You were made for something so much better. You were made for a relationship with the God who made you. The God of all peace.

The God who created the Garden of Eden, that place of perfect shalom, perfect peace, and said to Adam and Eve, “You have everything you need here for contentment and peace.” The God who said, “Enjoy it all. Just don’t eat from that one tree, because in it you will find only pain and suffering and death.”

And ever since our first parents ate that forbidden fruit, the world has never been the same. Gone was the shalom, the peace. In its place came thorns and thistles. In its place came striving and murder. In its place came disappointment and emptiness. In its place came chaos and death.

And that’s the world we live in now. It’s broken, and we can’t fix it, no matter how we try. But if it ever feels to you like things will never be right, let me give you a word of encouragement.

“In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.”

That’s what Jesus told His disciples on the night before He was crucified.

Even as He knew that He would be arrested and killed for simply stating the fact that He was the Son of God — a claim He backed up all the signs and miracles the prophets had foretold — He spoke to them that night as a victor.

He knew even then that the religious leaders would team up with their Roman rulers to murder Him. But He would not go to that cross kicking and screaming. He was not dragged to the cross.

He laid down His life on His own initiative. It was His own choice to suffer and die for fallen mankind.

He knew that as He spoke His dying words — “It is finished” — the powers of evil would think that they had won. But in those dying words, He was proclaiming HIs victory over sin.

He had taken its punishment so we would not have to endure it. He died so that we could live, so that we could have life and have it abundantly.

He had the authority, given to Him by His Father, to take our place on that cross, to suffer the punishment we deserve for our sin, even though He was without sin.

But He also had the authority to take His life up again, and that’s exactly what He did when He left that tomb after the resurrection. At the cross, He had defeated sin. At the empty tomb, He defeated death itself.

And His promise to us today is that all those who follow Him in faith will likewise be raised. We will receive glorified bodies like His. We will be without sin or the temptation to sin.

We will escape the torments of hell and spend eternity in perfect fellowship with one another, with Him, and with the Father.

This is the promise of the Good Shepherd to His flock, to the church universal.

But if you have never turned to Jesus in faith, you are not part of that church, whether you are a “church member” or not.

When you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, He will not be checking church rolls to see if He can find your name there. He will be checking the Lamb’s Book of Life, in which are recorded the names of all those throughout history who have turned to Him in faith that He alone can save.

He is the Good Shepherd who knows His own, and only those who are His own will be admitted to His flock.

Have you heard His distinctive call? Do you hear it now as the small voice calling you to repentance and faith? Will you come out to Him who calls you today?

Will you join Him in green pastures and beside still waters? Won’t you finally find your peace in Him?

If you have realized today that this is exactly what you’re missing in your life, won’t you come and talk to me during this next song? Your Savior is calling.

Let’s pray.