John 10:1-21: The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-21: The Good Shepherd

Please open your Bible to John 10. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 743. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the Gospel of John. We like to do it that way so that we can let Jesus set the agenda for what we talk about as much as possible. And so today we come to John 10:1-21. John 10:1-21: 1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, “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 listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by 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 does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just 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 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. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 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. This charge I have received from my Father.” 19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” 

Not too long ago, I traveled down to Atlanta in order to visit a church down there. And as the one of the leaders of that church was driving me in his vehicle on a major highway in Atlanta, we got into a minor car accident. Traffic on the highway was pretty heavy, so we would go a little ways, then we would have to stop. Then we would go a little bit more and then have to stop. And one of the times when we stopped, the guy behind us didn’t stop. I think he was on his phone or something. And he ended up rear-ending our vehicle with enough force to deploy his own airbag and put a nice dent in the back of our vehicle. Now, thankfully, the whole thing happened as traffic was going at a relatively slow pace anyway, so nobody was injured. The accident definitely knocked me around a little bit, though. I remember how a bunch of papers were stuffed on top of the passenger-side visor above my forehead, and after the accident, they somehow got behind my back. It all happened so quickly I don’t even remember that even happening. But thankfully, nobody got hurt. However, even that minor accident got me thinking about how unpredictable life can be. We may think we’re in control, but really, we have no idea what’s going to happen to us at any moment. If you’re driving, one unfortunate mistake can change your whole day or even your whole life. And even if you’re not driving, unpredictable things can still happen. Receiving one phone call can change everything. Think about that. Each of us is only one phone call away from our entire world being turned upside down. 

That can be a bit unsettling. In fact, it’s kind of scary. But this morning, if we’ll let this passage of Scripture have its intended effect on us, we’ll discover that we actually don’t have to live in a constant state of anxiety. You don’t have to perpetually worry about what might happen to you in the future or be overwhelmed in the midst of what is happening to you right now. Regardless of what might happen or what is happening, Jesus tells us something about himself that allows us to be free from anxiety. He says that he is our shepherd. So that’s our main point. Jesus is our shepherd. Jesus cares for us the way a shepherd cares for his sheep. And if you read closely, there are actually three slightly different metaphors Jesus uses in this text to describe himself in this text that are all related to shepherding. Number one, Jesus is the true shepherd. Number two, Jesus is the only door. And number three, Jesus is the good shepherd.

Jesus Is the True Shepherd 

So first, Jesus is the true shepherd. And he doesn’t actually use that exact phrase “true shepherd,” but that’s the first quality he emphasizes about himself as a shepherd. He talks about his legitimacy. Look again at verses 1-5: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 

So there’s a contrast here between the thief or robber and the true shepherd. Unlike the thief, the true shepherd doesn’t have to climb in over the wall—he can walk right in through the gate—and the sheep recognize his voice. And of course, that shepherd is Jesus. But what about the thief?  Who does the thief represent? Well, we have to remember here that Jesus isn’t saying these things in a historical vacuum. He’s teaching all of this in a specific situation and to a specific audience. And if we look back at chapter 9, we can see what and who that is. In chapter 9, as we saw last week, Jesus healed a man who was born blind. It was an undeniable miracle. But even in the face of this undeniable miracle, the Pharisees refused to accept Jesus as being sent from God. And it’s after Jesus declares their guilt in verse 41 of chapter 9 that he then goes on to say these things we’re reading now in chapter 10. So everything we’re reading in chapter 10 is something Jesus spoke to the Pharisees who were obstinately rejecting him. And with that in mind, I think it’s pretty clear here that the thief in Jesus’s parable represents the Pharisees he was talking to. The Pharisees prided themselves in being the shepherds of Israel. But in reality, they weren’t shepherds—they were thieves. They didn’t care about the sheep. They weren’t looking after the sheep. They were just using the sheep for their own purposes.

They weren’t all that different from the leaders that had preceded them back in the days of Ezekiel. Listen to what God says in Ezekiel 34:1-6: “1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.” So God says to the shepherds in verse 10: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.” 

Here’s what we learn from all of that: God has no patience for negligent shepherds. Back in John 10, Jesus refers to them as thieves. The Pharisees thought they were shepherds, but Jesus says, “You’re actually thieves.” And I can’t help but wonder what pastors and authors and leaders today put themselves in the position of shepherds but are in reality nothing more than common thieves. And actually, you don’t have to wonder. You just have to listen to what they say and compare it to what the Bible says. It’s very simple. The Bible doesn’t say you should focus on “your best life now.” It says you should focus on your best life in heaven and use your time now to lay up treasures in heaven. The Bible doesn’t say that your biggest problem is that you lack self-esteem. It says you should focus instead on Christ and on raising your affections for him and on delighting in him.   …False shepherds who teach people false things and are more accurately viewed as thieves. But Jesus is the true shepherd, the real shepherd. He’s the shepherd who cares for the sheep, who provides for the sheep, who leads the sheep where they need to go. 

And, as he says in verse 4, his legitimacy is confirmed as the sheep recognize his voice. I remember just a couple months ago when my daughter Grace was first born. They say since babies are able to hear things from inside the womb that even when they’re first born, they can recognize their mother’s voice and their father’s voice. And I think Grace did recognize my voice. I would say something to her, and she would turn her head toward me more often than she would turn her head toward another person when they said something. Grace recognized my voice. In a sense, you could say that she knew who her father was. And in the same way, Jesus says, when the sheep hear the true shepherd’s voice, they respond to it and they follow him. And if you truly belong to God—if you’re truly one of God’s sheep—that’s the way it is for you. You hear the voice of the shepherd—you hear the gospel message—and something within you says to you, “That’s true. That’s real. That’s the message I need to believe and the shepherd I need to follow.” And even after you start following that shepherd, as a Christian, you may experience various fears and doubts, especially when you face difficult things in life. But through it all, at the end of the day, there’s something within you as a believer that tells you that you can trust the voice of Jesus. He’s the one—he’s the shepherd—who will see you safely through all the storms and trials of life. You don’t need to be afraid. 

Jesus Is the Only Door 

But not only is Jesus the true shepherd, he’s also the only door. That’s the second way he identifies himself. Jesus is the only door. Look at verses 7-10: “So Jesus again said to them, “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 listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by 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.” Notice here that Jesus doesn’t say he’s just one of many doors. He says, “I am the door.” So there’s only door, and Jesus says it’s him. We live in a society that prides itself on being tolerant. And it seems like society is tolerant of just about anything except Jesus and the things Jesus clearly claimed about himself. Society would tell us that it’s totally fine for us to gather in this building and learn about Jesus and do pretty much whatever we want to do…as long as we don’t say that our way of living and, more specifically, our way of believing is the right way and that everyone else is wrong. 

But there’s only one problem with that: that exclusivity is exactly what Jesus claims. He claims, “I am the door.” Back in John 8:12, he said “I am the light of the world.” Back farther in John 7:37, he said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Back still farther, in John 6:48, he said, “I am the bread of life.” Before, that in John 3:16, he said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus was an unbelievably intolerant person, as many in society use that word. But here’s the thing: Jesus rose from the dead. The cultural elites of our society didn’t rise from the dead. Jesus rose from the dead. So I’m with him. I’m gonna believe what he says. And that leads me to ask you, “Have you entered through that door? Have you embraced Jesus for salvation? Not religion, not mere morality, but Jesus—Jesus himself?”

Also, you may wonder, if Jesus is the door, what is he the door to? What does he give? What does he offer? Verse 9 tells us. Jesus says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” So Jesus is the door to salvation and to pasture. Of course, by salvation, he means salvation from hell. And by “pasture,” he’s communicating the idea of abundance and contentment and satisfaction. Pasture, for sheep, was a delightful thing. They were able to eat to their heart’s content. There were also able run and play and do whatever else it is that sheep to for fun. And in the same way, Jesus says, he is the door to a full and abundant life. He then says in verse 10 that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Let me encourage you to watch out for the thieves in your life that will steal from you, kill you, and destroy you. As I mentioned before, a thief is anyone who will lead you in the wrong direction spiritually. We may even be able to expand that to any idea that would lead you away from Jesus. Or the thief may even be Satan himself. Whatever causes you to take even one step away from Jesus is a thief that wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy in your life. And many times, the path to destruction doesn’t look like a path to destruction. Kind of like when a kidnapper tries to entice a young child with some candy or a puppy dog. It looks so fun and so good. But in reality, it’s a really bad decision, perhaps even deadly. Jesus is the only what who will give you a full and abundant life. 

Don’t let yourself imagine that the salvation God offers you is just about having your sins forgiven and that you have to turn elsewhere for joy and fullness. Salvation includes forgiveness, but it’s so much more than just forgiveness. Jesus describes salvation as enjoying a lush, green “pasture” and as having full and abundant “life.” There’s no more satisfying way to live than living with Jesus as your shepherd.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd

But not only is Jesus the true shepherd, and not only is he the only door to abundance, but he’s also the good shepherd. That’s number three. Jesus is the good shepherd. He calls himself that in verses 11-15: “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 does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” So in contrast to the hired hand, who’s just there for the money and wouldn’t even think of risking his own skin to protect the sheep, Jesus is the good shepherd. And the central characteristic of the good shepherd is that he lays down his life for the sheep. Of course, back in ancient times, a regular shepherd wouldn’t intentionally lay down his life for a bunch of sheep. Shepherds weren’t that devoted to the animals under their care. If a shepherd died as a result of fending off a wild animal, it would most certainly be an unforeseen death rather than an intentional decision to die. But nevertheless, Jesus death is something he intended to do. Down in verse 18, he states that “no one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” So Jesus was willing to do what other shepherds wouldn’t intentionally do and lay down his own life for the sake of his sheep. 

Make no mistake: he wasn’t under any obligation to lay it down. It’s not like he owed us something or was indebted to us in some way. We didn’t deserve anything from God except wrath and judgment and condemnation. You see, we had sinned, and that’s what sin deserves. But because of his goodness and love, Jesus voluntarily died on the cross in order to rescue us. He bore the judgment we deserved on that cross so that we wouldn’t have to face it ourselves. And then after he died, he resurrected from the dead in order to complete his rescue mission. 

And the thing that blows my mind is that Jesus didn’t die for good sheep. He didn’t even die for neutral sheep. He died for rebellious sheep. I recently heard a story of a woman in the UK sacrificing her life for her children. Apparently a mentally unstable man was aggravated because of an argument with his wife, and so he got in his van and began mowing down people on the sidewalk. And this woman was out with her two young kids. And as she saw the van coming, she only had a second to respond. So she used that second to push her kids out of the way but unfortunately was not able to get out of the way of the van herself. And she died as a result of the van running her over. Now that’s a very commendable sacrifice. That woman deserves to be honored. But I would venture to guess that many mothers would do the same thing for their children—probably many mothers in this room. But here’s the thing: Jesus didn’t give his life for people who loved him or who enjoyed a close relational connection to him. He gave his life for his enemies. Who does that? A lot of people would sacrifice their life for their children without hesitation, but who does that for their enemy? Only Jesus. Romans 5:6-8 says, “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”