Month: March 2020

THE DOOR OF THE SHEEPFOLD — John 10:6-10

Jesus the door, the door to the sheepfold

INTRODUCTION:

A fifteenth-century Italian artist by the name of Lorenzo Ghiberti spent 21 years of his life skillfully crafting images of Jesus’ life into the bronze doors of Italy’s Florence Baptistery.  There were twenty-eight panels on those doors and twenty-one of them depicted scenes from the life of Christ.  Those bronze doors were so moving that Michelangelo called them “the Gates of Paradise”.  Visitors from around the world have come to Florence over the years and have admired the gospel message depicted so beautifully on those doors.  In the passage of Scripture we are about to study, John 10:6-10, Jesus will be using the image of a door to convey physical and spiritual truths to His listeners and to us as well.

In John 10, verses 1-5, Jesus used the language of a shepherd to tell the Pharisees that He was the true Shepherd of the sheep.  He explained to them that His own sheep know His voice and follow Him.  He also pointed out to the Pharisees that they were thieves and robbers.  You would expect the Pharisees to become enraged at those words and try to arrest Him or stone Him.  That’s what they tried to do before, in a previous confrontation.  However, in this case, nothing happened.  Why not?

I.  THE BEWILDERMENT OF THE PHARISEES (verse 6)

It’s clear in verse 6 that Jesus’ listeners did not understand what Jesus said or why He said it.  Here’s what the apostle John writes in verse six:  “This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.”  They must have been standing there quietly with puzzled looks on their faces.  As they pondered Jesus’ words, they may have been thinking to themselves, “What in the world did He mean by that description?”

John describes Jesus’ words as a “figure of speech”.  The Pharisees may have considered Jesus’ words to have been some sort of proverb or metaphor.  We don’t know for sure.  However, I can think of two reasons why these Pharisees didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.  First, these Pharisees weren’t shepherds by occupation and may have known very little about a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep.  Secondly, in a spiritual sense, they weren’t His sheep, nor did they want to be His sheep.  So Jesus’ words may have sounded like gibberish or nonsense to them.  Since these Pharisees didn’t understand His symbolic language, Jesus follows up on His illustration by applying it to Himself.

II.   JESUS THE DOOR (verse 7)

Verse 7 reads, “Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’.”  Once again, Jesus begins by saying, “What I am about to say to you is very important and true.”  Notice that Jesus does not say, “I am a door”, but “I am the door’.  What He means is:  “I, and I alone, am the door.”  There is no other door.

There were two different kinds of sheepfolds in the land of Palestine during that period of time.  One was a public sheepfold in the town and it had room for many flocks of sheep.  That’s the one that Jesus was referring to in verses 1-5.  The other sheepfolds were out in the countryside.  They were much smaller, usually circular, and were used by an individual shepherd and his own flock of sheep.  Beginning here in verse 7, Jesus is referring to a sheepfold in the country and to Himself as the door.  How can a person be a door?  He doesn’t have hinges or a latch.  Jesus is using the word “door” in this case to refer to a barrier.  A door provides security, protection, and safety within an enclosure by limiting access.  Out in the countryside, after the shepherd led his sheep through the opening and into the sheepfold for the night, he would sit in that opening with his staff in hand, resting his back and head against one side of the opening and bent legs against the other side.  He then sleeps with his body across the opening.  Nothing and no one could enter or leave the sheepfold without climbing over him.  You may have heard someone use the phrase, “Over my dead body!”.  It’s a more emphatic response than just saying, “no”.  The person may be saying, “You’ll have to kill me first before you can get away with that!”.  I wonder whether that phrase, “Over my dead body!”, was originally said by a shepherd.  That would make sense, wouldn’t it?

II.  THE THIEVES AND ROBBERS (verse 8)

In verse 8, Jesus continues by saying, “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.”  When Jesus used the words “before Me”, He wasn’t talking about people in the Old Testament because He uses the present tense, saying that they “are” thieves and robbers.  He’s repeating what He said in verse one, referring to those who were the leaders of the Jews when Jesus began His public ministry.  Those leaders were taking advantage of the people of Israel for their own personal gain.  They were not part of God’s sheepfold because they were not led into the sheepfold by the shepherd who is also the door.  His own sheep pay no attention to them because His sheep only respond to the voice of their own shepherd.

III.  THE DOOR TO ABUNDANT LIVING (verses 9-10)

In verse 9, Jesus begins to develop the spiritual meaning and application of His words while continuing the physical analogy of the shepherd and his sheep.  It’s important that we keep that analogy in mind as we study verses 9 and 10 so that we don’t misinterpret the words of the Lord Jesus or draw any wrong conclusions.

In verse 9, Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.”  Jesus repeats the statement He made about Himself in verse 7, leaving out the words, “of the sheep”.  He then ties His words to the words of Moses in the Old Testament.  Notice the similarity of Moses’ words as he speaks to God in Numbers 27:16 -18.  “May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.”  Do you see the similarities?  Moses referred to the people of Israel as sheep, and these sheep need a shepherd.  Moses had been a shepherd himself for many years, tending his father-in-law’s sheep.  He knew what sheep were like, and he knew that the people of Israel were like a flock of sheep.

On July 8, 2005, a group of shepherds in Istanbul, Turkey, watched in horror as their sheep, all 1500 of them, jumped off a cliff.  First, one sheep jumped or slipped off the edge of the cliff, and then all the rest of them followed him.  The shepherds were away from the sheep having breakfast together when they saw it happen.  450 of the sheep died from the fall of 15 meters (49 feet).  Those who were farther back in line were saved because the pile got higher and the fall was more cushioned.  Moses was right!  Sheep need a shepherd!  As one commentator put it:  “Sheep are dumb, directionless, and defenseless.”

Jesus continues His metaphor in verse 10 when He says, “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”   Who is the “thief” Jesus is referring to in this verse?  It is not Satan.  Jesus has not abandoned His metaphor.  The symbolism stays the same.  The word “thief” is not used anywhere in the Old Testament to refer to Satan, nor is that a term that is used within the Jewish culture to refer to Satan.  What we find in the Old Testament is that the term “shepherd” is often used to refer to the Messiah, and ‘thieves” and “robbers” are used as a metaphor for the leaders of Israel (Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:26; 7:11; 23:30).  Jesus was intentionally using the shepherd parable from Ezekiel 34, which is a prophecy directed against the shepherds or leaders of the nation of Israel, His flock.

He now ends this portion of his conversation with some good news when He says, “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”  What does it mean to have an abundant life?  Jesus used the word “they” instead of “you”.  He is still using the analogy of the Shepherd and His sheep.  What’s an abundant life to a sheep?  Try to picture yourself as a sheep in Palestine in the first century A.D.  What would you consider to be an abundant life for yourself as a sheep?  The meaning of the word “abundantly” might be helpful.  The Greek word is “perrison”, which means “surplus”.

Personally, if I were a sheep, I would be more than content if I knew that my shepherd loved me so much that he called me by name and led me out to green pastures where I could eat and drink all I wanted.  Then He would bring me back to a safe place at night and make sure I was OK.  Thanks to my shepherd, I would be a well-nourished and healthy sheep.  If I walked up to greet him, he would pat my back and scratch my head.  What more could a sheep ask for?  I’d be skipping and jumping like a spring lamb, without a care in the world.  How about you?

Now let’s apply Jesus’ illustration to our own lives.  What does an abundant life consist of?  Let me ask you a few questions.  Have you observed positive changes in your attitude, your actions, and your view of your future?  Are your burdens lighter?  Are your struggles easier and is your future brighter?  Do you have more purpose for living and less fear of dying?  Do you enjoy spending time daily with your Shepherd in His Word and in prayer?  If your answer to those questions is “yes”, you’re not a candidate for the abundant life – you’re a recipient of it!  This abundant life that God gives to His followers, His sheep, gets better every day until it reaches its peak in heaven where it continues forever.

If this has not been your experience, you’re still a candidate.  Jesus is the door to the sheepfold of believers.  If you will acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God – God become Man; if you will repent of your sins, and transfer the ownership of your life completely over to Him as your Shepherd, and follow Him, you will become His child and the abundant life will begin and last forever.  In these troublesome times, please don’t put it off for another moment if you sense that the Shepherd is calling you by name.     

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THE TRUE SHEPHERD — John 10:1-5

John 10:1-5, shepherd, shepherding the sheep, True Shepherd, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

To properly understand the message of Christ in John 10, one must first understand the circumstances that lead up to it.  In John 9, Jesus healed the man born blind, but the Pharisees would not accept it.  Instead, they insulted the man, threatened him, and finally excommunicated him from the religious life of Israel.  They cast away one of the sheep of the nation of Israel.  But Jesus, the true Shepherd, found him and lovingly brought him into the fold of God.

I.  THE PRETENSE OF FALSE SHEPHERDS (verse 1)

The Lord sets the stage by describing the false shepherds who showed that they did not care about the welfare of the sheep when they cast out the blind man.  The sheepfold that Jesus referred to in verse 1 was a sheepfold in a town or village, not one in the countryside.  Each village in Palestine had a common sheepfold where each shepherd, returning from the field with his sheep, would lead his flock at night.  The sheepfold was made of rough stones and the walls were ten to twelve feet high.  It had no roof.  This was a place to protect the sheep from wild animals, thieves and robbers that might try to harm them.  After the shepherd led his sheep through the door of the sheepfold, he would entrust his flock to the doorkeeper.  Each sheepfold had a doorkeeper whose job was to protect and care for the sheep while the shepherd went home to sleep.  Once the sheep were led through the door into the sheepfold, the door was locked and guarded by the doorkeeper.  No one but the doorkeeper had the key to unlock the door.

The first thing the Lord Jesus wanted these Pharisees to understand was that they were the false shepherds.  He said in verse 1, “He who does not enter by the door but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.”  The Greek word translated as “thief” refers to a petty thief who steals from people around him, whereas the word “robber” refers to a band of robbers.  Both individually and collectively, His listeners fit His description of them.  Jesus is reminding them of the words of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel who prophesied against the shepherds of His people Israel.  God had not appointed the Pharisees as shepherds over Israel.  They appointed themselves and they only pretended to care about the people.  In Ezekiel 24:2, God said to the shepherds of Israel, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves!  Should not the shepherds feed the flock?”  Time hasn’t changed a thing.  Today, there are still false prophets trying to lead people astray.  False shepherds have only one goal:  to glorify themselves by having others follow them.

II.  THE PROOF OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD (verses 2-5)

In contrast to these Pharisees, Jesus told them in verse 2, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”  What does the door refer to?  It refers to God’s appointed way of entrance to the nation of Israel, the way in which the Old Testament prophets said that the true Messiah would come.  Jesus came in the exact fulfillment of those Old Testament prophecies.  They foretold where He would be born, who He would be born to, the unusual events surrounding His birth, how He would be introduced to the nation of Israel, where He would live, why He came, and how He would die and then rise from the dead.  Also, Jesus’ life, His miracles, the words spoken by God the Father at His baptism, and many witnesses verified His claim to be the Messiah, Israel’s true Shepherd.

Verse 3 tells us, “To Him, the doorkeeper opens.”  In Israel, after the sheep spent the night in the sheepfold under the care of the doorkeeper, the shepherd would return in the morning to lead his sheep out.  When the doorkeeper heard the shepherd’s voice, he would open the door of the sheepfold for him.  Who is this doorkeeper that Jesus is talking about?  He is John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way for the Messiah and introduced Him to Israel.  He publicly proclaimed that Jesus was “the Lamb of God” and “the Son of God” (John 1:23-36).  After John introduced Jesus to Israel, some Jewish people began to follow the true Shepherd.

When a shepherd came to get his sheep in the morning, he would come to the sheepfold filled with the sheep of many shepherds.  In order to lead out the sheep that belonged to him, he would call his own sheep by name and they would come to him and follow him.  This is what Jesus is saying in verses 3 and 4.  Sheep know the voice of their shepherd and will follow him only.  There was a small minority of the Jewish people who followed the Lord Jesus.  You can’t fool these sheep when it comes to recognizing their Shepherd’s voice.  They will not respond to the voice of strangers.  That’s why Jesus said in verse 5, “And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him.”

One day a man in Australia was arrested for stealing a sheep.  However, he claimed that it was his own which had been missing from his flock for many days.  At first, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter.  At last, he asked that the sheep be brought before him.  Then he took one of the men, the man who made the accusation, into the courtyard and told him to call the animal.  The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened as if it dreaded being in that unfamiliar place with strangers.  The officer took the man back to the courtroom.  Then he instructed the officer to bring down the defendant.  The accused man did not wait until he entered the yard, but as he drew near the gate, before the sheep could see him, he began to make his peculiar call.  Overjoyed, the sheep bounded toward the gate and by his actions showed that he recognized the familiar voice of his master.  “His sheep knows him”, said the judge, and so the case was quickly decided.

The point of our Lord’s message to the Pharisees was to explain why a man born blind would follow Him.  It was because He was Israel’s True Shepherd and a true shepherd has sheep.  Why does anyone leave a religious system or a philosophy today?  It’s because we have heard the voice of the True Shepherd calling us through the Bible, and we have chosen to trust Christ and follow Him.

A missionary was once asked to pass through some very unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night.  As we went through the darkness with his guide going on ahead, he looked down at his feet and could see no road.  The guide turned so frequently that the missionary feared the way had been missed.  In his anxiety, he finally cried out, “Where is the way?”  The native turned around and said, “I am the way.  There is no beaten path here; just follow me step by step and you will reach the end of the journey safely.  The missionary did as he was told and soon arrived at his destination.

III.  OBSERVATIONS:

What can we learn from Jesus’ words in this passage of Scripture?  First of all, we learn that Jesus is the true Shepherd of God because He came through the door – the proper entryway to the sheep of Israel in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.  The doorkeeper, John the Baptist, recognized that Jesus was the Messiah and opened the door for Him, proclaiming Him to be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Secondly, we learn that Jesus knows His own sheep.  “He calls them each by name” and they come to Him because they recognize His voice.  Every encounter with Jesus in the Gospel of John is on a personal basis.  We’ve already studied His encounter with Nicodemus, the woman at the well in Samaria, the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, the man born blind, as well as several others.  Every person comes to Jesus individually and personally.

Thirdly, “He leads them out”.  Jesus is telling these Pharisees that, even though they cast the man who had been born blind out of the synagogue, it wasn’t just their own doing.  Jesus was leading the man out of that place of spiritual blindness.   He was the one behind it.  The once blind man was now His sheep and he came to his true Shepherd.

Fourthly, in verse 4, Jesus said: “He goes before them”. Unlike the Pharisees who were self-centered, the true shepherd of the sheep stays with his sheep and goes in front of them.  He is the first to experience what lies ahead, facing the dangers and obstacles that may be in store for them.  He chooses the best pastures and the safest areas for them to graze.

Lastly, at the end of verse 4 and continuing through verse 5, Jesus said, “the sheep follow him because they know his voice.  And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”  As he leads his sheep, the shepherd talks to them, showing his constant care for them.  Sometimes the shepherd would talk louder and more sharply to get the sheep’s attention and remind them of his presence. The sheep trust in him only and flee from strangers.  I have watched videos on YouTube demonstrating the validity of this passage of Scripture and it was amazing to observe the sheep’s reaction to the stranger’s voice and afterward to the shepherd’s voice.

IV.  APPLICATIONS:

Do you hear Him calling you?  If you will sincerely study the Scriptures as they describe the Person and work of Jesus Christ in His own words and through the testimony of eyewitnesses, you will come to the conclusion that He is the True Shepherd of the sheep.  Spiritually, we are all like sheep – defenseless against the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, directionless in our journey through life, easily led astray, and ignorant of the dangers that lie ahead in this life and the next.  We need a shepherd, and there is only one True Shepherd that you can trust because He loves you and proved it by giving His life for you.  If you’re ready to make that commitment to Christ or want to review what it means to become a child of God and follower of Jesus Christ, please read my sermon entitled “WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO RECEIVE CHRIST – John 1:12.  Choose to follow Him and experience the peace and joy that comes from being close to the One who leads the way for you and calls you by name because you have become a member of His flock forever.

If you are already a follower of Jesus Christ, are you walking close to the Shepherd even when it’s hard to understand where He is leading you?   Remember that He sees your tomorrow more clearly than you see your yesterday.  Keep trusting in His guidance and praying for His leading in your life.  He is with you, leading you every step of the way and providing for your needs along the way.

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