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.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

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