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.
CONSTRUCTION SITE: COMPLETED
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