The last Bible Blog I wrote was just as my recent trial took over my life. I fell so deep and dark I never thought I’d write another one. I wasn’t sure if I’d even pull through. Somehow, by the grace of God I did. Part of that grace came through my husband. Part of it came through my doctor. And part of it came through intercessors He raised up to pray for my deliverance. That was the most healing help He offered me. Interestingly to me, I stopped writing just when I got to John chapter 10 about The Good Shepherd. I had forgotten about this when the deliverance minister confessed to me that the Lord had told her I was the one He was leaving the 99 to save. Then, the morning of the deliverance session, the Lord alerted my friend to pray for me, and she ended up joining us in the session. During the session, He gave her a scripture to share from where? John chapter 10! So I took note, and it dawned on me I should go back and study this chapter closely. Today I would like to share this study with you because I think there are many valuable insights in this chapter. So, here we go!
In this chapter, Jesus uses an illustration of a shepherd and his sheep to show how He relates to His people. This is not the first time Jesus refers to His people or children as sheep. There is the story of the shepherd who loses a sheep from his fold and leaves the 99 righteous sheep to find the one that wandered off, showing us how much He cares for each one of His children, especially those who may stray or get lost. He doesn’t dismiss them, reject them, or judge them without care. He loves them so much He will leave the flock to chase them down and retrieve them and save them. A lone sheep is very vulnerable, and He cares for their life, and more so, their soul. Another instance of this metaphor is in Matthew 25 when Jesus is sitting on the White Throne Judgment and separates the sheep, His people, from the goats who are destined for destruction. Taking these examples into account, let’s dive into John 10.
The first thing Jesus does in this chapter is distinguish the shepherd by the entrance to the sheep pen. In verse 1-2, He states, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Several times in the Old Testament Jesus referred to the Israelites as sheep without a shepherd because the ruling religious and political leaders and the false prophets and gods were corrupt. Zechariah 10:2 states, “For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.” The same observation can be found in Matthew 9:36 which says, “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
In Matthew 23:15, Jesus calls out the Pharisees for their corrupt leadership stating, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” These were the “pastors” and shepherds of old, charged with guiding the flock in the law and worship of the Lord. Without that guidance, the people under their care were liable to stray from their faith. They depended on them to know the Word, as not all could afford to have their own book at home like we can now. They were more vulnerable to worshipping the gods of the gentiles and straying from the worship and ways of Yahweh. So these “thieves and robbers” were using the sheep for their own benefit and profit in their greed. They did not enter by the door, Jesus, to be let in by the doorkeeper, the Father. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” In this saying, He declared Himself to the only door to the Father. He said the Father draws all those who come to Him and gives them to Him, as we will see later in this chapter; thus, the Father is the doorkeeper.
In verse 3, He goes on to say, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” How do we hear the voice of the Lord? For starters, we read His words in the gospels and in book of Revelation. We study His teachings closely and get to know Him deeply as a Person. However, we don’t just know Him with our minds. We must get this knowledge deep in our hearts so that His voice is something we come to know naturally and intimately, like the voice of our mother or father. We do this also by stilling ourselves and listening quietly for His voice in our spirits.
We so desire to know His voice because we want to know when it is Him leading us out to graze and pasture in the world with all its dangers. We want to follow Him closely to be under His guidance and protection and be with Him and no other. We are careful not to follow the voice of a stranger that speaks contrary to His wisdom and holiness and seeks to lead us astray and doesn’t care for our soul like He does. Furthermore, our Lord and Shepherd goes before us. He shows us the way and is always in front of us where we can see Him clearly. He is already in our future and circumstance making a way for us to rest in His will and to pull us through any obstacle. There is no situation that He is not already there and preparing the way for us. This is another blessing of following our Shepherd closely. We need not fear the future.
Now, we know Jesus was talking about Himself in these verses, but the disciples did not have the scriptures then. Verse 6 shows us they needed more help saying, “Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.” So in the next section, He became explicit about His illustration saying in verse 7, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” In the Old Testament, God always saves His “remnant,” those who stayed faithful to Him. He also showed compassion to those who repented and returned, but this remnant is the equivalent of His sheep. Those who do listen to the voice of the robbers and the corrupt, end up following the devil whose purpose is the steal, kill, and destroy. We are only safe from the devil’s agenda when we enter the sheep fold by the door, Jesus Christ. In His salvation, we are delivered from the devil’s schemes and his judgment for sin and evil. We are safe in the covering of His blood over our sins as He clothes us in His righteousness and we find pasture in His kingdom.
What does it mean to find pasture in His kingdom? Well, a very famous Psalm 23 shows us. It starts saying, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” When we abide in His fold, God gives us peace and righteous wisdom to walk in His ways. He heals our souls. It goes on to say in verse 4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” With Jesus at our side, we have no fear and are consoled in our trials by His faithful, just reign over our lives. Verses 5 and 6 state, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” God blesses us abundantly even in the presence of our enemies. This abundance lasts for a lifetime and all the way home to Him in eternity. God is our Shepherd and our Salvation. Jesus won this mercy for us by His cross.
Back in John chapter 10, Jesus next refers to His saving sacrifice in the cross in verses 11-15 stating, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” When we search for a pastor, teacher, or church to be under their care, we must look for one that lays down his life for his flock. One who knows the Shepherd and follows only His voice and reflects that reality in a life that bears the fruits of His Spirit and kingdom. It is important to heed Jesus’ warning here about the hireling.
Verse 16 goes on to state something interesting about the cross, saying, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” Jesus came first for the Jew and made sure to preach to them, and even when He sent out His 70 disciples on their missionary journey during His earthly ministry, He told them to go to the Jews for whom He came. But His mercy and saving grace was also for the gentile. He sent Paul as an apostle to the gentiles. Ephesians 2:15 pointed to this reality saying, “His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.” It is true: the Jews were and are God’s chosen people, chosen to reveal the true and only God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the world—to reveal the Torah and His law and prophets to the world and prepare the world to receive her Messiah in due time. However, with that Messiah’s sacrifice, God has chosen the whole world as His people—we are all chosen for saving grace, but by the faith we place in Him as Lord and Redeemer.
Jesus ends this speech by saying in verses 17-18, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” Hebrews 5:8-10 states, “Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” This order of priesthood is ancient and was named for the priest-king Melchizedek that Abraham tithed to in the Torah. It is an order of priest-kings of which King David also was one. High priest means Jesus is the head priest in this order. The priests of the Old Testament always did the animal sacrifice for the atonement for sins of the people. Jesus, as high priest and king, laid His own body on the altar of sacrifice for our sake. This was the final and only sacrifice for sin for all time. However, being God, He laid it down only to take it up again in His resurrection as God. His priesthood is forever. In this action and command given by His Father, we find a model for our own lives as we follow in His footsteps. By His victory over sin and Satan, we find our victory too. By His power and faithful resurrection of our flesh, we also take up our lives when we choose to lay them down in sacrifice for our Savior. We join Him in the fellowship of His suffering and share in His resurrection unto eternal life. We take our place in His holy priesthood.
When Jesus said all these things, there was division—some believed Him and some denied Him saying He had a demon. Verses 24-30 state, “Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do you keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them from My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
From this we learn to listen to Jesus’ words and voice! It is a plain warning—do not deny Him like the unbelieving Jews of His day! He is one with God the Father. When we follow His voice, we become a sheep in His fold and will never perish. We are safe in the palms of God’s hand, both in the Father’s palm and the Son’s palm. He guards us, and even if we stray from His flock, He comes after us. He is the Good Shepherd whom we can always trust. Let us stay close by His side today and each day. Let us find good pasture in His kingdom as we abide in His kindness. Thank You Lord for being our Good Shepherd and laying down your life for us so that we can be with You forever. Thank You for Your good and faithful Love for us, Your sheep. We love You always and bless Your Name forever! Amen!