This morning, our text for the message is from John's Gospel.
We'll be in the 10th chapter of John's gospel. We reading John 10, starting with verse one through verse 21 remind you that this is the very Word of God, so please give it your undivided attention. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep fold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is, that man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens the sheep hear His voice, and he calls out his own. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know His voice a stranger. They will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again, said to them, Truly, truly. I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to 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 comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not the 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. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, 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. For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 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, there was again, a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind as far the reading of God's Holy Word, let us pray, Lord God. We thank you for these words from our good shepherd. We pray that as his sheep we may hear them well, listen to them and see their application in our own lives. We thank You that You've sent the Good Shepherd on our behalf and then he has laid down his life for us. We ask these things now, in Jesus' name, amen, please be seated. I think it's a fair statement for most of us sitting here, if not all of us, that our knowledge of sheep, especially first hand knowledge of them, is very limited. We've probably all seen pictures of sheep looking docile in a pasture, perhaps being herded by a border collie. We know that wool comes from sheep, and we know that lamb chops are delicious. But beyond that, it's safe to say that most of us really don't know much about sheep or how they're cared for.
This puts us as something of a disadvantage, because sheep and shepherds are used as symbols frequently throughout the Old and New Testaments, and knowledge of both of them is presupposed. So unless we gain some further understanding of sheep and their care, we are apt to miss at least some of the nuance of passages like ours and, if not some of the substance of the message itself.
So as we examine this passage, we must first look at the sheep and shepherd background, then we'll look at the Old Testament background, then we'll see Jesus the sheep gate, and then we will answer the question why Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and finally, reflect on what our place is as his sheep. But first, the sheep and shepherd background of this passage, the word sheep appears 202 times in the Bible with lamb appearing an additional 113 times. Shepherd appears 64 times, and flock 118 times.
Suffice it to say, the Bible is steeped in sheep and their care and feeding, and many of these references are to literal sheep in their oversight. But. A number of them use sheep symbolically as they're talking about them. Now, the original audience to what Jesus had to say in our passage was intimately familiar with sheep men, and when all of these references were made, they were easily able to envision what was being referenced about as easily as we're able to picture what McDonald's is. Sheep, like other animals, were not pets in biblical times, but rather symbols of wealth and well being, they were a renewable resource, as it were with that they could be sheared repeatedly to yield wool, and obviously they could also provide food if they were slaughtered. Thus, what they understand understood about sheep, and shepherding was not that it was some quaint pastime, but serious business that protected wealth. They would also know that sheep are not the brightest of animals.
They without the leadership of a shepherd, they would be known to stray, which, of course, led to Jesus's parable of the lost sheep, which was found in Luke 15. And they were vulnerable to predators such as wolves, particularly if they are alone.
Jesus is said to have compassion on the crowds in Matthew 936, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep, apart from their shepherd, are indeed helpless, even if they are too dense to come to that realization on their own. And shepherds in the Middle East, even to this day, would lead their sheep differently than those in the west or in Australia or New Zealand, a country that has more sheep than people, and we're more probably familiar with how sheep are shepherded in those places. They instead of driving their flocks or hurting them through the use of a dog, like a Border Collie, the shepherd in the Middle East calls his sheep and recognizing His voice, they follow Him. Now, obviously this has relevance to our passage, which we'll get to in a minute, but before that, we need to take a look at the Old Testament background that is bearing on this, because from the number of references standpoints, most of the references to sheep and shepherd take place in the Old Testament, and many important figures in the Old Testament worked as shepherds at least for a period of time. Moses, Jacob and David, all spent significant portions of their respective lives as actual shepherds. More significantly however, was the fact that the leaders of Israel were frequently called shepherds in their capacity as leaders, though hardly the only instance, one of the most prominent uses of this title is Ezekiel 34 where Ezekiel is instructed to prophesy against Israel's leaders in an extended shepherding metaphor. And there we read this 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 keep the sheep. Feed the sheep.
You eat the fat. You clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep 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 so they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered.
They wandered all over 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. The picture of God scat of the people of God, scattered and vulnerably left to fend for themselves, is vivid and would have been a readily understandable metaphor. It is.
It is the tragic outcome of bad spiritual leadership, of bad shepherding. The metaphor of God's people as sheep and earthly leadership as shepherds is pervasive throughout the Old Testament. Obviously, it's also used in the New Testament, though not universally translated Shepherd as the Greek word for pastor and shepherd are identical.
And of course, the term endures today. I use a book called The shepherd. Leader, for instance, that when training officers, but it is the Old Testament background that bears on our passage, specifically one passage where God specifically uses the terminology is numbers 27 and directing Moses to point Joshua as his successor, so that the sheep of Israel may continue to have a shepherd. That passage in particular may be in view as Jesus uses this imagery, portraying himself as the ultimate successor shepherd for true Israel. And with that, let's look at Jesus as the sheep gate. And Jesus begins this discourse with the truly, truly formula that he has used already many times in John to draw attention and to underscore what is about to be said. He starts by stating that one does not who doesn't go through the door of the sheep pen is not the shepherd, but rather a thief and a robber. Now that would have been a self evident statement in its natural meaning, the shepherd, conversely, does enter through the door and is permitted into the pen by the gatekeeper. And the picture that's being drawn here is a communal sheep pen with where multiple flocks are kept. And in that context, the sheep who belong to that particular shepherd would respond to His VOICE and FOLLOW Him. They, as we establish was the practice in the Middle East. If you think of any time when you've left a pet at a kennel while you're on vacation, and you return to see this pet, particularly if it's a dog, they get very excited at the sound of your voice. So you can perhaps picture the relationship between the shepherd and his particular sheep. It's very similar. And Jesus closes by saying that the sheep will flee from rather than follow a stranger. John calls this opening a figure of speech which they did not understand.
Now it's not exactly a parable which do not appear in John's gospel, but it carries similar force. It is confusing, like the parables were to an unbelieving audience, and everything that Jesus set up until verse six would be simply a known fact of daily life without spiritual meaning attached. As such, the crowd is confused as to why he's saying it the spiritual meaning follows immediately after another. Truly, truly Jesus gives His third I am statement in John by saying I am the door of the sheep. The sheep being referenced now are clearly not literal sheep, but rather the people of God so often referred to in the Old Testament, in saying that he is the door of the sheep, Jesus portrays himself as the legitimate portal for the people of God to their pasture, which represents their Salvation and their rest. In fact, he is the sole legitimate portal for the sheep calling all who came before him, thieves and robbers to whom the true sheep did not listen. Now this is obviously a swipe of sorts that the shepherds portrayed in Ezekiel, 34 who came before, but also at the present Jewish leadership at the time Jesus is saying these things, their role as poor shepherds and thieves and robbers was well illustrated in the previous chapter, and their treatment of the man born blind, whom Jesus healed.
Ultimately, they threw him out of the synagogue because he wouldn't deny Jesus, who healed him. The thief's only purpose is self serving, to steal for his own benefit, whereas Jesus comes for the benefit of the sheep and to give them abundant life. In this, Jesus is clearly establishing himself as the sole way to salvation, something he will do with even greater clarity in chapter 14, but in our passage itself, he will claim even more. In verse 11, Jesus adds a further I am statement, saying that he is also the good shepherd. And that leads us to examine why Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Those who have posed as shepherds up until now have been so bad to be as to be characterized as thieves and robbers and being the good shepherd rather than taking from the sheep. Victimizing them, he sacrifices himself for them.
Jesus contrasts himself additionally to the hired hand, who, while not evil, like the thief, has no stake in the welfare of the sheep. As long as things are fine and easy, The hired hand can manage the sheep, but as soon as a threat appears, he is only interested in his own preservation. And for the sheep, the outcome is the same as under the thief. They get slaughtered, only the good shepherd himself is willing to do what is necessary to save the sheep to lay down his own life, Jesus knows precisely for whom he is laying down his life. His sheep recognize his sheep who recognize his voice. Some of them are there that is. Some of them are the Jews who have been the entirety of GOD's flock up until, up until now. But others, he says, are elsewhere. That would be the Gentiles. And though these two groups are separated, now, Jesus will bring them together into one unified flock, and that will become reality after His ascension.
They will hold in common the fact that they recognize Jesus as their shepherd, and that he lays down his life for them and them alone because of his voluntary sacrifice for the benefit of the sheep, the Father loves him. This is the very mission the Father has sent him on, to gather his sheep and sacrifice himself for them, that takes us to our place as sheep, as Jesus's sheep, Jesus's metaphorical declaration of himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, does not meet in our passage with universal acclaim, just like in chapter seven, and To a lesser extent, eight and nine, there is a division among the crowd. The first group finds his talk to be that of a demon, oppressed, insane person. And indeed, such an evaluation is a legitimate possibility someone who claims to be the unique pathway for the sheep of God and their one and only good shepherd would not be a good teacher, but rather a deceiver of some sort, if that were not true. However, if it is true, Jesus is proclaiming life itself, abundant life he calls it to those who can believe it, the healing of a man born blind. The previous chapter certainly merits consideration that Jesus is speaking the truth, and Jesus Himself will press that point later in the chapter, taking Jesus at his word. However, as we should, several things become clear in this passage. For one, Jesus is portraying himself as a unique pathway to eternal life.
There are no other paths which lead there. All of them lead somewhere other than eternal life. Now, last month, Pope Francis declared in Singapore that all religions are pathways to God. And while I find many points of disagreement with Pope Francis, perhaps none of them are as profound as this, the pope directly contradicts Jesus's own teaching in our passage and elsewhere in John and the other gospels, by saying such a thing, there are no other valid paths to God. The reason is that there. The reason is that there are no other paths to God is tied up in the second main point that Jesus made that he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.
Now, apart from Christ's intercessory death on our behalf, we can presume no access to God whatsoever his sheep and his sheep alone hear his call to follow him and stand behind his protection. Are you hearing his call to you as his sheep, we get unique protection, but we also bear the definitive obligation to follow Him. When Jesus gave His Great Commission. In Matthew 28 he told his apostles to make disciples of all nations, those other sheep, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.
Following the Good Shepherd means laying down our ownership of our own. Lives and obeying His teachings. As the Apostle Paul put it in Second Corinthians, five for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised again, are you hearing the call of the Good Shepherd? He offers you life, a new, eternal life, but you must sacrifice control of the life you now have to accept it if you hear his voice in the words of this passage, seize the life he offers and follow him. Let's pray, Lord God, we thank you.
Those of us who can hear your voice, that you have called out to us that you've laid down your life on our behalf, and that we now have the prospect of abundant eternal life. Lord, help us to follow you more closely, to hear your voice in all of its and all of its detail. Help us to become better sheep as we follow you the Good Shepherd, we ask these things in your name. Amen.