John 10 The Good Shepherd
John 10 - The Good Shepherd
Introduction
A. Gospel of John presents us with several reasons to heed Jesus, the Word made flesh that came down from heaven and showed the glory of God.
1. In John 1:1-14, he teaches us that Jesus, the Word, "dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The glory of God is the grace and the truth, which the Father and the Son have. It is the grace and truth that the evil "pastors" rejected.
2. John 3 introduces us to Nicodemus, one of the "shepherds" of Israel who came to Jesus at night. When Jesus used the birth figure to present repentance and baptism, Nicodemus said, "How can this be?" Jesus answered, "You are a teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things?" He was a member of the group called "the elders," or "the Pharisees, the scribes, and the chief priests." They were the religious government, practically the princes, and therefore "the shepherds" according to the figure used by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
3. John 5. Jesus healed a sick man on the Sabbath. “Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.” The Jews condemned him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. To defend himself he said, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” Only God can heal! However, John 5:16 says, "Because of this the Jews persecuted Jesus, for he did these things on the Sabbath."
a. Jesus answered them (v17), “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Healing was the work of the heavenly Father. When Jesus healed the sick, it was not the work of a man on the Sabbath, but the work of the Son of God, as well as the teaching and everything Jesus did.
b. Jesus did nothing for himself, but precisely what He saw the Father do (v19).
c. Jesus also raised up the dead by his word in two ways. 1. (v21-27) He raised the dead in sin by giving those who would listen to his words, eternal life. One who would turn to God through repentance and baptism would be forgiven and begin the way of living that is according to God's will, and that would give him "life." 2. (v28-29) However, on the last day, all who are in their graves will hear the voice of Jesus and come forth raised from the dead physically, either for heavenly life or for condemnation. Israel's false “shepherds” or "pastors" could do neither.
4. John 6. Jesus fed 5 thousand men by creating bread and fish from nothing, multiplying the little food the disciples had. Seeing the sign those men recognized Jesus as the legitimate Messiah, v14-15, but missed the main point. They were looking for physical bread (v26), when Jesus offered himself as the "true bread of heaven…" (v32-35) Jesus himself was "the bread of life," because his words were "spirit and life." (v62-63) The bread that descended from heaven was what the shepherds of Israel could not offer.
5. John 7. When Jesus taught them, (v15). “The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
a. The doctrine of Jesus was different from that of the shepherds of Israel because Jesus sought to communicate the message that God sent from heaven, and thus to give glory to God and not to men. The shepherds sought their own glory. They taught the traditions of men and gloried in the honors of men.
b. See Matthew 23:4-13. Seeking their own glory, they became blind guides.
6. John 8. Jesus declared, "I am the light of the world, the one who follows me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (v 12) Light is a figure of his teachings and following him means obeying what he teaches.
a. The shepherds of Israel (v13, Pharisees) did not know the way of Jesus because they judged according to the flesh, v14-15.
b. When Jesus judged, his judgment was true because the Father had sent him. (v18) Remember the judgments of Jesus in the great Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7.
c. Those who remain in the word of Jesus will be his true disciples who will know the truth, and the truth will make them free. (v31-32) Free from the slavery of sin, v34.
d. The false shepherds of Israel were slaves to sin because they did not accept the word of Jesus (v37), they were not behaving as children or Abraham (v39), nor of God (41-47)
7. John 9 presents to us in detail the carnality of false shepherds when Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath.
a. The parents of the blind man were afraid of the Jews, "because the Jews had already agreed that if any confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue." (9:22) Therefore, they did not have the courage to recognize the wonder of what Jesus did in healing their son.
b. The malignancy of those false shepherds is uncovered when the humble and honest blind man said, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (9:30-34) “They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.”
c. Jesus said to the blind in the presence of the Jews, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” (9:39) The Pharisees said, "Are we also blind?" Jesus declared their guilt saying, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” They were judged by Him who was given the authority to judge from heaven. This is the context of John 10 when Jesus calls himself, "The Good Shepherd."
B. Apparently it is still the context of the Feast of Tabernacles until John 10:19. “There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
1. John 7 and 8 are an account of division among the Jews of Jerusalem.
2. John 7:20; 7:93; 8:48, They insulted Jesus saying that He had a demon.
I. Thieves and Robbers do not enter through the door into the sheep's fold, John 10:1.
A. John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy."
1. Isaiah 56:8-12, “The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” 9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour— all you beasts in the forest. 10 His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 The dogs have a mighty appetite; they ever have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all. 12 “Come,” they say, “let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.”
Shepherds were symbols of leaders who did not warn Israel and Judah when there was danger, danger of God's wrath because of idolatry and immorality. They fed themselves, seeking their own profit. They were drunks. Priests and princes and prophets were charged with a duty to correct the mistakes of the people. They were blind watchmen or dogs that didn't bark, because they were asleep.
2. Ezekiel 34:1-6, “You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 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.” The prophecy condemns the kings of Israel by characterizing them as selfish and irresponsible “shepherds.” Although they ruled them harshly and violently, yet they left the sheep unattended. They neglected the most important thing, their well-being before God.
3. The elders, the chief priests, and scribes of the Pharisees were the shepherds of the Jews, but they neglected “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23)
4. They did not enter through the door. Matthew 21:23 “And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” They rejected the prophet John the Baptist and the Son of God. They themselves made the proselytes more damned than when they walked in idolatry. (Matthew 23:13-15)
B. Jesus is the Gate of the Sheep.
1. Matthew 18:8; 21:31-32, Jesus taught how to enter into life. He scolded those who had not heeded the teachings of John the Baptist and Christ. At the conclusion of the parable of the two sons, he asked, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”
2. Jesus is the shepherd that enters through the door. John 10:2. He is the rightful shepherd of the prophecies of Ezekiel 34:24-31, “And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.” With all the power of God backing Him, Jesus had shown that he was and is the “King David” of the prophecies.
3. “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (John 10:3-5) Being a sheep of Jesus, one must hear and follow, that is, obey the orders of the Shepherd Jesus, the King Jesus.
4. Jesus is the door (John 10:7-13) because he is the Judge. It is He who forgives and it is He who establishes the terms of salvation. John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” The concept of salvation in this figure is illustrated by the grass that sheep eat. Nourishment is a symbol of teaching, as we have already seen in chapter 6:47-48. Jesus is the bread of life. One must eat Him in order to have eternal life, that is, to believe in Him and thoroughly digest His teachings. In 6:62-69, Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” How then does one receive life? By hearing and obeying the words of Christ. That's what "believing in Jesus" means. The sheep feed on the grass offered by Jesus, the Good Shepherd when they hear and obey his words. That is the way they will be saved.
II. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, John 10:11-18.
A. The shepherd knows his sheep and his sheep know him. (10:14) They are known because they keep the will of God.
1. Matthew 7:21-23. After teaching who would be blessed and who would not, Jesus declared, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
2. The sheep know Christ because they do the will of the Father as the Shepherd also does the will of the Father. They know each other because they are of the same way of thinking and living.
B. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (v11, 15)
1. The devotion of the shepherd to his sheep was common. When the wolf, the lion, or the bear came, the shepherd would protect his sheep with his staff and with his sling.
2. Example of David, 1 Samuel 17:34-37.
3. Jesus had the same devotion as a shepherd to his sheep. He knew that he would truly give himself, lay down his life at the cross, for us his sheep.
C. The hired hand leaves the sheep and flees when the wolf comes. He doesn't care about sheep. (v12-13)
1. What wages do the hired hands seek? Matthew 6:2, 5, “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
2. John 12:42, “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”
3. The wolf is a figure of the disbelieving Jew who, for whatever reason, neglected the burden on his shoulders which was the welfare of those whom they ruled. Then when the Messenger of God in heaven arrived, they rejected him, Christ Jesus.
4. The hired hand is a figure of the ancient kings of Ezekiel 34, who abused the people to serve their own desires. They did not think of being a guide to righteousness, nor of protecting their people from the dangers of idolatry, which of course was especially the danger of God's wrath.
D. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and they know Him. (10:14)
1. Here we find the meaning of the word "to know.” They have the same feeling as the Father and the Son who know each other. Romans 15:5; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 2:2-5; 4:2; 1 Peter 3:8
2. They know that the Father loves his "sheep" and sent his Son to die for them. The Son also loves the sheep and agrees with the Father. Their purposes are the same.
3. The sheep think the same way. They love the Father and are grateful for the sacrifice, for the love that is sacrificed for them. They understand that the Father and the Son are righteous and that there can be no communion between them when there is sin and rebellion in the middle. They follow the shepherd.
E. "I also have other sheep that are not of this fold; those I must also bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, and one shepherd." John 10:16
1. The other sheep are those of the other nations of the world, not of the family of Israel in the flesh. Galatians 3:28-29
2. "They will hear my voice and there will be one flock, and one shepherd." (v16) If they hear, they will also obey the Shepherd's command too. There is no entry into Jesus' fold, if one does not hear him. There must be repentance of sins, the corrupt conduct of the dominion of darkness. Ephesians 2:1-6; 4:20-24; Colossians 1:13. There must be new life according to the teachings of Jesus.
F. “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 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.” John 10:17-18
1. Jesus had two reasons to lay down his life as a shepherd for the sheep.
a. Because he is the true Shepherd of God's fold. He knows his sheep and his sheep know Him. There is a bond of love between them and also a bond of knowledge. The sheep and the shepherd know each other.
b. Because he obeys the Father. He loves the Father and the Father loves Jesus. It is the will, the commandment of the Father that Jesus should die for the sheepfold of God.
III. The Feast of Dedication - John 10:22-42
A. The feast of the Tabernacles (John 7:2-10:21) ended with much division among the Jews. 10:19
1. “Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” Jesus condemned them for speaking like this in Matthew 5:21-26.
2. “Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” They refer to the miracle of Chapter 9 that happened in this same context.
3. The Feast of Tabernacles happened in the autumn of September or October. Now we pass on to the events of that winter and the Feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights). Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon's porch.
B. John 10:24. “So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
1. v.25. “Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me.” Jesus OPENLY confessed the truth. There was no mystery. Jesus did not hide anything. The problem was the Jews didn't believe it. Despite the Father's testimony, the works of power and the signs of God's support, they did not believe.
2. Jesus explains the figure of the Shepherd and his sheep, “but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
a. God's sheep hear God's words. They hear the Shepherd of God, the son of David, according to the prophecy of Ezekiel 34:24.
b. Those who do not hear confess that they are not of the fold of God. 1 John 4:6,"We are of God; He who knows God hears us; the one who is not of God, he does not hear us. In this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
c. v.27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." The relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep depends on the willingness to hear and follow the Shepherd.
d. v.28, "and I give them eternal life;" Eternal life is the life of those who hear and follow the Shepherd. “and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” False shepherds cannot steal the sheep of the true shepherd of God. They can afflict and persecute them, but God helps them overcome everything through the hope He gives us. Romans 8:14-18, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. And if children, also heirs; heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if we suffer together with him, that together with him we may be glorified." There will be persecution, but God will help us even in afflictions. Romans 8:28-39, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate us from God's love. John 10:29, "My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one can take them out of my Father's hand."
3. John 10:30,"I and the Father are one." The Father and the Son are united. They're one. One in purpose and one in the deity.
4. John 10:31—39. The question of blasphemy. "Many good works I have shown you of my Father; Which one do you stone me for?" The good works were miracles, works that confirmed the words of Jesus. If the Father supported Jesus' words, it was true that they were both one. It wasn't blasphemy. The duty of the disbelievers was to explain the works Jesus performed publicly before their eyes.
a. The 70 judges who received the gift of prophecy were called gods, Psalm 82:6. Jesus had even more honor from God because the Father sanctified him and sent Jesus from heaven to earth. They said to him "You blaspheme, " because he said, "I am the Son of God." They did not answer how Jesus could do the works of the Father, and they did not defend themselves because they did not believe in Jesus.
b. Jesus begs them to believe at least the obvious truth, that He did the works of the Father. If they could believe that truth, they would be able to know and believe that the Father was in Jesus and Jesus in the Father. Knowing and believing is more than recognizing that Jesus is the Son of God. It is to accept the teachings of Jesus, the correction of our sins, and the new life that Jesus brought from heaven. Eternal life.
C. But their hearts were closed, like their eyes and ears.
Conclusion
A. John 10:41. Nevertheless, the truth of Jesus was undeniable “And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.”
B. Jesus is the Good Shepherd that God promised in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.