Perhaps the most famous passage in the Old Testament is the 23rd Psalm, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’. It is a well loved hymn among older churched people.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even 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. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (NIV)
In our passage, John 10:1-21, Jesus says that his ancestor David's most famous song, written 1000 years before him, was all about him. We shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Jesus sees night-time lights in the temple and says that he is the light of the world. Now Jesus says that he is the real shepherd of God’s people. No wonder people thought Jesus mad and demon possessed, because Jesus believes that everything is about him. But that would of course be true, if Jesus is indeed God, as he claims.
In the Old Testament, God is first and foremost the shepherd of his people .[1] But also under God, the leader of God’s people was known as the shepherd. [2] And this was so especially of king David. David went from shepherding his father’s flock to shepherding the LORD’s flock, Israel. And so Israel’s shepherd was Israel’s king.
But by the time Jesus came to Israel, Israel had not had a king in the line of David for over 500 years. Israel desperately searched for her Messiah, the Christ. The Jews desperately wanted a shepherd king in the line of David, who would shepherd the people.
Perhaps the most important group of leaders, or shepherds of the people, were the Pharisees. [3] The Pharisees were the lay teachers of the law and scribes. They believed in angels, in life after death, in the resurrection, [4] in eternal punishment and rewards. [5] In addition to the law of Moses in the Old Testament, they believed in the tradition of their ancestors as a second deposit given by God. [6] And Jesus criticized them for this. [7] Jesus also criticized them for their hypocrisy, for not practicing what they preached. They taught true things from the law of Moses, but they didn’t do them. [8] For example, Jesus criticized them for divorcing their wives for any and every reason except for marital unfaithfulness (Matt 19:3, 8-9).
It was the Pharisees who put the once-blind man through the ringer (John 9:13-17). They rejected Jesus as a sinner for healing on the Sabbath (John 9:16). They also rejected the once-blind man as a sinner for being blind in the first place (John 9:34).
In John chapter 9 verses 35 to 38, Jesus revealed himself to the once-blind man as the Son of Man, and received the once-blind man’s worship. And then Jesus said, in John chapter 9 verse 39, that the Pharisees are blind, and that the once-blind man is looking at the light of the world. John chapter 9 verses 39 to 41:
39"For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?" 41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." (NIV)
The Pharisees are leaders, teachers, they sit in Moses’ seat. But they are blind guides. Yet the Pharisees are shepherds, they have the respect of the people, and the people listen to them and do what they say. And so in Chapter 10, with the people listening, and the Pharisees both listening and in his sights, Jesus adopts an extended metaphor about who people should follow.
The once-blind man has worshipped Jesus. And the Pharisees reject Jesus. And so Jesus gives them and the people the figure of speech firstly of a shepherd contrasted with sheep rustlers. And the issue is, "Who is the shepherd?" and "Who are the robbers?" Verses 1 to 5:
1I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. (NIV)
Jesus has come as shepherd of his people. The works that he has done show that he enters by the gate. He heals the blind, the crippled walk, he even raises the dead. Jesus is the master of creation who has healing in his hands. Jesus enters by the gate, the front door, as shown by his signs. He comes with the approval of God the Father. And he comes to call his sheep. And one of those sheep is the once-blind man. The once blind man, as a sheep, will see who Jesus is in spite of the Pharisees. The Pharisees' rebuke of the once blind man is why Jesus rebukes them. The healed man now worships Jesus. The sheep follow the shepherd, and listen to him, and receive eternal life from him.
But Jesus’ hearers don’t understand Jesus’ figure of speech. So Jesus makes his metaphor even more concrete. He calls himself the ‘door for the sheep’.
Doors are opportunities. An open door is an invitation. "My door is always open", says the modern manager or the politician at election time. An open door is access to new possibilities. But a locked door says "Go away!" You are shut out, excluded.
Jesus says that he is the door. Jesus doesn’t call himself the doorkeeper, or even the doorkey. He calls himself the door. Jesus is the door that includes and excludes.
And in the context of sheep, we should think about gates. And the unwritten rule of rural and semi-rural living is "shut the gate after yourself".
I’m a city boy. I grew up where gates only mattered where there was a dog in the yard. My mum didn’t like dogs, so we never had a front gate. But most of you have gates. And I’ve learnt that even if you cannot see an animal between you and the house, there might well be one there. Over the next ridge might be a few dogs. There might be chooks, or sheep, or cows, or alpacas, or a camel, or horses. There might be expensive earth moving equipment that organized criminals want to steal. So please shut the gate after you.
And even though Moore College didn’t have a course on it, I’ve learnt to master those tricky gate locks with a ball and ring, and one side of the ball is flat, and one side of the ring is flat, and you have to match up the flat side of the ball and the flat side of the ring. And I've also mastered the other type, where you put the ring into something like a D-latch.
You’ve got gates you want closed. And Jesus is the gate. Jesus is not the gatekeeper, but the gate itself. You must go through Jesus to get where you want. He excludes, but he also includes. And he keeps the ones protected by him and enclosed by him safe. Verse 7:
Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. (NIV)
And again, verses 8 to 9:
8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. (NIV)
Jesus is the gate for the sheep. Everyone else is a thief and robber. But through Jesus is the only way to authorized access to the flock and the pasture. Behind Jesus is protection and safety for the sheep. Beyond Jesus and behind him are good things. Sure, you can jump the fence. But that will just show you are a chicken rustler, or a thief of earth moving equipment. And you can be assured that there will be a very territorial dog not far away. Later on, Jesus will say, "I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
Everybody has to go through the gate, Jesus Christ, to get to God. And there are good things if you go through Jesus the gate. There is freedom. You will go in and go out. And there is plenty. You will find pasture. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul, and guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Enter through the gate, Jesus Christ, and you will find rest for your soul.
Of course, many stand outside the gate that is Jesus Christ, and don’t wish to go in. They whinge and whine. They don’t like the fact that Jesus claims to be the only gate. "No one comes to the Father except through me! That all sounds rather narrow, and exclusive. Why can’t there be lots of gates, a Buddha gate, and a Mohammad gate, and a hindu gate, and an atheist gate, and a Jewish gate. Why can’t everyone have a gate leading to good pasture? I know nice Buddhists, and Muslims, and Hindus, and Atheists, and Jews. Why can’t God give them a gate, too?"
Well, God has given them a gate. It’s the same gate that you and I must go through. That gate is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every nominal Christian, every person who puts Catholic, or Anglican, or Christian on their census form, but doesn’t walk through that gate that is Jesus Christ, who doesn’t believe on Jesus Christ for their salvation, will not enter in. And every person from a Buddhist, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Jewish, or atheist background, who sees that Jesus is the Christ, and believe in him, they walk through that gate, and will have rest and find pasture for their souls. Jesus is the gate for the sheep.
Jesus doesn’t give you the option of calling your gate whatever you like. Jesus doesn't give you the option of carving your own gate, and then calling it what you like. There is no option of, "I like to think of my gate as … Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, being good and earning it." But Jesus says, "No, the gate is me." Well, how limiting is that? What a killjoy Jesus is, how narrow, how bigoted, how miserly!
That’s not how Jesus looks at it. He is the generous one who offers abundance and life to the full. Verse 10:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (NIV)
Jesus is the way to the best possible life. He is not miserly and limiting. Jesus and his teachings will save you and I from a world of self-inflicted pain now, and in the new heaven and earth, his death and resurrection, if you trust him, will save you from hell and eternal death. No eye has seen, nor mind conceived, what God has prepared for those that love him.
After Jesus has called himself the gate, we could assume that Jesus’ hearers might have got the message. Jesus is the way to get to God. Perhaps it is for this reason that Jesus changes the metaphor back to the one he started with. But this time Jesus is more explicit. Verse 11:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (NIV)
Again, verses 14 and 15:
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. (NIV)
Jesus Christ is the good shepherd. He is the shepherd that God promised in the Old Testament. God himself would shepherd his sheep. This is no hireling, no wage earner. This is the owner of the sheep who cares for the sheep. The sheep belong to him, and so he comes among them to tend them.
In Ezekiel 34, God promised, "I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD" (NIV). And Jesus Christ is the Word from the beginning, who was with the Father before the foundation of the worlds, who was with God, and who was God, God the only-begotten Son, who became flesh and dwelt among us. God promised in the Old Testament, at Ezekiel 34:23:
I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. (NIV)
And that one shepherd is the good shepherd, Jesus Christ. But then Jesus explicitly says that the good shepherd must lay down his life for the sheep. Verse 18:
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. (NIV)
Jesus is the one who lays down his own life. Yes, the Father commanded him, and the Son always obeys his Father’s commands. But it is fully and utterly Jesus’ own decision. This is not surprising, as Son and Father are, because they are one in nature and being, one in purpose and united in will. The Father and the Son think the same way, if you like. Yes, the Father wanted the Son to lay his life down. And yes, the Son wanted, desperately wanted, to lay his life down for the sheep. Jesus is no unwilling party, with arm twisted and forced by the Father, to his death on the cross. Jesus "lays down his life of his own accord". No one takes his life from him.
That is how much Jesus loves his sheep. He wanted to die for them. Despite their sins, despite their rebellion against God, Jesus the Son chose from all eternity to be the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus wanted it, decided it, and did it freely, of his own accord and will. So we can really say, "Jesus loved me and Jesus died for me." Jesus was no unwilling victim in his own death. He was most willing to lay down his life for you. Friends, that is the love of Jesus Christ for his sheep.
Moreover, the Father loves the son because of his self sacrificial love for his sheep (v. 17). The Father recognizes his own love in the love of the Son, and on this account the Father loves the Son. This is not the only reason that the Father loves the Son. But it is a real and true reason why the Father loves the Son, that the Father sees the Son’s love for the sheep, and loves him for it.
Love begets love. The Son loves the sheep. The Father sees it and loves the Son. We see the love of the Father and the Son, and we too love the Father and the Son. We see the Son's love for us, and we love him back. But verse 18 also tells us that death was not the end.
I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. (NIV)
Jesus will not just lay down his life for the sheep. He will also rise from the dead as the resurrection and the life. The Son has life in himself, and so will take up his life again after his death. In him was life, and that life will not be snuffed out by sinful men. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and the temple of his body will be raised after three days, as he promised. And this same resurrected and risen Jesus Christ will be active in bringing in other sheep into his flock. Verse 16:
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (NIV)
And the book of Acts tells us how the risen Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, at the right hand of the Father, brings in other sheep. People from the ends of the earth listen to his voice, and come to Christ. Not just from the Jews, but from all the nations, Jesus will call to his sheep, and they will come to him. And Christ will bring them into his enormous, innumerable flock.
Jesus is doing this now, call out his elect, and they hear his voice through the gospel, and come to him in faith. That is the great privilege of evangelism, that we get to be part of Jesus calling in his sheep from all nations. That is our confidence in evangelism, that Christ’s sheep hear the voice of the good shepherd and come to him. The elect, those chosen from before the creation of the world, in short time or long, will indeed come to Christ, the good shepherd.
When we sing Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want", we know more than David knew. We know that the Lord who is our shepherd is Jesus Christ, the Son, the good shepherd. He doesn’t come to limit and restrict your life or mine, but to give you and me life to the full.
This well-known and wonderful truth is for you now. Can you see the love of Jesus Christ the good shepherd for you? He laid down his life for you. He pursued you to the far reaches of the earth to bring you back. Love begets love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
[1] Genesis 48:15; 49:24; Psalm 23:1; Psalm 28:9; 80:1; Ecclesiastes 12:11.
[2] E.g. Joshua (Numbers 27:17), David (2 Samuel 5:2; 7:7; 1 Kgs 22:17; 1 Chr 11:2; Psalm 78:70-72), Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28), Moses (Isaiah 63:11) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:16).
[3] The Sadducees were the religious leaders, the High Priests, and only attracted the rich, while the Pharisees had by far the greater popularity among the people. The Sadducees didn’t believe in most of the Old Testament. They also, unlike the Pharisees, rejected the traditions of the fathers (Josephus, Antiquities, 13.10.5-6). In fact, they didn’t believe in angels, or in the resurrection. They didn’t believe in the power of God to raise the dead. They didn’t believe in eternal rewards and punishments after death. They believed that the soul died with the body (Josephus, Antiquities, 18.1.4) which made it a hopeless religion. They rejected divine providence, and believed only in human power to control the world (Antiquities 13.5.9 (171); Whiston, The Works of Josephus, 346; Wars of the Jews, 2.8.14; Whiston, The Works of Josephus, 607-8). Effectively, they were atheistic. And indeed, a great majority of the Jewish people rejected the Sadducees opinions at the time of Jesus.
[4] Compare Acts 23:6-10.
[5] Josephus, Antiquities, 18.1.3.
[6] Josephus, Antiquities, 13.10.5-6.
[7] Mark 7:1-13. Jesus’ accusation was that they were ‘hypocrites’, who "let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men". They nullify the word of God with their tradition.
[8] Matthew 23:1-3.
My Translation
10:1 “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who does not come into the sheep pen through the gate but who gets into it another way, that person is a thief and robber. 10:2But the one who goes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 10:3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 10:4When he brings out all his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. 10:5But they will never follow a stranger, but they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the stranger’s voice.”
10:6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 10:7So again Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, that I am the gate for the sheep. 10:8Everyone who came before me are thieves and robbers, but they sheep didn’t listen to them. 10:9I am the gate. If someone enters through me, he will be saved, and he will go in and go out and find pasture. 10:10The thief does not come except to steal and butcher and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly.
10:11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 10:12The hired hand, also not being the shepherd, whose sheep they are not, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them—10:13because the hired hand also does not care about the sheep.
10:14I am the good shepherd, and I know my [sheep] and my [sheep] know me, 10:15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. 10:16And I have other sheep which are not from this sheep pen. And I must also bring these in, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock [under] one shepherd.
10:17For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I can take it up again. 10:18No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.
10:19A division again came about among the Jews because of these words. 10:20And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and he is insane. Why listen to him?” 10:21But others were saying, “These are not the words of someone demon-possessed! A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind.”