The Good Shepherd (John Part 30)
Text: John 10:1-21
Well, we’ve come to chapter 10 in John’s Gospel this morning, and it’s one of those chapters that’s probably familiar to you. Or at least I hope it is. And just like chapter 9, there’s a lot in this chapter, so we’ll be spending at least… at the very least, two Sunday’s on it… maybe 3 or 4. We’ll see. And Church, I really want you listening this morning… I want you to think through this with me, and hear what God’s Word is saying, because this passage is extremely relevant to where we, and I mean First Baptist Sharon, is today.
So let’s go ahead and get to it… John 10:1-21 (READ).
Now I want you to keep a bookmark there in John 10, because we’re going to be turning back to the Old Testament some, and looking at some other passages as well… but we’ll keep coming back to John 10. So keep it accessible, because we’ll be coming back to it.
Like I said a second ago… there’s a lot here in John 10… There’s two of Jesus’ “I AM” statements. He says “I AM the Door to the sheepfold.” There in verse 7, and then; in verse 11 and also in verse 14, He says, “I AM the Good Shepherd.” And He’s using that kind of language to contrast Himself with the “thieves” and “robbers” and the “hired hands”. And we’ll see that as we go through it.
And it’s also important to remember that right before this, in chapter 9, Jesus had healed a man who was blind from birth… and the man, once he realized who Jesus was, he worshiped Him as Lord. And to the Pharisees; this is outrageous! They don’t think that Jesus is God… they think that He’s a man, who’s receiving the worship that should be directed to God alone. Now of course we know that the Pharisees are very religious… and they are very sincere, but they’re sincerely wrong.
So Jesus… in chapter 9, received the worship of the man who had been healed of blindness… and again; that tells us something about Jesus. In Acts chapter 14, there were people who tried to worship the Apostles, and they forbid them from doing it… and in the Book of Revelation, John tries to worship an angel, and the angel tells him to stop… “Don’t do that!” But unlike His Apostles, and unlike His angels, Jesus accepts and receives worship that is due God alone. So what’s that telling us? JESUS IS GOD!
And Jesus begins this passage with the words “Truly, truly”. And anytime you see that in the Gospels, that means “PAY ATTENTION!” That’s Jesus’ way of saying that He’s about to say something very important. And He uses a word picture… or a figure of speech, that you would think they’d be very familiar with. He starts talking about sheep and shepherds.
Now in Israel, even today, the sheep would roam the hillsides, but at night, they were gathered up in a pen, and guarded. Now during the day, the shepherd would be out in the fields with the sheep. He would let them graze, but then sometimes, he would have to lead them to a better field, or to water. Now when the Bible says the shepherds “lead” the sheep, that’s really what they did. They would walk, and the sheep would follow them. Here in the US we drive our cattle… (And our sheep), but in Israel they lead them. And so he would lead them to better pastures and to water, and at night, he’d lead them to the pen, and lock them in. And often times, it would be a big pen, and more than one heard of sheep would be locked in. So you might have 3 or 4 herds in one pen. There was only entrance into the pen… they called it the door to the sheepfold, or the gate to the sheepfold.
And there was an under-shepherd who was supposed to watch and care for the sheep while the shepherd was gone during the night. Now… just like today; there were thieves and robbers back then too. They’d try to sneak in and steal sheep. Instead of doing the hard work of trying to raise up their own flock, they would steal sheep from other shepherds. And these guys were not “good guys” trying to do good by the sheep… they were bad guys… trying to get more sheep in order to get more profit from them.
They’d scope out a particular sheep from a flock… maybe it was good breeding stock, or it was really strong, or vibrant, or it had a good coat of wool… and they’d scope it out… and say, “We need that particular sheep in our flock. In our herd.”
And so at night, when the shepherd was away… they’d come in… they’d avoid the gate keeper or under-shepherd… because they knew they were doing wrong, instead, they’d try to either climb over the fence, or slip in under it, and they’d try to steal that sheep.
Now Jesus is saying this… and they would’ve understood it in that way… they were all probably familiar with that. But Jesus is using this as a figure of speech, to describe a spiritual reality. And our text tells us that as He tells them this… they didn’t understand the spiritual meaning He was getting at. And we’ll get to that in just a second… but if we’re going to understand it the right way… we need to understand that there’s some Old Testament imagery that Jesus is drawing from here.
Throughout the Old Testament a shepherd was often used as a way of describing the Lord…
Look with me at Psalm 80:1-3 (READ).
Or… we could go to the famous one… Psalm 23:1-3 (READ).
Or; Isaiah 40:10-11 (READ).
And so Jesus is showing them, “This is who I am. I’m the Shepherd… the Good Shepherd.” And He’s contrasting Himself and His ministry, and what He’s doing with false shepherds, false teachers, thieves and robbers… and again; there’s Old Testament imagery that’s in mind here. We could look at Jeremiah 23:1, where Jeremiah says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” Or Ezekiel 34:1-3 where God says, “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 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.’”
So that’s the background to what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the door. He’s the way; the truth; and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. But there are bad shepherds out there. False shepherds, thieves, robbers, wolves in sheeps clothing. They’re all under the control of the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy! And Church; we see this throughout the New Testament. Peter, Paul, James, John, Jude, all the writers of the New Testament… they all warn about false teachers. False doctrine. False prophets. Paul warns the Church in Ephesus in Acts 20:29-30 that “… fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and FROM AMONG YOUR OWN SELVES will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” And like I said; you see this over and over again in the New Testament epistles. It’s in every single epistle from Acts to Revelation. It’s something that the writers of the New Testament emphasized more than any other thing. More than love, more than unity, more than evangelism, more than heaven or hell.
The warning is that there is always the enemy of God’s people, who will try to sneak in… men who will try to steal sheep from one flock to add to their own… men who will abuse their office, who will try to lead people astray. There will always be people who teach false doctrine, who will… instead of FEEDING the sheep on the Word of God, will instead tickle their ears, and spew out emotionalism, and new age philosophy, and self-help garbage, and the prosperity “gospel”, and Gnosticism, Critical Theory, and works based salvation… and a whole mess of other things. It’s everywhere… It’s bad… in-fact; it’s probably worse than most of you realize.
When the president of the SBC comes out and says that Muslims worship the same God as Christians. I’d say we have a major wolf problem in our world today. Or when the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in the SBC comes out and affirms socialism and same sex marriage. I’d say we have a major wolf problem… or when the president of South Eastern Seminary starts requiring courses on Black Liberation Theology, and feminism, and the social gospel, I’d say we have a wolf problem…
When prominent leaders in the SBC have ties with George Soros, and the Kern Foundation, and other Marxist groups, we have a wolf problem.
Look at our text here… verse 10 (READ).
What does the thief do? Why does he come? To be your buddy? Does he come to teach you some new spiritual truth, some impactful thing that’s going to change your life? Does the thief come to give you greater insight and more revelation of Jesus? What does he do?
HE COMES TO STEAL, KILL, AND DESTROY!
Where does false teaching, and false doctrine, and false prophecies come from? Does it come from Jesus or the thief? The thief! And if it’s from the thief… the devil… can it ever really be helpful? Is it really something that’s leading you to a deeper relationship with Christ? Or do you think, that maybe… because he appears as an angel of light… that what he’s peddling “looks good for food” but in reality it’s going to kill you?
Jesus says in verse 14 of our text, “I am the good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me.”
Now turn with me over to 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time is coming when people WILL NOT endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, THEY WILL ACCUMULATE FOR THEMSELVES teachers to suit their own passions.” So people ask, “Why are there so many false teachers out there today?” And the answer is, because people want to listen to them. False teachers wouldn’t exist if there weren’t so many people who wanted to listen to them. If no one listened to them, or gave to their so called ministries, or bought their books, they would dry up and fade away. But instead; people are accumulating false teachers to themselves… They’re wolves… they destroy the flock.
But look at Jesus. He contrasts Himself with these… He contrasts Himself with the thieves and robbers who steal sheep… He contrasts Himself with the wolves who devour the flock. He contrasts Himself with the devil who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
Jesus is the GOOD SHEPHERD. He lays down His life for the sheep. He gives of Himself for the sheep. He calls them by name. He is the door… He’s the way, the truth, and the life. And NO ONE comes to the Father except through Him. He is the ONLY hope for your salvation. He is the ONLY ONE who has died for your sin, and shed His blood to redeem you back to God. You don’t need a “deeper revelation” of Christ… you need to read your Bible. That’s the deepest revelation of Christ you can get. Jesus is the Word made flesh. He speaks to us through His Word… through the Bible… and His sheep hear His voice. Today; His Word is saying, “Be aware! Be vigilant! Be watchful! Take heed! Stay near the Good Shepherd. Stay in His Word.”
If you’re here this morning, and you hear His voice I pray that you’ll obey.. maybe He’s saying to you that you should repent… maybe He’s saying be obedient in some area of your life. Maybe, for the first time in your life you’re hearing Him, and He’s saying, “Come.” Whatever it is, I pray that God will speak to you through the preaching of His Word, and that you will hear His voice and obey. Let’s pray.
CLOSING
