The Good Shepherd

A good sheep needs a good shepherd.

John 10:1-21

Jesus is in the middle of a conversation with the Pharisees / had just performed a miracle in chapter 9 / He had healed a blind man / And this was a controversial healing / Sabbath / Pharisees and the Jewish leaders were looking for reasons to take Jesus down / They give the blind man a hard time / throw him out of the synagogue / Jesus hears about it and finds the man / He reveals that He is the Son of Man / that He must believe in Him / And the blind man believed in Jesus.

And then Jesus makes a bold statement.

9 vs 39 Jesus said, “For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

But then the plot thickens / We read that there were others around / Chapter 9 vs 40-41

vs 40. Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

vs 41. Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

So this is where chapter 10 begins / Jesus is busy talking to the Pharisees, pointing out their spiritual blindness / He talks about sheep and shepherds / the sheep pen/ a place where the sheep should be kept safe / Especially overnight, while they’re sleeping / And then in the morning the shepherd comes / He calls his sheep out / And they follow him / And what makes them follow him? / What makes them trust the shepherd? / How do they know this is their shepherd?

Vs 3. The watchmen opens the gate for him, (the shepherd) and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Vs 4. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Vs 5. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice”

They recognize the shepherd’s voice.

Remember who Jesus is talking to here / He’s talking to the Pharisees / people who didn’t like him / who were plotting against him / trying to get rid of him.

It’s no coincidence that Jesus had just healed a blind man / that Jesus had just gotten into a conversation about spiritual blindness with the pharisees / that Jesus stood before them, and they didn’t recognize who he was / they were spiritually blind / They didn’t recognize the Shepherd / didn’t recognize the shepherds voice / we see in verse 6, that what Jesus was saying was going right over their heads.

vs 6. Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

So what exactly is Jesus saying here? / hopefully as we read on it’ll become a bit clearer.

Vs 7. Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. (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. (10) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they have life, and have it to the full.”

It’s one thing that Jesus is talking about sheep / a shepherd / But why is he going on about thieves and robbers who come through the gate / And they come through the gate to destroy / These are thieves and robbers that came before him.

Again remember who it is that Jesus is talking to / Pharisees / people who have been entrusted with leading God’s people / given a responsibility / But yet, here they are / Trying to catch Jesus out.

You just have to read through the gospels to see how Jesus kept pointing out their hypocrisy / many occasions when Jesus took on the Pharisees / Pointing out how they’ve misinterpreted the law / how they feel the law can save them / how they thought their obedience can save them / But they had actually misunderstood what it was all about / They had led many people into believing that you can be saved by your own good works / by your own obedience to the law.

As you read through the gospels, you get to see the selfishness of the pharisees / protecting their own interests / not very good at loving their neighbour, but they were good at keeping the letter of the law / not very good at loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength / But they were good at keeping the letter of the law.

Those who had been entrusted with the spiritual leadership of the Jews / had created this culture of Law / created this culture whereby you’re saved by what you can do / You’re saved by how well you can keep the law.

Remember when Jesus was telling a group of people about the bread of life (last week) / we shouldn’t place our importance on working for the food that spoils / should rather be looking to the food that endures to eternal life / Food that the Son of man will give you.

Remember what they asked him? John chapter 6 vs 28?

What must we do to do the works that God requires?

That was the culture of the day / a works based culture / it’s what you do that matters / Your good works / Your obedience to the law / Your ability to keep the law is what is going to save you.

Now you don’t have to be brought up in a Jewish culture to think that way / our culture today in it’s own way pushes that view /we are very achievement orientated / (achievement in and of itself is a good thing) / achievement is good for accomplishing certain things / but our achievements can blur our perspective of who we are / our knowledge can blur our perspective as to who we are (even sometimes our Bible knowledge) / humanitarian efforts / Culture / race etc can blur our perspective of who we are.

And if you’re on the ‘good side’ of any of these things then you may think you’re ok / You may find a bit of security in these things / You may even think that what you’ve done has impressed God / so much, that one day he’ll let you off the hook / He’ll welcome you into eternity based on the basis of what you’ve done / what you’ve achieved / your status / wealth /Your class / your place in society.

If that is the case / Then who gets the glory? / You get it, because it’s based on you / on something you do / something that you’ve achieved / Or something specific to you / But our salvation is not based on that / My relationship with God is not based on that / being able to worship God and enter into His presence is not based on that / It is based on what Jesus has done / the sacrifice that Jesus made / God’s plan and God’s purposes / because God loved me so much that He sent his one and only Son so that I may believe in him and not perish, but have eternal life / It’s a gift from God.

Imagine your friend buys you a gift? / Would you have to work for the gift? / your friend is the one who worked for the gift / the one who paid for the gift / your friends hard work / your friends money.

Salvation is a free gift from God / It’s the work of Jesus that has accomplished our salvation / that has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven / for us to have the gift of eternal life / if it were up to you, you wouldn’t be able to get close to God / you would do more damage than help your relationship with God.

So this is the lie that had been perpetuated and taught by many of the false teachers.

Many of them had taught the Jews / As leaders of Israel / As shepherds of the flock / They had done a shocking job / they hadn’t done their job / They were thieves and robbers / strangers.

What the sheep needed was a good shepherd / not just a good shepherd, but they needed THE good shepherd / Someone who enters by the gate / In other words he is the true shepherd / If a shepherd comes through the gate it generally means that he doesn’t have to sneak in like a thief would have to do / He wouldn’t have to dig his way under the fence like a wolf or some kind of predator / He is the shepherd, he comes through the gate / He calls his own sheep by name / And the sheep follow him, why? / Because they know His voice.

Jesus is also telling us here who the sheep are / the true sheep are those who follow Jesus because they know his voice / And we’ve just had a prime example of that in chapter 9 / You have a blind man / Interestingly enough, when he encounters Jesus He is blind / So he only hears Jesus’ voice / But he does what Jesus says / He follows Jesus’ instructions / the Pharisees and religious leaders throwing him out of synagogue / We see them accusing him of having been blind because he was sinful / So they reject him / They throw him out of the synagogue, because he recognized the voice of the shepherd / And then we see him having a conversation with Jesus after that where he ends up believing and worshipping Jesus.

Do you recognize the voice of the shepherd? / In this world with all of it’s confusion / All of the different voices that are shouting / All of the different philosophies and ideologies that are clambering for your attention /The voices that tell you it’s all about achievement / the voices of comparison? / You don’t feel you measure up because you look at someone else who just seems to be perfect / And you start to feel inadequate / like you don’t measure up / Lauren Daigle – ‘You Say’?

I keep fighting voices in my head / That say I’m not enough. / Every single lie that tells me

I will never measure up

Don’t listen to those voices / Listen to the voice of the shepherd / There’s a line later on in that song by Lauren Daigle In You I find my worth / In You I find my identity

You find your purpose in following the Shepherd / You find your identity in the Shepherd / It’s only through the Shepherd.

Vs 9. I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.

It’s another way of Jesus saying what He says in another famous verse that we often like to quote.

John 14 vs 6. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is the gate / the way / It’s through Jesus that we can know God / Jesus that we are saved.

How is this possible? / How can Jesus call himself the gate? / How can Jesus claim to be the way?

Vs 11. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Vs 14-15. “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.”

It’s common knowledge that sheep aren’t animals that have to take on any responsibility / They just follow their shepherd / In fact what they do depends on their shepherd / Their well being depends on their shepherd / Their protection / Their security / Their satisfaction depends on their shepherd / They just do what their shepherd does / follow where their shepherd leads.

If you’re a sheep, you want a shepherd you can trust / you need a shepherd who is concerned about your well bein / you need ‘The’ good shepherd / You need the Shepherd who is the gate / the way / the Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep / You need Jesus.

It’s a message for those who don’t know Jesus yet / those who aren’t Christians / but also a message we need to reminded of as Christians / I need to hear this message / I get caught up in the noise / caught up in the voices that tell me I don’t measure up / We need a constant reminder as to who our Shepherd is / that we mustn’t rely on ourselves, because we’re not worthy / But we must follow the Shepherd.

As Jesus told the Pharisees that he was the good Shepherd I’m sure that there would have been some Old Testament Scriptures that they would have known well that would have come to mind, as Jesus was talking / Scriptures that would have referred to Shepherds / Old Testament prophecies that would have referred to bad shepherds.

But also let’s not forget Psalm 23 which would have referred to a Good Shepherd / A shepherd who gives me everything I need, I lack nothing / who leads me beside still waters / who makes me lie down in green pastures / Who restores my soul, / Who even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I don’t need to fear, because his rod and staff they comfort me / Who prepares a table before me, / In the presence of my enemies, / Anoints my head with oil, / Because of this shepherd, / Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. / And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

Home Group Questions:

Read John 10 vs 1-15

• Who was Jesus talking to and why is this significant? (see chapter 9vs40)
• Who are the sheep that Jesus is referring to?
• Who are the thieves and robbers?
• Why are they referred to as thieves and robbers?
• Who is the Good Shepherd?
• Why is He the good shepherd? Vs 11; 14-15
• Read Psalm 23 in talk about how it can comfort you in a time of crisis?

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