Shepherd and his sheep
May 26
John 10: 1″I 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.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
There is a great deal of difference between a Western sheepherder and an Eastern shepherd in the way they care for their flocks. In this section of John we have a picture of Jesus as the Shepherd, not the sheepherder, of the sheep.
Jesus builds his teaching around four figures that are taken from the life of a shepherd. In the first figure he is clearly setting himself apart as the True Shepherd of the sheep in contrast to the false shepherds. This passage follows immediately on the healing of the man born blind, who had been cast out of the synagogue because of his faith in Jesus. Jesus sees these leaders, these Pharisaical rulers of the Jews who had twisted and distorted the teachings of the law, as false shepherds. “Thieves and robbers,” he calls them.
In the East, shepherds brought their flocks into one central sheepfold every evening where half-a-dozen flocks gathered together and were guarded by a porter or gatekeeper behind locked doors. In the morning the shepherds returned and each called his own sheep. Although the flocks had been mingled together, each flock knew its own shepherd’s voice, and each would follow its own shepherd and no other. This is the picture our Lord uses with regard to the encounter between the man who had been born blind and the false shepherds, the Pharisees.
In this section we learn the marks of the True Shepherd of the sheep. Through the centuries there have been many false shepherds. Even today there are many false views of Jesus. Many people are asking, “Who is the true Jesus? Who is the true Shepherd of the sheep?” There is the Jesus of the Moonies, the Jesus of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Jesus of the Scientologists, the Jesus of the Christian Scientists, the Jesus of the Mormons, etc. Which Jesus is the true Jesus, the true Shepherd? Here Jesus tells us how to know.
There are three marks, he declares, by which we can tell the true Shepherd:
First, “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” What does he mean, “the door?” He is referring, of course, to the normal, proper entrance to a sheepfold.
The prophets had predicted the way the Shepherd would come to the sheep. They had foretold where he would be born, whom he would be born to, and the unusual character of his birth. They had predicted how he would appear to the nation, how he would be introduced, where he would live, what he would say, and what he would do when he came. This is what our Lord means. He came the predicted way, the normal, expected way.
No other person in all the history of Israel ever came to Israel this way. That is how we can know that he is the true Shepherd of the sheep. He entered by the door. He was born in Bethlehem. According to the prophet Micah that is where he would come from. He was born of a virgin. That is what Isaiah said would happen: “A virgin shall be with child,” {Isa 7:4}, and his name would “be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,’” {Isa 9:6}. If you ask someone, “Who is the Prince of Peace?” you will be told, “It is Jesus.” He is the One who was presented in the temple as an infant, circumcised on the eighth day, according to the Law, and owned of God at his baptism. He came the accepted way. He entered by the door. “If anyone comes any other way, he is a thief and a robber, ” Jesus declares. But Jesus is the true Shepherd of the sheep.
The second mark is, “To him the gatekeeper opens.” That “gatekeeper,” of course, is John the Baptist. He opened the door. He was the “voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord,’” {John 1:23}. John the Baptist identified Jesus in the words, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” {John 1:29 RSV}. To that Lamb “the gatekeeper opened.”
The third clear and unmistakable mark is, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” His own would recognize his voice. Four things are characteristic of this fact. The first is that he calls them by name. Notice that every encounter with Jesus in this gospel is on a personal basis. He met Nicodemus by night; he met the woman at the well of Samaria; he met the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda; he met the man born blind. In each of these encounters he met the individual personally, alone. In other gospels we read that as he walked through Jericho he saw a little man in a tree and called to him, “Zacchaeus, come down. I’m scheduled to have lunch with you!” {Luke 19:5}. He met Matthew at the customs’ table and told him, “Rise, and follow me,” {Matt 9:9}. Through all the centuries since, every believer who has come to Jesus has come alone. Jesus never takes a group in at once. It is always you and he alone. What you believe in the silence and loneliness of your own heart about him is what makes the difference. There is where the transaction is done. “He calls his own sheep by name.”
Then, fourth, “He puts them out,” “he leads them out.” That interesting phrase is used in Chapter 9 of the man who was born blind. The Pharisees “cast him out” of the synagogue and that is the same word employed here. Jesus is saying that, when that happened, it was not only the Pharisees doing it but it was he, himself, who was behind it; it was he who moved them to excommunicate him. He led that man out of the false teaching which they had used to keep him in spiritual blindness.
This is what it means to us as well. When Jesus calls, us he leads us out of the blindness and darkness of the world. The philosophy of the world can be summed up in one phrase: “me first.” “Look out for number one, take care of number one,” that is the one characteristic of the world that stands out. Everything is focused on the question, “What will it do for me? What will I get out of it?” But when a person comes to Christ almost immediately you see evidences that he has begun to think about others. In fact, the rate of Christian growth can be measured by how much a person begins to reach out to others, and to think about others instead of himself. Christianity is an others-centered religion. When you hear Christians, so-called, still focusing upon themselves, and what happens to them — their rights, their needs, etc. — you are listening to a fleshly substitute for Christianity. The real thing is to be led out. That is the very first thing our Lord does with us: He leads us out.
Then, third, “He goes before them.” When he leads you out he does not leave you alone; he has already gone ahead of you. In every situation you have to face he has been there first. He has chosen for you every circumstance of your life as a believer. That is the great truth of Scripture that helps us handle the pressures, the dangers, and the pitfalls of life: He has gone before us. What a beautiful picture that is! The Shepherd goes before. In the words of David in the 23rd Psalm, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me,” {Psa 23:4 KJV}.
And, fourth, the sheep trust his voice: “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” A prominent Christian businessman sent me an article recently on some of the teaching and preaching of the television evangelists who keep telling people that, if they come to Christ, God will make them rich. The man wrote across the top of the article, “There’s something wrong with this!” How right he was! He recognized it was not the voice of the Shepherd. He could not put his finger on what it was, but there was something wrong. “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” What a beautiful picture is drawn by Jesus of the true Shepherd of the sheep.
ref: THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP by Ray C. Stedman