1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Jesus’ teaching in John 10 immediately follows His conversation with the Pharisees at the end of chapter 9. There He had been speaking to the Pharisees, who claimed to be the shepherds of the people of Israel, so it was to them in particular that Jesus referred to when He taught that He was in fact, the Good Shepherd, and not them. One key to understanding John 10 is to view it in its context. The first time chapters and verses were added to the Bible was in the 13th century, mainly for ease of reference, so we must be careful of thinking that each chapter is a “stand alone” section of the Bible.
Chapters 9 and 10 of John’s Gospel is one of many cases where the narrative in the original text flows without a deliberate break. So in order to understand what Jesus teaches in chapter 10, we need to refer to the previous chapter. Not for the first time in chapter 10 we see the Pharisees arguing about Jesus’ claims, and in verse 21, some of them say, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” They were referring to the healing of the blind man in chapter 9 which we looked at a couple of weeks ago, and this episode helps us to understand Jesus’ teaching about the Good Shepherd.
The Pharisees, who were the religious leaders in Israel, should have been faithful shepherds over God’s flock, but they had failed miserably. The account of the blind man is a stark reminder of their spiritual arrogance, as their response to the man’s testimony about Jesus was to excommunicate him from the temple. There was no hint of rejoicing at the miracle of him receiving his sight, because they were more concerned that Jesus had violated their precious Sabbath laws. Their man-made Sabbath laws were completely different to God’s original intention of the Sabbath. And this wasn’t the first time. The same thing happened in chapter 5 when Jesus healed the lame man by the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath.
Instead of caring for and teaching the people, they showed their contempt for the common man over and over again. They were meant to be the spiritual leaders of the people. They were the shepherds of God’s people, but they were false shepherds, which was the point Jesus makes in the opening verses of John 10.
Jesus is the true shepherd, and He shows the huge differences between Himself and the Pharisees, whom He calls thieves and robbers in verse 1, but because of their spiritual blindness, this lesson went straight over the tops of their heads, as we read in verse 6. “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them.”
Again, context is important, so John 10 gives us a symbolic or allegorical picture of the events in John 9, as Jesus reaffirms the blindness of the Pharisees. In verses 1-6 which we’re looking at this morning, Jesus contrasts Himself as the true shepherd with these self-centred false shepherds. Next week when we continue through to verse 21, Jesus portrays Himself as the door of the sheepfold, who came to give abundant life to His sheep, as the one who lays down His life for His sheep.
So just what is Jesus teaching in these opening verses of John 10? He speaks about His credentials which prove Him to be the true shepherd, rather than the Pharisees. Verse 1: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.” Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees who were listening to Him and also warning His followers, including the man who had been blind, to not follow these false shepherds, whom Jesus calls thieves and robbers.
All through the Gospels, Jesus’ most severe rebukes were aimed at false leaders and teachers. He considered these the greatest threats to the well-being of the people. The prophet Ezekiel devoted an entire chapter of his prophecy to describing Israel as the flock of God abandoned by false shepherds. He wrote in 34:1-3, “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘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.’”
This same theme continues in the New Testament. Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” And 2 Peter 2:1-3, “False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Why is it important for Christians to be aware of false teachers and destructive heresies? Because as Jesus says in verse 10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” It’s important because our spiritual well-being is at stake when we are led astray by false teachers, and it is so subtle and so dangerous.
Again, as Christians it is vital for us to know what we believe and why we believe it. We must be firmly grounded in sound Biblical doctrine, and be uncompromising in identifying, in calling out, and in avoiding false teachers. Our example is Jesus Himself. Contrary to the picture that some have in their minds of Him being all meek and mild, and why can’t we all just get along, Jesus did not back down when it came to calling out the Pharisees for their false teachings. In Matthew 23 He pronounced woe after woe on the scribes and Pharisees, repeatedly calling them hypocrites. Both the apostles Paul and John called out false teachers by name. We need to be aware of the many false teachers in the world today, because unfortunately, there are many out there, but even worse, the most dangerous false teachers are in the Church.
In John 10, Jesus used the illustration of a sheepfold to show how sheep can be led astray by false teachers - by these thieves and robbers. In those days, each village had a common sheepfold where every evening the shepherds from the village would bring all their sheep, so you would have sheep from many different flocks all together. There was one door or entrance to the fold, which was often just an opening in the wall, and the gatekeeper would guard the door by lying across it. His job was to make sure that wild animals or thieves would not steal or harm the sheep. In the morning, the shepherds would return, the doorkeeper would let them in, and they would call their sheep out and take them to the pastures for the day.
The sheepfold that Jesus talks about here represents the nation of Israel, but there has been much discussion over the years as to who the gatekeeper represents. The four most popular interpretations are that the gatekeeper refers to the prophets of the Old Testament who foretold the coming of the Messiah. Others believe it refers to John the Baptist, as he was the forerunner of the true Shepherd, while others believe the gatekeeper is the Holy Spirit who opens the door for the entrance of Jesus into the hearts and lives of those who believe in Him.
The fourth, and probably most plausible identity of the gatekeeper is Jesus Himself, who is also the true shepherd. In verses 7 and 9 He identifies Himself as the door, but when we look at the Old Testament prophecies which He fulfills, it makes sense for Jesus to be both the door and the true shepherd.
These are just some of the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus: He would be born of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David, He would be born in Bethlehem to a virgin, He would give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and cause the lame to walk, He would be a greater prophet than Moses, He would be a light to shine on all who are in darkness, and He would provide the water of God’s Spirit to thirsty souls.
The truth is that Jesus fulfilled more than 300 Old Testament prophecies, which proves beyond all reasonable doubt that He is who He claimed to be.
As the true shepherd, or the Good Shepherd as He proclaims Himself to be in verse 11, Jesus calls His sheep whom God has prepared for Him from both Israel and the Gentile nations. As Jesus says in verse 27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” We will look at this in more detail in a couple of weeks, but He does refer to this wonderful truth in verses 3 and 4. “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
We need to take a closer look at the way shepherds worked in those days in order to grasp what Jesus meant here. It’s always impressive to see how modern farmers herd their large flocks of hundreds of sheep with sheepdogs, but in ancient Israel the shepherds were very different. Their flocks were much smaller, and in many cases the shepherds gave them individual names. The Christian author HV Morton spent a lot of time in Israel, and he wrote in one of his books, “Early one morning I saw an extraordinary sight not far from Bethlehem. Two shepherds had evidently spent the night with their flocks in a cave. The sheep were all mixed together and the time had come for the shepherds to go in different directions. One of the shepherds stood some distance from the sheep and began to call. First one, then another, then four or five animals ran towards him; and so on until he had counted his whole flock.”
Jesus does that with His sheep. If you belong to Him, He knows you by name.
Just as He called the blind man in chapter 9, He still calls those who will receive Him as Saviour, and the call is both personal and individual. In the figure of speech Jesus used in chapter 10, He led those who heard His voice out of the sheepfold of Israel, where they were enclosed. There was no liberty under the law, but the true shepherd leads His sheep into the freedom of His grace. The irony in the previous chapter is that the Pharisees banned the blind man from the temple, so without even knowing it, they were fulfilling the will of God. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
Another big difference between modern and ancient shepherds is that unlike today where most flocks of sheep are herded from behind by dogs and farmhands on 4 wheeler motor bikes, the lone shepherd of ancient times would go ahead of his flock, and they would follow him. We know the words of Psalm 23:2-3 so well: “He leads me beside still waters. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
Just before Moses died, he prayed that God would give him wisdom to select the right man to succeed him as the one who would finally lead the nation of Israel from their wanderings in the desert into the Promised Land. God’s answer to Moses was Joshua. The name Jesus in ancient Hebrew is “Yeshua,” and the names Joshua, Jesus and Yeshua in Hebrew have the same meaning: Yahweh is salvation.
So when we look at Moses’ prayer and God’s response to him in Numbers 27, we can see a clear connection between the role of Joshua in the short term, and the eternal role of Jesus as the true and good shepherd.
“Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, ‘Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.’ So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.’” (Numbers 27:15-20)
As Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, Jesus led His true sheep out of the barren fold of Judaism into the rich pastures of abundant life that He provides. And He does the same today. He leads His sheep from the barrenness of a life lived in rebellion against God into paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
It’s worth repeating that Jesus doesn’t drive His sheep from behind. He leads them by going ahead of them, making sure that the way is safe from predators. He takes them where He knows there are rich pastures for them to feed on, and He never takes them where He has not gone Himself, including the valley of the shadow of death. Hebrews 4:15-16 reminds us, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
When we learn that we have a shepherd, a Saviour, who knows our name, and who cares for us and loves us in ways that are beyond human comprehension, that we can submit to and follow in faith, we can learn to trust Him, even in life’s most difficult trials.
The shepherd’s sheep follow Him because they know His voice, but they flee from strangers whom they don’t know. Verse 5 says, “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Again, we will look at this in greater detail later in John 10. Jesus is not referring to hearing an audible voice. “God told me,” as some people say, is not how we hear His voice.
We hear the voice of God through His written Word, when it is properly interpreted and applied as the Holy Spirit enlightens our minds to the truth of Scripture. When we know the Bible, we learn to flee from the lies of false teachers, because we don’t recognise their voices.
One of the most important characteristics of Jesus’ genuine sheep is that they are grounded in sound doctrine, by studying and knowing His Word. You might remember an illustration I used from Stuart Briscoe in our series on the Apostles’ Creed a few years ago. Briscoe began his working life in a bank, and one of his tasks was to spot counterfeit money. For months though, he only handled genuine notes. One day he asked his supervisor when he would be given counterfeit notes to compare, he was told it wasn’t necessary. “You’ve spent so long handling the real thing, that as soon as you touch the counterfeit, you’ll spot it instinctively.”
The point is that while it is good to be aware of some of the heresies being taught by false teachers in the Church, the best way to arm ourselves against the lies is to make knowing the truth of God’s word our priority.
These people do not wear signs around their necks saying, “Warning. False teacher.” Many of the things they teach are Biblically accurate. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but they very subtly and very deliberately twist the Word of God and take it out of context in order to get it to say what they want it to say. This is what is known as eisegesis - reading into the text, rather than drawing out of the text, which is exegesis. We must allow Scripture, and not our own sinful desires define Scripture.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:24, “False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” So as we grow in our understanding of the truth of God’s Word, we will be better able to protect ourselves from deception, from the wolves who disguise themselves in sheep’s clothing.
The strangers that Jesus mentioned in John 10:6 refers to the Pharisees and other leaders of the Jewish people who were only interested in the sheep for their own personal advantage. The previously blind man in chapter 9 recognised the voice Jesus, and he knew that the Pharisees were strangers, so he refused to obey them, even though it meant being excommunicated from the temple.
Today, Jesus continues to lead His sheep out of every kind of sheepfold. He leads out of nominal and false religion, materialism and sensualism, out of idolatry and secular humanism, and out of ignorance and the vain philosophies of the world. Jesus leads us out from our worldly sheepfolds into His Church, to join with His true sheep, and into the green pastures of salvation.
And as He leads, His sheep follow. He goes ahead of us, not driving from behind. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” One of the most important tasks of ancient shepherds was to go before the flock, driving predators away, and preparing green pastures. This is how Jesus goes before us.
Think about it - where was He going when He spoke these words in John 10? He was heading to the cross, where the Good Shepherd laid His life down for His sheep and drove away the wrath of God at our sins as He bore the penalty Himself.
At the end of our lives, what will really matter is not how much we know, but who we know. The Pharisees knew far more theology than the man born blind, but they didn’t know the true shepherd. Not only did Jesus heal this man’s physical blindness, but He also opened his spiritual eyes to see that Jesus is the Good Shepherd of His sheep, a theme we will continue next week. The big question is this: Do you know Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world who calls you from a life of sin into the hope of eternity through the Cross of Calvary? Jesus prayed in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 10:1-6
How does this passage warn us against false ideologies and false teachers in the Church?
Many Christians say it is not right and we should not judge others by calling out false teachers (especially by name). Do you agree with this feeling, and why or why not?
Jesus uses the sheepfold as an example of the nation of Israel being led astray by the Pharisees.
How does the sheepfold represent the modern world?
Who or what are the thieves and robbers today?
Who is the watchman or gatekeeper in verse 3?
What can we do to ensure that we will continue to hear and know the voice of Jesus, while at the same time remaining sensitive to the stranger’s voice?
Read Numbers 27:15-20
Discuss how this passage provides a clear prophecy of Jesus as the Good Shepherd of His sheep.
In which ways do you (or have you) wandered away from the Lord, only to find yourself exposed to danger?
How have you experienced the loving protection and discipline of the Good Shepherd?