One Flock, One Shepherd: The Unfinished Mission

1.4 Fact #4 Jesus Warns Us About Thieves

“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” (John 10:1).

Jesus compares the True Shepherd to thieves and a “hired hand” in verse 12. Thieves would climb over the enclosure or the fence, but only the Shepherd goes through the door.

Various families would bring their sheep into the enclosure at night and hire a watchman, or a “hired hand” to keep out intruders or wild animals. The next morning, the individual shepherds would come back to their sheep pen, where the watchman would allow only the shepherds to go in.

Jesus is warning about “shepherds,” such as Pharisees, who refused to believe that a born blind could now see by the miraculous healing power of Jesus just one chapter earlier. Jesus said shepherds like these are really thieves. Here is Jesus’ warning: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Thieves still come to destroy God’s people after all these years.

After over a decade of working in a Buddhist area, a small church of two believers was finally formed in SE Asia country. Yet, in just a few months, the new church was destroyed by those teaching the prosperity gospel, and they went so far as to even pay people to believe in Jesus. As I speak to you this morning, these missionaries continue to share. You are invited to pray for them on Tuesday as these missionaries are members of our church.

1.5 Fact #5 Jesus Is Our Only Door

“So Jesus again said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture’” (John 10:7,9).

The sheepfold would have had only one point on entry. Picture a doorkeeper (verse 3) who opens the locked gate only for the True Shepherd.3 Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep,” at the end of verse 8. And then again, at the beginning of verse 9, Jesus says, “I am the door.” Jesus says it a 3rd time in the middle of verse 9, “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.”

“I am the door.”

“I am the door.”

“[Enter] by me [to] be saved.”

He could not have been more clear. Not one single time did Jesus say, “I’m one good option among many.” He says, “I am the door.” For you to become one of God’s children, you must come through the one and only door. Jesus is the one and only door for His followers scattered all over what the CIA calls 265 world entities.4

1.6 Fact #6 Jesus Lays His Life Down for Us

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15). The Lord Jesus shows His love for us by laying down His life for us. He not only is the door, Jesus says, “I also lay my life for those who follow me.”

1.6.1 Four Times

Marvel with me that Jesus tells us He lays down His life for us four times. The last part of verse 11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The last part of verse 15, “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15b). The last part of verse 17, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again” (John 10:17b). And verse 18, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18a). Four times, Jesus tells us. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” If Jesus were singing a song, every stanza would end the same, “I lay down my life for my sheep.”