John 10. Once there was a tourist walking on the back roads of Israel when up ahead of him he saw 2 shepherds, each with his own flock of sheep, and they came together in the road and began talking. As they talked together their sheep began to intermingle, until it looked like one big flock. The tourist wondered how these shepherds would ever untangle the mess, it seemed to be an impossible task, with hundreds of sheep all mixed in together. And yet as they began to part company, each shepherd merely said a few words, calling their sheep to come, and the sheep began to split back into their original groups and followed their shepherd. By nature, sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd. Look at the end of verse 4: “his sheep follow him, because they know his voice.” My sermon title today is, “How to know the voice of the Shepherd.”
Now John 10:1-5 is a figure of speech. It is an allegory or a parable, or story that teaches truth. You can see that from verse 6: “Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.” Let’s read this together and we will see that the main emphasis of the figure of speech is the shepherd and His sheep.
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. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 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. 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." John 10:1-5 (NIV)
Now this passage follows chapter 9, where the man who had His eyes opened had been roughly treated by the Pharisees and was thrown out of the synagogue. And Jesus is still speaking to the Pharisees here. John writes in chapter 10 that thieves and robbers destroy the sheep and He has in mind these Pharisees. But they didn’t understand, they didn’t “hear His voice” and vs. 26 tells us why: “you don’t believe because you are not my sheep.”
And so this passage shows Jesus coming to the sheep pen of Judaism, where there is the danger of thieves and robbers, that is, scribes and Pharisees, who hurt the sheep. And Jesus comes calling out His own sheep, and in vs. 3 they listen to His voice, and He leads them out of the sheep pen of Judaism and into the rich pastures of the gospel.
And we need to see this morning that Jesus coming as a Shepherd is simply the fulfillment of the cries and prayers of those in the Old Testament. Numbers, 27. In this chapter Moses is about to die, and like any good shepherd his dying thoughts are on the sheep. And Moses prays a prayer in this chapter, and this prayer is answered in John chapter 10. Moses prays in Numbers 27:16 and says 16 "May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd." Moses knew that people, like sheep, need a shepherd or they will wander away. We can see that today with those who avoid the fellowship, and how they become consumed in other things, and cannot find their way back. People need a shepherd, they need leadership. And there is an amazing answer given to Moses’ prayer. In answer to Moses prayer, a young man is brought forward, a young man by the name of “Joshua.” Vs. 18 Joshua is chosen to succeed Moses. Joshua and Jesus are the same name: Joshua is Hebrew, Jesus is Greek.
God’s real answer to Moses’ prayer, whom Joshua points forward to, is Jesus, Who came as the good Shepherd to lead people out of Judaism and legalism, and bring them into the green pastures of the gospel. John 10 is the answer to Moses’ prayer in Numbers 27.
But look at John 10: people would harm and steal the sheep, so He warns about thieves and robbers who try to break in and harm or steal the sheep. And He gives us a way to recognize them. Notice vs. 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.”
He says they don’t come in through the official gate, they reject that way of getting in, and instead they try to climb in by some other way. Now compare vs. 1 with vs. 7 where Jesus says “I am the gate for the sheep”. Now we can see that Jesus is talking about men who reject Christ, the entry way, and instead are seeking to gain entrance by their own efforts. That’s the way to recognize false shepherds, they reject Christ. They are anti-Christ and they are pro self-effort. They climb in some other way.
And so there is a warning here, to watch out for people who reject the gospel, who reject the cross where Jesus died, and who are promoting some other way. You can tell these men just by listening to them. They can talk about lots of religious subjects, they know the Bible well, but their message is not the cross; the passion of their lives is not about the one entry way, no they’ve got another subject, another way in. I want us to be aware of what people teach and see if the main message is the cross, the one entry way, or if they are all distracted by other subjects. Jesus has given us the way to recognize them, they reject the gate and climb in some other way.
Well Jesus comes to take His people out of that pen where the thieves and robbers are. And I want us to see 3 points about the Shepherd, and 3 points about the sheep this morning. And oh may these points help us fall in love with our Shepherd. As we look at His work, let’s bask in His love.
First, He is a personal shepherd. vs. 3 “He calls His own sheep by name…” He knows our names, He knows us. He knows if we are sick or well, He knows if we are with the flock or if we have wandered away, He knows if we are trapped or free. The songwriter said “He knows my name, He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls, and He hears me when I call.” You know, I still remember the one time when I had the privilege of flying the CEO of our company from Houston to Cleveland. He walks in the cockpit, sticks out his hand and says “Hi, you must be Mike Cleveland, I’m Larry Kellner.” I was amazed. I’m a nobody, a puny little employee, Larry has over 40,000 employees yet he knew my name. Now I know he had simply looked up our names ahead of time, but I didn’t care, I was just so impressed with him. Jesus calls His own sheep by name, He is a personal shepherd, and He knows and cares for each sheep.
Secondly, He is a powerful shepherd. The end of vs. 3 says “He leads them out.” Now in context He is referring to leading His sheep out of the pen of Judaism, out from the sheepfold of legalism, out away from the robbers and thieves who will harm the sheep. He leads us out of a religion where we have to earn God’s favor by what we do, because Jesus already earned God’s favor for us by what He did. He leads us out of a religion where you must fulfill the law’s demands or you’re dead, see, because He fulfilled the law’s demands for us. Some of the most precious words in this chapter are “He leads them out”. He is a powerful Shepherd.
Third, He is a protective Shepherd. In Vs. 11 Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” The picture here is of the Shepherd protecting his sheep at the cost of his own life. So notice how closely the heart of the shepherd is bound up with the life of his sheep. He would rather die than let any harm come to his sheep. Maybe you will remember David, the good shepherd. In 1 Samuel 17 David said to Saul: "Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.” Now that’s a shepherd. Can you imagine running after a lion, grabbing your sheep out of its mouth, and when it turns on you you grab its hair and hit it and take your sheep back to the fold?
The reality is this: you and I were carried off by Satan, we were dragged away by our own sin. James 1 says by our own evil desires we are dragged away and enticed. And Jesus Christ came from heaven, that Good Shepherd, and He went straight to the cross, and, unlike David Jesus actually did lay down His life, in order to rescue us from the very mouth of the lion. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
So how do the sheep respond to the Shepherd? Let’s notice three ways: First, they listen to the Shepherd. Vs. 3 says they listen to His voice, vs. 4 says they know His voice. This means that believers hear the Word, they know the Truth. A man went to Ireland to visit his relatives. While he was staying at his cousin’s farm, they told him to round up the sheep into the pen. After nearly an hour of chasing after sheep, trying to push, poke, prod, and even pull them with no success, he gave up and asked his cousins to help. They sent out their five-year-old daughter, who simply called out to the sheep, and within minutes they had all followed her through the gate into the pen. Sheep know the voice of their Shepherd and they follow him.
So what is the voice of the Shepherd? “It’s the Bible”. No, this is too broad. Jim Jones preached from the Bible and his preaching resulted in the death of hundreds of people. That is not the voice of the Shepherd. David Koresh led people out to Waco Texas and through the preaching straight from Scripture led them to their deaths. This is not the voice of the shepherd. Mormons, SDA’s JW’s, all use the Bible, but are not the voice of the shepherd.
Jesus made it clear. Look at the common theme: Vs. 11: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Vs. 14-15: 14 "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. Vss. 17-18: 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
The Shepherd has an emphasis when He speaks. Hear it? “I lay down my life for the sheep.” “I die that you might live.” I die to forgive you. I die to bear your sins in my body. I die to pay the penalty of your sin. I die to rescue you from Satan. I die to save you from God’s wrath. I die to set you free. I will be damned to hell that you might go to heaven. In Rabbi Duncan’s famous outburst in one of his classes he said, “Do ye know what the voice of the Shepherd is? What? What? What?” Then with tears on his face he said, “It was damnation, and Jesus took it lovingly.” That’s the shepherd’s voice. Never forget it. Fathers, teach your children to recognize it. Compare Acts 20:27 with 1 Cor. 2:2.
The second response of the sheep is that they are led by the shepherd. You can see that in vs. 4 “His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.” This is the distinguishing mark of a Christian, we follow Jesus because we love Jesus. I want to ask you, “is there something you need to give up in order to follow Christ this morning?” Maybe He is calling you to change something but you’ve resisted Him up until now. Maybe today is the day when you say, “The Good Shepherd laid down His life for me, I’m going to lay down my life and follow Him.” If you do that you will be able to sing these words: “And oh the glory of the cross, that you would send your Son for us. I gladly count my life as loss that I might come to know the glory of the cross.”
And the third response is that they are loyal to the Shepherd. 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." If you listen to someone who does not have the voice of the shepherd, they are going to be biblical, and logical, and you will feel like your eyes are being opened to a whole world of understanding that you didn’t have before. You will say things like, “oh I know the gospel, yes, but this is really important.” Or “yeah, the gospel is basic, what I’m studying is so deep…” and on and on it goes until you can hardly hear the voice of the shepherd anymore. The encouragement from God’s Word is to run, to flee, to get away from any other voice that is not the Shepherds. Be loyal! Run!
In 1972 a shepherd had brought his sheep into a walled-off, enclosed area for the night, and he had just gone to sleep when he heard a commotion. He quickly rushed over to where the sound was coming from and to his horror he discovered that a wolf was in the process of dragging off one of his sheep through a hole in the wall. He was mauling this sheep and blood was flying. The shepherd quickly began hitting the wolf, and the wolf turned on him and began attacking him. He bit him over and over while the shepherd was striking him with his staff, and finally with one final blow of his staff he killed the wolf as he himself collapsed into a bloody heap. He managed to crawl over to the half-dead sheep, and began to bandage its wounds. He gave it some water, and then took it in his own bloody arms and shepherd and sheep went to sleep together. The next morning the shepherd was found dead, his body literally draped over the sheep to comfort it and keep it warm. The following day the headline in the Jerusalem paper said, “Sheep alive, covered in Shepherd’s blood.”
As I said earlier, you and I had been dragged off and had been mauled and mangled by Satan and by our own sin. And Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for us, and over every believer these words could be written “Sheep alive, covered in Shepherd’s blood.” The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Let’s worship!
In 1 Peter chapter 5 God sets forth the role of shepherds in the church, telling them to serve as overseers not because they have to, but out of willing hearts. And after he addresses under-shepherds he makes this beautiful statement in vs. 4: “and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”
One day the Chief Shepherd will appear, and we will see on Him the wounds of when He laid down His life for the sheep. And I can’t wait to lay my crown at His feet. What will you say to Him when you lay your crown at His pierced feet?
