The front door of our church building is not the door Christ’s sheep enter. The real door or gate for the sheep is not made of wood or metal, but is a Person. Let’s let Jesus explain this in John 10:1-10.
Background
By way of background to Jesus’ lesson let’s learn a few essentials about sheep.
Sheep are social, flock together and readily follow a good shepherd. Healthy lambs feed frequently. A lamb that bleats all the time is probably hungry. Lambs remain close to their mothers but curiosity can get them into trouble. Sheep have excellent memories and trust a shepherd who handles them gently.
Sheep are generally docile, but rams can be aggressive during breeding season, headbutting to dominate. Ewes may become aggressive to protect their young. Shepherds can train sheep by voice command. Like shepherds, church leaders assemble God’s sheep to tend the flock. Sheep instinctively know that they are better off together.
The idea of “dumb sheep” is a complete myth. They are very intelligent animals. They can remember up to fifty other sheep and ten humans. Sheep find their way out of mazes quickly and are smarter than humans with instinctive ability to find the plants they need for herbal cures.
English sheep taught themselves to roll across cattle grids to feed on neighboring pastures. After meeting a group of people, sheep remember who brought the food. They know by instinct that togetherness is the best defense against predators. They gladly follow a shepherd that they trust. Let’s begin the lesson.
John 10:1-3 I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
There are many voices in the Christian world, popes and patriarchs, theologians and evangelists, reformers and pastors, but none of them is the Great Shepherd. We can tell if the Great Shepherd speaks through those voices, because it is consistent with God’s written word, not the words of the world.
John 10:4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.
Is the voice of Jesus harsh and authoritarian, or soft and effeminate? Neither. The Bible pictures Jesus’ voice as one the sheep hear. People listen to all kinds of voices. Yet Jesus’ sheep listen to His. Others are not trusted. Jesus’ sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
A shepherd leading a flock of sheep calls each by name. The sheep won’t follow another. A sheep farmer is not a shepherd. His is the un-recognized voice of a stranger. We recognize the voice of Jesus, because as the Word, He is always consistent with His inspired written word.
John 10:5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.
How do we get to know Jesus’ “voice?” Some Christians don’t like Jesus as Lamb, while others don’t like Him as Lion. Yet, both Lion and Lamb are Jesus’ true “voice.” In order to get to know the “voice” of the Word, we need to be familiar with His inspired written Word.
John 10:6-7 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.”
How is Jesus the door or gate? Picture a shepherd resting at the entrance to a sheep pen. There is no wooden gate. He is the gate. If anyone does not enter by the legitimate gate then he is a thief and a robber. They have also been called heretics.
The only legitimate way to enter the Church is through Jesus. We do not enter the sheepfold via the Pope, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Moses, Paul, Luther, Calvin or Wesley. These great servants of God are not the gate. So, when is a gate a gate? When that gate is Jesus.
John 10:8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them.
In one sense are even great leaders of the faith thieves and robbers? Is a particular church the door? Claims of who is one true church are everywhere, but they can’t all be right. Are all who claim to be the door into the sheepfold, except Jesus, thieves and robbers?
John 10:9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.
Jesus is the gateway or gatekeeper for the sheepfold. His voice leads to safety, not the voice of vain traditions or modern heresy, but the voice of the gatekeeper, Jesus. Inside the gate is safety. Outside the gate is freedom to run in green grass, because the Shepherd leads us.
John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
Jesus is contrasted with the thief who enters “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Some churches have allowed thieves to rise to prominence. They steal sheep for ancient and modern heresies, many of which are in reality regressivism, because they have returned to naturalism and ancient licentious heresies.
Modern cultural deceptions have brought about spiritual and family destruction. Divorce and crime are direct results of our hedonistic lust for power and wealth. The thief has come and stolen and killed and destroyed us. Will we heed the voice of the Great Shepherd, and follow Him to nourishing pasture?
Let’s study the teachings of Jesus, so we can learn to recognize His true voice and distinguish it from the voices of thieves. He sits at the door as gatekeeper to the sheepfold. Let’s come in and go out through Him to find spiritual pasture and life to the full.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Readings
Acts 2:42-47
Devoting ourselves to a church and sharing things in common are strange concepts in a selfish, modern society, but it is the example set for us by the early church, and is worth thinking about.
Psalm 23
The shepherd’s Psalm reveals sheep lacking nothing, having abundant provision, refreshed souls, being on the right track, fearlessness in dark times, even when the shepherd disciplines, overflowing blessings despite enemies around, and joy in God’s house forever.
1 Peter 2:19-25
We patiently endure wrong for doing good, because our shepherd left an example of suffering without complaining. Once we were like stray sheep, but now we have a shepherd whose example we follow.
John 10:1-10 in Rhyme
If someone sneaks over the wall
Dodging the gate of the sheep stall
Must be a thief and a robber
The gate is the way that’s proper
Through the gate is the shepherd’s choice
And the sheep recognize His voice
So He calls his own sheep by name
And to follow Him is their aim
A stranger they just won’t follow
Deceptive voices won’t swallow
But for them His words were too deep
He said, I’m the gate for the sheep
Before me were robbers and thieves
Their words any true sheep just leaves
Those who come through me will be saved
And the abundant life they’ve craved
