A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep. But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days. When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter. At last he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal. The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened. The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door. It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master.
Of all the animals that humans could be compared too, God compares us to sheep more than any other animal in scripture. And if you are wondering why, a quick search on the internet will tell you:
Sheep aren’t that smart, and sometimes we aren’t either.
Sheep are directionless. They get lost easily, or will wander away from the flock.
Sheep are weak and need a shepherd.
Sheep become restless when there is a lack of food, or bugs around.
Sheep cannot get up on their own. If they fall down on their back, they need a shepherd to lift them up, or they will die.
Sheep remain dirty until someone cleans them.
Sheep know and follow the voice of their Shepherd.
We are on week 3 of the I Am series, studying the 7 I Am statements about Jesus that reveal things about who he is, and what he does. These next two statements take place in the same story, and they both revolve around this metaphor of the sheep and the shepherd. So let’s take a look at this story, but before we do, let’s open with prayer.
So you may have noticed we are moving in a chronological order here. Last week Jesus was at the Feast of Tabernacles, specifically at the temple in Jerusalem. And during this festival, he declared to the crowd and the Pharisee’s that he was the Light of the World. And we sort of stopped half way through that story, so I want to fill in what happened between last week and this week’s passages in the Gospel of John.
So what happened right after we stopped last week is that Jesus continued to argue with the Pharisee’s, and then claimed that Abraham had rejoiced at the thought of Jesus coming into the world. They mocked him and said, You aren’t even 50, but you have seen Abraham? For context, Abraham was born over 1000 years before Jesus. And then Jesus replied by saying, “Before Abraham was, I Am!”. And then of course he had to run away from the festival, because they picked up rocks to try to stone him, as calling himself I Am was claiming to be God himself.
After this happened, he stopped and healed a man who had been blind from birth. He did this on the Sabbath, so that made the Pharisee’s even angrier, and the blind man was brought before the Pharisee’s. So they started to fight amongst themselves about this, and questioned the man. The man defended Jesus, saying I don’t know who he is, but he opened my eyes, so he must be from God, that’s all I know. Then they got mad at him and put him out.
So then Jesus heard about all this, and found the blind man, and asked him if he believed in the Son of Man. The man says he believes, and then worships Jesus. Jesus then says, “For Judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind.”
There were some Pharisee’s who were with him when this happened, and they said, “What, are we blind too?” And then Jesus says, If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. And then it rolls right into our passage, which is John 10:1-10, and I’ll read that now in the NIV:
John 10:1–10 (NIV)
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
So the meaning of this passage really comes to life when you include the story about the blind man first, and see the whole context. So lets go back to the first couple verses in this passage, and work our way through.
John 10:1–5 (NIV)
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
Jesus begins his response with the double amen, or truly, truly, indicating that what he has to say is very important and applicable to the audience.
At night, sheep would be put into a pen or enclosure to keep them safe. Usually the enclosure would have a stone wall all the way around it, with one gate or door for them to enter through, just one (Show picture). This didn’t just protect the sheep from predators like wolves, but also from thieves who try to steal a sheep. The only way in or out of the sheep pen was through the gate, and the gate was usually watched by a gatekeeper, who would keep any strangers or thieves away.
He also says that sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd. As dumb as sheep can be, they can also be quite smart. They recognize voices. There are stories of shepherds who will share a sheep pen together, and to look in the pen, you can’t tell any of the sheep apart from each other, they all look the same! But then when the shepherds call their sheep, they will begin to separate themselves and follow their master. They won’t follow a stranger once they have heard their masters voice, in fact they will usually run away from them.
So now, you can sort of start to see the connection to what happened before this. The Pharisees are the thieves and robbers of this story, and the listeners would have identified that immediately. This statement was Jesus’ response to the situation involving the blind man who had been healed, and the response of the Pharisee’s to that miracle.
They are the ones who the sheep run away from, once they have heard the voice of the Shepherd. The blind man basically ridiculed the Pharisee’s, and instead followed and worshipped Jesus as soon as he realized who he was.
John 10:6 (NIV)
Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
You probably have also noticed that this is becoming a reoccurring theme as well. Jesus teaches, and the audience doesn’t understand. The Greek word here, “paroimia”, is one that you often will see translated as parable. The irony here is that Jesus is speaking to the group of people who had just claimed to be able to see, but their inability to understand what Jesus was saying is just another example of their spiritual blindness.
John 10:7–10 (NIV)
Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
So Jesus explains the parable to them, beginning, once again, with the double amen, or truly truly. He tells them, “I am the gate, or door, for the sheep. And this is the third I Am statement. And there are two aspect to this image.
First of all, as the door, he protects the sheep from harm. Shepherds in the country in Israel would often sleep across the entrance to the sleep pen, to protect the sheep inside from predators.
But second of all, as the door, he is the only way into the sheep pen. If the sheep want to enter the safety of the pasture, they have to go through him. It is the ONLY way in.
He then goes on to say that all the others who have come before him, who for the sake of the illustration we will call “false shepherds”, they are thieves and robbers in the illustration. In other words, the Pharisee’s and other religious leaders. But he says the sheep have not listened to them. That was definitely true for the blind man. Those who belong to Jesus, the TRUE shepherd, do not LISTEN to voices like those of the Pharisee’s, because they recognize them for who they are.
He then repeats himself: I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. If you enter through Jesus, you will be safe, have freedom, and will have abundant eternal . But the other “false shepherds” are only there to kill, steal and destroy.
So he really drives his point home. They didn’t understand, well now they will understand his point clearly. Jesus is the ONLY path to salvation, freedom, and eternal life, and anyone else claiming to be the path to any of those things, for example, the Pharisee’s he is TALKING to, is a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Yikes.
In contrast to the protection, freedom, and pasture that comes from entering through Jesus as the door, is the stealing, death and destruction brought by the thief. The thief acts for their own selfish ends and desires, to the detriment of the sheep. Jesus however, SERVES the sheep by providing for them the way of life, at the cost of his life, which we will talk about in the next I Am statement.
Those who enter through Jesus find life. That means we all start out on the outside, and need to choose to enter through him. We are all sheep, searching for a shepherd. The salvation that comes through Jesus is personal, but not individual, and that is another part of this that we don’t talk about often in the church today.
Jesus knows the name of each of his sheep, but the salvation is in becoming a part of his FLOCK. It is not isolated, autonomous, or individual. It is a community in which each member is brought into the life of God, to form with one whole body or flock with all the other sheep, like branches on a tree. And by entering through the door, Jesus, you join that flock, of which Jesus is also the Shepherd.
So as we have learned the previous two weeks, each of these I Am statements reveals something about the character, nature, and mission of Jesus. The first week we learned that Jesus is the Bread of Life, and that for us, that means that he is the perfect source of spiritual fulfilment. Last week we learned that Jesus is the Light of the World, and that for us, that means that he gives us freedom from darkness, he enables us to see and know the truth, and he gives us a light of our own to share with the world.
So based on the context of this story, the blind man, and the parable of the door, what does it mean for us that Jesus is the door for the sheep? What should we take away from this parable?
1. Sheep follow the voice of their Shepherd
The first way in which this applies to us, is that as the shepherd, we recognize his voice. He came to this world so that we can have new life. When we hear his voice, we know it. And he knows us. He calls us by name, and he leads us, he goes ahead of us. This is important because it makes God personal.
Jesus here in our passage said,
John 10:3–4 (NIV)
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Psalm 100:3 says,
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
The blind man, after being healed, recognized Jesus for who he is. After finding his shepherd, there wasn’t a chance he was going to put up with the Pharisee’s, because he recognized that they couldn’t offer him anything. It was clear to him that Jesus came from God. He recognized the voice of Jesus, and worshiped him.
Like sheep, and like the blind man, we should also be listening for the voice of our shepherd, and following his voice when he hears it. He knows what is best for us, and he directs our feet. We should trust him and follow him, like a sheep does its shepherd.
2. Sheep run away from strangers, thieves, and robbers
The second way this applies to us, is that sheep run away from strangers, thieves and robbers. Just as sheep recognize the voice of their master, they do not trust the voice of a stranger. Jesus said in our passage today that not only will sheep not follow a stranger, they run from them. In his analogy, the stranger is the Pharisee’s, who come as thieves and robbers. And just like the blind man, once we have heard the voice of our shepherd, we want nothing to do with what we have been calling “false shepherds”.
We don’t have Pharisee’s today, but we do have people who want to lead us astray. Unfortunately, this is where the analogy diverges a bit from reality. Because sheep do run away from strangers. However, until we have become a part of Jesus’s flock, we aren’t following his voice, we are chasing whichever thief or robber is waving around the tastiest looking grass. So in reality for us as humans, we DO follow thieves and strangers until we have become a part of Jesus’ flock.
But once we ARE one of his sheep, we need to trust his voice, and no other. We need to run away from all the other thieves and robbers in life who want to lead us away from Jesus.
3. Sheep enter through the door to find safety and pasture
Third, and this is really the main point of this passage, is that sheep enter through the door to find safety and pasture. The door or gate is the ONLY way that the sheep can enter the pen, there is no other path. When the sheep enter through the door, they find safety from predators and thieves with the rest of the flock.
In this analogy, JESUS is the door, and WE are the sheep. If we want to find true, abundant life, and ETERNAL life, there is only one gate, one door, one path - and that is Jesus. If you want to receive eternal life, you MUST enter through that door, there is no other way in.
If we enter through Jesus, we find safety and freedom from sin and the forces of this world. We may still experience the symptoms of living in a broken world, but it loses its power over us. I can’t remember where I had read it, but I want to acknowledge that this was not my own idea, but I’d read somewhere a missionary on the field nonchalantly said, “Well, the worst they can do is kill me, right?” It sounds funny, but if we have faith in Jesus, faith in a resurrection, and faith in the fact that we ARE saved, then honestly yeah, it isn’t that big of a deal. If you die, then what? That is the last of the brokenness of sin your soul will ever have to experience. Because if you are in Jesus, you are in the sheep pen. You are safe and you are free. You have safety, and abundant life.
So as we wrap up today, I hope that this message has built a deeper appreciation for the character and mission of Jesus. As I’ve said before, we have the benefit of looking back with the full picture. But the people who lived and walked around Jesus, Jesus was a mystery that they were trying to decipher. And as we study these statements, we get to see the ways in which Jesus slowly revealed himself to the people around him, and we get to appreciate the immensity of the mission that God himself undertook, on our behalf.
He is the source of perfect spiritual fulfillment. He is the light of the world, freeing us from the darkness of sin, and helping us to walk in and understand the truth. And He is the door for the sheep. He is the one way to enter into safety and life, and he keeps us safe from the thieves and robbers who want to see us fail. As his sheep, we know and we recognize his voice, and we follow him.
I want to close with a couple verses from Psalm 118, that are identified as prophecy about Jesus:
This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.
