There was a typical blond. She had long, blond hair, blue eyes, and she was sick of all the blond jokes. One day, she decided to get a make over, so she cut and dyed her hair. She also went out and bought a new convertible. She went driving down a country road and came across a herd of sheep. She stopped and called the sheep herder over.
“That’s a nice flock of sheep” she said.
“Well thank you” said the herder.
“Tell you what. I have a proposition for you” said the woman. “If I can guess the exact number of sheep in your flock, can I take one home?”
“Sure” said the sheep herder.
So, the girl sat up and looked at the herd for a second and then replied “382".
“Wow” said the herder. “That is exactly right. Go ahead and pick out the sheep you want to take home.”
So the woman went and picked one out and put it in her car.
Then, the herder said “Okay, now I have a proposition for you”.
“What is it?” Queried the woman.
“If I can guess the real color of your hair, can I have my dog back?”
The monologue of this chapter follows on naturally from the fact that the blind man has left the fold of Israel for the flock of the good shepherd.
Outline:
1. Christ is the True Shepherd (1-6)
2. Christ is The Good Shepherd (7-11)
3. Christ is The Only Shepherd (12-16)
4. Christ is The Obedient Shepherd (17, 18)
∙ Christ in presenting Himself as the true shepherd and is showing why some in the nation responded to His word, left Judaism, and committed themselves to Him.
∙ On the other hand it shows why some in Israel were rejecting Him. Their rejection did not show that His word was false but rather that they were not His sheep.
1 ¶ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
The Lord sets the stage by depicting the false shepherds of Israel, long foretold (Ezekiel 34:1-6; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Zechariah 11:4-11), who had just demonstrated their disregard for the welfare of the sheep by casting out the blind man.
Jesus had presented his credentials. He had demonstrated His love for the lost sheep of Israel in many ways but most recently with His care for the man born blind. The Lord was the true shepherd.
∙ He entered by the door, born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); He came “in the fulness of time;” called out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). He was the right person, born at the right time, in the right place, summoned from the right country, and attended by the right signs.
2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
My sheep know my voice. . .
“For the past 15 years, announcer Dave Johnson has called the Triple Crown races for ABC-TV. When away from the horse races Johnson does a great deal of commercial and voice-over work.
“‘I tried out for a spot in a commercial where they wanted someone to say, “They’re off!’” Johnson recalls.’The casting director told me, ‘I want you to sound like the guy who calls the Kentucky Derby.’
“‘No problem,’ I said. ‘I am the guy who calls the Kentucky Derby.’ I figured I was a cinch to get the part. The funny thing is—I didn’t! Apparently there was someone who sounded more like me that I did.”
Source: Reader’s Digest (May 1996), p. 156.
In the city, many flocks would converge on a town, and gather at a central location. One man would be hired to watch those flocks through the night. This man would station himself by the door to protect the sheep. The next morning the shepherds would arrive, and the hired keeper (porter) would open the door for the various shepherds. A shepherd would then call his sheep with a special sound that his sheep would recognize. From among those flocks, one by one the shepherd’s own sheep would walk through the door and gather round him. This happened again and again as each shepherd made his vocal call.
4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
But not only does the shepherd call his sheep with a peculiar sound, “he calleth his sheep by name” (10:3).
The Lord was now leading his sheep out of Judaism. His own heard and recognized his voice and were following Him.
Evangelist Bill Rice traveled to Israel several years ago and saw this passage illustrated:
. . . Up in front of the gate was a shepherd. . . . leaning on a staff. He had his back to us, and all around him was a flock of sheep. It was beautiful!
There was a little rock wall, and the Princess (his wife Cathy) and I sat down, and said, “Isn’t that the prettiest thing? You know what? That’s how David looked. . . . And while we looked, suddenly we heard a noise. We looked. Here came another shepherd with a whole bunch of sheep. When these two men saw each other they spread their arms. They rushed together like freight trains and hugged and kissed . . . and they pulled whiskers and they slapped faces. They loved each other. . . . In these two men you could see Jonathan and David. These two fellows pulled whiskers and they slapped faces and they hugged and they kissed. And while they were doing this, the sheep got mixed up. They wandered all around, all smelling noses and talking to each other.
I said to my wife, “Great guns! When these two lover boys wake up they’ll be fit to be tied.” It is a cowboy’s nightmare to have two herds of cattle mixed up. It takes from now to Christmas to get two herds of cattle separated. But while they were hugging and kissing we looked and, so help me, here came a third man with a bunch of sheep. Another shepherd. He saw the other two shepherds and said, “Salome, salome. Effendi salome.” They all rushed together and all three of them began hugging and kissing and hitting faces and pulling whiskers. Another flock of sheep—they were spread out everywhere and all mixed up.
Again I said, “Man alive! Somebody ought to tell their wives they’ll not be home for breakfast. These men are going to be here practically forever trying to get all the sheep separated.” I sat down on a little rock wall with my wife. I just couldn’t wait (this is mean I know) but I just couldn’t wait for them to realize what had happened.
Finally, here came the hugging and kissing and one fellow backed up and began to leave. He then turned around to walk away. “He doublecrossed me.” I said, “Oh my, he sold his sheep. That isn’t fair. I have been waiting all this time.” He didn’t even know yet about the sheep being all mixed up, as far as I knew.
He walked maybe as far as 30 or 40 feet. Never stopped walking. Over his shoulder he said, “Mmmmmm, brrrrrr, mmmmm, brrrrr.”
And I never saw anything like it in my life. Sheep allover the place picked up their ears and looked and came scampering after him. He never stopped walking. He didn’t stop and count them. He just kept on walking. And his sheep followed after him.
If we could teach our cows to do that, we would have it made! There he went and his sheep following him. I couldn’t believe it. Then I had to wait for the next shepherd. After a while the hugging and kissing and the whisker-pulling and the face-slapping began again. And the shepherd started walking in the same direction of the other shepherd. Over his shoulder he called, “Mmmmmm, brrrrrr, mmmmmm, brrrrrr.” And here came the sheep. I never saw anything like it in my life.
We waited until just about dark. It was gloomy and dusty and at last the one shepherd who had been standing there all this time turned and walked off. As he walked, he said, “Mmmrnmm, brrrrr, mmmmmm, brrrrrr.” And here his sheep came running after him. It was a thrilling sight to see.
After that, I had to try and get sheep to follow me. We would be in a taxi going some place and we would see a shepherd and sheep. I would tell the taxi driver, “Hold it! I want out. I want to go over there and look at those sheep.” We’d go over there, then I’d say to the taxi driver, “ Ask him if I can talk to his sheep.”
“If you can do what?”
“Ask him if I can talk to the sheep.”
The taxi driver would say something in Arabic. After getting permission, I’d walk out to the sheep. I’ve done this again and again.
The sheep would all be grazing. I’d walk out to them and say, “Mmmmmm, brrrrrr.” They wouldn’t even look up. Not a one! I’d change my voice—high, low. Nothin’ ! It was the beatenest thing. By that time the shepherd, of course, was in convulsions. He thought it was the funniest thing. That stupid American over there carrying on. More than once I have pulled out a piece of money and said, “Hey, you come call them.” And he would walk up and say, “Mmmmmmm, brrrrrr,” just like I did and every sheep would come trotting up to him.
. . . Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice and they know me. They won’t hear the voice of an hireling. They won’t follow him.’
That is the truth. They tell me a hundred shepherds could line up, and every last one of them could go through this “Mmmmmm, brrrrrrr” business. But, until the sheep heard his own shepherd, he would pay no attention. The sheep would come only to the voice of their shepherd. It is an amazing thing. . . .
—Bill Rice, The Branding Iron, June, 1979
They flee from strangers.
During the recent uprisings in the Middle East, Ron Jones, who serves with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Israel, wrote the following in their prayer letter:
“The result of the fighting and killing has left a profound sense of discouragement that hovers over the country. Several times we have come into closer contact with this conflict than our comfort zone allowed. Yesterday a friend shared with us something she observed that was a delightful reminder of God’s care for us. She watched a shepherd caring for his flock near the area where guns are fired. Every time the shots rang out the sheep scattered in fright. The shepherd then touched each of them with his staff and spoke calmly to them, and the sheep settled down immediately because they trusted the shepherd. And then another shot sounded, and the same routine happened again. Each time, the sheep needed the shepherd to orient them again and to reassure them they were safe.”
—Greg Asimakoupoulos, writer, Naperville, Illinois
6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.
It’s easy for some sheep to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Do you recognize God’s voice.
Explanation:
The Pharisees were known as “shepherds.” these men were responsible for the oversight of the “flock of God” Israel. The “fold” to which Jesus makes reference is Judaism. It was their job to oversee God’s flock. But the Pharisees had been poor shepherds. Proof of that fact is preserved in chapter 9. The blind man who should have been helped was unknown to them. Rather than taking care of a sheep the Pharisees threw him out (9:34).
Jesus’ words of verse one exposes the Pharisees: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” The Lord tells the Pharisees that they have not entered the sheepfold by the “door.” In verse seven Jesus explained, “I am the door of the sheep.” If the Pharisees desired to be good shepherds, they would have to come through the door, Jesus Christ. But this they had refused. So rather than being a shepherd, Jesus calls these individuals by the name of “a thief and a robber.”
By pretense the Pharisees had entered the fold and now were violently destroying the sheep. But true shepherds enter the fold through the door—Jesus Christ
I. Christ is the Good Shepherd, (7-11)
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
Sir George Adam Smith told Dr. Morgan of a visit he made to the far East. While touring he came to one of those folds or enclosures with its opening in the wall. As a shepherd was nearby, Sir George asked him—“Is that a fold for the sheep?”
“Oh yes,” the shepherd replied.
“I see only one way in,” Said Sir George.
“Yes, there it is, there is the door,” replied the shepherd pointing to the opening in the wall.
“But there is no door there,” said George. Although the two were not talking of the Parable of the Good Shepherd, or of Christian truth at all, Sir George was amazed when the shepherd said, “Oh, I am the door.”
The theologian’s mind went back to this tenth chapter of John and he asked the shepherd: “What do you mean by calling yourself the door?”
To which, quite naturally the shepherd replied. “The sheep go inside, and I come there and lie down across the threshold, and no sheep can get out except over my body, and no wolf can get in except over me.”
8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Abundant life:
Evangelistic efforts in my generation have placed John 10:10b in the spotlight: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” It is a great text and worthy of our attention. My only concern is that in taking this half-verse out of its context, we lose some of its meaning. Jesus has “come so that His sheep may have life, and have it abundantly,” but He has done so in contrast to the evil shepherds, who have come “only to steal and kill and destroy” (verse 10a). Pseudo-shepherds promise sheep “the good life,” but they most certainly do not provide it. It is our Lord who is the Good Shepherd, and as such He alone gives salvation, safety, and the abundant life. There is not only an abundance for the sheep here, but a freedom. They can “come in and go out, and find pasture.” This does not mean that they can go their own way, but the Good Shepherd goes before His flock, and His sheep willingly follow Him. He does not, as some sheep herders are inclined to do, drive them (sometimes using a sheepdog, which nips away at their feet). — Bob Deffinbaugh, The Good Shepherd
Psalm 23 gives the description of the abundant life.
In his beautiful book, I Shall Not Want, Robert Ketchum tells of a Sunday school teacher who asked her group of children if any of them could quote the entire twenty-third psalm. A golden-haired, four-and-a-half-year-old girl was among those who raised their hands. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm. The little girl came to the rostrum, faced the class, made a perky little bow, and said: “The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I want.”
She then bowed again and sat down. She may have overlooked a few verses, but that little girl captured David’s heart in Psalm 23.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
In Planet in Rebellion, George Vanderman wrote: “It was May 21, 1946. The place—Los Alamos. A young daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific atoll at Bikini.
“He had successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction—scientists call it the critical mass—he would push two hemispheres of uranium together. Then just as the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screwdriver, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction.
“But that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came to close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. Young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and thereby possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands and thus interrupted the chain reaction.
“By this instant, self-forgetting daring, he saved the lives of the seven other persons in the room. As he waited... for the car that was to take them to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, Al Graves, “You’ll come through all right. But I haven’t the faintest chance myself.’ It was only too true. Nine days later he died in agony.
He had saved the lives of seven others—but he could not save his own life.
For thousands of years, sin had built up in intensity until it became a critical mass at Calvary. On the rugged cross, Christ threw His own body across the fury of sin’s chain reaction and broke its destructive power over your soul, over mine.
The mocking crowd shouted these cruel words in the ears of the suffering Savior: “He saved others; Himself he cannot save” (Matthew 27:42).
How true were their words!
If Christ would have saved Himself, others He could not have saved. “He gave His life a ransom for many.”
I like the song that says:
“Christ could have called ten thousand
angels
To destroy the world and set Him free:
He could have called ten thousand angels
But He died alone for you and me.”
II. Christ is the only Shepherd (John 10:12-16).
Christ likened the religious leaders to hired hands who assumed responsibility for the flock, not because they had any concern for the flock, but rather because they had a concern for themselves. The flock to such a shepherd was only a means for personal gain. But Christ showed that He was the only true Shepherd because He knew His sheep. That they were the object of His loving concern was demonstrated by the fact that He was willing to sacrifice His own life in order to protect and preserve His sheep. Because He was willing to lay down His life for the sheep and was the only one willing to do so, He was the only Shepherd.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
The hireling lacks commitment
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
The hireling lacks concern. The religious leaders had no real investment in the sheep. Their own power and position were all they were concerned about.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
III. Christ is the Obedient Shepherd. 17, 18
Christ showed Himself to be the obedient Shepherd. All that He did for the sheep, He did because He was faithful and obedient to His Father. His death was a voluntary act of submission to the will of the Father so that He might redeem those who were His Father’s sheep. Christ’s life was not taken from Him involuntarily. He voluntarily sacrificed his life because He was obedient to the Father.
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Matthew 26:51-53
51 And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
John 19:10-13
10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. . . .
Pilate suddenly recognized supernatural power. He wanted no part of the situation, but he had no say in the matter. Jesus was going to lay down His life for the sheep.
John 10:19 ¶ There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
One day a teenager from a little village in Scotland left home to make his way in the world—to find his place in the sun. With the passing of years, he became a world-famous Shakespearean actor. At the pinnacle of his fame, he returned to his home to visit family and friends. For the obscure community, it was an exciting and proud time. A party was thrown for the entire village. After eating, partying and reminiscing, someone suggested that a contest be held. Their notable actor and the elderly local pastor would engage in a contest. Each was to quote a portion from one of Shakespeare’s plays. The pastor, with some embarrassment, confessed that he had not committed any of Shakespeare’s writings to memory. But someone remembered that long years before their returned favorite son had memorized the twenty-third Psalm in Sunday school.
And so it was agreed that they both quote this familiar biblical text. The pastor went first; slowly and tenderly he quoted the Psalm. Now it was the actor’s turn. He began, “The Lord is my shepherd. ..” and with great expression and perfect gestures, with masterful inflection and flawless diction, he quoted the entire Psalm. When he finished there was a moment of awkward silence. What eloquence. Everyone knew who the winner was. The contest was embarrassingly one-sided. Once again the actor stepped to the microphone. With genuine humility, he made this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, I know the Psalm—the pastor knows the Shepherd.” Today, millions of people can quote the Psalm—far less truly know the Shepherd. How goes it with your eternal soul? Can you say, The Lord is my Shepherd—I am His sheep; therefore I shall not want, neither in life—nor in death? —Israel My Glory, November, 1984 (Marv Rosenthal)
