SERIES: The Gospel of John
A Shepherd and His Sheep
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: There are over 160 different animals mentioned in the Bible—from mountain goats to wild donkeys, from the ostrich to the hawk, from the hippopotamus to the crocodile. Many of the animals are used to illustrate human characteristics. But the animal imagery God uses more often than any other to describe His people is that of the sheep, and that is because people and sheep bear many similarities. Both are timid, weak, stubborn, dependent, stupid, and in need of endless attention from a shepherd.
But there are some other, more positive characteristics that sheep and people have in common to which we might also appeal—both can be gentle, loveable, trusting, loyal, and teachable. It is probably due to the variety of positive and negative parallels between people and sheep that the Bible so often focuses on the striking portrait of the Lord as Shepherd and His children as sheep. We are perhaps most familiar with the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still water. He restoreth my soul.” (KJV)
This same imagery is found throughout the OT and NT. The Psalmist wrote, “We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Isaiah declared, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Mark wrote that Jesus had pity upon the crowds because “they were as sheep not having a shepherd.” The author of Hebrews spoke of Jesus as “the great Shepherd,” while Peter saw Him as “the Chief Shepherd” to whom all under-shepherds are responsible. However, no passage of Scripture delves into the imagery as deeply or profoundly as the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel. Let’s read John 10:1-30:
“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. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 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. 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.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
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. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 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.”
19 The Jews who heard these words were again divided. 20 Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”
21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Before we begin our exposition, I must acknowledge that justice cannot be done to this chapter in one sermon. Even five or ten sermons would not be adequate to exhaust the meaning of Jesus’ words, yet I remind you that our goal in this series on John has not been to expound every verse or to exhaust every chapter; rather our goal has been to get to the heart of the matter as best we can and in the process gain a better understanding of the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation He came to offer. The details are fascinating, and I can recommend further study for those so inclined, but in this series our focus is more on the forest than the trees.
In first-century Palestine, a shepherd with his sheep was as common a sight as a combine in a Kansas wheat field. Jesus often used the common things of everyday life to teach profound spiritual truths. In this case He is, in my estimation, seeking to illustrate the truths that were acted out in the story of the blind man healed by Jesus in chapter 9. The intimate connection between chapters 9 and 10 is seen, first of all in the lack of any transition between the chapters. As soon as Jesus finishes speaking to the blind man, He immediately begins his monologue about the shepherd and the sheep.
The cruel actions of the Pharisees toward the blind man are paralleled by the false shepherds, who are called thieves and robbers. The response of the blind man to the ministry of Jesus is like the response of the sheep to the Good Shepherd. The Lord’s finding of the blind man after he had been thrown out of the synagogue is like the care of the shepherd for the sheep. And we could go on and draw many more parallels, but I trust that is sufficient to establish the point.
After wrestling with possible approaches to John 10, I decided upon a thematic outline that synthesizes what the chapter tells us about four key elements: the false shepherd, the true shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and the sheep. Let’s begin with
The false shepherd
Verse 1 speaks of “the one who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way.” It is my opinion that Jesus is speaking here not only of the Pharisees, but also of all religious leaders who are not genuine believers themselves. The world is full of them.
One of my most memorable Seminary experiences was hearing the testimony of a first‑year student in his 40’s. He had been for 12 years the pastor of a large Protestant church in Dallas, well‑respected in his own denomination and in the city. And then he got saved. He decided that he needed to go back to Seminary, even though he already had a doctorate from a liberal seminary. This time he wanted to learn how to preach the Word of God instead of just preaching book reviews and social issues. He wanted to learn how to lead and feed the flock instead of just leading civil rights marches and anti‑Viet Nam rallies. What a tremendous thing it was to see how God had regenerated that man, but for years he was a false shepherd and didn’t even know it!
How do we tell a false shepherd from a true one? Jesus gives us at least three characteristics.
The false shepherd is a thief and a robber. (1, 8) This is first stated in verse 1, repeated in verse 8, and alluded to again in verse 10. The visual picture is one of a communal sheep corral near a Palestinian village. At night the various shepherds would bring their flocks and entrust them to a watchman, who kept the door of the corral. The shepherd himself always entered and left by the door, but a sheep rustler would, of course, seek to enter some other way. By definition, a thief is one who is determined to deprive another person of his property, while a robber is one who doesn’t hesitate to use violence to achieve his objective.
The Jewish religious leaders fit this description well because they used intimidation, threats, and verbal harassment to try to steal the formerly blind man from Jesus’ flock. When all that didn’t work, they threw him out of the synagogue. And friends, there are many false shepherds today using the same tactics against those considering the claims of Christ. Some of you have shared testimonies that when you were converted, your liberal pastor told you, “Don’t be fanatical, you’ll get over it. It’s fine to be religious, but don’t let it get out of hand.” When that doesn’t work Christians are sometimes intimidated with labels like “wacko fundamentalist, Shiite Baptist, or intolerant bigot.” In many Muslim countries today, Christians are paying the supreme sacrifice for nothing more than professing faith in Jesus Christ.
The false shepherd comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (10) How so? We get a hint in Matt. 23, where Jesus rails against the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. Listen to verses 13‑15 of Matt. 23:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”
Don’t you love how Jesus was able to cut through the fog and tell it like it is? False shepherds steal, kill and destroy by turning people away from the truth, away from freedom in Christ, and away from righteous living, and instead turning them toward falsehood, toward spiritual slavery, and toward either licentiousness or legalism.
The false shepherd leaves the sheep in danger and flees. (12) Verse 12 says, “The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.” The spiritual shepherds of Israel were hired hands who abandoned people at the slightest sign of inconvenience. In Mark 7 Jesus tells how the Pharisees and scribes even sought ways of abandoning their own parents to destitution using some technicality of religious law.
The false shepherd doesn’t stay with a person in the hour of death; doesn’t continue to pray month in and month out for a person who is caught in a web of temptation; doesn’t persevere in the face of discouragement or stand firm in the face of opposition. And opposition will come to every shepherd, as Paul promised the Elders in Ephesus in Acts 20: “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!”
Why is it the hired hand flees when danger comes? “Because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” He acts in accord with his nature and the very nature of one who is in it for the money is that he leaves when the going gets tough. One can spot a hired hand in the ministry a mile away. He gets involved in the church’s finances and, like Judas, allows a good bit of it to slip through the bag into his own pockets. He changes churches frequently and it’s always to a bigger church with a higher salary. He pays special attention to the wealthy in his congregation in the hope that the association will eventually feather his own nest. He usually insists that people call him “Dr. So‑and‑so” and lists his degrees after his name. But when the sheep are in danger, he is pretty scarce.
Now it’s easy to focus on pastors in discussing false shepherds, but I don’t want to let you off the hook so easy. There are many of you who are called to be shepherds also—Elders, deacons, S.S. teachers, AWANA leaders, small group leaders, youth workers, disciplers. You too must be ever mindful of these characteristics of false shepherds and strive to avoid them in your own ministries.
So much for the false shepherd. But if there is a false one, there must also be a true one.
The True Shepherd
It is my opinion that Jesus intends the description of the true shepherd beginning in verse 2 to serve a two‑fold purpose. First of all, it is ultimately a description of Himself. If we were to try to identify the various elements of the parable, we would probably conclude that the sheep pen is Judaism, the watchman who opens the gate to Jesus is John the Baptist, and the sheep are believers, like the man born blind or even Jesus’ disciples—those whom He calls by name and leads out of Judaism into Christianity. In fact, that is essentially the explanation Jesus offers beginning in verse 7, after John tells us that “Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus explained it….”
However, I do not believe this primary meaning is the only meaning, for if Jesus has castigated the religious leaders of the Jews for being false shepherds, it is only reasonable to conclude that He is here teaching his disciples about the importance of them becoming true shepherds. In other words, what He says about the true shepherd should be true of all spiritual leaders in the church. They must enter by the gate, call the sheep by name, and lead them rather than drive them. Since Jesus’s personal ministry as Shepherd will be the sole focus of verses 7‑18, let’s take the opportunity here in verses 2‑5 to focus on those in the church who are true shepherds of the sheep.
The true shepherd enters by the gate. (2) Verse 2: “The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.” The meaning of this is simply that for one to be a spiritual shepherd, he must first be a believer. The gate of the sheep pen, according to verses 7 & 9, is Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one can come unto the Father except through Him—not even a shepherd. The false shepherds, of course, did not enter by the gate and thus were unsaved themselves; therefore, they were unable to lead anyone else to eternal life.
The true shepherd calls his sheep by name. (3) Shepherds in Palestine were known to give names to each of their sheep—names like Blackear, Spotted One, Frisky—names that would distinguish the sheep from each other. And the sheep would learn to respond to those names. Each sheep was treated as an individual.
The message here for under-shepherds is this: “Don’t be satisfied with ministering to groups of people—to the extent possible, minister to individuals.” If I don’t know your name, then I’m not really your shepherd. And that’s a sobering thought, because there are probably 200 people in our services today whose names I do not know. Help me to work at that. If you don’t think I know who you are, come and introduce yourself and keep doing it until I remember from sheer embarrassment. But take that responsibility on yourself, too. You can’t minister to someone else in the congregation if you don’t know his or her name.
The true shepherd leads the sheep instead of driving them. (3-4) Look at verses 3 & 4: “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.” Sheep are natural followers. If they don’t have a shepherd to follow, they will follow one another. As a boy my father used to put a stick in front of the lead sheep on his father’s farm, and that sheep would jump over the stick. Then he would remove the stick, but every other sheep would jump when he got to that spot. People are not very different, and we see lots of evidence of their tendency to follow blindly.
But in evangelical circles there is probably a more common problem than that of sheep being led astray—and that is sheep being driven instead of led. The fact is people are much better led by example and by persuasion than driven by pressure or coercion or sarcasm. That was a hard lesson for me to learn early in my ministry. I was committed to the church, and I felt everyone else should be equally committed, and if they weren’t, they were going to hear about it. I was not above rebuking the flock from the pulpit or criticizing them in the church newsletter. Following one such diatribe, my Dad, who was on the church mailing list and received the newsletter, called me and said, “Mike, I don’t want to interfere, but let me offer a bit of advice. You don’t own those sheep and they’re not responsible to you; quit driving them and start leading them.”
If I hadn’t listened to him, I probably wouldn’t have lasted at that church for another six months, but God gave us nine more great years there, largely because I started trying to encourage rather than rebuke, challenge rather than complain, lead instead of drive.
Now I would never set myself up as an example of a great shepherd even today. As a matter of fact, my spiritual gifts are not even in the shepherding area, but that’s no excuse. I may never be a greatshepherd but by God’s grace I can be an adequate one. Thankfully God has surrounded me with colleagues and lay people who do have those gifts in abundance.
In a sense all we have said so far this morning is preliminary to the major focus of John 10, the True Shepherd par excellence, the one who calls Himself the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd
The passage beginning in verse 7 reveals two more of the seven great “I am” statements of Jesus: “I am the gate,” and “I am the Good Shepherd,” each of which is repeated twice in this passage. It may seem to us that this is a case of mixing metaphors, but that is only because we do not understand first‑century sheep-herding. Sheep pens in town, as we commented earlier, were like a corral with a gate and a watchman, but out in the fields the sheep pens were mere rock walls with an opening, across which the shepherd himself would lie down and sleep so that the sheep would not wander and so they would not be vulnerable to thieves or wild animals. Jesus claims to be the gate.
The Good Shepherd serves as the “gate” to salvation, security, and satisfaction for His sheep. (7‑10) First, He is the gate to salvation. Look at verse 9: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” Salvation is through Jesus, not Buddha or Muhammad or Joseph Smith or David Koresh. One can call such an assertion “narrow intolerance,” but it is exactly what Jesus claimed. While it is certainly exclusive regarding the source of salvation, it is inclusive regarding the recipients. Salvation is open to anyone: “Whoever enters will be saved.” Saved from what? From the penalty, the power, and eventually the presence of sin.
Jesus is also the gate to security. “He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” This is a Hebrew idiom for a life that is absolutely secure and safe. Once a man discovers new life in Christ, the worries and fears of life need no longer dominate him.
Jesus is the gate to satisfaction as well. Verse 10 adds, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” I wish we could put to rest the desperately false notion many seem to have that the Christian life is a drudgery; that it is a cramped life‑style; that it is something one must put up with to go to Heaven. If your life is like that, I’d have to say there are only 3 possible reasons why:
1. You only think you’re a Christian.
2. You’re a half‑hearted Christian, having never experienced the joy of full surrender.
3. You’re a back‑slidden Christian, i.e., one who has allowed the world with its pseudo‑pleasures to entice you away from the abundant life which Jesus provides. [i]
The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. (11, 15, 17-18) We must not miss the emphasis that is placed in this chapter upon the fact that Jesus laid down His life. It’s found in verse 11, 15, 17, and 18, and each mention includes the element of voluntary surrender. You see, when the Palestinian shepherd died in defense of his sheep, it was because of an accident. He planned to live for them, not die for them, because the death of the shepherd usually meant disaster for the sheep.
But Jesus’ very goal and purpose was to die for the sheep, and the result was eternal life, not disaster, for them. He was not the victim of circumstance; He was not like an unwilling animal dragged to the altar. He did not lose His life; He gave it—for us.
The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and is known by them. (14) There is a relationship of mutual knowledge between the shepherd and the sheep. And this reciprocal knowledge is not superficial but intimate. In fact, it is likened to the knowledge that Jesus has of His Father and which the Father has of Him. What a fantastic and yet almost fearful thing it is that Jesus knows His sheep that well. He knows our needs, our hopes, our aspirations, our abilities. But He also knows our weaknesses, our sins, our thoughts, our real motivations, and our true level of commitment.
The Good Shepherd gathers all His sheep into one flock. (16) Verse 16 says, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” This verse has been subject to many fanciful interpretations. The liberals claim the “other sheep” are pagans, who, though they never become Christians, will nevertheless be accepted into the sheep pen because God is all -oving. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim the other sheep are all the J.W.’s who don’t make it into the 144,000 witnesses of Revelation. The Roman Catholic Church has historically viewed the other sheep as godly Protestants who will eventually see the light and rejoin the Church.
But certainly, the simplest way to understand Jesus’ words is to see the sheep pen as originally populated by early Jewish believers and the “other sheep” as Gentiles who would come to faith. In other words, Jesus is predicting here the world‑wide spread of the Gospel through His apostles after His death and resurrection. You and I are these other sheep!
By the way, isn’t it fascinating that Jesus says He “has” these sheep even though they had not yet been brought into the pen, nor had they yet even heard His voice. Here we have another one of those beautiful biblical balances between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. The other sheep “belong” to Jesus because He chose them and died for them, but they must be brought in, and they must hear, and they must believe. (Acts 18:9,10) This places a compelling necessity upon us to share the Gospel.
Notice too that the “other sheep” are not to remain distinct from the existing sheep. There’s no basis for a Jewish church separate from a Gentile church, nor for believers of one denomination to isolate themselves from believers of another denomination, refusing to consider them as brothers and sisters. The problem is not with denominationalism itself. People are different and there is no reason at all why there ought not to be different organizations with different forms of service and church government to express those differences.
The problem comes when one group of believers refuses to cooperate with another group of believers, justifying this on grounds that the other Christians are somehow inferior or perhaps even outside the sheep pen! James Montgomery Boice writes,
“Evangelicals are more guilty of this than anyone, and I do not hesitate to say that this is the greatest single cause for the hindrance of the advance of the gospel in the world today—greater than liberalism, greater than humanism, greater than the materialism and rampant immorality of our time. Moreover, it is sin. And we will not have great revival until true believers repent of this sin and ask God to cleanse them of it.” [ii]
That’s strong language, but I think I agree. We need to start recognizing that everyone who is born again by faith in Jesus Christ is part of the same family and begin turning our weapons on the enemy instead of one another.
Now quickly, we look finally at
The Shepherd’s sheep
The Shepherd’s sheep do not follow false shepherds. (5, 8) Verses 5 & 8 both say that the shepherd’s sheep will never listen to or follow a stranger. As I meet with other pastors from time to time, I hear of their fear of losing members to the cults or to other religious movements. I really don’t have that fear. Oh, I think we all need to be informed and educated about the dangers that lurk all around us, but I don’t lay awake at night worrying that people at First Free are going to go off the deep end and follow some hair‑brained religious pied‑piper. If they are really the shepherd’s sheep in the first place, and if we’ve been feeding them a healthy diet, and if they are experiencing the warmth and love of the flock, then they are not going to follow a stranger. But more important than the sheep’s unwillingness to follow false shepherds is their ability to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and follow Him.
The Shepherd’s sheep hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow Him. (27) Verse 27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” When I was a kid I used to work summers on my uncle’s dairy farm near Northfield, Minnesota. In the late afternoon I would go out to the pasture to call the cows. I’d walk about 1/2 mile toward them until I could see them clearly and then I would mimic my uncle, “Ca boss, Ca boss.” One or two cows would raise their heads and give me a condescending stare, but most would go right on chewing their cuds. But then my uncle would stand on a little knoll right near the silo (and a half mile from the cows) and just yell once, “Ca boss,” and immediately they would head for the barn. They knew his voice.
Christians instinctively know and recognize the voice of the Lord as He speaks through His Word, through sermons, through people, through events, even through trials. And they follow Him. The key notion here is obedience. Sure, we all know those who have become disobedient for a time, perhaps even for years, refusing to follow the Shepherd. But unless they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, this passage presumes they will eventually repent and begin to follow the Shepherd once again. Why do I say that?
The Shepherd’s sheep are secure in their relationship to the Shepherd. (28‑30) Listen to one of the most encouraging passages in all the Bible, beginning in verse 28: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.” The life the Shepherd gives is eternal life. That life is good, not just until the sheep make a false move or disobey some order; it is good forever—”they shall never perish.”
And that thought is strengthened even further by the truth that no one is able to snatch them out of Jesus’ hand, nor is anyone able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. After all, He and the Father are one. It is one of the most precious things about the Christian faith that our continuance in eternal life depends not on our feeble hold on Christ but on His and His Father’s firm grip on us.
Conclusion: The emphasis of John 10 is upon the Good Shepherd: His fearless leading, His individual care, and His patient love for the flock. Still, I want to close by asking you a question, “Whose sheep are you? Who are you following?” Isaiah 53 tells us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone one of us, to his own way, but the Lord has laid on the Good Shepherd the sin of us all.” The Good Shepherd is calling you by name. He wants to be your own personal Shepherd and Savior. He wants to give you life, abundant life. Won’t you trust Him today?
Benediction: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well‑pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
DATE: March 21, 1993
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[i] Philip Keller has presented an excellent analysis of “the abundant life” in his book, A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd and His Sheep. He states that if you want life, you must have it from Christ, and if you want more life, you must get it at the same place. See p. 58.