Joh 10:1-16 | KingComments | STEP | This chapter connects directly to the previous one. The born blind man who has been healed by the Lord and therefore can see, has been put out by the leaders of the people. In the chapter that we now have before us, we will see what that means and what the consequences are. Here the Lord Jesus continues His discourse to the Pharisees, which He started at the end of the previous chapter ( ). By putting out the born blind man, they have disqualified themselves as God’s appointed leaders. In the picture of a fold with sheep, the Lord holds out to them the consequences of this in the picture of the fold of the sheep. Of the fold He is the door and of the sheep He is the Shepherd. He again begins His important teaching on this subject with a twofold and therefore emphatically “truly”, followed by the authoritative “I say to you”. He first presents the situation that applies to Israel and the false leaders. The fold is the religious system established by Moses. A fold reminds one of an enclosed space in which the sheep can stay safely. The law of Moses functioned as a fence through which the Jews were separated from the Gentiles ( ). In the fold there is an opening, a door to enter by it. The door presents the proper way indicated by God to enter the fold of Israel in order to be a shepherd for the people that are seen as His flock ( ). People have entered the fold in another way than by the door. They have climbed in from a different side. Those are the thieves and the robbers who rob God’s people. They are men who claim authority over God’s people, without God having given it to them. We can think of people like Theudas and Judas of Galilee ( ). They are people who set themselves up as leaders, but who turn out to be deceivers. We can also include Pharisees and other religious persons who claim the leadership of God’s people for themselves. The Lord warns of such people and says that they are wolves in sheep’s clothing ( ). They feed themselves instead of the sheep ( ). The God-given shepherd is the shepherd who enters by the door. God has revealed through the prophets how the Messiah enters as a Shepherd, for instance that He would be born in Bethlehem of a virgin ( ; ). The Lord Jesus answers to that. Also, through His works, He answers to what God has said of the Messiah. He would heal the blind and make the deaf hear ( ). God also gave His testimony about Him from heaven when He pointed to Him as His beloved Son ( ). He entered by the door, that is, He passed through the testing of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. As a result, it has been established that He fulfills all those prophecies and it has become clear that He is the Shepherd God gives to His people. The moment He enters by the door is when He is baptized by John. By doing so, He joins those who, confessing their sins before God, take their place as a repentant remnant. He identifies Himself with them. To them He is the Shepherd God gives to His people. Speaking of a shepherd, the Lord is consistent with an imagery that is well-known in the Old Testament ( ; ). Ezekiel 34 is especially about the false shepherds ( ). Opposite to that, He speaks here of Himself as the good Shepherd ( ). He does so in connection with giving His life for the sheep. He is also “the great Shepherd” of the sheep ( ) and “the Chief Shepherd” ( ). We can say that He proved Himself as the good Shepherd in the past when He gave His life. We also see that in the present time He is the great Shepherd Who cares for His sheep. As far as the future is concerned, we see Him as the Chief Shepherd Who will appear with reward for those who have cared for His sheep in the present age in imitation of Him.

‏ John 10:1-16

The Shepherd of the Sheep

This chapter connects directly to the previous one. The born blind man who has been healed by the Lord and therefore can see, has been put out by the leaders of the people. In the chapter that we now have before us, we will see what that means and what the consequences are. Here the Lord Jesus continues His discourse to the Pharisees, which He started at the end of the previous chapter (Jn 9:39-41). By putting out the born blind man, they have disqualified themselves as God’s appointed leaders. In the picture of a fold with sheep, the Lord holds out to them the consequences of this in the picture of the fold of the sheep. Of the fold He is the door and of the sheep He is the Shepherd.

He again begins His important teaching on this subject with a twofold and therefore emphatically “truly”, followed by the authoritative “I say to you”. He first presents the situation that applies to Israel and the false leaders. The fold is the religious system established by Moses. A fold reminds one of an enclosed space in which the sheep can stay safely. The law of Moses functioned as a fence through which the Jews were separated from the Gentiles (Eph 2:14).

In the fold there is an opening, a door to enter by it. The door presents the proper way indicated by God to enter the fold of Israel in order to be a shepherd for the people that are seen as His flock (Isa 40:11). People have entered the fold in another way than by the door. They have climbed in from a different side. Those are the thieves and the robbers who rob God’s people. They are men who claim authority over God’s people, without God having given it to them. We can think of people like Theudas and Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:36-37). They are people who set themselves up as leaders, but who turn out to be deceivers. We can also include Pharisees and other religious persons who claim the leadership of God’s people for themselves.

The Lord warns of such people and says that they are wolves in sheep’s clothing (Mt 7:15). They feed themselves instead of the sheep (Eze 34:2). The God-given shepherd is the shepherd who enters by the door. God has revealed through the prophets how the Messiah enters as a Shepherd, for instance that He would be born in Bethlehem of a virgin (Isa 7:14; Mic 5:2). The Lord Jesus answers to that. Also, through His works, He answers to what God has said of the Messiah. He would heal the blind and make the deaf hear (Isa 35:5-6). God also gave His testimony about Him from heaven when He pointed to Him as His beloved Son (Mt 3:17).

He entered by the door, that is, He passed through the testing of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. As a result, it has been established that He fulfills all those prophecies and it has become clear that He is the Shepherd God gives to His people. The moment He enters by the door is when He is baptized by John. By doing so, He joins those who, confessing their sins before God, take their place as a repentant remnant. He identifies Himself with them. To them He is the Shepherd God gives to His people.

Speaking of a shepherd, the Lord is consistent with an imagery that is well-known in the Old Testament (Psa 23:1-6 ; Psa 80:1; Zec 11:11). Ezekiel 34 is especially about the false shepherds (Eze 34:1-10). Opposite to that, He speaks here of Himself as the good Shepherd (Jn 10:11). He does so in connection with giving His life for the sheep.

He is also “the great Shepherd” of the sheep (Heb 13:20) and “the Chief Shepherd” (1Pet 5:4). We can say that He proved Himself as the good Shepherd in the past when He gave His life. We also see that in the present time He is the great Shepherd Who cares for His sheep. As far as the future is concerned, we see Him as the Chief Shepherd Who will appear with reward for those who have cared for His sheep in the present age in imitation of Him.

The Shepherd and the Sheep

God, as the Doorkeeper, has opened the door to Him because He has recognized Him as His Shepherd. Once the Shepherd is in the fold, He speaks to all the sheep. He has come to His own, but His own have not accepted Him (Jn 1:11). They hear His voice, but they do not listen. Yet among all the sheep of Israel there are sheep who do listen to Him. They are called “his own sheep” in distinction of the sheep as a whole. The healed born blind man from the previous chapter is one of “his own sheep”. So there is a distinction between ‘the sheep’ and ‘His own sheep’.

And then we read something remarkable, something we would not expect and what His disciples did not expect either. He comes in, not to improve the fold, not to lead all the sheep out, but to lead ‘His own sheep’ out of the Jewish fold and lead them outside, outside the Jewish fold. In this way He makes a separation between sheep who do not know Him and sheep who do know Him. This distinction and separation has become necessary because Israel as a people has rejected Him.

After having made this distinction, the Lord Jesus is only concerned with His own sheep as the only object for His heart and with the love He personally has for each of His own sheep. God commands Him to pasture these sheep, of whom God says they are sheep doomed to slaughter (Zec 11:4 ; 7). To fulfill that command, the Shepherd takes these sheep doomed to slaughter from the fold of Israel to make them into something new. We see this happening in Acts (Acts 2:40-41). Further on in this chapter (Jn 10:16) the Lord elaborates on this.

The sheep He leads out, He calls by name. Thus He calls the names of Simon (Jn 1:42), of Lazarus (Jn 11:43), of Philip (Jn 14:9), of Mary (Jn 20:16). He knows each of His sheep personally, He has a personal relationship with each sheep.

An additional aspect in the leading out from the Jewish fold is that this leading out means the judgment of Judaism. To those who do not belong to His own sheep and who will later say to Him that they were His sheep after all, He will say that He never knew them (Mt 7:23).

His own sheep are not all willing to follow Him. Insistence is also needed. In order to lead them out, He sometimes has to put them forth. To do so, the Lord uses the enmity of the false leaders, as we have seen with the born blind man.

The Shepherd leads them out in freedom and not into a new fold. On that path to and in freedom He leads the sheep and they follow Him because there is a personal relationship with the Shepherd. They also know His voice which gives them the confidence that they follow the right Person. Just as He is occupied exclusively with His own sheep, they know only His voice and no other voice.

A sheep is a compliant animal, but only of its own Shepherd Whose voice it knows. That one voice is recognized by the sheep. All other voices they do not know. When another voice calls them, they will flee, precisely because it is an unknown voice and not the familiar voice of the shepherd. The voice reveals who speaks. If it is not the voice of the good Shepherd, it is the voice of a stranger. Whatever other voice it is, it is enough to know that it is not the voice of the shepherd. The voice of the good shepherd gives confidence; from every other voice they flee.

Figure of Speech

The Pharisees are blind as ever and do not understand anything about it. They don’t want to understand it either because they hate Him. What He speaks to them, they do not know because they do not know Him. What He speaks, He is. Because they do not want to know Him, they remain blind to the meaning of what He speaks. If they knew Him, they would also understand His words.

This is the ailment of many who have a title in theology. Such people think they see, but they are blind, because they deny Him the honor to which He is entitled. The Lord speaks figure of speech or in parables to conceal their true meaning from unbelief, while the true disciples are allowed know the meaning (Mt 13:13-15).

I Am the Door

The Lord continues His figure of speech and also adds an explanation. Just as He began the figure of speech with the double and therefore emphatically “truly”, followed by the authoritative “I say to you” (Jn 10:1), so He also begins the sequel with it. He presents Himself as “the door”. He is not the door of Israel, but of the sheep. There is no other door, no other way for the sheep to enter the place of blessing. That blessing is the blessing found in Christendom, which is on a totally different basis than everything connected with Judaism.

The Lord speaks of the many presumptuous people who have risen among the people. Those persons are thieves and robbers. They have robbed the people and they have robbed God by pursuing only their own interests at the expense of His people. The sheep have not listened to them, which means that there is no bond of trust between the sheep and them.

From Jn 10:7 onward the Lord speaks about “the sheep” who have already been led out and are His own sheep. In Jn 10:9 He points once more to Himself as the door, this time not with regard to the sheep, but to present the blessings that every sheep, that is every human being (Eze 34:31) receives who enters the area of blessing through Him. Those blessings are threefold: “to be saved”, “to go in and out” and “to find pasture”.

The first blessing is “to be saved”. The necessary work for this, His death and His resurrection, still had to be done, but the Lord already points out the result. “To go in and out” is an expression that indicates freedom (Acts 9:28). In Judaism there is no free access to God. Nor are the Jews free to go out to the nations to tell them about God. Now however there is boldness for both activities (Heb 10:19; Acts 8:4). The third blessing, “to find pasture”, indicates the spiritual food that the good Shepherd offers them, as opposed to the false shepherds who only feed themselves, pasture themselves, and trample the remaining (Eze 34:18).

I Am the Good Shepherd

The Lord points out the great contrast between the thief and the good shepherd. A thief comes sneakily and unexpectedly and without pity. He exploits the sheep, and more than that. He comes not only to steal, but also to kill, and even to erase every trace of his crime by destroying. He gives nothing, but takes everything, including life and its remainders.

How completely different is the Lord Jesus. He did not come to take something, but to give something: life, and not just life, but life in abundance. He gives life in its richest and most abundant form, that is eternal life. To be able to give it He not only risked His life, but He actually gave it. Thus He has proven to be the good Shepherd.

The good thing about that Shepherd is not that He leads His sheep out and gives them eternal life, but that He lays down His life for them in death. The glorious consequence of this is that He leads His sheep out and gives them eternal life. His sheep are so dear to Him that He wanted to lay down His life to be able to give them life in abundance. To lay down His life here is a completely voluntary act of Himself as the highest proof of His love for the sheep. Likewise He lets His disciples go free when they come to take Him prisoner (Jn 18:8).

What a contrast this acting presents compared to the acting of a hired hand. The hired hand represents another aspect of a false shepherd in addition to what the Lord has already said about the thief and the robber. The hired hand need not necessarily be depraved like the thief or the robber. However, his interest is not primarily in the sheep, but in money. That is why a hired hand flees as soon as danger threatens. He doesn’t think about the sheep, they are not close to his heart. He is only concerned for his own life. He has no connection whatsoever with the sheep.

With the good shepherd this is quite the opposite. The Lord Jesus is the good Shepherd and He has a close bond with the sheep. He knows them, they are His, He pays attention to them and takes care of them. The mutual knowledge of the shepherd and the sheep is based on the close bond that exists between the shepherd and the sheep. This Shepherd knows exactly what the needs of each sheep are. Because there is a relationship, the sheep that belong to Him also know Him. They know Who He is Who cares for them.

The mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son is the norm for the knowledge that exists between the Shepherd and His sheep. The knowledge between the Father and the Son is perfect. So it is with the knowledge between the Lord Jesus and His own. The Son is the object of the Father’s heart. In the same way the sheep are the object of His heart. The mutual knowledge is there because the sheep have the same life as the good Shepherd. To make that possible the Lord Jesus has laid down His life for the sheep.

One flock, One Shepherd

So far the Lord Jesus has spoken about sheep from Israel with a split between sheep who have no relationship with Him, who reject Him, and sheep He calls His own, the believing remnant from Israel. He has spoken about laying down His life for the sheep of Israel who belong to Him being the foundation of the mutual knowledge. Following this, He speaks about “other sheep”, a third group of sheep. With these other sheep He means the sheep from the nations.

His death cannot be limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The great appreciation of His death by the Father is the reason for the formation of a special flock, of which He is the Shepherd. That flock will consist of ‘His own sheep’ that He has led out of the fold of Israel and sheep that are not from that fold. He is about to add sheep that have been outside Israel’s fold until now. These are, as said, the sheep from the nations. Herewith the Lord indicates the calling of a group from the Gentiles. We see the beginning of this in the book of Acts with examples like the eunuch from Ethiopia (Acts 8:27-39) and the Roman centurion Cornelius and his friends (Acts 10:24 ; 44-48).

The Lord does not bring all those sheep as one flock into a new fold with Him as the one Shepherd. Nor does He make one flock of them, while He places them in several folds. In the latter case it would seem as if the division would be a good thing, possibly even meant. Unfortunately, this is what we see in professing Christianity in the countless groups and denominations. No, there is no fold anymore.

The characteristic of the church, seen as one flock with one Shepherd, is unity in freedom. Judaism kept the sheep together by physical restrictions, by laws and commandments. The new unity is held together by the personal appearance and attraction of the Shepherd. This is the essence of Christendom. This required not only the death, but also the resurrection, as the following verse shows.