Joh 10:1-4 | 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 10:1-4

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.