Joh 10:11-16 | KingComments | STEP | 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 ( ). 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.

‏ John 10:11-16

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.