John 10:1-21 Jesus is the Gate and the Good Shepherd

I want to do something a little different this morning. I want you to close your eyes while I read the Scripture. John is writing good news to us, and I want us to hear it. You’ll have enough time later as we dig into the passage to turn the pages in your Bible to the story and read the parts which are speaking to us. But for now, close your Bible. Put your finger or your bulletin in between the pages, and just listen to the good news Jesus is speaking.

¹"Truly, truly I say to you, the man who does not enter the courtyard of the sheep by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not know the stranger's voice." ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me were thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[a] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it to the fullest.

¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd; the sheep are not his own. So when he sees the wolf coming, he forsakes the sheep and flees. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³Because the man is a hired hand, the sheep are of no concern to him.

¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this courtyard. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order that I take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

¹⁹At these words the Judeans were again divided. ²⁰Many of them said, "He has a demon and is raving mad. Why listen to him?" ²¹But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

Let us pray: Jesus, those who first heard your words did not understand. Give us the ears to hear your voice today. Let this good news be good news to us this morning. Amen.

I lived with music majors for three years during college, and while I didn’t learn much about music that was useful from them, like music theory, piano, or vocal techniques, I did learn about 12-tone music, which is really only useful to modern composers. One of the things I learned was that these pieces have something called a row. In a way, it’s is sort of like a theme that gets repeated through the piece in various ways. The first time you might have all of the notes in a recognizable order, and then it changes. So the second time, the notes might all be inverted. Then they might go up an octave, and then down, then they might be missing a couple of the notes. But no matter how it changes, it is still recognizable as the same “theme.”

In Jesus’ words today, we see a repeated theme as well. It changes slightly throughout, but it is still recognizable. The theme here is Abundant Life. Over and over, Jesus is calling us to live, not just mediocrity, but abundance, overflowing with power and joy and his presence.

We start with Jesus’ first I am statement of this passage. Jesus says, “I am the gate of the sheep.” “Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.” I think that too often our picture of salvation is too narrow. Too often we delay abundant life until we walk the streets of heaven. But salvation is not just about going to heaven! It’s about experiencing the love of God poured out on us here and now, about seeing our lives transformed by the Lord who laid down his life for us. It’s about living in the power of God to turn from the fears and sins and habits of the world into people who have the mind and heart of Christ.

Abundant life is here for us now, if only we will enter through the gate. Jesus is inviting us in. We don’t have to enter the courtyard on our own. When our host stands as the open gate, and we choose to run repeatedly into the rock wall that surrounds the courtyard, we cause ourselves a lot more pain that Jesus desires. We won’t find life or nourishment that way. We’ll just be battered to pieces.

But if we enter through the gate, we find pasture. There is good food among the flock – both inside the courtyard and out. The psalmist says that the Lord makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. These are places that are safe for us the sheep, and places where the food for our souls is more than we need. Jesus has come that we might have life, and that we will have it to the fullest possible measure imaginable.

But Jesus isn’t content to leave us with that picture of him as the gate. He’s much too involved in our lives for that. He says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.” The shepherd lives among the sheep day after day, making sure that they have everything they need, and protecting them from the people and animals that would try to harm them.

Very few of us have ever seen a shepherd. Some of us who have grown up in Southern California may never even have seen a sheep, outside of the occasional visit to a petting zoo. We may have a romanticized understanding of shepherds in our minds – the picture of little bo peep dances across our minds. And even for those of us who do know about modern shepherds, we probably have a slightly different picture in our minds than the one Jesus’ first hearers had. We think of people who live pretty much the same lives we do, except there are a lot of animals roaming around the yard while the shepherd sends the sheep dogs out to round up the sheep for the evening.

This is not the life of the ancient shepherd. First of all, ancient shepherds didn’t ride horses and send sheep dogs to round up the flock. They called their sheep by name, knowing the slight differences between each animal. And they used their voice to guide the flock, not dogs or whips or modern tools. The shepherd would walk in front of the flock, calling back to any stragglers who needed to run to catch up with the group. And the sheep followed his voice. It’s a little bit like your dog or cat reacts to your voice today. When a stranger comes through the door, your pet might growl or run and hide under a bed. But when you come home and call, your pet comes running and winds itself around your legs. These animals know their owners voice.

Jesus tells us, ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not know the stranger's voice." Then he says, ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”

Again we hear the theme of abundant life. Jesus knows us, personally, and individually. When you look at a flock of sheep, I’m guessing they all look pretty much the same to you, as they do to me. But we don’t know the sheep. We don’t know the personalities of each one, and the distinguishing marks in their wool. But the shepherd does. And Jesus our shepherd knows each one of us as well. No matter how much you look like the people around you, Jesus knows you individually. He knows what your gifts are, where you are strong and where you are weak. He knows what you are like first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and he’s okay with the fact that you maybe shouldn’t have a conversation with anyone before 10am, or that at night you get a little crazy when it’s past your bedtime. And he calls you by name to come follow him to green pastures where you can find food and rivers that are calm and clear where you can drink without being swept away. He is calling us to follow him, and when we follow we find that abundant life Jesus promises.

Unfortunately, Jesus isn’t the only one who calls us. There are many, many other voices calling us to follow them. Fame, fortune, and pride, selfishness, anger, and worthlessness, time, distractions, past failures, and present doubts all call us to follow. And there are many more. It can sound like a cacophony of voices all trying to get our attention, and all but one voice will lead us to death and destruction. We have to know Jesus’ voice if we are to follow. That means we have to spend time with him.

When my family got our dog as a puppy, she didn’t know us or our voices. She didn’t know her name. We had to teach her all of those things as we spent time with her and taught her to trust us. We had to call her over and over again. But she did learn our voices and her name, and she learned to come when we called. We are a little like that aren’t we? To know Jesus’ voice, and we have to spend time with him!

We enter the sheepfold the first time, unsure of who will call, and our time here, among the other sheep, helps teach us to trust the Lord. The other sheep sitting next to you know the shepherd’s voice, and they know that he will lead to good pasture, so we help teach each other what the voice of Jesus sounds like. And we learn to read the Bible, so recognize the other times Jesus has called his people, so that when we hear that same voice, we recognize that it is calling us. It’s why all of those spiritual disciplines – prayer, study, fasting, worship – are so important to our lives. Not just because we are told to do them, but because we meet Jesus in them, and we learn to listen to his voice and to follow him to abundant life. If we don’t know his voice, all the other voices calling out to us will lead us to death.

But when we follow Jesus’ voice, it’s actually him that encounters death, so we can encounter life. That’s the other part of being the shepherd. You place your life on the life to protect the sheep in your care. When the wolves and lions and bandits come, you stand firm against them and make sure that they can’t get to the sheep.

Jesus knows that when he tells us that he is the good shepherd. ¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd; the sheep are not his own. So when he sees the wolf coming, he forsakes the sheep and flees. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³Because the man is a hired hand, the sheep are of no concern to him.” ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; … I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. … ¹⁷The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order that I take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

Jesus knows the dangers we will encounter as we walk through life with him as our Shepherd. But that is the benefit of having a shepherd who goes before us. All of the dangers and temptations that we encounter, Jesus encounters before us. When we are following Jesus, we allow HIM to fight the wolves for us, instead of trying to fight them ourselves. We allow him to make sure that there are no thieves gaining entrance to the sheepfold and to repair the courtyard walls.

It’s a funny thing to say that the good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. It would seem that the shepherd laying down his life would leave the sheep more vulnerable than before. But Jesus knew better. He knew that the thieves, bandits, and wolves who would attack us don’t just need to be sent away once, they need to be defeated forever. And the only way for him to defeat sin, death, and the devil was to die, and then to rise from the grave. So here, before Calvary, Jesus is teaching that he has the authority to lay down his life, and then to take it up again in victory over all of the things that would attack us.

What are the thieves, bandits, and wolves in your life right now? What is trying to steal the abundant life of Jesus from you? What is trying to distract from the voice of Jesus? Is it the lie that you are too much? That you are too loud, or too strong, or too powerful, or too emotional? Is it the lie that you are not enough? Not good enough, not strong enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough? Is it the lie that you are not worthy of love because of what you have done or failed to do? The fear that even God couldn’t forgive if he knew what you had done? The fear that Jesus isn’t good enough to lead you to life? Is it lack of hope, lack of joy, lack of peace, or lack of love? Are you under attack from those who are angry, afraid, or filled with hatred? Do your besetting sins, those that always seem to be lurking around the corner the second we let our guard down, seem to be climbing right over the wall to the courtyard, ready to steal you away from Jesus, your shepherd?

That was quite a list right? Quite the jumble of lies that stand ready to jump over the wall or scatter the flock. And your thieves and wolves may be hundreds of other things. And I have some bad news for you, they aren’t necessarily going to go away. Jesus doesn’t say in this passage that once you enter the courtyard of the sheep, you will never be under attack. He says the opposite, there will still be thieves, bandits, and wolves that come to steal, kill, and destroy. And that the thieves and bandits will try to climb over the wall another way, wherever there is a crack or hole in the wall where they can gain and foot and handhold, or where they can dig through the wall until the hole is big enough to climb through. What Jesus does say is that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for us, his sheep, and that he has come that we might have life abundantly.

As we spend time in prayer this morning, ask Jesus to deal with the thieves, bandits, and wolves who are attacking you. And ask him to walk with you around the walls, so check for cracks and holes that would let those thieves into the courtyard. And as you go out from this courtyard this morning, ask him to teach you to know his voice better so you can follow, and ask him to deal with the wolves and other animals that will attack you this week while you are outside of the courtyard. Ask him to prevent the animals from destroying or scattering you. Jesus is our shepherd. That’s part of why he’s here.