Lesson 27

The Door

John 10:1-10

Most of you can probably remember the Candid Camera TV program. One episode was filmed at an exclusive prep school where all the students were above average. The Candid Camera crew posed as career consultants who were going to advise these brillant young men concerning the careers that would be best suited to them, on the basis of "tests" and "interviews" that seemed, from the student's perspective, to be quite authentic. One young man eagerly awaited the counselor's verdict. Surely the adviser would tell the boy to be a college professor or a bank president or maybe a research scientist. But the counselor had other ideas. "Son," he said, "after evaluating your tests, I've decided that the best job for you is - a shepherd." The poor boy didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had never seen a course in shepherdology listed in the catalogue. And who would want to devote their life to tending sheep - creatures which don't have the sense to find their way home?

John 10 focuses on the image of sheep, sheepfolds and shepherds. Of course, this imagery would have been familiar in the ancient near-eastern, agrarian world. But it is an image that can say a great deal to us today, even in our urban, industrialized, western world.

This image is often used in the Bible. Peter and Paul used shepherds to speak about church leaders, see Acts 20:28-29; I Peter 5:2-3. In fact, the word "pastor" literally means "a shepherd." Thus, the New Testament epistles refer to the local church as a flock.

But in the Old Testament, the imagery of God's flock was used to describe the nation of Israel. Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: ... we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. See also Jeremiah 23:1-4. The spiritual shepherds of the Old Testament were the kings, the prophets and the priests. On a number of occasions, the prophets thundered words of judgment against the false prophets who either devoured the flock themselves or else did not protect Israel from other pagan nations (which are compared to beasts of the field) Isaiah 56:9-12; Jeremiah 25:32-38; Ezekiel 34; Zechariah 11. Israel thought of themselves as God's flock and the Lord Jehovah as their shepherd. David, who had been a shepherd, said, "The Lord is my shepherd" (Psalm 23:1).

Jesus also spoke often of people as sheep. Matthew 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 18:12-13 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

In John 10, there are at least ten references by Jesus to sheep. Not only does Christ speak of people as sheep but He also speaks of himself as the shepherd. On the night of His betrayal Jesus said, (Matthew 26:31) All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. In John 10, Jesus refers to Himself as "the good shepherd" (vss. 11,14). Later, the author of Hebrews (13:20) would speak of Jesus as "the great shepherd" and Peter (I 5:4) would refer to Him as the "chief shepherd." By calling Himself the Shepherd, Jesus is indirectly making claims to His deity. If the Lord is the shepherd and Jesus is the shepherd, the Jesus is the Lord.

But before referring to Himself as the good shepherd, Jesus introduces the subject of the flock with another illustration. It is that one which we shall examine from John 10:1-10 today. This is the first chapter in John's gospel that actually begins with the words of Jesus. Most Bible scholars therefore agree that the words of Jesus in John 10 are connected to the event of John 9. You will recall that in the previous chapter, a man born blind was healed by Jesus and subsequently cast out of the synagogue because of his obvious conclusion that Jesus had come from God. Though ex-communicated from the Jewish religion, this man was immediately received by Jesus. Can you see, then, how this whole idea of being in a "flock" is underlying? The man may have been excluded from Israel's "flock" but Jesus wants him and everyone else to know that he has been included in God's flock.

Notice, please, first of all ...

The Illustration, 10:1-6a.

Verse 6 identifies verses 1-5 as a "parable." The word "parable(s)" is found 47 times in the four gospels, but only once in the Gospel of John. Furthermore, this is an entirely different Greek word for parable that all the other references in the gospels. Generally, a parable is a story. But this word means an illustration.

In this illustration, Jesus begins by talking about "the sheepfold". This was an idea with which His audience would be quite familiar. At night, a Jewish shepherd would put his sheep into a sheepfold. This was an enclosure of stone or thorn bushes which were open to air. They might be natural (like a little canyon) or they might be man-made. In such a sheepfold, there was always only one opening, one door, through which the sheep entered and exited. The shepherd might spend the night sleeping in front of the door, the opening to protect the sheep from thieves or wild animals or to keep them from wandering away in the darkness. But it was also quite common for several shepherd to put all of their flocks together in one sheepfold at night for safekeeping and to have a porter who was like the night watchman of all the flocks. In the morning, when the shepherd would come to take his sheep to graze, the sheep knew the voice of their shepherd and would follow only him. There was always a close and very personal relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. They knew his voice. He knew each sheep individually and had a name for each one - Brownleg or Blackear.

Now, with this in mind, notice Jesus words. Verse 1 - Only a thief would enter the sheepfold some other way than through the door. (The word thief is kleptos and means to steal as in kleptomaniac; the word robber refers to one who plunders). Verse 2 - the one who enters through the door is of course the shepherd of the sheep. Verse 3 - the porter will, of course, recognize the shepherd, allow him entrance into the sheepfold. He will call his own sheep by name and will lead them out of the sheepfold. Verse 4 - Once they are out of the sheepfold, the shepherd leads them; they follow him because they know his voice. Verse 5 - The sheep will not follow a stranger because they don't recognize his voice. In fact, not only will they not follow the stranger, they will actually run away from a strange voice. All of these factors would make it rather hard to steal someone's sheep.

Jesus just sort of points out some of the well-known, self-evident truths about sheep and flocks and shepherds and sheepfolds. This is the parable, the illustration.

The Confusion, 10:6b.

The ears on which these words fell were confused. "They understood not what things they were which he spake unto them." It isn't so much that facts were confusing to them, the things about sheep and such. No, could not grasp the significance of Jesus' illustration. There was a big question mark in their mind. What's the point? What are saying? We know about the behavior of sheep. So what?

Think about the illustration in terms of the blind man whom Jesus had healed. He had exited the sheepfold of Judaism to follow Christ. He knew who Jesus was. He recognized the voice of His shepherd. Jesus had not stolen him from the flock of God in some devious manner. I think this illustration really fits the situation.

The Application, 10:7-10.

Jesus begins to explain the symbolism of His illustration. He is going to say that He is the shepherd (v. 11,14). But before this, He first compares Himself to the door of the sheepfold. Verse 7 - "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep."

It is unfortunate that the sheepfold is often interpreted as heaven, that Jesus as the door is the only way into heaven and that those who try to get into heaven by any other way are destined to fail. While the teaching is true it is not the proper interpretation of these verses. It would proper to interpret Acts 4:12 this way but not John 10. The sheepfold does not represent heaven; it represents Israel (see v. 16). The Gentiles are the "other sheep not of this fold." The door was not just an entrance into the sheepfold at evening, it was an exit out of the sheepfold in the morning. The blind beggar had been thrown out of the sheepfold (the synagogue of Israel) by the Jews but, in a sense, he had been led out by Jesus.

Jesus makes it clear in verse 8, that the self-righteous Pharisees are the thieves and robbers. They do not care about the sheep. They care only about themselves. A shepherd loves and cares for the sheep. The Pharisees did not care about the blind beggar. They cast him out of the synagogue on the day he was healed and able to see for the first time in his life! But when Jews cast him out, Jesus took him in. For the blind beggar, Jesus became the door, the exit out of dead religion.

But Jesus as the door is not only a means of exiting out. He is also the means of "entering in", v. 9. Jesus is the door of salvation. Those who trust Him enter into the Lord's flock and have the wonderful privilege of going in and out and finding pasture. At the door, Jesus leads sinners out of bondage and into freedom. At the door, you enter into pasture and find, not only freedom, but fullness - "green pasture and still waters" so that you can say, "I shall not want."

In verse 10, Jesus draws a sharp contrast between himself and the Jews. They, like a thief, come to steal, to kill and to destroy. That is what dead religion does. It steal your self-esteem and your love for people. It will destroy any faith that you might have. It will kill you eventually. But on the other hand, Jesus has come that you might have life, not death, life. And the life He gives is abundant.

Jesus is the door out of dead, meaningless, life taking religion. Jesus is the door into salvation, the door into freedom and fullness, the door into abundant life.