65
John 10:1-3 THE
SHEEPFOLD AND THE SHEPHERD
Introduction:
In our text
last Sunday Jesus spoke about the judgment
which He brought to the world at His first coming. He
explained that He judged those who place their faith in
Him
as the Son of God and as the Savior to be acceptable to
God.
Those who place their faith in Jesus as the Son of God
are
saved. This is a
judgment that will stand throughout all
eternity.
He further
explained that He judged those who reject Him
as the Son of God and as the Savior to be spiritually
blind
and, thus, unacceptable to God. This, too, is a judgment
that will stand throughout all eternity. All who reject Him
are unsaved.
In our text
today Jesus gives the first part of a
parable which uses a sheepfold to illustrate spiritual
truth. The entire
parable goes through verse 18. Normally
I would try to cover in one sermon all of the verses
which
pertain to the parable.
However, I
feel that in this particular case, it will
make it much easier to understand the parable if I break
it
up into parts and deal with only one part at a time.
The setting
for this text follows immediately after
Jesus spoke about bringing judgment. The former blind man,
along with the apostles were present. The group of
Pharisees who had inquired if He thought they were
spiritually blind was also present. In addition, there were
probably a goodly number of the general public present to
hear the parable.
This parable
is designed to show a contrast between
Jesus, Himself, and the Jewish leaders who opposed Him.
Jesus used a sheepfold, which was common to everyday life
in
Israel to illustrate the point that He wanted to make.
There were many sheep and many shepherds in Israel and
everybody was familiar with a sheepfold.
I. What a
sheepfold is
A sheepfold
was an enclosure which was built to hold
sheep at night so as to provide protection during the
night
while they were not grazing. Usually it would be built near
a city or village and all of the shepherds of the whole
area
would bring their flocks into that one sheepfold late in
the
evening for protection during the night. In this way, the
sheep had a measure of protection from attack by wild
animals and thieves who would desire to kill and steal
sheep.
In some areas,
where there was no city or village
nearby, a sheepfold was built right out in open country.
Even there a sheepfold would provide a lot more
protection
for the sheep than they would have by just letting them
lay
out in the open field at night.
Each sheepfold
had only one door or entrance. A guard
was posted at that door throughout the night to prevent
thieves from entering through the door. This guard or
doorkeeper is called "the porter" in our
text. If he should
need help to protect the sheep he could summons help by
blowing a horn.
II. What Jesus said about a sheepfold in the text
Yet in a
sheepfold the sheep were still subject to
attack. Both man
and beast could climb over the wall and
kill and steal sheep.
V. 1, "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber." If
anyone was caught climbing over the wall, it
was obvious that he was not one of the shepherds. He was a
thief. He, at
least, intended to steal sheep. If any
man
was caught inside the sheepfold who had not entered
through
the door, it was obvious that he was there for the
purpose
of stealing. He
would sneak in and try to kill a sheep and
lift it over the wall so that he could climb back over
and
get it without going out through the door. Such thievery
not only could happen, but often did.
V. 2,
"But he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep." In contrast to the thief who would
climb over the wall, the shepherd always used the door to
enter the sheepfold.
He would never climb over the wall.
V. 3, "To
him the porter openeth..." The
shepherd, of
course, would make no effort to enter during the
night. He
would wait until the next morning. Then he would return to
the door of the sheepfold and identify himself to the
porter. The porter
would never open the door to any one
without first identifying him and knowing that he had a
right to come in.
Once the shepherd was properly
identified, the porter would unlatch the door from the
inside and let him in.
(V. 3),
"...and the sheep hear his voice: and he
calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them
out." Once
inside, the shepherd would need to separate his sheep
from
the many other sheep.
They were just all mixed together
inside the fold.
He knew each sheep by name and he would
just start calling his sheep by name. He might have a
hundred sheep, but he would call them all by name and
here
they would come right to him. It would not make any
difference if several had the same name. His sheep all knew
his voice and they would not come to anybody else.
III. The thing
that Jesus wanted His audience to take
notice of
concerning the sheepfold
In this part
of the parable the thing which Jesus wanted
His listeners to see was the great difference between
those
who would climb the fence to get into the sheepfold and
the
shepherds who had a legitimate reason to be in the
sheepfold.
The man who
climbed the fence was a thief. He was
not
there to help the sheep in any way. He as not there to help
the porter in any way.
He was not there to help the
shepherd in any way.
He was not there to help the owner of
the sheep in any way.
He was there to wrongfully take the
sheep that belonged to somebody else and use it for his
own
selfish purpose.
He was there to kill and to steal sheep.
He would even kill the porter if necessary. He was there to
rob from the shepherd and from the owner of the
sheep. He
was a wicked man.
He was a bandit. He was a
criminal. He
was an outlaw. He
a thief and a thug.
On the other
hand, the shepherd loved the sheep and
sought only their well being. He would lead them out into
the fields to find grass.
He would lead them to the streams
and pools of water for drink. He would risk his life
fighting off wild animals or blood-thirst thieves. Many a
shepherd has lost his life trying to protect the sheep.
This was common knowledge to all of the people to whom
Jesus
was talking. To
put it into modern terms, the man who
climbed over the wall was a man who wore a black hat and
the
shepherd, who would enter through the door, wore a white
hat. The man who
climbed over the wall was the bad guy and
the shepherd who entered through the door was the good
guy.
There was not a man under the sound of the voice of Jesus
who did not understand this.
IV. The spiritual
truth that Jesus wanted them to see from
the parable
But the thing
which Jesus wanted to illustrate by this
parable was that the Jewish leaders who were against Him
were the bad guys.
Virtually the whole city, by this time
knew that the Jewish leaders were trying to kill Jesus.
They had posted lookouts at every entrance to the city of
Jerusalem to watch for His arrival. They had inquired all
over the city whether or not anybody had seen Him. When He
did arrive they instructed the temple guards to arrest
Him.
When the temple guards refused to arrest him, they
debated
with Him daily in the temple courtyard trying to turn the
people against Him.
Then after Jesus gave sight to the
blind man, they tried to get the man to testify against
Jesus so they could arrest Him. When the man would not
testify against Jesus they excommunicated him from the
synagogue.
In addition to
this, they used their high offices to
exploit the people and live in great wealth at the
expense
of the people.
They were never interested in the spiritual
welfare or physical or material welfare of the
people. They
did not care that a man in their city had been born
blind.
They had no pit on him because of his blindness. When Jesus
gave that man his eyesight, they were not in the least
happy
for him. Nor did
they care about the welfare of any of
their people. In
Matthew chapter 23:14 Jesus accused them
of devouring widows' houses. That is, they would take the
last penny of a poor widow in order to make themselves a
little richer. As
for their spirituality, Jesus said that
they were hypocrites who were deserving of the greatest
kind
of punishment from God.
These were the kind of people who
sat in the highest positions of religious leadership in
the
land of Israel.
On the other
hand God had sent men to the people of
Israel who were true shepherds. They were true spiritual
leaders. Back in
Old Testament times God had sent His
prophets to the land who had spoken and written about the
coming of the Christ.
But the Jewish refused to consider
that Jesus might be the Christ. Shortly after the birth of
Jesus, when Jesus was brought to the temple, God had both
a
prophet and a prophetess to testify that Jesus is the
Christ
whom the prophets of old had promised. But the leaders
ignored what they said.
Then came John the Baptist who,
after baptizing Jesus, publicly identified Jesus as the
Son
of God and as the Savior of men. But the Jewish leaders
refused to believe John the Baptist also.
Why were the
people of Israel listening to the scribes
and Pharisees who were in opposition to Jesus? Why were
they not listening to the true shepherds of God who told
them the truth of God?
Furthermore,
there was Jesus, Himself, who had clearly
demonstrated to the people of Israel that, He is the
Christ.
By the greatness of His miracles and by the great number
of
His miracles He showed Himself to be the Christ. He had
healed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people from all
manner
of sickness and afflictions. Down in verse 11, which is not
a part of our text today, Jesus will identify Himself,
not
just as one of the shepherds, but as The Good Shepherd,
the
greatest of all the shepherds. For the people to continue
to follow the scribes and Pharisees was like following
the
thieves instead of the Shepherd.
In essence,
Jesus was saying to that crowd of people,
"Why follow the thieves who climb over the wall and
kill and
steal? Why follow
the spiritually blind guides? Why follow
wicked men who rob and steal from both God and men? Why
follow those who devour widows' houses? Why not listen to
the voice of the true shepherds of God and believe what
they
have said about the Jesus? Why not believe what Jesus,
Himself, has said?
Why not accept the fact that He is the
Son of God, the Christ of God, the Savior of the world,
as
He has said?
V. What Jesus
wants us to see about the world today
Listen, this
is somewhat the same situation which the
unsaved world faces today. On the one hand the unsaved are
told by false religious leaders that Jesus is not the
Christ. They say
that He is not the virgin born Son of God.
They say that no man will ever get to heaven by repenting
of
his sin and placing his trust in Jesus to save his soul.
One of them published a book in which he said that he
expects that some day they will find the bones of Jesus
in a
grave. They
substitute all manner of false gospels for the
true gospel. They
say that one must work for his salvation.
But, then on
the other hand, God still has some true
shepherds, who tell lost souls that they must repent or
perish. They
proclaim that the lost must believe in Jesus
or remain forever lost.
I am happy to
be one of those people who still believes
the gospel of Jesus as it is set forth in the word of
God.
I am happy to proclaim to every lost sinner that if he
will
repent of his sin and trust in Jesus Christ to save his
soul, that he will make it to heaven. I do not hesitate to
tell anyone, that if he will not trust in Jesus as his
Savior, that there is no way under the sun that he will
make
it to heaven.
Conclusion:
But I say,
"Don't trust in Jesus just because I tell you
to trust Jesus.
Believe in Him --- trust in Him ---because
the very word of God tells you to do it. Believe the Bible!
Believe the word of God.
Place your faith in Jesus and let
Him save your soul.
If you trust in Jesus you will never
regret that you did.
But if you refuse to trust in Jesus,
you will forever regret that you didn't.