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. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. (John 10:1-2)

Jesus demonstrated His authority, not through unverifiable claims, but by mighty words and works. So, when Jesus healed a man born blind (John 9), the Pharisees knew they had a PR nightmare on their hands. They persistently refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah (John 9:24, 29). That’s why, after the blind man was healed, the Pharisees did everything in their power to deny that he had been born blind at all or that Jesus had healed him. Rather than rejoice that the man was healed, they grilled him, insulted him, and excommunicated him.

Which is why John 10 opens with “verily, verily.” Jesus is all business. He means to point out the thieves and robbers. The Pharisees don’t care about the sheep; they only care about themselves (e.g., Luke 11:53). But Jesus cares for His sheep. Soon, the crowd will see Jesus dying and remember that the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

But John records these things for us. He wants us to know what Jesus was doing. If you are on the fence about Jesus, John wants you to chew on this: Jesus is the good shepherd. 

Those who have legitimate business with the sheep use the door; thieves and robbers (Jesus means the Pharisees) don’t. Here’s the difference between the good shepherd and the thieves and robbers: the shepherd comes in legitimately (uses the door); thieves and robbers don’t.

Jesus and the Pharisees have been debating this very point. The Pharisees don’t know where “this man” came from. Jesus keeps insisting that God sent Him. They are from beneath; He is from above. The shepherd comes in through the door, the porter opens to him, the sheep know his voice, he knows the names of all the sheep, and he leads the sheep out (John 10:1-4).

These elementary facts about shepherds and sheep would have been common knowledge in that day. The porter was the doorkeeper; he guarded the sheepfold at night to keep out would-be thieves and robbers. He knew the shepherd, so he would let the shepherd in.

In those days, several different flocks of sheep were kept in one sheepfold overnight. When the shepherd came in the morning, he called out his own sheep. They didn’t have any special mark on them or any special place where they were kept. They knew his voice, he knew their name, and when he called, they would come to him, and he would lead them out.

The relationship between the shepherd and the sheep here matters. In fact, the events of John 9 illustrate this relationship. When the blind man knew that the Son of God was Jesus, he believed. So, the sheep belong to the shepherd even before he calls for them.

The sheep follow the shepherd, but they won’t follow a stranger. Jesus points this out, not so we will think about the stranger, but so we will know about the shepherd. The sheep flee from a stranger because they don’t know his voice; they come to the shepherd because they do know his voice. The shepherd leads the sheep with his voice. They follow him because they know his voice.

Western shepherds drive the sheep with dogs. But a Middle Eastern shepherd walks ahead of the sheep, calling them to follow. So, this can also serve as a model for Christian discipleship.

These are the facts in the case. In the rest of the chapter, Jesus doesn’t explain but expands on what He said in this beginning section (vv. 1-5). He uses what the people already know about sheep and shepherds to tell them what they don’t know about Himself. Here’s what they don’t know.

Jesus is the door of the sheep (v. 7). Thieves and robbers don’t use the door (v. 1). In fact, those who don’t use the door are thieves and robbers. The shepherd uses the door. But now, Jesus says that He is the door. He uses the door because He is the shepherd, and He is the door that keeps the thieves and robbers out. 

Jesus advances His argument in this passage: He is the good shepherd. He is the one who keeps us safe by protecting us from thieves and robbers. The porter might fall asleep or be distracted or drawn off from guarding the sheep. But Jesus is the door; the sheep are safe. 

He repeats this twice: I am the door (v. 7, 9). He marks this as very important the first time: “Verily, verily.” Then, He sets up a contrast between Himself and everyone who came before Him. They were all thieves and robbers (v. 8). He is speaking of the pretenders, of those who (like the Pharisees) claimed teaching authority and intentionally led the people astray. Israel had legitimate teachers like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who came before Jesus but did not lead the people astray. They were not the thieves and robbers. But they weren’t the door either. Jesus says that His sheep did not hear the thieves and robbers. Then He repeats it again (v. 9): I am the door. Those who come in by Him will be saved. 

Jesus levels a hot charge against Israel’s “spiritual” leaders. They were a danger to the people. They led the people astray and sought to gain a following for themselves instead of the good shepherd. Jesus sees them as deadly. 

Nor is this an innocent mistake or one of the “many paths” that supposedly lead to life. Jesus insists that there is only one way. “I am the door.”  Any attempt to enter any other way makes you a thief and a robber, an imposter. Only those who come in by Him will be saved from destruction. “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Those who come in by Him will have the liberty to be protected by night and fed by day. They will “go in and out, and find pasture” (v. 9).

Jesus promises to give His people freedom. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). The thief comes for another reason: to steal, to kill, and to destroy (v. 10). More than anything, the lost sheep of the house of Israel need liberty. They needed to be set free from the bondage their religious leaders had placed them under. Consider the bluff they ran on the parents of the man born blind (John 9:19-23). His parents wouldn’t tell the truth about Jesus because they feared the rulers. 

We have seen this same thing repeated many times in history. We could point to world leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. They all, without fail, wound up stealing, killing, and destroying. But worse than this are false religions that wield power over the people. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fear leaving the church to join an orthodox Christian church because of the power the church has over their lives and families. Do the bishops ever counsel divorce if a married spouse leaves the church to join a Christian church?

In contrast, Jesus gives life to His sheep. He preserves life, but He also imparts it. He gives the abundant life of a believer, full of delight and joy and pleasure and good things to enjoy (v. 10). With Jesus as the door, the sheep will be fat and flourishing, not living in terror of the predators, but fed and protected and able to live life to its fullest.

Jesus is more than the door; He is the good shepherd (John 10:11). Jesus is straightforward and direct: He is more than a shepherd; He is a good shepherd. He isn’t a good shepherd; He is the good shepherd.

Verse 11 brings us to the climax of the passage, the focal point of everything Jesus has been saying. As the good shepherd, Jesus intentionally gives His life for the sheep. He is no hireling. He doesn’t flee when the wolf comes or let the wolves scatter and devour His sheep.

Jesus doesn’t spiritualize the hireling, as many have in our day. The hireling isn’t a preacher who takes a salary for preaching. He isn’t beholden to others. The hireling is a certain kind of false teacher who leads people astray and prospers in spreading falsehoods.

Sure, hireling pastors have led God’s people in the good days, but cut and run when any danger arose. It is legitimate for us to speak out against hirelings in the pulpit. But Jesus doesn’t say this to denounce the hireling. John 10 makes the point that Jesus isn’t a hireling. The contrast with the hireling shows us what is great about Jesus.

Jesus is the “good” shepherd, not the “nice” shepherd or the “strong” shepherd or the “romantic” shepherd. He tells us why He is the good shepherd and not someone else: He gives His life for the sheep (vv. 11, 15). We think this is normal because we don’t think much about shepherding. We’ve heard the story too often and grown a tad bit sentimental about the good shepherd.

But here’s the cold, hard reality: good shepherds don’t aim to die for their sheep. It would be bad for the sheep if the shepherd died. No shepherd charges the wolves or dives off a cliff, hollering back to the sheep, “See how much I love you!”[1] Jesus doesn’t mean to set an example that other shepherds should follow. We cannot drink that cup. We cannot die the death Jesus died.

Jesus’ death wasn’t an example; it was a sacrifice that Jesus intentionally made so we could be saved by His death. The wolves have come for His sheep, but those are His sheep. A hireling would flee, but Jesus won’t. He gives His life to protect the sheep. 

Jesus said (v. 14), “I am the good shepherd” (see how He repeats this phrase); “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” His sheep know Him the way His Father knows Him, and the way He knows His Father (v. 15). His relationship with the sheep is built on His relationship with His Father.

As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Jesus describes all this in terms of the way the Father knows Him. He repeats, “I lay down my life for the sheep,” and insists that “therefore doth my Father love me…” (v. 17). Why? Because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” Notice that. Jesus doesn’t just lay down His life. It would devastate the sheep if their shepherd died fighting off a wolf in the field. Think how vulnerable the sheep would be.

Jesus doesn’t just die. He dies so that He might live. He died in order to rise. He is unequivocal. He didn’t die because the fates conspired against Him, or the odds were against Him, or His enemies bested Him. The wolves didn’t take Him by surprise and kill Him. He died intentionally. Notice verse 18:

No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus intended to die. He died because that is what His Father sent Him to do. But He died too so that He could rise from the dead. Jesus tells us that this is why His Father loves Him: not because He went along with God’s demented plan for His torture and murder. Jesus laid down His life voluntarily because that was God’s plan for our redemption. His Father loves Him because He laid down His life so He could take it again. And He did this to deliver us from thieves and robbers so that we could be free to come in and out and be fed and protected.

In this, we see the nobility of the good shepherd. The wolf came to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and we were helpless, powerless against his murderous intentions. Seeing what was about to happen, Jesus became the Lamb and offered Himself as prey to the wolf.

But Jesus is a different kind of Lamb. Whenever He appears as the Lamb of God, He is a fierce kind of Lamb. John Piper called Him a “lion-like Lamb and a lamb-like Lion.”[2] The Lamb of God is a warrior lamb. In Revelation 5:6, the Lamb appears with 7 horns and 7 eyes. In Revelation 6, the Lamb rides a great white horse and goes forth conquering and to conquer. The people who were facing the fierceness of God’s wrath “said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16)

Again, in Revelation 14, we see the Lamb of God standing at the head of a mighty army…

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.

Revelation 17:14 might paint the most vivid picture of the Lion-like Lamb.

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

By offering Himself as a Lamb, Jesus did not enter the field helplessly or weakly. He went forth conquering and to conquer. And the Lamb of God who laid down His life for the sheep took up His sword and delivered a death blow to the wolf. And then, having laid down His life for the sheep, Jesus took it up again. And so, He Who is the door and the shepherd died our death in our place so that we could be delivered out of the hand of the wolf and live the abundant life of the Christian.

That separates Jesus from Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith aligns with those Jesus described as “thieves and robbers.” He came in a different way, contrary to the Bible, and established the Mormon church as a radical departure from the Christian faith. Joseph Smith has led many astray. He is not the good shepherd; he cannot give his life for his sheep the way Jesus did. He is the hireling Jesus warned about – a self-serving false prophet. Turn to the Lamb Who takes away your sin.

---

[1] My debt to D.A. Carson’s commentary on John 10 should be evident.

[2] John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ