I do want to hear what Jesus has to say to me. Along with this desire to study the Gospels more is a sense of urgency to address several topics I feel passionate about. One I have mulled over for a long time is what Jesus taught about His sheep in John chapter 10. What draws me to this subject most of all are the descriptions of what Jesus’s sheep look like. I also like the binary reality Jesus describes. There are those who are and those who are not His sheep. Let’s dive in, shall we?
The context
In John 10, Jesus begins to contrast His followers with His enemies. In context, He just had another confrontation with the Pharisees over the healing of a blind man on the Sabbath. As the story unfolds, there is more than a bit of irony. Jesus implies that it is the Pharisees who are the ones who are blind and guilty of sin because they refuse to see who Jesus is (John 9:39-41).
The Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary confirms that chapters 9 and 10 “are closely connected, suggesting that Jesus had the Pharisees of ch. 9 in mind when He spoke the opening words of ch. 10.”
In the larger context of OT connections to this passage, I would be remiss if I did not call attention to Ps. 23, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Although this psalm was not written for its original audience about the future Messiah, it is not a stretch for Jesus’s hearers (and for us today) to recall this psalm, knowing that the metaphor applies equally to both Father and Son. There is also a connection between this passage and Jer. 23:3-5, which says that in the new covenant, God will raise up a Shepherd-King who will bring salvation, peace, and safety to God’s sheep.
The Shepherd
Before Jesus identifies Himself as the good shepherd (starting in John 10:11), implying that His followers are His sheep, He describes a couple of things that are true about shepherds in general:
- The shepherd knows his own sheep; He calls them by name (John 10:3)
- The shepherd leads his sheep to pasture; they follow where He goes (John 10:4)
- The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11, 15, and 17)
- The good shepherd knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him (John 10:14)
- The good shepherd has other sheep that are not here; He must bring them also so that there is one flock (John 10:16)
What is especially meaningful is that Jesus referred to Christians now. He spoke of “other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.” Jesus has sheep whom He already identified who were not from that time, who were not Jews, and not from the Middle East. These sheep are you and me. Wow!
The sheep
As Jesus often does, He captured His listeners’ imagination with this analogy between Him as the good shepherd and His disciples as His sheep. Jesus’s purpose is to contrast the character of His followers with that of His enemies. Jesus continued to highlight this dichotomy in the next two chapters of the Gospel of John, long after He stopped referring to sheep directly.
Let’s look at what Jesus says about sheep in general and His sheep in particular:
- Sheep will listen only to the shepherd’s voice (John 10:3)
- Sheep follow their shepherd by sight and sound; they trust him (John 10:4)
- Sheep will never follow a stranger; they will run away from them (John 10:5)
- His sheep listen to His voice; He knows them, and they follow Him (John 10:27)
- Jesus gives His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of His hand (John 10:28)
- Jesus’s Father is the one who gave them to Him; no one can snatch them out of His Father’s hand (John 10:29)
These last two verses are a great promise of eternal security to those who are among Jesus’s sheep. What Jesus gives to us cannot be taken away. He gave us eternal life. We will not perish. No one, not even us, can take us out of Jesus’s or His Father’s hands. As we will discuss later, we did not do anything to earn this status as His sheep so we can’t do anything to lose it, either. It is irreversible.
Those who are not sheep
I could be wrong, but I imagine that most preachers and teachers who unpack this passage might focus most of their time and energy on the characteristics of Jesus’s sheep. That makes sense, considering their audience. However, I don’t want anyone to miss all of the subtle (and not-so-subtle) things that Jesus says about those who do not (and perhaps never will) belong to Him.
Let me summarize what Jesus says directly and indirectly about those who are not His sheep:
- Jesus said to the Jews, “You do not believe because you are not my sheep” (John 10:26)
- After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, some Jews went to the Pharisees to tell them what Jesus had done; later, they plotted to take His life (John 11:46, 53)
- The chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well (John 12:10)
- After Jesus performed miraculous signs, they still would not believe in Him (John 12:37)
- Jesus added that they could not believe, quoting Isa. 6:10 (John 12:39-40)
I find it fascinating that Jesus stated plainly that His enemies’ lack of belief was because they had already been identified as not being His sheep. This lines up with what Jesus said previously, that the Father gave His sheep to Him. (See John 10:29.) This understanding aligns with the views of John Calvin. There are people who will not believe because they refuse to do so, but perhaps they cannot believe because they are not among the chosen few predestined to believe.
How do we become one of Jesus’s sheep?
The obvious answer to this question was already given by Jesus in John 3:3. We are not born His sheep. We must be born again. As was listed above, the main characteristic of sheep is that they believe in Jesus.
Even though Scripture teaches in many places that God chooses His sheep even before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), we are all in a lost condition at birth. We are dead, blind, and outside of the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit must make us alive when we hear the gospel message, enabling us to repent of our sins, confess Jesus as Lord, and surrender to His will in response. (Note: I invite you to read my personal testimony of how I became a Christian nearly 50 years ago.)
I should probably take a moment to clarify the purpose of good works. The Apostle Paul clearly explained in Eph. 2:8-10 that good works do not save us, but we are created to do good works. James teaches that true faith without good works is not genuine saving faith (James 2:17). In Matt. 25:31-46, Jesus describes the kind of good works that set believers apart from unbelievers. John indicates that the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious (1 John 3:10).
Closing exhortations
I hope this was an interesting Bible study that made you think a little bit about eternal things, that Jesus is the only way to God, and that there are only two categories – you are either one of His sheep or you are not.
If you are blessed to be called a Christian, having come to be a follower of the Good Shepherd, I hope this is something you do not take for granted. I trust you are always seeking to follow Jesus’s voice and go where He leads you. All who are His sheep should be forever grateful that the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world and was the sacrificial lamb who willingly laid down His life to atone for our sins did this out of His love, mercy, and grace for you and me.
This study also reminded me that there are many other sheep whom Jesus is concerned about, who need to hear the gospel message of eternal life through Him. If the Good Shepherd is intentional about bringing them into the flock, then if I am following Him, I must be willing to go and do likewise. After all, God sent someone to give me the good news that I needed to hear.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Russ Gehrlein
Featured Image by Hans from Pixabay
Comments are closed.