Many people today do not understand the gospel. They live for their own kingdom, often wreaking havoc in their own lives, as well as in the lives of their family and friends. It’s likely that you are praying for friends and family members like this, asking the Lord to save them. As we pray, we should be encouraged. The Lord knows those who are His and will save them in His own time and in His own way. As we pray, we should also be grateful. If we know the Lord, it’s because He opened our blind eyes to believe in Him. This savior is “the good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Jesus is the true “shepherd of the sheep,” whose “sheep hear his voice” (John 10:3). He brings out “all his own” and “goes before them” while they willingly “follow him, for they know his voice” (v. 4). Jesus pursues us, protects us, and provides for us. He is the only way to be saved from the guilt and condemnation of sin.
In speaking with the blind Pharisees Jesus proclaimed, “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). Thieves and robbers, like the Pharisees, came before Him, but “the sheep did not listen to them” (v. 8). These thieves “steal and kill and destroy” (v. 10). But not Jesus. He is the door to salvation and abundant life (vv. 9-10).
Jesus is the good shepherd because He “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). In order to save God’s people and give them abundant life He had to die on the cross, which He willingly did. Unlike “a hired hand” (v. 12), who puts himself in front of the sheep, sacrificing nothing so that he can save his own skin, Jesus puts Himself on the cross, sacrificing everything so that He can save God’s people.
As the good shepherd, Jesus knows His own and they know Him, just as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father (John 10:14-15). What intimacy believers have with Christ! What’s more is that this intimacy is also between believers. All God’s people are brought together as “one flock” under “one shepherd” (v. 16).
Jesus will not just “lay down” His life, He will also “take it up again” (John 10:17). Such humble obedience pleased His Father who had sent Him to accomplish redemption for His people. Notably, Jesus has authority to “lay” His life “down of my own accord” and “authority to take it up again” (v. 18). His obedience, even unto death, resulted in His exaltation (Phil. 2:9-11).
Not surprisingly, Jesus’s claim to be the good shepherd caused division (John 10:19-21). Some didn’t bother to listen to Him because they thought He was demon-possessed and insane. Others could not believe that a demon-possessed man could open the eyes of the blind. But none were willing to confess, “Lord, I believe” and worship Him (John 9:38).
The Pharisees should have recognized that the prophets had spoken of this Shepherd who would both “gather the lambs in his arms” (Isa. 40:11) and be “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,” in order to gather “the outcasts of Israel” and “others to him” (Isa. 40:11; 53:7-8; 56:8). Unlike the bad shepherds of Israel who “scattered my flock” and “have not attended to them” the Lord promised to “gather the remnant of my flock” and “set shepherds over them who will care for them” (Jer. 23:2-3). Ultimately there would be one shepherd, “a righteous Branch” who would “reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (vv. 5-6). Likewise, through Ezekiel the Lord condemned the bad shepherds of Israel (Ezek. 34:2-6, 10), and promised, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep” (v. 15). He declared, “I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them…and they shall all have one shepherd” (v. 23; 37:24).
Jesus was declaring that He is the fulfillment of all that the prophets had spoken. He is the good shepherd, the Righteous Branch, the descendant of David, and the eternal king. He came to “create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross” (Eph. 2:15-16). He is “the great shepherd of the sheep” who secured our redemption “by the blood of the eternal covenant” (Heb. 13:20). He is “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” and “the chief Shepherd” who will one day appear to give godly under-shepherds “the unfading crown of glory” (1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4). In the new Jerusalem “the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17).
Dear reader, if you know this tender Shepherd as your Savior and Lord, thank God that He opened your blind eyes to believe in Him. So many today are like the Pharisees and do not understand the gospel. Many of you are praying for family and friends, asking the Lord to save them. Do not lose heart. The good shepherd has declared that He knows His own and every sheep for whom He has laid down His life and taken it up again will certainly be saved.