#18: “I Am the Good Shepherd”
SCRIPTURE: John 10:1-21
INTRO:
Here in chapter 10, in the events following His encounter with the
Pharisees about healing the man born blind, Jesus teaches with two allegories:
one about the door of the sheepfold and another about the good shepherd.
Paul Butler points out in his commentary on the gospel of John that “The
very evident purpose and message of these two allegories is a strong contrast
between Jesus as the Door of security and peace and the Good Shepherd of
compassionate trustworthiness with the false, insecure, unloving, untrustworthy
Pharisees who claimed to be shepherds of the sheep. Such a contrast –
between Jesus and those who claim to be shepherds – is very appropriate for
our day.”
In scripture, God’s people are likened to sheep – not cattle, not pigs, nor
any animal of the wild – we are sheep and Jesus is the shepherd.
There’s a reason for this: sheep are relatively defenseless and must be
led, not driven. The shepherd often has a “bell sheep.” A “bell sheep” is a sheep
which has been disciplined for going astray (sometimes having one of its front
legs broken and mended by the shepherd) and has had a bell hung from its neck.
Once the leg heals, the sheep will tend to stay close to the shepherd, and the
other sheep will hear the bell and stay close to it and follow it wherever the ‘bell
sheep” goes.
Here is chapter 10, Jesus uses the familiar relationship between a
shepherd and his sheep to teach spiritual truth.
First of all, He says that…