Lesson 13: The Good Shepherd

Opening Questions:

1. What qualities does Jesus possess that allow Him to be the “good shepherd”?
2. What benefits do we receive from being His sheep?
3. What questions do you have from the text?

The Good Shepherd (vss. 1-21)

Psalm 23 is one of the best known and loved passages in the entire Bible. The depiction of God as a loving and caring shepherd has comforted His people throughout the generations. And while God was the true shepherd of His people, the leaders of Israel also bore the responsibility of shepherding the Lord’s sheep. Sadly, Israel’s shepherds failed to keep their charge! In the prophets, the Lord issued several indictments against these worthless shepherds:

• The people would be pillaged because the shepherds had no understanding and were consumed with drink (Isaiah 56:9-12).
• Israel’s shepherds did not obey the Lord (Jeremiah 2:8).
• Since the shepherds did not seek the Lord, their flock was scattered (Jeremiah 10:21).
• The shepherds were both negligent of and actively harming the sheep (Jeremiah 23:1-2; 50:6; Ezekiel 34.1-6).
• The shepherds would be destroyed (Jeremiah 25:34; Ezekiel 34:1-10)!

But God was going to rectify the situation. Thus, He promised to shepherd the flock Himself (Ezekiel 34.15) and to “set up over them one shepherd, my servant David” (Ezekiel 34.23). It’s against that backdrop that the Lord declared, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10.11).

Context is important to understand why Jesus began this discourse on shepherding in John 10. As we’ve noted in recent chapters, the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders had stepped up their opposition to Jesus (John 7.32,45-52; 9.16,24,34), culminating with their casting out the man whose sight Jesus had restored (John 9.40-41). The Pharisees weren’t shepherds, rather they were robbers bent on killing the sheep (vss. 1,10), strangers whom the sheep would not follow (vs. 5) or hired hands who would sacrifice the sheep in order to save their own lives (vss. 12-13).

In contrast to these false shepherds, Jesus came as the fulfillment of God’s promise to shepherd His flock (Ezekiel 34.15,23). John 10 elaborates on how Jesus is in fact the “good shepherd”:

• As opposed to thieves who have to find a way to break in, Jesus can enter through the door (vss. 1-2). He has the right to shepherd the sheep!
• The sheep won’t follow a stranger, because they don’t recognize his voice. But the sheep know the voice of Jesus and thus will follow where He leads (vss. 3-4).
• Hirelings run at the sign of danger, but not the good shepherd; He gives His life for the sheep (vs. 11,15,17-18). While it was the will of the Father that Jesus sacrifice His own life, He did so willingly. His protection of the flock is also why He is described as “the door” (vs. 9), for shepherds would lay in the door of the sheepfold at night, keeping the sheep safe and accounted for at night.
• Thieves and hirelings are concerned with themselves, but Jesus “came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (vs. 10), echoing the sentiment found in Psalm 23.1, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” There is nothing the sheep need that the shepherd will not provide!
• Jesus knows His sheep, and they know Him. So intimate is the relationship that Jesus it is the same “as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (vss. 14-15; see 15.4).
• And Jesus came to shepherd all of God’s sheep! “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (vs. 16; 12.32; see Ephesians 2.11-22; 3.6).

Sadly, Jesus’ revelation that He is the good shepherd did not inspire the people to seek His care and provision. Rather, they remained divided with many claiming that Jesus either possessed by a demon or insane (vss. 19-21).

Oneness of Father & Son (vss. 22-42)

We can’t be certain how much time elapsed between Jesus’ teaching in vss. 1-21 and the events recorded here, but we will see how they are thematically related. The Feast of Dedication celebrated the Maccabean victories over the Greeks in 165-164 B.C. and was held annually in the months of November or December. Interestingly, the Jews chose the occasion of celebrating one of their last military successes to ask Jesus if He was the Christ (vs. 24).

The synoptic accounts record Jesus specifically acknowledging that He is the Christ (see Matthew 16.13-17) and while He had not uttered those specific words in John’s account, He had plainly told them that He was from the Father (cf. John 5:16–47; 6:32–59; 7:14–30). Jesus’ works bore witness that He was from the Father, thus the Christ. However, they would not believe because they would not listen to His voice, thus could not be His sheep (vss. 26-27, see vss. 3-4). And the Jews did not understand just how tragic it was that they were not part of Jesus’ flock (vs. 28).

It is unfortunate that Jesus’ words in vs. 28 have been misconstrued to support false doctrines such as Calvin’s “preservation of the saints” and the modern “once saved always saved”. We must not divorce Jesus’ words here from the rest of His teaching. Recall that ONLY those who abide in His word are truly disciples and thus free (John 8.31-32). But we must not miss the comfort of this passage: those who follow Jesus, listen to His voice, are safe! The Good Shepherd will not allow them to be taken away; the Good Shepherd has the Father on His side (vs. 29). No one is strong enough to snatch the sheep away from the Father and Son!

In vs. 30 Jesus confirmed the opening assertion of the gospel: “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1.1). The Jews did not misunderstand Jesus’ meaning, but rather than appreciating that Jesus’ works came from the Father (vs. 32), they accused Jesus of blasphemy (vs. 33).

Jesus’ responded with a quotation from Psalm 82.6. “The statement ‘You are gods’ was understood in later rabbinic exegesis to be God’s word to the Israelites at Sinai when they received the law. God said to them, ‘You are gods,’ because in receiving the law and living by it they would be holy and live like gods. But because they departed from the law and worshipped the golden calf while still at Sinai, he said to them, ‘you will die like mere men’. The opening words of Jesus’ argument, ‘If he called them “gods”, to whom the word of God came’, suggest that he interpreted the quotation from the psalm in relation to the Sinai events as did later rabbinic scholars” (Kruse). So, if the Jews were willing to think of themselves as sons of God because they had received the Law, how could they accuse Jesus of blaspheming for claiming to be one with God? All they needed to do was honestly examine His works to see the validity of Jesus’ claim: “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (vs. 38).

Jesus escaped their efforts to arrest Him and departed from Jerusalem, returning to Bethany across the Jordan (vss. 39-40; see 1.28). Once again we see that “many believed in him” having been convinced from the testimony of John and the signs Jesus performed. However, we’ve seen before that many who believed did not continue abiding in His word (see John 6.66; 8.30-32).

Textual Notes:

• Vs. 4: note Moses’ prayer in Numbers 27.16-17.
• Vs. 9: as the door, Jesus is the only way to salvation (see John 14.1-6).
• Vs. 18: see Matthew 26.53-54.
• Vs. 20: see John 7.20; 8.48,52.
• Vs. 22: “The feast of the Dedication (also known as Hanukkah) was a feast celebrating annually the Maccabean victories of 165–164 B.C. — when Judas Maccabeus drove out the Syrians, rebuilt the altar, and rededicated the temple on 25 Kislev (1 Macc 4:41–61). From a historical standpoint, it was the last great deliverance the Jewish people had experienced, and it came at a time when least expected. Josephus ends his account of the institution of the festival with the following statement: “And from that time to the present we observe this festival, which we call the festival of Lights, giving this name to it, I think, from the fact that the right to worship appeared to us at a time when we hardly dared hope for it” (Ant. 12.7.6 [12.325])” (NET Notes).
• Vs. 30:  “Describing this oneness, the evangelist does not use the masculine form of the adjective ‘one’ (heis), which would suggest that Father and Son are one person. Instead, he uses the neuter form (hen), suggesting that the oneness of Father and Son here is oneness in mission and purpose. Father and Son are at one in their commitment to prevent anyone from snatching believers out of their hands” (Kruse).
• Vs. 41: note that John was also “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1.15). Being filled with the Spirit should not be equated with performing miraculous signs.