I enjoyed my time there, even though the weather today was miserable, and a fire alarm went off just before their 10:30 service stated. I got to catch up with a few old buddies which was excellent.
Below is more or less what I said.
Have you heard the term “sheeple”? I used to use it when talking about iPhone users. I know I shouldn’t be so polarising up front, but I find it amazing the extent to what some mac fanboys go to to get their hands on the latest tech, which I think isn’t that great in the first place. I think those who wait out in lines over night for iPhones have been brainwashed by marketing, they need to think for themselves, they are just sheeple, following the masses.
Are Christians just sheeple? Are they misguided? Do they need to think for themselves and not follow the old traditions?
Our passage today is about sheep and a shepherd, and Christians in this passage are seen to be sheep. Is this passage saying Christians only follow and don’t think for themselves? Surely, being a sheep in any context doesn’t seem too glamorous or complementary.
What they would do is overnight they would put all the sheep from different flocks into one communal pen. This way, overnight they just need one gatekeeper to keep watch via the one entryway. This means the shepherds can go home and you only have to pay one guy to watch all the sheep overnight. This guy, the gatekeeper was to make sure no illegitimate people were getting in. In the morning, the shepherds would come into the pen, call out to their sheep and they would then follow that shepherd because they know him[1].
Today when we round up sheep, we normally push them from behind from one paddock to another using dogs, horses or four-wheel drives. I remember once when I was about 15 (this is my only experience with sheep) I was on a large sheep farm up past Parks, visiting some friends of the family. One day we had to move a few hundred sheep from one paddock to another. We used a few dogs and two four-wheel drives. We had to move these sheep up a road with connecting paddocks. Now beforehand we had opened the one gate, we wanted them to enter, but along this path, there were other closed gates going to different paddocks, and the sheep knew about these gates. So as we pushed them up this road, they would huddle close to these gates trying to get in, but they couldn’t. And then when we got to the one open gate, some sheep did not know what to do, they just stood there looking at the gap in the fence. Some were almost run over, being pushed with the bull-bar of the ute to encourage them in. It was crazy frustrating.
But back then the shepherd wouldn’t push the sheep from behind, they would walk ahead of the sheep and the sheep would follow the shepherd because they knew and trusted Him. They would go wherever he would lead them[2], and if he had to, he could call them, and they would know to obey his voice.
This was this two-way relationship between the shepherd and the sheep back then. The shepherd would know his sheep and the sheep would know their shepherd. The sheep aren’t dragged out or tricked into following the wrong guy, they know who their true master is.
So while this passage is about sheep and shepherds, that is just the image explaining a greater reality. This passage is really about who Jesus is and our relationship with Him. And here in this passage, Jesus makes three claims about himself, and this will be our breakup for the talk. We see that Jesus says he is the Gate; Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd; and Jesus says he is God’s Son in verse 36.
Gate, Good Shepherd and God’s Son.
In Jesus’ first statement He says in verse 7 and verse 9 that he is the gate. Not the gatekeeper, but the actual gate. He is the one entryway in and out of the sheep pen. In this analogy, Jesus is simply saying, that he is the only way to be saved. Only legitimate people come into the pen via the door to take the sheep out. Others, thieves and robbers, they steal the sheep by taking the sheep over the wall.
This teaching bit comes directly after the saga of Jesus healing the blind man in the previous chapter, which I believe you looked at last week. There we see that the Pharisees threw the beggar out of the synagogue, but Jesus led him out of Judaism and into the flock of God![3]
Jesus has come to call His sheep out of the pen, to be part of His flock, to be taken to safety and salvation, to find life in better pastures, to have life and life in full.
Jesus is the gate, or as He says later, He is the way the truth and the life, no one comes to God except through Him (John 14:6).
This Good Shepherd idea was not a new one in Judaism. The classic Psalm 23[:1-4] uses this metaphor:
The point is, in the Old Testament, God was known as the Good Shepherd of Israel. And here from verse 11 Jesus says that He is the Good Shepheard. He says He is the Good Shepherd because 1) He lays down His own life for the sheep and 2) because He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him.
The robbers and thieves, they want to come in and kill and destroy the sheep.
The hired hand is flaky as at the first sign of trouble they would run. They don’t want to put their life on the line for some dumb sheep. When push comes to shove, it is better to lose your job than to die, right?
But Jesus says He is the Good Shepherd because He lays down His life for His sheep. The sheep aren’t just on loan to Jesus, they are His. He owns them. He has some sort of moral responsibility for them, more so than a hired helper. Jesus says about three times in this passage that He is the good shepherd because He lays down His life for His sheep. I think the repetition is important. It is kind of the main thing Jesus is saying here.
Jesus isn’t just telling some nice story about how brave or good He possibly could be. We know from Easter what happens at the end of this book. Jesus really does die. He gets faced with some trumped-up charges and is then executed on a cross outside Jerusalem.
In this story, Jesus is saying that His death is not to be seen as some brave example for the sheep to follow or to be inspired by. The assumption in this story is that the sheep are in some sort of mortal danger and the shepherd lays down His life to protect and save the sheep from that danger[4]. It is by the shepherd’s death that the sheep are saved.
Likewise, it is by Jesus’ death that we are saved. We have all sinned and fallen short of the standards God has set for us. Our present good deeds do not change history and undo the bad things that we have done. But while we're still sinners, God sent Jesus to rescues us from the danger of God’s judgment. Jesus took that on himself so that we don’t have the face it. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep because He loves His sheep.
He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the Sheep who He knows.
The sheep in this context are Jews, but when Jesus is talking about other sheep who are not in the pen, He means Gentiles[5], that is you and me. Jesus is the Good Shepherd not just for His own kind, His own bloodline the Jewish people, but He is for all people. The scope of the salvation He offers is grand.
In verse 22 we read that we are now at the Festival of Dedication in winter. This festival is not an Old Testament one, but one that had started up around 160 BC and is what we know today as Hanukkah[7].
In this scene, the Jews ask Jesus directly if He was the Messiah. Jesus says after all they have seen, they are still in the dark because they are not His sheep. Those who are Jesus’ sheep are those who listen to what Jesus has to say. We saw this point above, and then Jesus goes on to say, verse 28, that His sheep have eternal life, they will not die, and no one can take them from God. Jesus’ sheep are guaranteed life.
Jesus then makes His last statement about Himself, in a cryptic way, in verse 30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one”. This agitates the Jews, and they seek to kill Him for they understand that Jesus a mere man is claiming to be God. The funny thing is, that these guys got in backwards. If we were to read the start of this Gospel, we would see that Jesus was the Word who was with God, and who is God, who takes on flesh. The actual fact is, that Jesus isn’t making Himself out to be God, but that God made Himself to be a mere man[8].
Jesus tries to get the mob to think consistently, pointing out that in Psalm 82[:6], it references human judges as “gods”[9] so why are they trying to kill Him if He has claimed to be the Son of God?
But then Jesus frames the argument, to make people think for themselves, for them to know if He really is the Son of God. He says, look at my works, see if the Father is at work in Me. Jesus is able to heal the paralyses and to make the blind see. And next week you will see Jesus can raise the dead. Is that the work of the Devil or of God?
Jesus is inviting people to see Him, for them to examine the evidence honestly, to think for themselves and to be willing to see that He really is the Son of God, based on what He can do.
Those who are Jesus’ sheep are those who see what He has done. They weigh up the evidence, they think for themselves and believe.
They believe:
That Jesus is the only gate to salvation.
That Jesus is the good shepherd who voluntarily lays down His life for his people, only to take it back up again.
That Jesus has all this power because He really is God’s son.
So, are Christians “sheeple”? No, they are Jesus’ sheep. They follow Jesus, we follow Jesus, because He is worth following. Because He is the one true God who offers salvation and life.
So, the main question I want to leave you with is: Is the Lord your shepherd. Do you know Him? Do you hear His voice and follow Him? This Easter, look at what Jesus has done, by laying down His life for you on the Cross only to take it back up again three days later in the Tomb. Look at the evidence, think for yourself and worship Jesus.
If you already are a Christian, lets celebrate this Easter with joy, knowing the great enemy of death has been defeated, that our sins have been forgiven, because Jesus saved us from danger, by voluntarily, laying down His life for us, because He knows us, because He loves us.
Let give thanks:
[1] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[2] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Alive (John 1-12)
[4] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (386). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
[5] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (388).
[6] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[7] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John; John MacArthur (2006), The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: John 1-11
[8] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[9] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Alive (John 1-12). Some think the "gods" in this Psalm could be angles. Even so, the logic still stands, that some other being is called god who isn't God Almighty.
Have you heard the term “sheeple”? I used to use it when talking about iPhone users. I know I shouldn’t be so polarising up front, but I find it amazing the extent to what some mac fanboys go to to get their hands on the latest tech, which I think isn’t that great in the first place. I think those who wait out in lines over night for iPhones have been brainwashed by marketing, they need to think for themselves, they are just sheeple, following the masses.
Are Christians just sheeple? Are they misguided? Do they need to think for themselves and not follow the old traditions?
Our passage today is about sheep and a shepherd, and Christians in this passage are seen to be sheep. Is this passage saying Christians only follow and don’t think for themselves? Surely, being a sheep in any context doesn’t seem too glamorous or complementary.
Sheep and Shepherds
Now having worked 14 years in IT I can honestly say I have no idea about sheep and shepherds, and I am guessing we are all kind of removed for that scene here in Canberra. It might be helpful for us to have a little background on what their practices were back then.What they would do is overnight they would put all the sheep from different flocks into one communal pen. This way, overnight they just need one gatekeeper to keep watch via the one entryway. This means the shepherds can go home and you only have to pay one guy to watch all the sheep overnight. This guy, the gatekeeper was to make sure no illegitimate people were getting in. In the morning, the shepherds would come into the pen, call out to their sheep and they would then follow that shepherd because they know him[1].
Today when we round up sheep, we normally push them from behind from one paddock to another using dogs, horses or four-wheel drives. I remember once when I was about 15 (this is my only experience with sheep) I was on a large sheep farm up past Parks, visiting some friends of the family. One day we had to move a few hundred sheep from one paddock to another. We used a few dogs and two four-wheel drives. We had to move these sheep up a road with connecting paddocks. Now beforehand we had opened the one gate, we wanted them to enter, but along this path, there were other closed gates going to different paddocks, and the sheep knew about these gates. So as we pushed them up this road, they would huddle close to these gates trying to get in, but they couldn’t. And then when we got to the one open gate, some sheep did not know what to do, they just stood there looking at the gap in the fence. Some were almost run over, being pushed with the bull-bar of the ute to encourage them in. It was crazy frustrating.
But back then the shepherd wouldn’t push the sheep from behind, they would walk ahead of the sheep and the sheep would follow the shepherd because they knew and trusted Him. They would go wherever he would lead them[2], and if he had to, he could call them, and they would know to obey his voice.
This was this two-way relationship between the shepherd and the sheep back then. The shepherd would know his sheep and the sheep would know their shepherd. The sheep aren’t dragged out or tricked into following the wrong guy, they know who their true master is.
So while this passage is about sheep and shepherds, that is just the image explaining a greater reality. This passage is really about who Jesus is and our relationship with Him. And here in this passage, Jesus makes three claims about himself, and this will be our breakup for the talk. We see that Jesus says he is the Gate; Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd; and Jesus says he is God’s Son in verse 36.
Gate, Good Shepherd and God’s Son.
I am the Gate (v1-10)
This teaching bit comes directly after the saga of Jesus healing the blind man in the previous chapter, which I believe you looked at last week. There we see that the Pharisees threw the beggar out of the synagogue, but Jesus led him out of Judaism and into the flock of God![3]
Jesus has come to call His sheep out of the pen, to be part of His flock, to be taken to safety and salvation, to find life in better pastures, to have life and life in full.
Jesus is the gate, or as He says later, He is the way the truth and the life, no one comes to God except through Him (John 14:6).
I am the Good Shepheard (v11-21)
Then from verse 11, Jesus changes His role a little bit. First, He called Himself the Gate, now He says He is the Good Shepherd.This Good Shepherd idea was not a new one in Judaism. The classic Psalm 23[:1-4] uses this metaphor:
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.In Ezekiel 34 God scolds the shepherds of Israel for not looking after their sheep. And God wasn’t talking about actual shepherds mishandling lambs, He was talking about the leaders of Israel not looking after people. It says:
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? (Ez 34:2)
You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. (Ez 34:4)It goes on and on for a bit, and then God steps in and says:
I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. (Ez 34:11-16)And it goes on.
He lays down His Life for the Sheep that He knows.
Compared to other characters in the story Jesus, the Good Shepheard, is willing to protect His sheep, even at the cost of His own life.The robbers and thieves, they want to come in and kill and destroy the sheep.
The hired hand is flaky as at the first sign of trouble they would run. They don’t want to put their life on the line for some dumb sheep. When push comes to shove, it is better to lose your job than to die, right?
But Jesus says He is the Good Shepherd because He lays down His life for His sheep. The sheep aren’t just on loan to Jesus, they are His. He owns them. He has some sort of moral responsibility for them, more so than a hired helper. Jesus says about three times in this passage that He is the good shepherd because He lays down His life for His sheep. I think the repetition is important. It is kind of the main thing Jesus is saying here.
Jesus isn’t just telling some nice story about how brave or good He possibly could be. We know from Easter what happens at the end of this book. Jesus really does die. He gets faced with some trumped-up charges and is then executed on a cross outside Jerusalem.
In this story, Jesus is saying that His death is not to be seen as some brave example for the sheep to follow or to be inspired by. The assumption in this story is that the sheep are in some sort of mortal danger and the shepherd lays down His life to protect and save the sheep from that danger[4]. It is by the shepherd’s death that the sheep are saved.
Likewise, it is by Jesus’ death that we are saved. We have all sinned and fallen short of the standards God has set for us. Our present good deeds do not change history and undo the bad things that we have done. But while we're still sinners, God sent Jesus to rescues us from the danger of God’s judgment. Jesus took that on himself so that we don’t have the face it. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep because He loves His sheep.
He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the Sheep who He knows.
Other sheep
In this passage, we also see the extent of how far He knows His sheep. Jesus goes onto say, in verse 16, that he has other sheep that are out there, and His goal is to bring those sheep into one flock. What is meant by this is you and me.The sheep in this context are Jews, but when Jesus is talking about other sheep who are not in the pen, He means Gentiles[5], that is you and me. Jesus is the Good Shepherd not just for His own kind, His own bloodline the Jewish people, but He is for all people. The scope of the salvation He offers is grand.
Voluntarily
Not only is the scope grand, but Jesus then goes to say that His execution was entirely in His control. He says no one takes His life from Him, He gives it up voluntarily. This is staggering. From the betrayal of His own disciple to the High Priest that year, and Pontius Pilate and Herod, Jesus is saying all those are minor details. He died because He allowed it. At any moment, Jesus says He could have stopped His own execution[6] He could have called down 72 thousand angles to help stop His death from taking place (Matthew 26:53).
But Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep voluntary. To save them from a greater danger, one that threatens their eternal destination.
But Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep voluntary. To save them from a greater danger, one that threatens their eternal destination.
Resurrection
But Jesus didn’t stay dead. He says twice in this passage that He can take up His life again. He has the authority to lay down His life and the authority to take it up again. Death cannot keep this Good Shepherd down. He takes away deaths sting. And since He has already died to death once, He can never be killed again. This Shepherd kills death.
At the closing of this scene, the Jews were divided on Jesus. Some thought He was raving mad, others were looking at the sign of a healed blind man, thinking, maybe there is something to this guy. Some were examining the evidence and trying to process what they had seen and heard.
At the closing of this scene, the Jews were divided on Jesus. Some thought He was raving mad, others were looking at the sign of a healed blind man, thinking, maybe there is something to this guy. Some were examining the evidence and trying to process what they had seen and heard.
I am God’s Son (v22-42)
Then, there is then a change in scene, although not a change in theme.In verse 22 we read that we are now at the Festival of Dedication in winter. This festival is not an Old Testament one, but one that had started up around 160 BC and is what we know today as Hanukkah[7].
Jesus then makes His last statement about Himself, in a cryptic way, in verse 30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one”. This agitates the Jews, and they seek to kill Him for they understand that Jesus a mere man is claiming to be God. The funny thing is, that these guys got in backwards. If we were to read the start of this Gospel, we would see that Jesus was the Word who was with God, and who is God, who takes on flesh. The actual fact is, that Jesus isn’t making Himself out to be God, but that God made Himself to be a mere man[8].
Jesus tries to get the mob to think consistently, pointing out that in Psalm 82[:6], it references human judges as “gods”[9] so why are they trying to kill Him if He has claimed to be the Son of God?
But then Jesus frames the argument, to make people think for themselves, for them to know if He really is the Son of God. He says, look at my works, see if the Father is at work in Me. Jesus is able to heal the paralyses and to make the blind see. And next week you will see Jesus can raise the dead. Is that the work of the Devil or of God?
Jesus is inviting people to see Him, for them to examine the evidence honestly, to think for themselves and to be willing to see that He really is the Son of God, based on what He can do.
So How About You?
In this passage we see that sheep hear, they follow, and they know their shepherd. That they are saved, they have eternal life that can not be taken away from them.Those who are Jesus’ sheep are those who see what He has done. They weigh up the evidence, they think for themselves and believe.
They believe:
That Jesus is the only gate to salvation.
That Jesus is the good shepherd who voluntarily lays down His life for his people, only to take it back up again.
That Jesus has all this power because He really is God’s son.
So, are Christians “sheeple”? No, they are Jesus’ sheep. They follow Jesus, we follow Jesus, because He is worth following. Because He is the one true God who offers salvation and life.
So, the main question I want to leave you with is: Is the Lord your shepherd. Do you know Him? Do you hear His voice and follow Him? This Easter, look at what Jesus has done, by laying down His life for you on the Cross only to take it back up again three days later in the Tomb. Look at the evidence, think for yourself and worship Jesus.
If you already are a Christian, lets celebrate this Easter with joy, knowing the great enemy of death has been defeated, that our sins have been forgiven, because Jesus saved us from danger, by voluntarily, laying down His life for us, because He knows us, because He loves us.
Let give thanks:
Thankyou Father for your Son Jesus who is the only way to be saved. Thankyou that He rescues us from your wrath by dying for us in our place. May we be your sheep. Empower us to hear from you, follow you and know you more and more.
Amen
[1] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[2] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Alive (John 1-12)
[4] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (386). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
[5] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (388).
[6] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[7] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John; John MacArthur (2006), The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: John 1-11
[8] R.C. Sproul, John (St Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
[9] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Alive (John 1-12). Some think the "gods" in this Psalm could be angles. Even so, the logic still stands, that some other being is called god who isn't God Almighty.
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