I Am the Door
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 16 May 2021
Now let us study John 10. It’s one of the most beautiful word pictures in all of the New Testament. John 10 really draws on the shepherd imagery which covers Scripture from beginning to end. John 9 was about a man born blind who had become a beggar, and Jesus gave him his sight. The beggar and Jesus were confronted by the leaders of Israel, who disdained the beggar and hated Jesus.
The main characters in John 9 are the leaders of Israel. They are false shepherds, who steal from their own people. In contrast to that, in John 10, to the same disciples and the same Pharisees with the blind beggar and the rest of the Jews, Jesus contrasts Himself with them and He actually says in verse 11, “I am the good Shepherd who lays His life down for His sheep.”
Let us study John 10:1-10, “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber!” With that verse, Jesus describes the Pharisees as the false shepherds. They are thieves and robbers who have no authority and no right and no ownership of the sheep that they seek to fleece and destroy.
“2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”
“6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the door for the sheep.” 8 All who came before Me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the door. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.”
“10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” The picture of the shepherd here is simply a word picture. Jesus doesn’t even identify Himself as the Shepherd until verse 11. The story stands on its own because it’s so familiar to the population of Jerusalem and Judea. They knew enough to know that God Himself was the Shepherd.
So they understood that the earthly aspect of shepherding, but they also understood that that was an illustration of God’s care for His own people. The life of a shepherd was hard. It was outside against all the elements, the heat and the cold. And sheep tend to wander. And it’s easy for sheep to get lost and easy for predators to kill them. So the shepherd’s task was relentless vigilance, danger was all around.
There were shepherds in the Old Testament that were well known to the Jewish people. Abraham was a shepherd. Isaac was a shepherd. Jacob was a shepherd. Moses was a shepherd. He tended the flocks in Midian of his father-in-law. David was a shepherd boy. Fearless courage and patient love for his flock were the necessary characteristics of a good shepherd.
But the most well-known Shepherd in the Old Testament was God. Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Psalm 77:20 says, “You lead your people like a flock of sheep.” Psalm 79:13 says, “We your people and the sheep of your pastures will give thanks to You.” Psalm 95:7 says, “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.” Shepherding is very intimate.
But notice the prophet Ezekiel 34:2-15, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.”
“4 The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.”
“6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” 7 ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 “As I live,” says the Lord God, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd.”
Nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock. 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! 10 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths.”
“11 ‘For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land.”
“I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord God.”
This is talking about the millennial kingdom yet to come. How is the Lord going to do this? Who is going to take this responsibility? Go to verse 23-24, “I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.”
God is talking about the Son of David, the Messiah Himself when the Lord through the one Shepherd, Jesus Christ, gathers all His people. This prophecy in Ezekiel 34 is fulfilled by Jesus. In the New Testament, there are a number of places where Jesus is referred to as that one Shepherd. In Matthew 18, Jesus is the Shepherd who will give up His life to seek and save the straying sheep.
In Matthew 9:36, Jesus is the Shepherd who has pity on the people because they are “like sheep without a shepherd.” In Luke 12:32, He calls His true disciples His own “little flock.” Look what Peter calls Him. In 1 Peter 2:25, he calls the Lord Jesus the Shepherd of our souls. And the writer of Hebrews 13:20 in that great closing benediction says He is the great Shepherd of the sheep.
Jesus Christ is totally unlike the false shepherds, those Pharisees. They are the ones denounced in Ezekiel 34. The Pharisees, the Jewish leaders had seated themselves in Moses’ seat, Jesus said in Matthew 23. They were false shepherds. They were deadly shepherds. They fleeced the sheep. They took what the people possessed and they caused them not to believe, thus destroying them.
Now let’s look at the story and watch it unfold. It starts with familiar words that are repeated often in John 10:1, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” Each village would have a sheepfold, simply a pen. That pen would be a place where the sheep were brought at night to be safe.
So there were sheep in the fold that belonged to different shepherds. He would check them over from front to back. And he would let them through one by one. He would drop his rod over the next one, and then when he had examined, let him in. That’s why Ezekiel 20:37-38 tells us someday God will cause His people to pass under His rod. In the morning, the shepherds would reappear and call their sheep.
“What is the sheepfold?” In this case, it is Israel. It is Judaism. The sheep are the Jewish people. The good Shepherd comes to the fold of Israel as the true Messiah and calls his own sheep out of Judaism. John 10:16 is also consistent with Ezekiel 34, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”
What’s the other fold? Gentiles, nations of the world, Jew and Gentile, just as Ezekiel promised that God would gather his flock from all of the nations and all the countries. Who is the door? Verse 2, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” The guard is not going to let anybody but the shepherd in. And this is to indicate to us that Christ is the rightful Shepherd of His sheep.
Jesus is the rightful Shepherd. He is the one sent from the Father to be the one Shepherd, to lead the elect of Israel out of the fold of Judaism. Who are the thieves and robbers who climb up another way? In this case, the Pharisees, the scribes, the self-appointed false shepherds who make two-fold sons of hell out of their converts, their victims with their false doctrine.
False shepherds are everywhere. They’re everywhere all the time, not just then and not just in Ezekiel’s time, but all through human history. So Jesus, in contrast to the false shepherds of the past and the future, is the true and good Shepherd who doesn’t take life, but gives it. He has come to lead His own whom He knows by name out of Judaism into the green pastures of the new covenant.
Verse 3, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” Sheep knew their master’s voice like a pet does. And they named their sheep. The shepherd always knew his own sheep because he examined them every day and he spent the whole waking day with them. He knew every mark on every one of them.
Jesus, the great shepherd knows His sheep, too. Verse 4, “And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” He knows their names because their names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from before the foundation of the world. Jesus has come to call Jewish people out of Judaism, to call Gentile people out of their false religions.
Verse 5, “Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” What is our Lord saying here? He is giving us the theology of salvation. The good Shepherd has already chosen His sheep. He possesses sole authority to come into Judaism and into the nations of the world to find His sheep. They recognize His voice and they will follow Him.
Notice that the shepherd leads. He goes ahead of them to make the pathway, to clear the danger, to find the water and the pasture. This is real security, protection and provision. Verse 6, “Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things He spoke to them.” But these are truths that all of us must know. Those who belong to God will hear His voice. And no one comes to Me unless the Father draws that person.
Jesus then adds another word picture. This is one of the “I Am’s” of the gospel of John. Verse 7- 9, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” He’s not only the Shepherd that comes in to take His sheep. He is the door.
He is the only way out. He alone is the door. He repeated again down in verse 9. He leads you out and there is a freedom from bondage. That’s the first time you move from the metaphor to reality, to the theological statement of fact. This is about being saved. This is the saving shepherd. We have nothing to fear, do we? What can separate us from the love of God in Christ?
Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We have a bond with our Shepherd that will go right on into the kingdom and then right on into eternity.
God feeds us and sustains us with green pastures through our whole spiritual life. What is that pasture? Well, it’s the Word. Jeremiah 1:9 says, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.” The contrast ends in verse 10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
So be encouraged, faithful missionary. The Lord has chosen them and named them. The Lord Jesus Christ calls them out of this world. They all follow. He leads them from the fold of the world into the salvation in this age and the eternal kingdom. He goes before them to provide them complete protection. And He has called you to be His under-shepherd in this wonderful ministry. Let us pray.