“And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.’ Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, ‘Are we blind also?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, “We see.” Therefore your sin remains.’” John 9:39-41.
“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. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.’” John 10:1-5.
Chapter nine’s last three verses are included above because chapter 10:1-21 is a continuation of the dialogue begun at the end of chapter 9.
The reason for this is to keep the reader from getting lost. For instance one might get up in the morning and say, “Well, I read chapter 9 yesterday, I will start on ten today.”
This would be like walking up into the middle of a conversation; you might misinterpret everything being said. This is the case here, you will lose the context.
Remember, we are coming up to the end of a single day which began in John 8:1 and ends at John 10:21. It began in the temple where Jesus was teaching, when the scribes and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
After rescuing her by telling them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” John 8:7b. With those words, none of these hypocritical sinners could lift a stone.
A long dialogue ensues and chapter 8 ends with the Jews trying to stone Him. Chapter 9 records the healing of the man born blind, and at this point we continue the dialogue that began at the end of that chapter.
“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” John 9:39.
The Pharisees who were with Him asked, “Are we blind also?”John 9:40b. The Lord replied to them.
“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” John 9:41.
Jesus is referring here to religious hypocrites; these are the ones who say (“We see”) we have great spiritual insight then lead people astray.
It is difficult to use the word astray, as if someone could purposely lead the gullible astray. But the sin nature has made man self-centered, cruel and pitiless.
The fame, fortune and adulation that can be gained through false religion is tempting for the dregs of mankind to use to empower themselves.
“But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, to whom the gloom of darkness is reserved forever.” 2 Peter 2:12-17.
The fact that these are false religious leaders is emphasized by the reference to Balaam son of Beor whose greed caused him to hire himself out to curse the children of Israel, see Numbers 22-25.
For two chapters Balaam blessed the children of Israel then in chapter 25 they fell into sin with horrific and deadly consequences.
Balaam caused this when he advised the Moabites to send their women to mix with the Israelites leading them into Baal worship. The inference to this is given in Numbers 31:16.
When reading of incidents like those in Numbers 31:16-18 it is natural to recoil at the idea of God ordering the death of women and children, but children were often used for sex as part of idolatrous rituals causing them to be riddled with sexual diseases.
Because of these disgusting circumstances it was better to dispatch the children to heaven instantly rather than to let them die slowly.
The same could be said of the women, along with the fact that they were hardcore idolaters who would lead Israel astray with their seditious behavior.
In time, when Israel did turn to idolatry and embraced Baal worship and other gods, they murdered hundreds of thousands of infants and children in the cruelest ways. Ultimately, this is what God was trying to avoid.
“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind)…” Jeremiah 19:4-5.
Having warned the Pharisees of judgment by saying, “…but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” Jesus goes on to lay out His case before them, because no one need die in their sin.
“…for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” Ecclesiastes 9:4.
“…for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
Jesus continues on into chapter 10 by telling them.
“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. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” John 10:1-2.
The obvious is that a sheepfold is a pen or enclosure for sheep which has a gate or door, yet this is an important point which will become clear as we go along.
Everyone who tries to enter some other way is a thief or robber, the pen is meant to keep the sheep safe and from wandering. In this case the thieves are and were false Messiahs and antichrists.
The sheepfold in this illustration is the Mosaic Law.
“But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” Galatians 3:22-25.
There is only one person who is worthy and has authority to enter the sheepfold by the gate, Jesus the Messiah.
“To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10:3-5.
The doorkeeper of the sheepfold is ultimately the Holy Spirit for it was He who was working through John the Baptist when the latter made the announcement.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29.
“Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’” John 1:35-36.
That he was Christ’s herald is confirmed by John himself.
“He said [to the priests and Levites]: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” John 1:23.
See also Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 40:3.
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” Isaiah 40:3.
If we accept then that the sheepfold is the law and that.
“…Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” Romans 10:4.
When the gatekeeper opens for Him and Jesus calls out His own by name, His own would be Israelites who accept Him by faith; of which, the blind man in John chapter 9 is an example.
And when the shepherd has called them by name they follow him.
“And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” John 10:4.
One commentator noted that the words, “And when he brings out his own…” in the Greek indicates that the shepherd has to urge some of the sheep to leave the fold.
Perhaps you have seen a movie where the shepherd has had to go in and smack some of the sheep (or cattle) on the side to get them to move out of the pen with the others.
How many of us have had to be urged out of our comfort zone to follow Jesus? Most of us would have to raise our hand yes.
It is a marvelous thing to think that He knew their name; in fact He knows our names. Such a thought suggests that He knows us intimately.
This is both frightening and comforting since it tells us that we can take anything to Him in prayer, because He already knows everything there is to know about us. So why try to hide from Him.
“He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” Psalm 147:4-5.
Yes, the last word in the verses above is “infinite”. No one can accuse God of being out of touch with His creation; nor can they accuse Him of being out of touch with the times as the modernists do.
“…he goes before them; and the sheep follow him”, Jesus, the shepherd leads the sheep and they follow, just as a shepherd would do.
But the error of the church for approximately the last seventeen hundred years to date is that they ceased following Jesus.
Not in the sense that the church had entirely stopped preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. These things were taught through the years until the current church age.
The church, or body of Christ as it is called, stopped following Christ as their shepherd when they started adding rules and regulations building church hierarchies and separating the laity from the clergy (those in the pews and those over them).
Incompetents who create church offices in which common men who are not Christians gain prominent places in the church; consisting of reverent reverends, cardinals, monks, friars, and many other nabobs who corrupt the body of Christ.
As a result, this lumbering monstrosity makes its own decisions as to how Christ’s church is to be operated. And of late, it is run like a business in which the decisions are made with charts, graphs and projections based on income.
And many today have ceased to use what’s His names name and certainly do not mention the “h” word for fear someone will be offended. This is how a dead machine operates.
“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:17-20.
God has worked mightily in His church through the centuries, yet how much more successful it would have been if men had kept Christ as its head, instead of trusting in frail and too often unsaved men who did not have the mind of Christ.
Personally, I do not believe there would have been any dark ages or an Inquisition because godless men would have been kept out of places of responsibility within the church.
Besides being a gathering place to promote a sense of kinship and support with other Christians and to worship God, it is the purpose of the church to bring us together as one.
“…to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive…” Ephesians 4:13-14.
It is the intent of Christ that all Christians be a working part of the body of Christ.
“…and the sheep follow him” John 10:4, though it is referring to Israelites here, it is by inference talking to the individual Christian; it is our responsibility to follow Christ as He leads us.
And if the church would fulfill its responsibility as given in Ephesians 4 above, all of Christ’s followers will.
“…know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10:4b-5.
The True Shepherd, John 10:1-5 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 1-8-13, updated on 11-25-17.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.