"'Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.' Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them."
John 10:1-6 CSB
Jesus begins to tell the Pharisees this group of metaphors in response to the question they immediately posed:
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?” “If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
John 9:40-41 CSB
After telling them they remain in their sin, Jesus kindly goes further than merely providing a sufficient answer to their immediate question. They asserted in the form of a question, that they most certainly were not blind as the man just healed by Him. The man who had just been healed fell down in worship of Jesus as The Messiah upon hearing Jesus declare Himself to be so. This is the heart of the matter - faith in Jesus.
The True Shepherd
Now we are ready to begin hearing what Jesus says further. There is only one way to obtain the sheep - through the gate. This gate is guarded by a man who knows every shepherd that has his flock inside the rock walls. If there were anyone pretending to be the Shepherd, or desiring to become the Shepherd over a flock, they would be unable to get to the sheep unless they scaled the walls. These wall jumpers don't care for the sheep, they simply wish to consume or steal what they don't love or own. This is the description of those who came before Jesus and professed to be God's promised Messiah. Jesus is shown to be the Messiah of God by His words, and His miracles. While other pretenders have to scale the wall, Jesus uses the gate and is recognized by the gate keeper. This is Jesus' way of saying, "I am the true Messiah". He will shortly declare it even more plainly by saying, " All who came before me are thieves and robbers."(John 10:8), but for now we see that the true Shepherd walks up to the gate and is validated by the gate keeper. As the gate keeper recognizes the true shepherd, so Jesus is to be recognized from the Scriptures. On the Emmaus road "...beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures." (CSB Luke 24:27) The Old Testament, from beginning to end, points to Jesus. The words and works of Jesus testify to His identity as well as the confirmation given by Old Testament prophecy and foreshadowing. Jesus IS the True Shepherd.
The Call of The True Shepherd
The True Shepherd goes on to say that He knows each one of His sheep personally, calls them personally (by name) and they respond to His call. This is precisely how God calls His children to Himself - by name. There have been revivals where people have believed in large numbers, even in the early days of the church about 3,000 people believed on Jesus in one day (Acts 2:41), each and every one of those who were added to the church all throughout history are personally and individually called by God. In the sermon preached to the 3,000 soon-to-become-believers in Acts 2, Peter says, "For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call." (CSB Acts 2:39) God calls His sheep by name.
The Obedience to The Call
And the final description in His metaphor is comforting and assuring; God calls His sheep by name and His sheep obediently respond to His call, following Him and Him alone. They are incapable of being swayed by the call of another as they have heard the voice of The True Shepherd. Having heard His voice and knowing His call, the call of others that would try to entice them to turn aside is met with fleeing rejection. Not only do the called not follow after the impostor, they run from him. Part of how His sheep are kept is through His initial call. Isn't it amazing that our keeping is even in our calling?! We are told we are kept by the power of God (I Peter 1:5); this is true from the very beginning as it is infused into the very call that is sent to us - before we were even aware The True Shepherd was standing at the gate.
Jesus presented this figure of speech, but the Pharisees didn't get it. He will follow this metaphor with another…
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