Question: What does it mean when Jesus said that he is the true shepherd? Is it about spiritual shepherding, that Jesus is speaking about? Who is the gate and its true relation to the sheep?
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
Here we go with the Scripture:
John 10:1-5,6, 7-18 - "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. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
7 Then Jesus said to them again, “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. 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. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”"
Many people who do not have an idea about Jesus of who He is and what He has come in to the world for, often tend to see the plaques of Jesus as a shepherd taking care of the sheep, and wrongly come to the conclusion that he might have been a literal shepherd. But that wrong understanding comes due to ignorance, Jesus was a carpenter by profession, and by inheriting his earthly father's business (Mark 6:3; Matt 13:55; Luke 4:22; John 6:42).
Usually only saved people understand that Jesus is God and that He is the one and only true spiritual Mediator between God and humans, and to the saved who believe Him to be the Savior He further continues to be a Chief Shepherd sent by God for all to be guided in to eternal life of God (1 Tim 2:3-6; 1 Peter 5:4; 1 John 5:11-13).
The one who makes a legal way of entry for the sheep to enter the flock is the shepherd, only the thieves and robbers usually come the illegal way to rob the sheep. But the true sheep that has been fed by the shepherd will not hear the voice of the thieves and robbers. Who are the thieves and robbers? They are the religious priests and scribes and pharisees of all religions who claim to lead the devotees towards God, but instead only rob the devotees of their belongings to lead them in to darkness of self and not toward the the true one and only God the Creator. Not only that, Jesus claims himself as the one and only door for all humankind to reach toward God. He who believes Jesus as the only begotten Son of God, becomes saved and then will go in and out of fellowship with God because of the inherent sin nature within them , but will be able to constantly find pasture spiritually because of the new nature of God that has become a part of them that sanctifies them to be among the sheepfold under the Chief Shepherd's guidance to find pasture now and forevermore eternally. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
"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. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own."
Who is the thief who steals everything that belongs to humans and uses them as his own to build his own kingdom of darkness? Every good and perfect gift comes from God above who is the Father of Lights (Jam 1:17), these He has given to humans as a gift which Satan and his demons have stolen to build his own empire which takes people away from God. Satan enflames the fallen sinful selfish nature, and then when people get addicted to their own nature, then Satan starts to steal and empty everything within them to make them spiritually empty and take the God given life out of them. O what a pity!
First Satan and his cohorts steals the joy of life which is a gift from God through addiction to sin and self, then kills the life they were supposed to enjoy and chokes them enough to keep them empty, and then finally Satan's tries to destroy the souls of people completely through his evil deception of suicide, murder, sickness, fornication, adultery, jealousy, hate, anger, malice, etc... finally it all leads to death.
Coming back to God through Jesus restores the life that God has given spiritually to enjoy, God's presence becomes real to make us all enjoy more abundantly like in heaven, on earth now itself for the Glory of God.
Jesus presents himself as the one and only good shepherd, and there is no substitute to him because as a sinless shepherd His life that was sacrificially given to redeem the sinful human sheep's, his unique life has no one to match because it is the only acceptable sacrifice God has accepted to bless humans supernaturally on behalf of Him when they follow him.
Who is a hireling? Hireling is not the shepherd, he is not the one who owns the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. In other words, a hireling is not really a shepherd but rather they are religious people who do what they do for money without real love behind it. Their true color of their character becomes know only when some spiritual danger begins to come for the sheep. At those critical times these hireling will run away from the sheep to save themselves and their own empire. These hireling who are hypocrites who hypocritically act as though they are people's true savior, they reveal their sinful fallen nature of their character to all sheep when danger comes to the sheep. These run away hireling cannot save a single soul to make them go to heaven, but instead will lead the soul in to the darkness of hell fire and lead them away from God eternally. These hireling are deceptive agents of Satan and his cohorts who transform themselves as the angel of light (1 Cor 11:13-14, 15), but at the end they will judged by God for their works as they all remain unsaved to the end. The wolf is Satan and his evil minions, along with the false prophet in whom they work to deceive people and take them away from God. These wolves always catch the sheep's and will scatter them because their intention is to kill them to fill their own belly and voracious appetite for money and fame. The hireling is a religious shepherd who does it for money and therefore a hireling, and they consider the sheep's who follow them as a item and a commodity for their own use, and therefore when in danger of being led to hell fire by Satan and his cohorts along with the false prophets who are wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt 7:15-20), immediately they flee fearing for their own lives and does not take care of the sheep to protect them.
But Jesus who is the good shepherd knows each saved person individually by name and He is known personally by his sheep through the Spirit of God who has been sent on behalf of him who is like him in everything to reveal Jesus to all his sheep's individually (John 14:15-18, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15). Praise the Lord!
"15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."
The true character and sacrifice of a good shepherd has been lived and accepted by God, and displayed by Jesus before the whole Universe. The Father has put His approval seal over the earthly life of Jesus as He declared from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt 3:17). Jesus too declared about the Father God right from his childhood days onward through his life and character of purity, and declared it even through his ministry to all people who believed him (Luke 2:49-50; John 2:16; 5:17, 19-20; 8:29; 14:7). When it was know that the Father has accepted Jesus as the Mediator between God and humans, John the Baptist cried out, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Thus, only Son of God could become the one and only legal heir of the Father, who has Begotten Him in fulfillment of his previous promises through the resurrection of Jesus in a glorious body to never see death anymore (John 1:34; Acts 13:33, 35). Truly Jesus who knew the Father and who is known by the Father, finally was able to lay down his life for the believing sheep in the nation of Israel who saw it all to live with him and were called by Jesus as friends (John 15:13, 14-15; 3:29). The same message of the good news of his virgin birth, death and resurrection was preached in all the world and have been believed outside the nation of Israel for the last two thousand years time have been brought in to the sheepfold of Jesus from all Gentile nations (1 Cor 15:1-4; Acts 13:47-48; 15:12-17), as they were all been under his guidance, have heard his voice personally through salvation, and were kept by him as one flock and under the one Chief Shepherd who is Jesus who have guided them in to eternal life (1 Peter 5:4). Hallelujah!
Father God in heaven loved the sacrifice of Jesus and accepted it perfectly because it was given by Jesus the Christ voluntarily for us humans, and Jesus took back the God-head power back again once all things got fulfilled as per the requirement (Luke 23:46; John 17:3-5, 6; 19:28, 30). Jesus voluntarily laid down his life for us His sheep, because of His love for us who have been sin sick and ready to go to hell and receive eternal death as a wages for our own sins. But thank God, Jesus as the sinless Son of God, had the power to lay down his life as a acceptable sinless sacrifice, which only could be accepted by the Father in Heaven as He demanded it. Jesus' sacrifice was accepted by God the Father, because He was the one who commanded Jesus to lay his earthly life down for the sheep followers so that they could all be saved and have eternal life! Praise the Lord!
Jesus as God could not cease from the form of God which was in his spirit, but what he did was that he voluntarily gave up the rights to use the power as God even though he did not consider that making Himself as equal with the Father on earth as a robbery because He was in fact God (Matt 1:23), and by making himself as a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men, Jesus emptied Himself of His privileges of God voluntarily and humbled himself to learn obedience to the point of death as a perfect human, which extended even unto the death of the cross (Php 2:5-8; Heb 5:7-9). GLORY!
O what a humble Jesus and a powerful master we have to follow in our own life as His sheep! Truly we are blessed more than all the people of the earth.
Because Jesus the Christ our Messiah is the True Shepherd, He has become our Good Shepherd! May we stay faithful to follow our Chief Shepherd all the days of our earthly life, and continue to be guided by Him in our eternal life too!
Much Blessings....
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