God Is …
Our Good Shepherd
Quarter 1 Unit 1 Lesson 2
John 10
Memory Verse
Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for you.
As we seek to obey God in our lives, it is comforting to know that He understands our struggles, and no sin is stronger than His love for us.
Think about what you’ve done in your life that God knows about (that’s everything!), and realize that He sent His Son to give His life for all of it.
He loves you that much.
Good Shepherd
Jesus said two things in John 10 that were radical claims for the people of that time-especially to the ears of Jewish leaders.
The first claim was that He would not only sacrifice His own life, but also take it up again.
The second claim was that He was one with God the Father.
Over and over through John 7, 8, 9, and 10, He told people He was sent from God, He knew God, and He was one with the Father.
He told them He had come to bring life. He also alluded to His coming death. And each time He spoke, the people became more and more stirred up, arguing over who this man was. Demon? Messiah? Sinner? Saint?
Either Jesus is God, or he was a crazy man.
The people who heard Jesus in the temple were confused and uncertain, but we don’t have to be.
We can hear Jesus’ words and see His actions and know who He is: the strong, courageous, powerful, perfect, loving Good Shepherd–worthy to be followed.
John 10:1-4
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by 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 the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice!
What do these verses tell us about who Jesus is or what He does?
Jesus uses the analogy of herding sheep to point out the difference between the Pharisees (Jewish leaders) and Himself.
In the Old Testament, shepherd and sheep were symbols used to reflect the relationship between God and Israel (see Ps. 23;80:1; Isa. 40:11).
The Pharisees had become so concerned with the way the flock was acting (by obeying the law of Moses and all the extra laws, they added to it) that they had lost compassion for people and weren’t concerned with loving and shepherding as God did.
It’s all about love.
Shepherds would place their flocks in a shared pen with other flocks to be kept safe at night. A gatekeeper would watch over all the sheep. Then in the morning each shepherd would come through the gate and call for his sheep, and the sheep would follow the voice they knew.
Jesus was pointing out that others might try to act as leaders or Messiahs of the people, but He is the true Messiah and Good Shepherd. He protects and loves His followers.
Listen to more of how Jesus describes Himself.
John 10:7-13
Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.
They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.
Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
Jesus portrays Himself as the door or the gate for the sheep. Shepherds often put themselves between their sheep and any predators- lying down in the narrow opening to the pen so they would be aware of anyone or any animal coming in to harm or take the sheep.
Remember how King David was a shepherd when he was young? To protect his sheep, he fought off lions and bears and rescued his sheep (1 Samuel 17:34-37).
Jesus also protects His followers -placing Himself in harm’s way to keep them safe. We see the greatest example of this when Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sins.
John 10:14-21
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me- just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-and I lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said,
“He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”
But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon.
Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
In these verses, Jesus is saying that He has authority given to Him by God. This is a bold claim, and one that could have been considered blasphemous (sacrilegious against God).
The Jews believed in one God, as the Old Testament said, and they did not yet understand that Jesus was God in physical human form.
They were trying to figure out where He got His power and whether He was crazy.
They didn’t understand that Jesus was talking about His great love for us and how He was willing to die in our place to protect us from the consequences of our sin.
John 10:24-33, 37-39
The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work, they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
To understand the radical things Jesus is saying in this chapter, we have to imagine what it would have been like to be a Jewish person listening to Jesus speak.
God spoke to His people and gave them His law. He asked them to follow it and to make sure they didn’t worship any other gods.
They knew there was only one God, and they believed it with all their hearts. For someone to say otherwise was the absolute worst.
It was so bad, so horrible, so wrong, that the law required their death. Now listen again to what Jesus said, and think about how you would feel.
**All of these verses tell us some very important things about Jesus. The word picture of a shepherd and his sheep helps us to understand how much Jesus cares for us.
He is the Good Shepherd who cares for us, His sheep. He knows when we are hurting. He can protect us.
And He can show us the way to life. He even laid down His own life for us. And He can do all of this because He has the authority of God-He is God.
When God created the world and made human beings, He knew that we would make wrong choices and do wrong things. This is called sin.
Because God is perfect and holy, our sin separates us from God. Sin hurts. Sin puts us in danger.
Sin makes us feel lost.
But God had a plan. His Son became human. He lived among us. He felt what we felt.
And He loved us. Then He died for us. It is a complicated concept, but Jesus was both God and man. He was fully human and fully God.
He was tempted in the same ways we are tempted -and yet He did not sin. He knows our weaknesses, our pain, our fear, and our doubts. And He knows how to overcome all of that.
Jesus lived life as a real person, but never messed up like we do. And because of this, He was the only one who could die for the sins of the world. He loved us so much that He was willing to protect us with His life.
Like sheep, we could never save ourselves. We could never heal our hearts, escape the danger and decay of this world, or find our way to eternal life all on our own.
We could never make our wrongs right again. But Jesus can. He is the Good Shepherd. And He died on the cross to pay for our sins, to free us from death, and to lead us home.
Because of His sacrifice, if we obediently accept Him as our Savior, we will be forgiven.
People faced many doubts about Jesus when they heard Him speak.
What are some of the doubts you’ve had in your life or faith?
Who are some of the leaders or shepherds in your life? Have they been good or bad?
Have they made you feel safe and protected, or have they made you feel unsafe?
How is Jesus different from any human leader (shepherd) we might have?