THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP
[p. 474] THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP
My thought is to say a few words in connection with the four titles or designations by which the Lord speaks of Himself in the passage I read. You continually find in the Lord’s discourses, recorded in John’s writings, a gradual progress, very often interrupted by man; but for all this the Lord does not turn aside. He does not stop to occupy Himself with what man presented, but steadily pursues His point, and hence the progress in the unfolding of the truth.
Now, in the early part of this chapter, the Lord speaks of Himself in four ways in relation to the sheep. First, He is the Shepherd of the sheep. Secondly, He is the door of the sheep. Thirdly, He is the good Shepherd. Lastly, He is the one Shepherd.
I purpose to take up the four ways in which the Lord thus speaks of Himself, and to bring before you what is connected with each, and you will see without difficulty that there is progress, till you are brought to the point that there is one flock and one shepherd. And then, further, Christ says, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”.
The first point is that He is the Shepherd of the sheep. Christ stood thus in relation to the sheep that were in the midst of God’s earthly people. It has been said very often in connection with this gospel that the Jew is looked upon from the outset as reprobate. In the first chapter it says, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. The Jew was virtually apostate. The feasts are not spoken of as the feasts of Jehovah, but of the Jews; and the Jew is in this gospel commonly designated as “the world”. In chapter 16 we have an instance of this; and indeed [p. 475] in chapter 15: 18 the Lord had said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you”. It was the Jew especially who hated Christ, but the Jew is spoken of as the world. What is before the mind of the Lord are the sheep.
In the beginning of this chapter 10 Christ designates Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep. In the midst of the apostasy there were those who were sheep in the counsel and purpose of God, and Christ stood in relation to such. They were in the fold. I take the fold to indicate an enclosure, and the enclosure had been divinely appointed. It was the place where the sheep were, and hence Christ came into the enclosure.
He came into the fold that He might lead the sheep out. He did not come into the fold to abide there, but in leading out the sheep He went before them. No one could leave the fold till Christ left it, and when He left the fold then the sheep followed. He opened the way out. You get a figure of this in the previous chapter, in the case of the blind man who got his eyes opened. He was put out of the fold, but Christ had gone, in a sense, before him. Literally Christ left the fold in death, and by that the way was open for the sheep to follow Him out of the fold. The idea of an enclosure came to an end in the death of Christ. The middle wall of partition that separated the Jew was broken down. The fold was the system of ordinances under which the people of God had been kept guarded. “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus”. It was a system that existed till the faith came in. When the faith came in, based on the death and resurrection of Christ, then the sheep were led out of the fold.
The fold was undoubtedly of God, but I do not believe that there ever was a system that was of God [p. 476] apart from the fold set up here upon earth. When any other system assumes the character of a fold, I should say it is not of God. There was a fold once, and but once. God does not establish a fold again. All that is over, and if you see in christendom something analogous to a fold, it is not of God. For Christ came that He might conduct those who were really sheep out of the fold. We have to take into account that our path is to go forth unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach. The believing Hebrews held to the fold pretty much after the truth had come in. When Paul came up to Jerusalem (Acts 21), the elders said to him, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law”. They clung to the fold. And the epistle to the Hebrews came in to exhort saints to leave the fold, that is, to “go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. That became the path then.
Christ left the fold in Himself becoming an offering for sin. The sin-offering could not be offered in the fold, and now saints have to go forth unto Him. You have to give up the idea of sanctified flesh, because sin has been condemned in the flesh, and we have to accept the reproach of this. If anyone were to ask me why I could not be connected with a fold, that is, in an earthly religious system, I would say, I am not good enough. I feel the only thing for me is to answer to the cross of Christ in that sense, for what was effected in the cross was that I should go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. The reproach of Christ is that sin has been condemned in the flesh. If people think they are good enough for the fold, let them remain there by all means, but I could not take that ground. It is another thing to go within the veil, but that is not the fold. We have boldness to enter the holiest, but you enter it in the life of Christ. As regards the flesh, the only place [p. 477] for the christian is the reproach of Christ, death to the world. That is what had come in in connection with the sheep.
We come now to the second point (verses 7 - 10). In this passage we get no longer the idea of a fold, but that Christ is the door of the sheep. In that sense He is a test to which the sheep answer. The word is, “If any man hear my voice”. It is a question of the discernment of Christ as the light of God. The point raised is, “What think ye of Christ?” whether He has brought to us the light of God. In that sense He is the door of the sheep. The Jews were subjected to that test. Christ was the door of the sheep, and the question was raised whether they would enter in by Him. The Jew was tested, and in that sense men are tested still by the voice of Christ. The point is, “If any man hear my voice”. Did Christ bring into the world the light of God, or are people content to remain in darkness, without light? Alas! many are content to remain in darkness, because their deeds are evil; on the other hand, the grace of God works, and the voice of Christ is heard, and they who enter in by Him are saved, and go in and out and find pasture.
Now it is in its moral effects in the way of life that we recognise what is of Christ. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. Adam brought in death by sin. Christ brings in life both through righteousness and in view of righteousness. Life does not come in apart from righteousness, but by righteousness, and it comes in for righteousness. There is that which is morally right in connection with Christ, and if a man did truth he would recognise that Christ has come into the world to bring in the light of God. The Lord says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”. Christ has brought life in through righteousness. Death lay upon man as the sentence of God, and till death was annulled there was no [p. 478] bringing of life and incorruptibility to light. To annul death Christ Himself must enter into death. He “death by dying slew”, but it was in order that life and incorruptibility might be brought to light in Him; the Lord says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”.
A reference to Revelation 22: 13 - 17 will serve to explain this. We should read in verse 14, “Blessed are they that wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life”, etc. The washing of their robes is that they may have right to the tree of life; then at the close of the book we have the appeal, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. How do they get the water of life freely? Never a person got the water of life except by coming to Christ. Christ alone gives the water of life. It brings to mind the words in John 4, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. What has come to pass is this: that Christ has communicated the water of life, and we have drunk of it, have received the Spirit of life, and that water springs up in us to eternal life. Life has come to us through righteousness, that is, through the abolition of death, and has come in view of righteousness. That is, “that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit”.
It is of all moment to apprehend the connection between righteousness and life, and that connection can only be seen in the Son of God. It was in Christ alone the righteousness of God could be declared. God alone could declare His righteousness. The Son comes forth that God’s righteousness might be declared in death. He has annulled death as the judgment of God and has brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel.
If a man loves God with all his heart and his [p. 479] neighbour as himself, that is evidence of life in him. The result is that you go in and out. You are saved. You grow up to salvation and you get liberty. There was not liberty in the fold. If the sheep had gone out of the fold they would have been in danger from the wolves. Now there is liberty and pasture. You lie down in green pastures. There is abundance of food, for Christ has come “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. Where Christ is there never can be lack of food. In the wilderness the disciples had to confess the poverty of their own resources — five loaves and two fishes — but there could not be lack where Christ was, and the five loaves and two fishes were more than sufficient for the need of the multitude. We grow to salvation, enjoy liberty, and find pasture, and that is true of us individually. We get the great gain of Christ having come that the sheep might have life and that they might have it very abundantly.
It is a great thing to be delivered from the fold, to be no longer afraid of the wolf; that is, the fear of death, and of the power of the devil; for Christ has come that you might be saved, and there is the savour of life about the christian, he does not walk hateful and hating others. Righteousness is the proof and test of life. “He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”. It is the proof of a man being born of God. You are then a testimony to Christ. If you want an illustration of this you have it in the impotent man whom the Lord raised up at the pool of Bethesda. It was a testimony to the Jews that Christ came to raise up man.
Now I pass on to the next point, and that is the good Shepherd. So far we have had that which applies to us individually, as in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”. Now there are two points in this passage in connection with the good Shepherd. First, the proof to which the Lord [p. 480] appeals of His being the good Shepherd is that He lays down His life for the sheep, and then there is the statement, “I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep”. Now this brings us, in a sense, to what is collective, and as an illustration of this I should refer to John 20. You get what the Lord speaks of in this passage completely verified there. He first makes Himself known to Mary, and after that He presents Himself to the disciples as the good Shepherd who had given His life for the sheep. He says in the midst of them, “Peace be unto you”. They could not fail to recognise Him as entitled to the appellation of the good Shepherd. The word of peace was the fruit of His death. Redemption was accomplished, and the Lord comes into the company with the announcement of peace.
It is remarkable that the Lord does not allow in the chapter (10) that His death is at the hand of man. His death is His own part according to the will of the Father. He says of His life, “No man taketh 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 commandment have I received of my Father”. I would not say that His laying down His life was voluntary, because it was according to the will of the Father, but at the same time the hand of man is not allowed in it. It was the evidence that He was the good Shepherd. The place He takes as Head of the body is in the pre-eminence of love. If we recognise Christ as Head we think of Him as the One who laid down His life for us. We were all in the power of the enemy. Christ came in to make known to us the grace of God, to establish peace, that we might be delivered out of the hand of the enemy, and when all was effected the Lord came into the company of the sheep,
[p. 481] who were outside the fold, gathered in an upper room, with doors closed for fear of the Jews, and He brought to them the tidings of peace; there was no one in that company but would have been free to give Christ His title as the good Shepherd.
But further, the Lord says, “I ... know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father”. We get the Father presented to us mediately through the Son. You know nothing about the Father except in the Son. The Son reveals the Father. The Lord Jesus says, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. There is no difference morally between the Father and the Son. What the Father is in affection the Son is also. So the Son brings us into His own affection, and in doing so He brings us into the Father’s affection. It is His pleasure to bring us into the circle of His own joy and affection, and in that way He separates us completely from the world. It is not simply that He has the claim of His death to be the good Shepherd, but He has a second title. He makes known to us the best thing He can make known. There is nothing to compare with the knowledge of the Father. That is what the Lord came to make known. He was here to declare His name and bring the disciples into the presence of the Father, and in John 14 He says, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself”, that is, to the Father’s house. What He does as the good Shepherd is to bring us now to the Father’s heart, but He comes again to bring us to the Father’s house.
If you understand anything about this, you can see how completely you are separated from the world by the light which Christ has brought in, and which is made effective in us. We know Him after the same order in the reciprocity of affection in which He knows the Father and the Father knows Him. It is heavenly [p. 482] blessing, and by the very fact of heavenly blessing you are separated from a world which has rejected both Christ and the Father. Everybody should be pleased, by the grace of God, to give to Christ His proper place. It is that which He claims, and He does not claim it without having substantiated His claim. He has done the best for us He could, and makes known to us the best He knows. The Son reveals the Father, and by the revelation of the Father He brings us to the Father’s heart.
One point more (verses 16 - 18, 27, 28). You see in John 20 the flock was there, but the flock had not attained the extent which God intended. There was not the gentile. I believe the truth here comes in to confirm the teaching of Paul. Each writer presents things in his own particular way. Of course each is led by the Spirit of God, but one confirms the teaching of another. Hence you get the thought of the gentile brought in by the Lord here. Hitherto He had been speaking in regard to the Jew, and this was made good in John 20; but there was no gentile; but Christ had other sheep which were not of that fold, and He had to bring them, and there would be one flock, one Shepherd. Not two flocks, which was not according to the mind of God. The effort at division came in early, but was frustrated for the time in the grace of God; and the divine purpose was realised, there was to be one flock, one Shepherd.
One word more. Christ says further, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”. I believe that means, on the part of Christ, that He puts the sheep morally outside of death. It is substantially what you get in the writings of Paul in our being risen and quickened together with Christ. It is the thought of God to put His saints outside the realm of death, and there it is they have eternal life,
[p. 483] and in regard of this Christ says, “I and my Father are one”. They were perfectly one in counsel and thought. The Father gave the sheep to Christ, and following Him they leave the fold; they discern Him as the door of the sheep. He is to them the good Shepherd, and the Lord says now, “I give unto them eternal life”. It is His own gift, indicating the place in which the assembly is set according to the will of God outside of death, and the workings of flesh, quickened together with Him in the divine nature, so that “I know my sheep, and am known of mine”, is practically true. It is the reciprocity of affection between Christ and the sheep, as between the Father and the Son.
I think you will see the passage is one of the deepest interest, and that in it there is a remarkable progress in the unfolding of the truth. The Lord began by speaking of what was applicable to the moment. The porter had opened the door, and He had come into the fold, but the Shepherd was not to be detained there. The law was not the purpose of God for the sheep, but sonship, and so it is said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. If you prove that, you will go in and out, and find pasture in the midst of this dreary wilderness.
It is a great thing to enter into the divine thought. We are in the midst of confusion, and if you go back to what was from the beginning you will refuse anything that is not of God. And you get help and grace from God to enable you in a path of comparative isolation to stand in that which was from the beginning, and there can be nothing more important than to go to the word and find what was the divine thought in the mission of Christ in coming into the world. And He has given effect to it in ascending up on high and giving the Holy Spirit. The living water is here, and [p. 484] the water springs up in the believer to eternal life, which is really the gift of Christ.
May God give us to recognise what is due on our part to Christ, that He may have His own proper place in the saints, and our hearts be bowed in affection for the good Shepherd. That is what I would desire as the effect of all that has been said.