In Jason Dohm's sermon 'A Familiar Word Picture,' the focus is on Jesus' metaphor in John 10, where He describes Himself as the Good Shepherd and the door for the sheep. This imagery illustrates the legitimate and caring relationship between the shepherd and his sheep, contrasted with the illegitimate and harmful intentions of thieves and robbers. Dohm emphasizes the importance of understanding this parable within its context, following the excommunication of a healed blind man by the Pharisees in John 9. The sermon explores the rich Old Testament backdrop that associates God with shepherding, highlighting figures like David and Moses, and prophetic passages from Jeremiah and Ezekiel that foreshadow Jesus as the true shepherd. Through this, Dohm calls for careful spiritual discernment among believers, urging them to recognize the voice of the true shepherd and to be wary of false teachings. The sermon concludes by affirming Jesus as the chief shepherd who leads, protects, and knows His sheep individually, providing them with guidance and care.

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.

Jesus used this illustration but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly I say to you I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. And I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep 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. The harlan flees because he is a harlan and does not care about the sheep.

I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known by my own as the father knows me even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep 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. Therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. 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 up again. This command I have received from my Father." James just read Revelation 7 verse 18 where you have a lamb who is the shepherd.

I didn't even come across that as a cross reference. That is astounding. Amazing. The title of the sermon this morning is a familiar word picture. A word picture is a device that you use to bring into someone's mind a scene in order to help them understand something that you're wanting to describe or teach about.

And Jesus does this in our text today. You might call it a parable or an illustration or a word picture, but that's what Jesus is doing. He's going to very familiar territory to everyone that he's speaking to, sheep and shepherds, And he's painting a picture in their minds. He's making a scene appear on their minds to help them understand the things that he wants to teach. In John chapter 4, when Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she had come to draw water.

Water was at hand, and so he used that to paint a word picture about himself as living water. He used something that was right there and that she would be intimately familiar with. In John chapter 6, the hearers bring up Moses and the manna in the wilderness. So Jesus brings this really familiar passage of scripture to bear to paint a word picture about himself as the bread of life. So all we need to say about John chapter 10 is He's doing it again.

He's painting a word picture. He's painting a scene in the mind of his hearers, using something that they're really, really familiar with in order to make so clear something that he's desiring to teach. Something that has just happened that can be explained by word picture. There are sheep and there are those who are interested in sheep. So he goes to why some are interested in sheep and how those motives have a tremendous influence on how those who are interested in the sheep relate to the sheep.

Relate to the sheep. This is the first of four sermons that will take us through verse 21. So this really just sets the stage for sermons that are to come. And When we get to the end of our text today, it will say they didn't understand these six verses. I'm preaching on the part that they didn't understand.

The verses that follow, the texts that follow, and the sermons that follow will be Jesus explaining and expanding on what he teaches. I love it when we hit a portion of scripture where someone doesn't understand and then so Jesus gives an explanation because then we can't miss it because he himself has explained it. We're not left guessing we get the public explanation and Expansion on on what he's taught in in the sermons to come as we go to the text. Let's Ask the Lord to help us. Our God, according to Your Word, all who have repented and believed in Your Son Jesus Christ are Your people and the sheep of your pasture.

These words of Psalm 23, John 10 should be so precious to us. It's talking about us and your great practical day to day care and protection for me, for us. I pray that we would come away from these four weeks in the Good Shepherd text in courage knowing that you call us by name, you go before us, you care for us in daily practical ways. Oh, let that great truth, and if we don't get anything else out of these weeks, let that great truth settle upon our hearts. I pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen. There are going to be four sections to the sermon today. These are the four sections. One, I'd like to give you a framework for this word picture. I think there are a few concepts that if I develop them first, it will help us to rightly handle and understand the word picture.

So I'm going to start by one, giving you a framework. Number two, I'd like to look at the word picture itself. Maybe we should call it a word movie because there's movement and action here. It's not just a scene like you would look at a snapshot or a picture on the wall. There are things happening, so maybe it's a word movie.

Number three, we like to consider the Old Testament backdrop. This has such rich ties to Old Testament teaching. So right at the very beginning of a multi-sermon series on this, it really helped us to go back and look to what Jesus is laying hold of in the Old Testament that his hearers would undoubtedly have thought of in the shadow of what he was saying. And then four, lastly I'd like to make a few applications as we always try to do. Number one, a framework for this word picture.

So if you're taking notes on the handout, framework fills in the blank. A framework for this word picture. I'd like to give you here three sub points that I hope form a helpful framework and help us think rightly about the word picture. First, we're not meant to work backwards. What do I mean by that?

I mean you've heard John chapter 10 many times from start to finish. Which means that it's going to be difficult for you to hear it like Pharisees were hearing it, because you're not hearing it for the first time. So I'm begging you, try to hear it like you're hearing it for the first time. Don't immediately begin to apply Jesus' explanation to our text this week. Because His hearers hadn't heard all that stuff yet.

Because you've heard John chapter 10 many times, you're going to want to rush ahead, to sneak ahead, and apply what you already know. But that has the potential of robbing you of what Jesus is actually trying to do as he sets the stage for the explanation. So try really hard to force yourself to hear this for the first time. You'll have to pretend you're not hearing it for the first time. Do your best to pretend that you're hearing it for the first time.

Put yourself in the scene and let Jesus progressively teach you because that's what he's doing to his original hearers. The alternative is to rush out of Jesus and to miss the stage that he's setting. So Be slower than you want to be at making the connections that Jesus is going to make later, because he hasn't made them yet for his original hearers. Listen and understand what he's saying in this text first, without trying to pull forward the other things that you've heard and know. My exhortation is this, let this unfold over the next four weeks.

Don't try to mash it all into the sermon. Then I'm going to do the best that I can not to preach James' sermon and Michael's sermon and try to jam it forward into this week. So this is an admonition to myself too. Second, so that was first, we are not meant to work backwards. Don't work backwards.

Let Jesus lead the way here and set the pace. Number two, second, the preceding context is absolutely essential. If you start with John 10 verse 1, you're not going to have a full or even a good understanding of what Jesus is teaching here. What has led up to John chapter 10 verse 1, throws a tremendous amount of light on what Jesus is saying and why Jesus is saying it. Every once in a while I complain bitterly about an uninsidered chapter break.

So allow me to do that here. This chapter break is so unhelpful if it causes us to just discard what is immediately before and not join this with it. There was maybe one single breath between the last verse in chapter 9 and what Jesus says in chapter 10 verse 1 and maybe not even. Maybe he didn't even need to take a breath there. So you have to think of this as continuous.

So what I'd like to do right now is to go to John chapter 9 verse 35 and read it to the end of the chapter and then roll right into verse 1 so that we keep the connection here. John 9 verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him, this is the blind man, the man blind from birth who had been given his sight. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him, he said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?

Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you. Then he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. 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. And some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things 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. 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." You can see how all this hangs together. You can see how you have to have the preceding context to make sense of what Jesus says.

When Jesus talks about people climbing up some other way to the sheepfold, He is talking about what they all just witnessed with their own two eyes. These men who said they were leaders of the people of God casting out this one who loved and confessed and worshiped Jesus. That's what it's about. That's the immediate context. That is what Jesus is explaining when he teaches.

Jesus' main concern At the beginning is to address the identity and conduct of the Pharisees. Now is he going to end up teaching other things? Yes, he is going to end up teaching about his own identity and his own conduct, but he doesn't start there. He starts by fingering, by pointing out, by throwing light on the identity and the conduct of the Pharisees. That's where he starts.

He is declaring them to be illegitimate, fraudulent, fake, not leaders of the Lord's people. Think about what a dramatic shift that is. All we've seen is the Pharisees essentially saying to Jesus, Jesus, you are illegitimate. We didn't commission you. Prophets don't come out of Galilee.

You have no authority to do what you're doing or to say what you're saying. And Jesus completely is flipping that on its head. No. You are the ones who are illegitimate. You are the ones who are illegitimate.

You are the ones who are not commissioned by God, not sent by God, have no authority to do what you are doing and to say what you are saying. He takes their accusations against him and turns them completely back around in what he teaches and says in our text today. Third, the third part of the framework. Understand parables so you can understand parables. It doesn't sound like it makes sense.

What do I mean by that? Understand parables so you can understand parables. It doesn't sound like it makes sense. What do I mean by that? Understand parables so you can understand parables.

Understand what a parable is in general so that you actually can rightly understand any specific parable. If you don't really understand what a parable is, what its purpose is, what it's intended for, then when you come to any individual parable, you're likely to get it wrong. Sometimes Jesus uses a parable to hide the meaning from unbelieving minds, but in this case, he publicly explains it in the presence of his enemies. So He can't be using a parable in that way. He can't be using it to hide the meaning because he explains the meaning explicitly right in front of his enemies.

He's doing something else. The normal use of a parable is to employ an extra powerful, extra memorable way to teach one main truth, sometimes two main truths, but a really narrow range. So the purpose of a parable is to narrowly teach about one main truth, maybe two, almost never more than two main truths. So parables aren't known for precision in teaching, but they're known for power and for unforgettable. They're extra powerful, extra memorable.

So to correctly understand a parable, Look for the one main truth that the person is trying to teach in an extra powerful, extra memorable way. Focus on the one main truth or maybe two main truths. To press a parable beyond what the teller ever intended, assign a significant meaning to every detail in the parable. So here's what I'm saying. To get it right, focus on the one main truth and have the details of the parable explained by the one main truth.

To get it wrong, try to assign a significant meaning to every single detail in the parable. You are doomed if you try to assign a significant meaning to every detail in the parable. So to say that potted plant in the corner of the parable means this earth-shaking thing, and to build doctrine on it is a path that many, many have taken. I was listening back over a sermon yesterday where the person preaching talked about Augustine and his explanation of the parable of the Good Samaritan and all the crazy things he assigned to us. Generally speaking, we appreciate Augustine's theology, but he did this.

He assigned significant things to peripheral details in a parable. It takes you to places that you don't want to be. That assigns precision to a parable that was never intended. It's not for that. When teachers want to teach doctrine with precision, they use a different kind of scripture to do that, not parables.

In this case, the main point that drives everything is that there are sheep, and there are different people interested in those sheep, who have very different reasons for their interest so they relate with those sheep in very different ways. That's the overriding thing that Jesus is speaking here. There are sheep and there are people interested in those sheep because they're valuable and they have different motives and their different motives cause them to relate to the sheep in very different ways. In verse 3 we're going to encounter a doorkeeper. Jesus never says in the rest of John chapter 10 as he explains and expands on what he teaches in 1 through 6, never mentions the doorkeeper another time.

In a sense, the doorkeeper is the potted plant in the corner of this parable. It's amazing the number of commentators who spend a lot of space on this one word that Jesus touches on and then never uses again. We're not going to do that because we shouldn't do that. It just helps add color and detail to the main point. Alright, that was number one, which is a framework for this picture.

We are not meant to work backwards, so let Jesus set the pace here. The preceding context is absolutely essential. The backdrop here is this blind man who was given his sight being excommunicated and understand what parables are for so you don't get caught up in the trap around and trying to interpret parables. Main point number two. Main point number one was the framework.

Main point number two. Let's look at the word picture itself. So, we're pretending that we're hearing this for the first time, just like Jesus' listeners. As a way to get everyone to understand what just happened when the healed man had been cast out of the synagogue by the Pharisees, Jesus uses a word picture about how things work in shepherding. So what He is trying to do is to detach the hearers from the immediate, to take them to something else they are not emotionally invested in to get them to see their own part in this without all the self interest.

Do you understand that? It's a great way to go about this. In fact, this is exactly what God leads the prophet Nathan to do in 2 Samuel 12. In 2 Samuel 12, God leads the prophet Nathan to Go to David, who is sinned greatly, and to paint a picture in his mind, to give him a word picture of a man who steals and slaughters a baby lamb from a poor man. You know this story very well.

He is detaching David. God could have just sent him to say, David, this is exactly what you did. This is wicked. You should repent from it. He didn't do that.

He sent a prophet to detach David from it and to get David to see without himself being in view, without any of his own self-interest in view, what he had done by painting a picture and getting him to render judgment on this picture. What did David end up saying in 2 Samuel 12? This man shall die. This man who had in effect done in the word picture exactly what David had done. When David was detached and his self interests were stripped away, he passed right judgment on that And then Nathan springs the trap and says, You are the man.

This is exactly what Jesus is doing with this Word picture. With that in mind, Let's read it again. Follow along as I read our text, chapter 10, verses 1-6. Most assuredly I say to you, so we keep encountering this, the amen, amen in Greek, Most assuredly I say to you, so we keep encountering this, the amen, amen in Greek, most assuredly I say to you, is amen, amen. But it's before, we're used to amen at the end, this is before.

So he's alerting us, I'm getting ready to say something really important. I'm amening it, double amening it before I even tell it to you. Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, climbs up some other way, the same as 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." Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. So Jesus could have come right at them and said, you see what you just did by casting this one who worships the son of God out of your synagogue, you are wicked, fake, pretend shepherds." He could have said that. He's essentially saying that. But he's not coming at them directly.

He's giving them a word picture to emotionally detach themselves so they're not serving their self-interest in hearing it and then he'll spring the trap. The Word Picture. During the day, a shepherd will lead his flock out to find pasture for feeding them and water so that they can drink. But at night, He will bring them into the sheepfold, an enclosure with high walls for protection. So day and night He is serving their interests.

In the day they need to eat, He leads them out of the sheepfold to find pasture. He leads them to the quiet waters like we read in Psalm 23. This is the job of the shepherd. He looks after their interests day and night. During the day, food and water are their interests.

He's leading them out and making sure that they get what they need. At night they're vulnerable and so he leads them into the sheepfold while they're enclosed for their protection. The walls are not just to keep the sheep in, they're primarily to keep thieves and robbers and predators like wolves out and away from the sheep. They're high enough for that. They're not just high enough to keep sheep in.

You don't need much of a wall for that. They're high enough to keep thieves, robbers, and predators out. That's the primary reason for the walls of a sheepfold. Now if you see anyone or anything climbing up and over the wall, you know the sheep are in danger. You know they're not there for a good purpose.

There's no reason to say if you see someone climbing up and over the wall, I wonder if that's the shepherd. It's not the shepherd. It would never occur to you to think, wow, what's that shepherd doing climbing over the wall? You know the shepherd has a different mode of operating. Sheep are valuable and vulnerable.

And So if you're going to keep them, you'll have to protect them from those who are serving their self-interest want what is valuable and vulnerable. That's true of any resource. If you have a resource that's valuable and vulnerable, you have to protect it. Period. Amen.

Sheep are like that. So you have a sheep fold for night. People who have a legitimate right to access to the sheep have a legitimate way to get to them. Make sense? We're not even shepherds.

Have you ever met a shepherd? I've never met a shepherd. Or if I did, I didn't know I was meeting a shepherd. I'm not familiar with sheep. But I know that.

People who have a legitimate right to access to those sheep have a legitimate way to get to them. The door. The door. The shepherd is recognized by the doorkeeper. He doesn't have a badge or anything.

The doorkeeper knows that's the shepherd. In fact, the shepherd is employing the doorkeeper. So don't think of the doorkeeper as someone who is above the shepherd and decides whether the shepherd can come in. No, no, no. The doorkeeper is employed, is a subordinate of the shepherd.

And He knows, here's the boss. The boss has legitimate right to access to the sheep, and the shepherd can come and go as he wishes. Those who don't have a legitimate right to the sheep climb over the wall. So if you see someone climbing over the wall, you know this is a thief or a robber. By definition, you don't need to know more to know that it's a thief and a robber.

I don't know how many times I've read John chapter 10, but that's a lot of times. I've always read those as synonyms. Two words meaning the same thing. A thief or a robber or a robber or a thief. It's just repetition to make sure that we get the point.

But that's not actually it. In studying this there are very different Greek words. The Greek that's written as a thief means someone who takes by stealth or deception. It would be like a pickpocket or someone who crawls in the window behind your back to steal your things. Judas is called this in John chapter 12 verse 6.

So Judas is this thief. This Greek word that is rendered thief. Judas is called that. He is not beating anyone up and taking their money. When no one is looking, he sneaks from the purse.

That's the thief. That's the meaning of this Greek word. The meaning of the Greek word that is rendered robber is someone who takes by violence. Barabbas is identified in John chapter 18 verse 40 as a robber. Elsewhere in the New Testament we know that he is a murderer.

Those who robbed the man and left him half dead in the parable of the good Samaritan, you remember, a man is going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he's jumped by robbers. And they strip him and beat him, and they leave him half dead on the road to Jericho. That's the word. They take by violence. That's Luke 10 verse 30, that same Greek word.

There's a couple of different kinds that are up and over to get access to the sheep. Some who take by stealth and deception, some who take by violence. The shepherd is the exact opposite. He's not exploiting the sheep because they are valuable and vulnerable. But he cares about the sheep and he cares for the sheep.

They mean something to him. In fact, day by day you'll find him leading them out to feed them and water them. At night, he's bringing them in to a place of protection. He's the exact opposite of the thief and the robber. When I say leading them out, this is a distinctive feature of eastern shepherds.

They lead from the front. They're sheep. All of what we see in this first part of John chapter 10 is exactly what you find in shepherds and sheep in eastern countries. Countries. They lead from the front.

They go before their sheep. Their sheep really do know their voice and they follow along after them. Western shepherds drive from behind, usually with dogs. So they are actually behind the sheep. They sort of lead from behind, if that's even a thing.

They are driving their sheep from behind. Western shepherds have a fundamentally different relationship with the sheep from eastern shepherds. With eastern shepherds, the sheep go where they have already seen the shepherd go. Do you get that? This is a rich part of what Jesus is teaching here.

With Eastern Shepherds, they go where the shepherd has already gone. So if there are dangers to be encountered, the shepherd has encountered them. The sheep can see where he's gone and all their job to do is to follow along. By the way, that's why western shepherds have to drive their sheep. Because they're not following one who's already blazed that trail.

The sheep are essentially being asked to blaze the trail and they don't like it so you have to have dogs to nip them to get them to go forward. Western shepherds actually have the relationship with the dogs that Eastern shepherds have with the sheep. Where they call the dogs by name, not the sheep by name. The dogs know their voice, not the sheep. The sheep know the shepherd's voice and they follow him.

He names them individually. He knows sheep by sheep. He can recognize them. Maybe even a large flock. He can tell sheep from sheep.

So it's not just that the sheep learn to follow voice commands. Do you understand that? It's not just that if you say the right word, they'll do the thing at that word. They learn to recognize the voice too. They will not follow even the same voice command from a different voice.

That's being taught here. If a stranger comes and says exactly the same thing that the shepherd would say, they'll run away from him. So he used the same words, he had the same voice command, but the sheep know not just the words, but recognize the voice. If a stranger says exactly the same thing, Trying to say it in the same way they'll run away, not follow. That's number two, kind of looking at the Word picture itself.

Number three, I'd like to consider the Old Testament backdrop. The word picture has many direct connections to the immediate circumstances, right? We can take the end of chapter 9 and chapter 10 verses 1 through 6 and start to make connections So that You don't need to know anything about the Old Testament for this word picture to have value. So it's not completely dependent on the Old Testament. It can stand on its own, but it doesn't stand on its own.

It could if a modern reader who knows nothing about the Old Testament or has never seen a sheep or met a shepherd reads this, if they look at it carefully for ten minutes they can figure out what's going on. So it can stand on its own, but boy, it does not stand on its own. Not by a long shot. God has said so much that these experts in the law, the Pharisees, would immediately make those connections. It is impossible to think that they heard Jesus say the things that he is saying in John chapter 10 verses 1-6 without making these connections themselves.

It hardly needs to be said that sheep and shepherding are an inseparable part of Israel's history. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Shepherds. Moses, for 40 years of his life, shepherd. David, for the first part of his life, a shepherd.

Listen to 2 Samuel 7 verse 8. God says to Samuel, Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the sheepfold, from following sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel." God wanted Samuel to say to David, I took you out of your shepherding occupation to make you another kind of shepherd. And it's the same with Moses. Do you think it's just coincidental that God had Moses shepherding sheep for 40 years before he sent him to bring his people out. No, because when you look at how God describes the bringing out of those people and their years in the wilderness, it is the imagery of sheep and shepherd.

It hardly needs to be said that the analogy of God as the shepherd and His people as the sheep runs all through the Old Testament. We sang it today. What we were singing was straight out of Psalm 95 verse 7. For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. We think of ourselves in those terms today because it's so pervasive in the Bible.

Psalm 95 is just a little taste of what we see from Genesis to Revelation. It really is everywhere. That is why God so frequently uses that imagery in the prophetic utterances. Meaning, when God speaks to his people through the prophets, often, often, often he uses sheep and shepherd imagery because it's so inseparable from their history, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and on and on, and from the poetry of the Old Testament that makes God the shepherd and the people of God the sheep. I'd like to begin though not with the prophets but in numbers.

But in Numbers, if you'd like to turn to Numbers chapter 23, Numbers 27, I'll be reading 15-18. This is the first Old Testament backdrop for what Jesus says. Numbers 27, starting in 15. Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation who may go out before them, and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd." So this is Moses entreating God, begging God to raise up a man after he is off the scene. This is near the end of Moses' life.

God wants God to raise someone up in his place who will be like a shepherd. He will go out before the sheep, He will come in before the sheep. Now listen to verse 18. And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. The answer to Moses' request that God would raise up a shepherd for His people who would go before the sheep so that they wouldn't be like sheep which have no shepherd, the answer to that prayer and request was Joshua.

Joshua is a type of foreshadowing of Jesus. Jesus actually as a name is just a variant of the same word and they both mean savior. Joshua means savior, Jesus means savior. Moses is a type of the law and so when Moses can't lead the people into the promised land, The promised land is a type of heaven. When Moses can't lead the people into heaven, it is typical that the law cannot lead you into heaven.

Joshua, the Savior, is typical of Jesus. He's the one who leads us over the Jordan into the promised land. Only the Savior can do that. The law can never do it, only the Savior can. So these things are deeply typical.

Joshua is a type of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the type that Joshua is. Turn to Jeremiah 23. Would like to read verses 1-6. Jeremiah 23.

You will see by the end that This is messianic at its core. There is no way to get away from this being about the Messiah. Jeremiah 23, 1-6. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, driven them away, and not attended to them.

Behold I will attend to you for your for the evil of your doing says the Lord now just just let me stop there Just comment Think about the backdrop of what Jesus is saying being, they are casting out of this child of God. This is talking about that. God in the flesh, God with man is saying that He is attending to them for the evil of their doings for how they have treated the sheep. Continuing in verse 3. But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds.

And they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they will fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely.

Now this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness." and the Lord our righteousness. Jeremiah, God through Jeremiah talks about raising up to David a branch of righteousness. So just understand the timeline. David died on or around 971 BC. That's when David dies, 971 BC.

Jeremiah was prophesying around 600 BC. It's been almost 400 years David has been dead. He's talking about the Messiah, the one who will come from the line of kings, a son of David, the Lord our righteousness, who will rise up to reclaim the flock that has been scattered and bring them back together again and raise up others to dismiss the false shepherds and raise up other shepherds who actually will feed them and actually will care for them. This is what is happening in our text. Jesus is laying claim to Jeremiah 23 in our text.

Jesus is making the claim to be the fulfillment to what we just read in Jeremiah 23 in our text. Turn to Ezekiel 34. By the way, if you think that the Pharisees really didn't understand and didn't make these connections, by the end of John chapter 10 they're going to be picking up stones to stone them. This was not lost on the Pharisees. They made the connections.

They understood what Jesus was saying. Ezekiel 34. I'm going to read the whole chapter, all 31 verses. So, I hope you're there so you can follow along. Please try to hang in.

I know it's risky to read really long sections like this because your attention span is probably like mine, which is not a compliment. So try to follow along. When I first started studying this, one of the first texts I went to read was Ezekiel chapter 34. And my jaw dropped open when I read Ezekiel 34 in terms of how close it is to our text in John chapter 10, Ezekiel chapter 34. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.

Prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds, Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened." Now just think of this.

This blind man who was just healed of his blindness, they cast him out of the synagogue. The weak you have not strengthened, verse 4, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost. But with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching from them.

Will you ever be able to read Luke 15 verse 4 the same again? Listen to this, What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?" This is all related. Picking back up in verse 7. Verse 7, Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, says the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed the flock.

Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord." Now don't miss something that just happened in verse 8. He says, there was no shepherd, nor did my shepherd search for my flock. Meaning that the ones who were calling themselves shepherds were shepherds in name only. He actually says there actually were No shepherds. There were people calling themselves shepherds, but there were no shepherds.

Verse 10. Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand. I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more. For I will deliver my flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them. For thus says the Lord God, indeed I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

As the shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. They shall lie down in a good fold, and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them in judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture, and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet.

And as for my flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet. Therefore, Thus says the Lord God to them, Behold, I myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep, because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns and scattered them abroad. Therefore I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will establish one shepherd over them and he shall feed them, my servant David." So again Ezekiel is maybe 20 years after Jeremiah. So again it's been a hundred years since David has died.

He's talking about Jesus, the son of David. End of 23. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David a prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.

I will make a covenant of peace with them and cause wild beasts to cease from the land, and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around my high hill a blessing and I will cause showers to come down in their season There shall be showers of blessing Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit and the earth shall yield her increase They shall be safe in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell in safety, and no one shall make them afraid. I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore.

Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them. And they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. You are my flock and the flock of my pasture. You are men and I am your God, says the Lord God. I hope reading Ezekiel 34 and thinking about Jesus makes you happy.

He delivers us. He delivers us from our enemies and delivers us into blessing. Jesus in John chapter 10 is laying claim to being the fulfillment of Ezekiel 34. You can believe that the Pharisees got it. Finally, I would just reference Zechariah 11.

So You can turn there, but I'm not going to spend hardly any time there. The reason that I'm referencing it is because it would take a lot more time and care to develop it, because it involves judgment and the change of the typical people of God, which is Israel, to the actual people of God, which is the true church. And I'm not up to that task in this time frame. So I'm just going to reference it. But listen to what I reference from Zechariah 11 starting in verse 8.

I dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me." skipping down to verses 12 and 13. Then I said to them, if it is agreeable to you, give me my wages, and if not refrain. So they weighed out from my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, that princely price they set on me.

So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. In case you missed what's happening here, it's actually explained in the book of Acts. This is the price that was paid for Jesus to Judas by these same people, many of which Jesus is probably talking to in John chapter 10. They gave Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray him. This is a prophecy of that.

In verse 8, God is saying, I dismissed the three shepherds in one month, my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me. God in the flesh is dismissing the shepherds of Israel and appointing himself the shepherd of Israel. Number four, a few applications. So that was number three, the Old Testament backdrop. I hope that Old Testament backdrop will be really valuable for the coming weeks because It's going to loom in the background in the coming sermons as well.

I know that it will. Number four, a few applications. Number one, only those who go through the door have legitimate access to the sheep. Everybody else is climbing up and over. They are gaining illegitimate access to the sheep.

Only those who go through the door have legitimate access to the sheep. And as we are going to learn next week, Jesus is the door. Listen to Ryle. J.C. Ryle says this, The true shepherd of souls is he who enters the ministry with a single eye to Christ, desiring to glorify Christ, doing all in the strength of Christ, preaching Christ's doctrine, walking in Christ's steps, and laboring to bring men and women to Christ.

The false shepherd of souls is he who enters the ministerial office with little or no thought about Christ, from worldly and self-exalting motives, but from no desire to exalt Jesus and the great salvation that is in Him." This is an application of our text. There is a legitimate access to the sheep that is granted by the Great Shepherd of the sheep and you have to go through the door. The door is Jesus. True Christ-centeredness is the mark of a legitimate ministry and the mark of a legitimate leader. True Christ centeredness.

Without it, run. If I should stop making Christ the center of our preaching, run. James or Michael should cease to make Christ the center of the ministry here, the center of our preaching, then run. It is the mark of a legitimate ministry. Number two.

A significant lack of spiritual discernment is a terrible sign. I think this is a really important application from this text. A significant lack of spiritual Discernment is a terrible sign. If you discern that in yourself, then you should go look deep immediately. I say a significant lack of spiritual discernment because I think all of us from time to time find that we've held on to things that actually aren't true.

And we haven't discerned it up to that point. Sheep do wander, but when they have the true shepherd he goes and gets them and brings them back. People who wander and wander and drift further and further should wonder if they really have the true shepherd. Listen again to J.C. Ryle.

Again, I read a lot of other commentators and I pull a lot of information from other commentators. I only quote when I think I can't say it better than that or I can't say it at least as well as that. And often, J.C. Ryle and Matthew Henry are the guys, I just can't say it that good. J.C.

Ryle says this, There is a spiritual instinct in most true believers, which generally enables them to distinguish between true and false teaching. When they hear unsound religious instruction, there is something within them which says this is wrong. When they hear the real truth as it is in Jesus, there is something in their hearts which responds this is right. Then he goes on later to say, to be unable to see any difference between law and gospel, truth and error, Protestantism and popery, meaning following after the pope. The doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of man is a sure proof that we are yet dead in heart and need conversion.

If you can't see any difference between those things, law and gospel, truth and error, Protestantism and following after the Pope, the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of men. If it all looks the same to you, you're dead. His children have spiritual instincts so that they can discern truth and error. They are those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear. That's the language of the New Testament.

Thirdly, and most happily, consider our chief shepherd. So I'm just pulling language from 1 Peter chapter 5, where Peter says, I'm a shepherd, but there's a chief shepherd. He's calling Jesus the chief shepherd. Consider him who only leads us where he himself has already gone. That should comfort your heart.

Jesus isn't driving from the rear. He doesn't have sheepdogs employed to nip at your heels, to get you to go places where He hasn't been. He's already been there to face the dangers before you. He calls us by name. He knows us individually.

We are the body of Christ, but that's not just a melded, welded together blob. He knows us by name. He calls us by name. He knows us individually. I'll close with Hebrews chapter 2, which is so precious and to the point.

Hebrews chapter 2, I'm going to read verse 10 and then skip to 14-18. I'll tell you when I do it. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10. For it was fitting for Him, it was fitting for Christ, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." So I just goofed up. That's actually God the Father.

It was fitting for God the Father, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation, that's Jesus, perfect through suffering. Skipping to verse 14. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. He himself suffered being tempted. He is able to help you who are being tempted. Help us who are being tempted. Because He went ahead.

He leads out and He leads in. He goes before and He comes behind. God, thank You for The rich teaching of John chapter 10, make us such content sheep. Make us so content to be sheep, to be known by you individually, to be cared for you day by day, brought to green pastures beside still waters day by day. Oh let us follow you, God.

Let us hear your voice, know it, follow after you with hearts that are so trustful we pray in Jesus name. Amen.