Page 113 - Gospel of John_teachers lesson_cp 1-10_Neat

(10:7-9) – Adding to the parable, the Messiah introduces Himself as the passageway of the
sheepfold, declaring: “I am the door of the sheep”. As Shepherd and Messiah, He is authorized
to remove the large rocks from the sheepfold and make a doorway for the sheep to follow Him
out. As the door, He identifies Himself as the way out of containment, not a way to enter.

The word used here in the Greek for “in” is eiserchomai [ice-er'-khom-ahee] which implies to go
through. If any man will enter “in” or come through Him to exit the sheepfold He shall be
saved. He shall go in, or through and out to find pasture.

There is no pasture or grazing area inside the sheepfold. Sheep are never intended to remain
locked up and be contained forever. There is a symbolism here to how men are born in sin and
shaped in the confinement of iniquity (Psalms 51:5), but God does not intend for them to
remain in containment. Jesus, the Shepherd came to lead all those held captive into thriving
place of life.
All that have come before Him have entered the sheepfold from some other way and they are
all labeled as thieves and robbers. They called out to the sheep, but sheep will not naturally
respond to the unfamiliar voice, requiring the intruders to take advantage of the sheep by using
force.

(10:10) – The Thief– will come, climbing into the sheepfold, from some other way, not to
release the sheep from containment but to steal, kill and to destroy the sheep. The thief comes
to feed on the sheep, the Shepherd comes to feed the sheep. The thief comes to take life; the
Shepherd comes to lead the sheep out of captivity and to give them abundant, un-measured
access to life.

John 10:11 - I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep.

John 10:12 - But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth:
and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
John 10:13 - The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not
for the sheep.
John 10:14 - I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known
of mine.
John 10:15 - As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I
lay down my life for the sheep.

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