Jesuse is the new Temple, the Good Shepherd, the door for the sheep. Jesus is the fulfilment of it all!!
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. This Sunday is always low-hanging fruit for the preacher and a day filled with comfort for the congregation. We all love to talk about our Good Shepherd who loves His dear, cute little sheep. Sure, they are prone to wander, but He is a Good Shepherd! He seeks them, He finds them, He brings them home. He is a Shepherd who feeds and protects His sheep. In fact, He lays down His life for the sheep! He calls them, they know His voice, and they follow Him. So, for a message of comfort and encouragement, Jesus, our Good Shepherd, gives us plenty of preaching material with this imagery!
However, when we find Jesus preaching in John 10, we do not see Him in a particularly comfortable conversation. There are two contexts which are necessary for us to understand Jesus’ sermon. First, the immediate context. In John 9, Jesus has healed a man born blind which led to a huge debate. He tells the religious leaders, who claim to have a corner on the truth, that they are, in fact, blind because they reject Him. These would be shepherds of God’s people are, in fact, blind guides. They stand in stark contrast to the man born blind who has been given sight and has come to faith in Jesus. By way of Jesus, he has come into the life of faith and salvation! This sets the stage for Jesus’ teaching on how to enter the sheepfold, that is, how to enter eternal life, how to live abundantly in Christ (10:10).
The second context we need to be aware of is the location and time of Jesus’ teaching. At the end of chapter 8, we read how Jesus had left the temple after upsetting the Jewish leaders. They were getting ready to stone Him for His teaching. He was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths. This was an annual harvest festival where the Jewish people would gather in Jerusalem to commemorate Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. The feast celebrated the ingathering of God’s people into safety and foreshadowed the final, eschatological homecoming. The gathering place was referred to as the “courtyard of the sheep” or “the sheepfold.” There was much celebrating around the Temple as the people remembered how they moved from temporary tents to a permanent temple. It is likely that, during the feast, Psalm 118 would be sung by the people as they processed around the altar area on the seventh day of the festival. They would sing, “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD and the righteous shall enter through it” (Psalm 118:19-20). The “gate of righteousness” referred to the entrance to the Temple atop the stairs which led from the court of the women to the court for burnt offerings.
OK, I know that is a lot of context, but it helps us understand what Jesus is doing here. After leaving the temple area back in chapter 8, in chapter 9 He heals a blind man, giving him physical and spiritual sight, while telling those who claim to have sight that they are blind. The representatives of the Temple get angry at Jesus, but Jesus is drawing His people to Himself away from the Temple. Here, in chapter 10, He is taking the focus of God’s people away from the Temple and placing it squarely on Himself. Much to the shock of the religious leaders, Jesus refers to His Word as the voice of the Shepherd (a divine claim!) (10:3) and says He is the Psalm 118 door through which the sheep will enter God’s life-giving presence (10:7, 9)! Those who do not enter the door of the sheepfold, that is, who do not listen to His voice and follow Him are thieves and robbers (10:1, 8, 10). But, the sheep, like our blind man who had received sight, heard the voice of Christ, followed the voice, and entered through Christ into the life God had prepared for Him where they received salvation and pasture.
He is taking the focus of God’s people away from the Temple and placing it squarely on Himself.
Jesus is the shepherd and the door who has come so His sheep may have life and have it abundantly (10:10). It is no longer the Temple one needs for access to God; it is Jesus. Jesus, who tells us of His body that, if you destroy it, He will raise it up in three days (2:19). Jesuse is the new Temple, the Good Shepherd, the door for the sheep. Jesus is the fulfilment of it all!
As you preach this message, I assume you are not speaking to large swaths of angry religious leaders who are trying to harm the sheep by preventing them from hearing Christ’s voice. Rather, your congregation is filled with the baptized sheep who need to hear their Shepherd’s voice. You are given to preach to those whom Jesus has brought into the fold. His voice has saved them and called them to pasture. He is the Door they have entered through faith. So, for this sermon, I would not treat the congregation as though they are the thieves or robbers who seek to steal, kill, or destroy (10:1, 8, 10) (Though, if you do have such people within earshot of the sermon, remember part of the Good Shepherd’s job is to preach judgement on the bad shepherds. Do not hold back on the call to repentance!).
Rather, I would suggest that you preach a Compare and Contrast sermon where you show the difference in the voice of Christ verses other voices in the society or culture that seek to draw the sheep away from their Good Shepherd. Focus on how, while others try to blur the message of Christ, He gives us eyes to see and ears to hear so we might come and find salvation and pasture. You could employ the account of the way the blind man responds to Christ verses the way the religious leaders do.
Another way to preach the text would be to show how Jesus is the greater shepherd and the greater door. Whereas Israel’s shepherds, like so many idealogues in our day, laid burdens too heavy to bear on the backs of the sheep, Jesus brings us to wide open spaces (Psalm 31:8) to save us and nourish us (10:9). Whereas the door to the Temple led to the sacrifices and presence of God, Jesus is the door by which we enter a relationship with God established by His sacrifice on the cross. Talk about how the temporary tabernacle gave way to the more permanent structure of the Temple which finally gave way to the eternal body of Jesus Christ who brings us to God and God to us.
There are many ways to preach this text. Ultimately, you want to focus on how Jesus is greater than all the other voices and paths the world has to offer because He is the Shepherd who sacrifices His life to save us, that we may have life and have it abundantly (10:10)!
God bless your preaching!
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on John 10:1-10.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching John 10:1-10.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
