PARABLE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

[Albert Finch]

John 10:1-17 - 10 “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up from some other place [on the stone wall], that one is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep [the protector and provider]. 3 The [a]doorkeeper opens [the gate] for this man, and the sheep hear his voice and pay attention to it. And [knowing that they listen] he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out [to pasture]. 4 When he has brought all his own sheep outside, he walks on ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice and recognize his call. 5 They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what He was talking about.
7 So Jesus said again, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, I am the Door for the sheep [leading to life]. 8 All who came before Me [as false messiahs and self-appointed leaders] are thieves and robbers, but the [true] sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the Door; anyone who enters through Me will be saved [and will live forever], and will go in and out [freely], and find pasture (spiritual security). 10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].
11 I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His [own] life for the sheep. 12 But the hired man [who merely serves for wages], who is neither the shepherd nor the owner of the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming, deserts the flock and runs away; and the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The man runs because he is a hired hand [who serves only for wages] and is not concerned about the [safety of the] sheep. 14 I am the Good Shepherd, and I know [without any doubt those who are] My own and My own know Me [and have a deep, personal relationship with Me]— 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My [very own] life [sacrificing it] for the benefit of the sheep. 16 I have [e]other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they will listen to My voice and pay attention to My call, and they will become one flock with one Shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life so that I may take it back. - The Amplified Bible

John 10:14-15 14“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

John 14:10 10“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works."

God does not want what we have: He wants who we are. He seeks to create in our hearts a sanctuary for Himself, a place where He may rest. When God’s rest abides upon us, we live in union with Jesus the same way He lived in union with the Father. Christ’s thought life was completely enveloped (surrounded, encircled) and permeated with the presence of God. There is rest because it is Christ working through us.
To enter into God’s rest requires that we abide in full surrender to His will, in perfect trust of His power. We learn to rest from our works as God did from His. It requires diligence, however, to enter God’s rest. To rest from our labors does not mean we have stopped working.; it means we have stopped the laborious work of the flesh and sin. It means we have entered the eternal works which He brings forth through us. - ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

The church may be compared to a sheepfold, because it is separated from the world: it is where the people of God, and sheep of Christ are gathered together; where there is a strict union between them; have society with each other; keep one another warm and comfortable; and where they are fed and nourished, and are preserved; and where they lie down and have rest; and which, like a sheepfold, will be taken down, and not always continue in the form it now is: and by "the door" into it, is meant Christ himself, as appears from John 10:7; faith in him, a profession of him, and authority from him. Now he that does not come into the church of God, whether as a member of it, or officer in it, at this door (Christ), but climbeth up some other way; by hypocrisy and deceit (false doctrine), the same is a thief and a robber. The difference between a thief and a robber, with the Jews, was, that the former took away a man's property privately, and the latter openly - Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In this parable our Saviour seems to drive two great designs:
1. To prove himself the true Shepherd.
2. To prove the Pharisees and teachers of those times, thieves and robbers.
It should seem, that the sheepfolds in those countries were houses, which had doors by which the entry was into them: there is no doubt but by the sheepfold is meant here the church of God, in which the people of God are gathered together in one.
By the door he means himself. He is both the Shepherd (the true Shepherd) and the Door: the Shepherd, as the care, conduct, and government of the church belongeth to him, and is upon his shoulders: the Door, as he is he whom the Father hath ordained to be the chief Shepherd, from whom all who pretend to any right to teach or govern in the church must derive both their authority and abilities. Now saith our Saviour, Whosoever they be, that thrust themselves into the care, conduct, and government of the church, without any call or warrant from my Father or me, who am the true Door, through which whosoever entereth into the church must enter; and the chief Shepherd, from whom he must derive, or be a thief and a robber; his very entrance makes it appear, that his end is not to feed the flock, but to feed himself; and that he drives only private designs of advantage to himself. - Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary