Christ on Thieves and Sheep

John 10:1-5 describes sheep, an animal that would be well known to those to whom He was speaking. Sheep are commonly thought to be not too bright. But they actually do pretty well compared to other animals. Part of the confusion is that like humans, they tend to make poor choices when they are scared. But as a bit of a preface to this chapter, sheep have been seen to have problem solving abilities, good memories with some reports that they can remember up to around 50 unique individuals (sheep or human) for years. They can self-medicate when needed and can adapt to different environments and situations. They're about as intelligent as cattle, but a bit less intelligent than pigs.

So what were Christ's comments about sheep, as we are all likened to sheep in the parables. First, Christ speaks of those who would attempt to steal the sheep. He declares that those who come to a sheep pen and don't enter at the door are self identifying as being up to no good. In this case, Christ calls them robbers or thieves. The only people to which the porter of the gate allows access to the sheepfold are the shepherds. It should be noted that at the time, many shepherds shared a common enclosed place where the flocks gathered at night, so the duty of the porter was to make sure that only shepherds who were keeping their sheep could enter.

In these enclosures, in the morning when they would go out, the shepherd would arrive and call for the sheep. The sheep would recognize the shepherd's voice or face if they could see him and they would follow him out of the relative overnight safety of the sheepfold to go to pasture and water. They know the shepherd's voice, and won't follow a stranger because they don't know the voice of a stranger or recognize the calls the stranger is making.

Wouldn't it be awesome if all Christians were that smart. The deceiver is out there saying lots of words that sound good to our ears. They may even be Christian words. All too often, the sheep (Christians) hear something that sounds like it is interesting or good or desirable, and go down a bunny trail following the voice of something other than the true Shepherd. We all need to pray for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, and a top off the tank daily, as it were, to be able to discern the spirits and only follow Christ's teaching and footsteps. We need to pray that we will always be like the sheep and refuse to follow a stranger's voice, even if the words sound good.

The Door Keeper and the Shepherd

In the next section, John 10:6-18, Christ takes the description of the shepherd further. He declares Himself to be the actual door of the sheepfold. Inside the sheepfold, by extension heaven, and outside the sheepfold, the world. Jesus declares that He is the door to heaven. Every other entity that came before or has come after Christ declaring that they are the door, are thieves and robbers. And there are so many, many voices out there today. Religion after religion has been planted by Satan trying to deceive complete nations of people into believing that there is a way to heaven or eternal life that does not revolve around Christ. He started this work with lies all the way back in the Garden of Eden and he's been spreading his lies and doing his best to confuse the mass of humanity about the one true door to eternal life. If he can't get them involved in a false religion, then he'll try to get them to not believe in any gods or that there are multiple paths to heaven and any of them are good. Don't be deceived, Jesus is still the one true and only door there ever has been.

As Christ declares in verse 9, any many that accepts Christ as savior will be saved. He can go in and out with the shepherd, Christ, and find pasture and thus food and sustenance at Christ's hand. The thieves just want to destroy the sheep. Christ came, was tortured, died, and rose again in victory so that His sheep would have an abundant life. Most shepherds then and today don't have to give their lives for their sheep, but Christ declared right then and there that He was a good shepherd who was going to give His life for His sheep. And He did.

Those who are simply hired help won't sacrifice their lives for their sheep. Indeed, they frequently won't give up anything for the sheep. When trouble comes, they flee. We need to pray that each of us, when push comes to shove, will do what Christ asks us to do to further God's work on earth. While few in the United States have to give their lives for the cause of Christ, many are being martyred each year for Christ's name and work. Many live in fear of being attacked and killed for their beliefs. After the rapture, anyone who turns to Christ afterwards will face the direct assault of the anti-Christ's forces trying to stamp out all Christianity, everywhere. While there is debate about the extent of the anti-Christ's reign, you only have to look at our own political climate to see how the decisions of leaders affect the citizens of a country.

Finally, in this section, Christ declares that He has other sheep that aren't Jewish, and His intention is to bring all of them to an eternity with God. In God's sight in heaven, there won't be Jew and Gentile. There will simply be Christian. As a final thought, He declares that He is going to lay down His life willingly, and that He has the power to return to life once that has passed by the commandment of God.

Works and Belief

In John 10:19-42 we see the effect of Jesus words on His listeners. Clearly, some listeners were of His sheepfold, and some were not. Those that were doing Satan's bidding - directly or indirectly - by adhering to their religion and tradition or some other reason - declared Jesus to be mad and told everyone to stop listening. Clearly hearing someone say that God had given them the authority to lay down their life and take it back up again might seem mad to listeners of any age. Those who were more accepting, and had just seen the blind man's eyes opened, supported Jesus as they didn't feel Satan would open anyone's eyes. The Jews came around Him and specifically asked Him if He was the promised Messiah they had been waiting for.

In John 10:25-30, Jesus gave His answer. His answer was that He had told them, but they refused to believe. In fact, He had just told them in parables that He was the Messiah and was going to die for His sheep. He also reminded them of the miraculous works He had been doing. The man healed of blindness had just happened, and still they doubted. His reason was clear. The Jewish doubters who were accosting Him were not His sheep. They may have been great Jews, but they were blind to everything they were seeing Him do and were deaf to everything He was saying in spirit.

He promised His followers eternal life, and guaranteed that nobody would be able to pluck them from His hand. That doesn't mean that we can't walk away on our own at any time. There is no "once saved always saved" doctrine that is found in the Bible. But the thing that really riled up the Jews was when Jesus declared that He and His Father were one. Clearly, I would think that being one with God in Spirit, word, and deed, should be the desire of every Christian. But I suspect Jesus referring to God as His Father was what really made them mad. They took up stones intending to stone Him. In His defense, Jesus quotes Ps. 82:6, where God says that judges who He has appointed should be called Gods - children of the most High God. The passage was warning against Judges who didn't do their duty, either by neglect or favoritism. But His point stands that God did refer to them as the children of God.

So Jesus took the wind out of their argument, and in addition, pointed out the beauty of having the entire Bible that they had at that time at His beck and call to challenge those who said they were religious but didn't know scripture. We likewise need to be readers of and remember the words of both Testaments to aid us in our battles against our common enemy.

But Christ went further in his argument. He declared that if they didn't accept Him for the words He was using, or even if His words offended them, they should believe Him because He was doing the works of the Father. Even if they couldn't believe Him, believe the works. This must be taken with warning. A person looking at Christ's entire life, and His words and His works, would have a hard time disbelieving that Christ as the Messiah that was predicted to come. At the same time, we must realize that Satan has power to do works as well. The magicians of Egypt, through Satan's power, could mimic many things that God did through Moses, although they came out on the losing side. They couldn't do everything, and couldn't win against God but they did some things and in so doing had kept the Egyptians in bondage to a false religion for a long time. Likewise, after the rapture, the Bible warns that the anti-Christ will do wondrous things that if possible will deceive the very elect into believing that he is Christ (Matthew 24:24).

So weigh everything about a person and not just what they can do. In Jesus case, everything lined up with scripture and the miracles were just icing on the cake as proof. But make sure that what is being taught lines up first with what scripture declares to be true. Keep in mind that there are some things that are very hard at this point to understand, but I assume that Daniel and Revelation will make a lot more sense to people living through that period, whenever it is. But don't listen to false gospel messages. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father except through Him.

To provide a concrete example, much of the false beliefs of the LDS church stem from a false understanding of who Satan, Christ, and the angels are. One of their key practices, proxy baptism, stems from a single verse in 1 Corinthians 15:29. If you read the entire passage 1 Corinthians 15:12-32, it is very clear that Paul was addressing the false belief that there was no life after death which had sprung up among the believers there. He testifies to the many who had seen Christ after death. Verse 29 sums up his response by asking why they were baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, if there was no life after death or resurrection of Christ. Clearly, the Son would be dead if this were so.  He the  follows on by asking why he was putting himself in danger if there was no life after death. He should simply eat, drink, and be merry, committing any sin he wanted, if there was no eternity to worry about. But the LDS church has turned this into baptizing by proxy every person's name they encounter, and is why they care so much about genealogy. But it is all built on a false reading of 1 Corinthians 15:29. What you are taught has to line up with scripture, and not be taken out of context. After that, let the signs and wonders done by the Holy Spirit be confirming of the ministry. But don't just rely on signs and wonders.

After He'd once again declared that the Father was in him and he was in the Father, that they were one through the Holy Spirit, the Jews tried to kill Him again, but He escaped out of their hand, and their evil thoughts came to naught. After He left, he went away beyond the Jordan where John had worked and stayed there awhile. Many believed on Him there.