3. I Am the Door of the Sheep
Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7).
Time and again in the Old Testament, God calls himself the shepherd and his people sheep. God is the good, faithful shepherd, and he keeps vigilant, zealous watch over his sheep.
When Jesus says that he’s the door of the sheep, he’s making a startling claim about himself. He’s saying that the only way to be part of God’s people is through him.
There are not many paths or many doors to God. There is a single door to God, and that door is Jesus himself.
The glorious good news is that when we embrace Jesus as our joy and treasure, we enter through him into God’s people. And when we become part of God’s people, God himself becomes our shepherd.
Read that last sentence again. God. Is. Your. Shepherd. Isn’t that precious, sweet news? He is guiding you, keeping watch over you, caring for you, providing for you. You have entered into God’s people through the door of Jesus, and now you have the living God as your Shepherd.
You can say along with David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
4. I Am The Good Shepherd
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).
This is such a glorious, affection-stirring truth. Jesus is the door, and by entering through him, I become one of God’s treasured “sheep.” Jesus is also the good shepherd who cares for his sheep.
I desperately need a good shepherd to lead me, guide me, protect me, and keep me from wandering into sin. I need a shepherd to vigilantly watch over me as I walk through the Valley of Death.
And more than anything else, I need a shepherd who will sacrifice his life to save me from sins. A shepherd who will lay down his life for me in order to purchase me for his own.
Jesus is all of those things, and so much more.
Aren’t you grateful that Jesus is your shepherd? He cares about every detail of your life, no matter how mundane. Everything you experience must first pass through the loving hands of your shepherd.
John Piper says, “I might indeed have to lack many things in following the shepherd, but I will never lack anything that the shepherd thinks is good for me.”
Or as Psalm 84:11 puts it, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
Because Jesus is your good shepherd, you can be absolutely sure that he won’t withhold a single good thing from you. What sweet news that is.