John 10:3–5

When the owner of the sheep in the fold was away, a porter or watchman guarded the entrance. One of his duties was to let no one in but the shepherd. So the man he opened the door to had to be the shepherd of the sheep.

"To Him the porter opens" (v. 3). The porter is a figure of the power of God. He may act in providence by ordering circumstances, or by the Spirit working in the hearts of men. So the way lay open for Christ to reach "His own sheep."

Everything foretold of the Lord Jesus, He answered to. Every rightful ordinance for Him to pass through, He recognised and fulfilled. He passes into the sheepfold by the door, and "to Him the porter opens." The people of Israel were shut off from all other people. Yet the sheepfold was only Judaism, and into it the true Shepherd of Israel comes.

Hearing His voice implies more than hearing the words of the Lord. It means His words carried a personal message that reached their hearts. Preaching at Antioch, Paul told the Jews that their rulers "did not recognize Him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath" (Acts 13:27). So they heard the prophetic Scriptures, but those Scriptures carried no message to them.

While the Jews as a whole lapsed into blind rejection of Christ, a few received Him. These are here called "His own" sheep. The description points to the close and inseparable link between the Shepherd and the sheep. His own people refused their King, for "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" (John 1:11). But His own sheep did not revolt against Him, their Shepherd. They were His own particular property, as the Lord said to His Father, "Yours they were, and you gave them to me" (John 17:6).

The little flock as a whole is His very own. Yet His love and interest go out to each individual sheep. He knows the name of every one, for He calls His own sheep by name. He called Zacchaeus by name out of his hiding place in the sycamore tree. He saw Nathanael hidden under the fig tree. He knew the past history of the Samaritan stranger.

The Good Shepherd, risen from the dead, calls His sheep by her name. The known and loved voice, powerful as the grace that called her, at once reveals Him to the one who heard it. She turns to Him and replies, "Rabboni — my Master."

He makes them His own, and He calls them by name, as one who knows them. The Shepherd Himself does it, and He knows those who are His. The object is to bring them out of it. He enters into the "fold," but it is not the "flock." ... "He leads them out." He must put His sheep out by His own authority. He cannot let His own sheep stay there.

Here the Lord is the Shepherd who calls His own sheep and leads them out of the Jewish fold into all the blessings of the new Christian flock. ... Having called them, the Shepherd does not leave them in the Jewish fold that had rejected Christ. "He leads them out" of the Jewish nation that was passing on to judgment.

When He puts forth His own sheep He says, "he goes before them." What that meant for Him! He was the first to go outside. Yes, He was rejected, He was crucified, He "suffered outside the gate" (Heb. 13:12). Jesus was going to call a people outside the Jewish order of things. This is what He has been doing for almost two thousand years. He calls souls out into what He has set up, the direct fruit of His own death and resurrection.

No doubt they had turned him out of the synagogue. But Christ stamps His own meaning on their wicked act, according to God's purposes. The man had no idea at that painful moment that it was really grace leading him out.

People have often noticed that this is one of the most familiar pictures in the world. Shepherds do not drive their sheep, as people do in England and perhaps Ireland. They go before them, and the flock follows.

Before He made the sacrifice, He had gone the path the sheep trod… "When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them" — in the paths of temptation, sorrow, difficulty. We go through our small share of the exercise of faith; He went through everything. Moses refused the treasures in Egypt; Christ refused the whole world. Abraham "sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country"; Christ was a stranger in the whole world. In all His path we see Him not screening Himself by His divine power, but bearing everything that a human heart could bear. There is not a trial but He felt it.

It is always true — true at all times, and true of all saints — that when the Good Shepherd "has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." This is a truth, a divine principle, of immense value, and it touches daily life deeply and widely. It assures our hearts that, whatever happens, He is at hand. He is always near — within sight, as we may say, and within the sound of His voice… It is your safeguard in danger — your victory in conflict — your light in darkness — your strength in weakness — your comfort in sorrow — your fellowship in solitude — your brightest hope in the deepest gloom.

The Lord had already tasted the hatred and scorn of people, above all of the Jews. But He also knew the depths of shame and suffering He must soon pass through, before the open separation of the sheep. So, in fact or in form, Jesus went first either way, and the sheep followed; "for they know his voice." This is their spiritual instinct, as it is their security — not skill in determining or refuting error, but simple cleaving to Christ and the truth.

When they left Egypt, none could be left behind. Not one of the Lord's hosts stayed in the land, and not even a hoof of their cattle. … Like Abraham, who obeyed God's call and went out, not knowing where he was going, so the sheep followed Him. They knew little of the purpose of the Shepherd's heart for them, or of the large and wealthy place He was guiding them into. They knew only His voice.

The sheep follow Him, because they know His voice. There are many other voices, but the sheep do not know them. Their safety consists, not in knowing them all, but in knowing that they are not the one voice which is life to them — the voice of Jesus. All the rest are the voices of strangers.

First there was the Stranger (verse 5). He spoke to the sheep with an unfamiliar voice. There was no ring of love in it. The sheep had never met him; he was nothing to them. They flee from such men. There are people like this today. They take it on themselves to guide and teach. But the sheep of Christ instinctively keep well away from them. They do not hear the Shepherd's voice in what these strangers say.

They are not required to know whose voice it is, nor to be learned in theological arguments. There is only one Voice for which they have ear or heart; and from another voice they flee. From anyone who would imitate that Voice, or claim authority over them alongside it, they do right to suspect evil. For the sheep as a rule, apart from what may appeal to them in the need of others, their best safety is in flight.

In John 10:5 the Lord does not mean that the sheep should know nothing about these strangers. Clearly, the New Testament writers were well aware of the subtle attacks of the enemy. But they did not "know" the voice of strangers. There was no conscious inward knowledge of this voice. There was no link with these teachings in their minds, and no response in their souls.

Not all who lay in that Jewish sheepfold were His sheep. His presence in it tested this and drew the line of separation. His sheep were the ones who recognised the Shepherd's voice. They did not merely know Him by outward evidence; their hearts answered Him as they answered no one else.

Someone may say that certain people have followed evil teachers and leaders. But the Lord said His sheep do not follow them, and do not know them! On the contrary, they flee from strangers. So those who do follow them cannot be His sheep. We are speaking, of course, about a person's settled character, not about a sudden impulse. A true believer will be recovered from that.

They escape the stranger, not because they know his evil teaching, but because "they know not". If we know God's path for His people, we do not need to turn aside and study the evil of every side-path of the destroyer. How many have lost their way while investigating a side-path they know to be evil.

A good remedy to keep us from the tricks of the stranger's voice is to be thankfully taken up with the things our Shepherd has given us. … Instead, we are often dissatisfied, unthankful and murmuring, like the people of Israel long ago. This is a golden opportunity for the stranger's voice. Let us not give him a chance.