A quick welcome to our new readers and peruseers, I am encouraged by your thoughts, fellowship, and prayers. Not to scare any off, I will not add any of my commentary today. I am not being lazy, just being blessed. For-going my words of ignorance and just coping what Pink had to say on these verses. May God in our blindness call to all of us with His words and open our ears to hear that call.
Extra credit reading: The biggest question when discussing sheep and goats is “why”. Donald Fortner the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Danville, Kentucky wrote this on some believed and some not WHY?
Jhn 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
Jhn 10:2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Jhn 10:3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
Jhn 10:4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Jhn 10:5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
Discussion - Compare or contrast chapter 9 with the beginning of chapter 10?
“In John 9 Christ had shown how that He had entered the door into the sheepfold, for He had come working the works of God (John 9:4), and had thus shown Himself to be in the confidence of the Owner of the fold, and therefore the approved Shepherd of the flock. The Pharisees, on the contrary, were resisting Him and attacking the sheep; therefore they must needs be "thieves and robbers." The blind beggar was a sample of the flock, for refusing to listen to the voice of strangers, he, nevertheless, knew the voice of the Shepherd, and drawn to Him, he found salvation, security, and sustenance.
All of this, strikingly illustrated in John 9, receives interpretation and amplification in chapter 10, where we have a blessed commentary on the condition of the excommunicated one. The Pharisees imagined they had cut him off from the place of safety and blessing, but the Lord had shown him that it was only then he had really entered the true place of blessing. Had he remained inside Judaism he would have been the constant object of the assaults of the "thieves and robbers"; but now he was in the care of the true Shepherd, the good Shepherd, who instead of killing him, would die for him! It is beautiful to compare John 10:3 with 9:34. The Pharisees’ "casting out" of the poor beggar was, in reality, the Shepherd leading him out from the barren wilderness of Judaism to the green pastures of Christianity. Thus are we given to see the Lord Himself behind the human instru-ments—a marvellous example is this of how God ofttimes employs even His enemies to accomplish a good turn for His people.” By A.W. Pink
