There are all sorts of voices coming at us about having a satisfied life, but John 10 invites you to enter fullness of life in Christ. You do this by understanding his uniqueness, his work for you, and the eternal security he brings. You also need to engage your brain, leaving prejudice and bias at the door: Think about what you think, and look again at Jesus.
There are many things that can strike you about this chapter, but one of the biggest is the danger of organised religion trying to control you or define you spiritually.
What you’ll see here is a clear invitation from God himself: Enter fullness of life in Christ.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in June 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Jesus said, “I am the gate” (1-10)
Last time we looked at the man who had been born blind but who then received his sight from Jesus. The chapter ended with the Pharisees throwing the man out. They said that anyone who said that Jesus was the Messiah would be thrown “out of the synagogue”. That would mean they’d be excluded from worship, excommunicated from citizenship in Israel. That’s a very big deal: They were throwing you out of heaven.
So chapter 10 follows straight on: Jesus is speaking these words to those Pharisees. And his opening message is clear: They don’t get to decide who gets in and who is excluded from heaven. Jesus does.
In v1-5 Jesus paints an image that would have been familiar to them: Sheep in a pen. There might be several shepherds with their own flocks kept overnight in a single pen. A hired hand would be on the gate. In the morning, the shepherd would actually call his own sheep out; they’d know his voice and would follow him. The image was familiar, but read John 10:6.
So he has to spell it out for them: Read John 10:7-10.
The Pharisees weren’t the gate: They didn’t get to choose who could enter.
Equally, the church doesn’t get to decide either. Our role as a church is to proclaim Christ, and to pass on his invitation, to carry his voice (as it were). No priest can keep you out – or let you in. There’s no indulgence you can pay to a church that will make a jot of difference to entry to God’s kingdom.
Jesus is the only gate
Jesus is the gate – and he’s the only gate.
As a church, we don’t get to choose who he will admit. That means many Christians simply won’t be like you. It’s important you’re ready for that. You must be ready for very different kinds of people to be added to this church: People of varying social standings, ethnic backgrounds. There’s no room for racism in the church. That’s sinful. And you must work to nurture relationships and friendships with all sorts of people so that Christ might be proclaimed: You don’t get to choose the people he will save!
False teachers and false churches aren’t “a bit unfortunate” – they’re deadly. They’ll sweep people along to hell with cups of tea and empty promises. But Christ? Read John 10:10 again.
Jesus said, “I am the gate” – and he is the gate to abundant life. So enter in. Enter fullness of life in Christ, as he invites you to.
Jesus is fluid with his images in this section, so next he goes from being the gate to the pen to being the shepherd:
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” (11-21)
Read John 10:11-13.
Remember that Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, the religious elite. They knew their Old Testament better than you do. They’d have known Ezekiel 34, for example. There, God says that the rulers of his people have been nothing but bad shepherds. The people of Israel were God’s flock, and their shepherds were cruel, selfish, and uncaring.
So God said that he’d come to shepherd his people himself. He went on to say that David would shepherd God’s people. That only makes sense if God were to become human, born into David’s line, to be a “good shepherd” – in contrast to the bad ones.
So when Jesus says he’s the “good shepherd”, it’s a phrase loaded with meaning: He is God in flesh, come to shepherd his own flock.
Jesus laid down his life
How much does he care for his own flock? Read John 10:14-15.
Again he speaks of laying his life down: Read John 10:17-18.
Now bodyguards for the world’s top politicians are all prepared to stand in the way and “take a bullet” to protect their charge. But who’d offer to take death for someone convicted of a crime so serious they’d received the death penalty? That is what Jesus is saying he’ll do for you.
You are a sinner. The wages of your sin is death, and by that comes an eternity separate from God forever.
Jesus was not a sinner. He didn’t deserve death, because he never sinned. He only ever did good, thought good, spoke good. He is God in human flesh, ready to lay down his life willingly, to take the punishment you deserve.
Why? So that you can be forgiven your sin, knowing that the price of your sins (death) has been fully paid – by God himself!
This salvation was planned by God in ancient times.
Total salvation
Which means that if Christ has died for you then your sins are wholly atoned for, all paid up. So your forgiveness from God is total. He declares you wholly righteous, forgiven, redeemed.
Have you heard his voice yet? Read John 10:16.
The sheep pen in front of him were his believing disciples, born and raised in Israel, coming to faith in him there. That doesn’t describe anyone in our church in Bromborough. And yet every Christian here has, at some time, heard the voice of Jesus and come to him for forgiveness. I don’t mean anyone has heard an actual voice; but the unmistakable certain knowledge that you’re a sinner, that God loves you and is calling you, and that you need to call out to him for forgiveness.
Can you hear that call? It’s from God himself – for your eternal good!
Why would you think of turning away?
And again, notice that Jesus calls his people to “one flock, one shepherd” in v16. Believers from Mongolia, the Philippines, Russia, Chile, Wirral. Christians of all colours, all kinds of cultures. Even Christians from churches in this area that you might look down on because of the church they go to. Partnership and fellowship between churches is an essential foretaste of that heavenly reality: One flock under one shepherd. Be very, very careful of being overly precious about doing church “our way”, or not wanting to get involved in church partnerships.
Ironically, the Jews listening to Jesus became divided over him.
But you are to hear the good shepherd’s voice, and follow him:
Enter eternal security (22-30)
By v22, time has moved on to mid-winter, some time around late December probably. Read John 10:22. The Festival of Dedication is Hanukkah, not a Scriptural feast but a remembrance of the re-dedication (sanctification) of Jerusalem’s temple after it had been defiled by an occupying force. Around 164 BC.
Despite all he has said, the Jews still wanted him to explain who Jesus was: Read John 10:23-24. Now Jesus did tell the Samaritan woman at the well, but to openly say “I am the Messiah” in the temple in Jerusalem would have caused all sorts of chaos. So Jesus reminds them of the things they’ve seen: They can make their own minds up.
But they won’t. And the reason is that they’re not his sheep. Read John 10:25-26.
As long as you stand at a distance and try to analyse and question and quiz, you’ll not hear him properly. But look at what comes to those who will come to Jesus and hear him: Read John 10:27-30.
Jesus’ sheep hear his voice and know him
It’s hard to overstate how amazing this is. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. Everything in Creation exists by him and for him, and is sustained by him. Yet he became human to save you, but much more than to save you from hell’s curse.
He came to save you so that you will know him, living in daily experience of him, spending time with him. Jesus mediates the Father to you, as he is in the Father and the Father is in him: And you are in Christ.
Some of you have been Christians for decades. You’ve heard sermons on the “I am’s” (the bread of life, light of the world, the gate, the shepherd…). You need to look through what you know to see the God you know in Christ. Bible knowledge is great, but it’s not an end in itself. It reveals Christ to you, and you are to know him daily.
What else do Christ’s sheep do?
Jesus’ sheep follow him
That means following him wherever he leads. His own path took him to his cross, to suffering for you. Your own path is determined by him, and we have different paths as we follow Jesus. As psalm 23 puts it, he may lead you through dark valleys but he will always be with you, leading you to life.
What else comes to Christ’s sheep?
“I give them eternal life”
No-one earns eternal life: Christ gives it. It’s his own death and resurrection that gives you assurance of that eternal life: He died for your forgiveness, he lives to bring you eternal life. And it’s that assurance that enables you to follow him, knowing that nothing can harm you eternally.
No pain you have now will last forever; he’ll wipe your tears.
Might he change his mind? What if you sin really bad?
“No-one will snatch them out of my hand”
“No-one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” Could there be a more secure place?
Knowing that Jesus has been punished for your sin, there is now no condemnation: God can’t punish you as well. And Christ doesn’t have to persuade the Father to forgive you: The Father and the Son are one. Not “one and the same”, but one in purpose, will, love, and divine essence. Your salvation is the joy of your triune God.
See through the facts you know about God, and know him. And follow him – forever.
But still some people rejected his words:
Think and Trust (31-42)
Again, they went to stone Jesus for blasphemy, for calling himself the Son of God.
His answer is to point out the inconsistency in their own thinking: Read John 10:34-36.
He’s quoting Psalm 82 which clearly uses the Hebrew word for “gods” to describe people. The meaning of that psalm will have to wait for another day. But the point is simple: You don’t have a problem with the psalm describing people as gods, so why are you automatically assuming blasphemy for me?
They’re standing there, with the rocks in their hands, and he takes them to the word of God and gets them to think.
And then he presses the point that they really need to think about what they’re seeing: Read John 10:37-38.
You’re obviously being invited to do the same:
Isaiah 35 said that in the days of the Messiah the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the lame would walk. And Jesus did those things! More still, Isaiah 53 spoke of how the Messiah would bring peace with God by his own death and resurrection!
If those aren’t works from God, don’t believe him. But if you realise that Jesus really was working supernatural signs from God then you must believe him. And by believing him, believe in him.
Repent of your sin, beg his forgiveness. Know him, follow him, live eternally with him.
In Summary
This world will offer you all sorts of happiness and it will always disappoint you. One day, you’ll face God. You will be called to account.
He has provided a gate for you to enter into eternal life now. Jesus is that gate. He is the only gate. The world religions are not all on different paths to the same destination: Jesus is God, and he is the only gate to life. So enter fullness of life in Christ: He invites you today.
Jesus is the good shepherd. He laid down his life for you. He gathers us all into one flock, with him as the one shepherd.
One gate to life, one shepherd to lead. So hear his voice. Know him (you can). Follow him, wherever he may lead you. Be certain of your eternal life, eternally secure in his hand. That will comfort you on the road.
And if you’re still standing with rocks in your hand to throw, stop and think. See Jesus for who he is and what he has done. Then turn and enter fullness of life in Christ for yourself.