John 10: Saying yes

Major Stephen Oliver asks how much fulfilment you are getting from life.

Key texts

• John 10: 1-18 

The Salvation Army needs people to say yes to spiritual leadership – as local officers, as employed spiritual leaders, as territorial envoys or as officers. Never have we had so many routes by which people can explore, follow and be developed in their calling. Never has the need for people to say yes to Jesus been so great.

The first ‘yes’ that people need to say is to Jesus’ invitation to salvation – to eternal life, to life to the full.

Our study passage considers the context for Jesus’ great promise. It opens with a strident Jesus addressing Pharisees with ‘I tell you the truth’ (v1 New Living Translation). While his address contains a declaration of who Jesus is – the Good Shepherd – and what he has come to do – to bring life – it is not initially directed at a group of people who say yes to him. He is speaking to the Pharisees.

Look back through John 9 to see the setting, where Jesus performs one of his miraculous ‘signs’ (John 9:16). Think about these key moments in the build-up. In John 9:1, Jesus heals a blind man. In John 9:13, the Pharisees investigate the healing and throw the man out of the synagogue. In John 9:41, Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are spiritually blind, while the blind man is welcomed into a new family.

Pause and reflect

• What does John 9 tell us about spiritual leadership and what Jesus thinks about it?

How is Jesus’ leadership different to that of the Pharisees? Note the things he says about himself in our study passage. In verses 1 to 7, the shepherd and sheep imagery has strong Old Testament connections. Written to a people in exile because of their unfaithfulness, Ezekiel 34 had some harsh words for the nation’s shepherds – its spiritual leaders. The imagery in Ezekiel 34:6 was of sheep – wandering, scattered and, worse, with no one looking for them. God, therefore, declared that he will be their shepherd (see Ezekiel 34:7–10). God promised to bring his sheep home to a good pasture, to tend them and to search for the lost sheep – to ‘shepherd the flock with justice’ (Ezekiel 34:16).

In John 10, we see Jesus as the one who has true authority over the sheep – he is the ‘shepherd of the sheep’ (v2) and the ‘gate for the sheep’ (v7). He promises that ‘whoever enters through me will be saved’ (v9). Jesus, then, is the one who has come to be the true leader – the one who will lead his people into abundance and blessing.

Pause and reflect

• Consider how Jesus fulfils God’s rescue promises of Ezekiel 34. 
• Notice how ‘he calls his own sheep by name’ (v3).

Jesus calls his sheep by name and assures us that we can safely follow him because we recognise his voice (see v4). There is great affirmation here that Jesus has come to look for us and lead us home, out of a life of confusion and uncertainty and into a life of abundance and trust. He calls us to follow him. We can say yes to Jesus only because he first said yes to us.

Pause and reflect

• Jesus knows you by name. He knows all about your life, yet he calls you to follow him. What does that feel like?

The fullness of life that Jesus promises his followers contrasts with ‘the thief [who] comes only to steal and kill and destroy’ (v10). Jesus here is addressing Israel’s unfaithful spiritual leaders.

The mention of ‘a stranger’s voice’ (v5) suggests that there are other – distracting – voices competing for our attention that would lead us away from the fullness of life that Jesus offers. 

Pause and reflect

• What distracting voices prevent you from hearing – and following – Jesus more closely? In themselves, they may not be bad things but they steal our time, energy and attention. Ask Jesus to help you hear him more clearly and follow him more closely.

The passage concludes with a reminder of Jesus’ ultimate authority: ‘I have authority to lay [my life] down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father’ (v18). This section points towards Jesus’ impending suffering, death and resurrection. His resurrection is the ultimate demonstration of his absolute authority over all creation. It is also indicative of the lengths to which he went to bring us home to him.

In this passage, Jesus offers a big vision of his mission and the mission in which he calls all his disciples to participate. Jesus lays down his life for us. He is raised to life for us. Because of his victory over death, he invites us into fullness of life with him. He reminds us that there are other people that he wants to find – ‘sheep that are not of this sheepfold’ (v16) – who do not yet know him.

Each of us is invited to share in the mission to ‘bring them also’ (v16) – to make the Good Shepherd known and to point those who are lost to the only one who can save them.

Jesus says yes to us in his willingness to suffer and die for us. Jesus promises us ‘life to the full’. What are we going to do with it?

Pause and reflect

• What does your ‘yes’ to him look like? 
• What is Jesus asking you to be – and to do – to fulfil your part in his mission to bring all people home to him?