SERIES: Close Encounters with Christ
LESSON 10
TITLE: Wake Up, Sheeple!
MAIN TEXT: John 10
BIG IDEA: Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Gate to the Sheepfold. You can’t understand this chapter and what Jesus is saying here without knowing Ezekiel 34. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to send “David” to shepherd his people. God is Israel’s shepherd, but so is “David.” God calls on his human counterpart/representative to shepherd the flock in mutuality. The leaders of Israel had abandoned their duties to the flock, leaving them starving, defenseless, and scattered. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came to bring them abundant life - feeding them, restoring them, bringing them back into the fold, tending to their needs. In presenting himself as the Model Shepherd, he is also issuing the indictment against Israel’s leaders that they, too, have been shirking their duties and turning their backs on the flock.
