The voice you can trust
Don’t be led by coercion, but by servant leadership
The Good Shepherd
There is a wonderful story in the Bible: the story that Jesus himself tells about the Good Shepherd. I think almost everyone has heard this story in a sermon or read it themselves at some point. And if not, you may have heard it in elementary school, when you listened to the Bible story in the morning. But interestingly enough, this story in John 10 doesn’t start with a warm, gentle opening.
Jesus gets right to the point and starts with a warning. He says: “Whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber.” Anyone who does not come through the official entrance is immediately identified by the Bible as someone with evil intentions. Someone with only one goal: to steal something that does not belong to him.
John 10:1 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber.
The sheepfold and the gatekeeper
In those days, sheep from different shepherds were gathered together in a sheepfold. It was customary in Israel for shepherds to move their flocks through the fields during the day and return to the fold by evening. There, a gatekeeper watched over the animals at night—someone who was specially hired to keep watch so that the shepherds could go home to rest. Often, those flocks weren’t even the shepherd’s own property, but were in the service of a landowner or a king. That entailed a huge responsibility, both for the shepherd and for the gatekeeper.
What happens in Jesus’ story? Someone comes to the gate who does not belong to the group of shepherds. The gatekeeper does not recognize the man and is resolute: “I don’t know you, so I won’t let you in, and you won’t get a sheep.” But then something happens that the Bible explicitly points out to us: that stranger tries to climb over the wall at night after all. He wants to steal or kill the sheep. Whatever his plan is, it is wrong.
John 10:2 But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
Why does Jesus tell this story?
To understand this, you have to look at the time in which Jesus lived.
At that time, many religious movements were active in Israel. The Pharisees, in particular, were leading people astray in their relationship with God. They imposed countless laws, rules, and burdensome principles on the people that God had never asked of them. The result? People lived under a crushing yoke—a burden that restricted their lives and robbed them of all joy. Jesus, on the other hand, wants us to have life and have it in abundance. That is why He warns the people in this parable about the “climbers” with their hidden agendas.
We can easily apply this story to the present day.
False shepherds in our time
Even now, there are many deceivers: people who have not been appointed by God but act out of self-interest. They operate in their own name, with self-invented titles and their own organizations. These are people who have proclaimed themselves prophets and—as we recently saw in the media—sometimes resort to deceptive practices that seriously mislead people.
They may speak in the name of God, but they do not act accordingly. They lack the sincere love for the sheep that characterizes a true shepherd. A good shepherd leads his sheep out into the pasture, to the water, and to abundance. False shepherds, however, have only their own status and gain in mind.
In one of my previous blogs, I wrote about a false prophet in America who led a cult. He had more than twenty women, including minors. He deceived them by posing as a prophet with a “special connection” to heaven, in order to gain control over them. Instead of caring for the flock, he was solely concerned with his own power, money, and sexual pleasure.
Unfortunately, we see this all too often: a poisoned culture where leaders adorn themselves on the outside with fancy titles like “apostle,” but are filled with intimidation and manipulation on the inside. Entire church communities sometimes collapse under the dictatorship of such leaders. Just recently, there was an article in a national newspaper about a church of nearly a thousand people that completely fell apart because leaders abused their power.
How different Jesus is
What a contrast to the Good Shepherd. Jesus never sought His own interests; He always took a servant’s attitude. He says of Himself: “I am gentle and humble in heart.” He had no need for grand titles. Even when the people wanted to proclaim Him king, He refused. And when He asks His disciples who people say He is, He does not derive His identity from self-invented honor, but from who He truly is to others: the Lamb of God and the Christ.
Not self-proclaimed greatness, but an attitude of meekness as the true Servant of God. That is what characterizes a true shepherd.
John 10:3 For him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by their names and leads them out.
The voice that invites
When the gatekeeper sees a trusted shepherd, he is simply allowed to enter. He does not have to climb over the wall. And when he enters the sheepfold to call his sheep, he uses no whip, no violence, and no coercion. His love and his voice are enough. He invites the sheep to follow him. Sometimes he gives them a little nudge to get them out of their comfort zone.
For although the sheepfold is safe and warm, there is no food there. It is a place of rest, but not a place to live. For real life—the pasture and the spring—the sheep must go outside. This is how Jesus leads us: not by force, but with his voice. And the Bible puts it so beautifully: the sheep know his voice, and they will not follow a stranger.
John 10:4 And when he has brought out his own sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.
That voice of Jesus—that calm, loving voice that penetrates deep into your heart—is there for you today as well. He says, “Come with Me. Don’t stay within the walls of your safety, but come out. There is the pasture, there is the spring, there I will give you life in abundance.” Where false shepherds use power to exert control, Jesus shows the way to true spiritual freedom.
An Invitation
I therefore want to invite you: follow that voice of Jesus. Go after Him. He will lead you to a fresh spring of living water that, as He promises, will well up within you. He will lead you to pastures with nourishing food, so that the Word of God may truly come alive for you as well.
Let’s not listen to the “climbers”—the thieves and robbers who are after power and control. Let’s follow Jesus. He is the one who says, “I have life and abundance, and I long to give it to you.”
@wimvanputten