John 10:1-6

John 10:1-6 - Daily Devotion - 3 August 2026 St Barnabas Anglican Church Fairfield & Bossley Park 1 “Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”6 Jesus spoke to them using this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.REFLECTIONSWritten by Stephen SheadBack in April we read chapters 6 to 9 of the Gospel of John, and this month we’re covering the next block. We’re up to one of my favourite passages, about Jesus being the Good Shepherd. He doesn’t call himself that until a bit later in the chapter, but we know that’s where it’s heading.I especially love the personal tone of verse 3, where Jesus says the shepherd of the sheep “calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” It’s a beautiful picture of a profound truth: that if you belong to Jesus, you’re not just a nameless, insignificant member of his multitude of followers. He knows YOU – personally, intimately, at the deepest level. And he loves you and leads you to green pastures.But I was also a bit shocked when I realised the context of this passage. Over the last few chapters of John, opposition and hostility to Jesus have been mounting. In the verses just before today’s passage, some of the unbelieving Pharisees were arguing with Jesus again, because he was accusing them of spiritual blindness.That means Jesus said these things not just in front of the humble and soft of heart, but in front of hostile leaders. Part of his message was to condemn them, to their faces, as evil, false shepherds of God’s people. He’s reminding them of Ezekiel 34, where God condemned Israel’s spiritual leaders as greedy, selfish, and abusive shepherds of God’s flock. Jesus is saying, “That is ALL of you” – because, as he’ll go on to insist, he is the only Good Shepherd.That was a good reminder to me that flawed and weak “pastors” or shepherds of the church (like me!) are nothing more than under-shepherds of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus (1 Peter 5:2-4). The flock belongs to him alone, and we pastors are first and foremost exactly the same as the rest of you: sheep who have been called by name to follow the voice of the Good Shepherd.Pray that all of us would never stop listening to his voice and following him as he leads us to obedience and eternal life. ABOUT THE AUTHORStephen is our Senior Minister.