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I. THE INFORMATION GIVEN TO US. We may ourselves be very ignorant of sheep and shepherding; and what should we know of Eastern customs? Hence it is well to study the information given in the first five verses of this chapter. We are to imagine a large fold where a great number of sheep are gathered together. At the door of the fold a man is stationed to keep guard, chiefly, as one may suppose, to prevent the entrance of unauthorized persons. For the sheep within do not constitute one flock. They are not the property of one person. The fold has been made for the common advantage. Each shepherd could not afford to make a fold for himself and employ a doorkeeper of his own. Imagine, then, some shepherd having a hundred sheep. He has been out with them all day, watching them and leading them from pasture to pasture. Then at night he brings them to the common fold and leaves them with the doorkeeper. Next morning he returns to take them out for the day; and how must he find his own amid the mixed crowd? By the simple plan of calling each sheep by name. And so the shepherd takes them out and goes in front of them till the pasture is reached. His voice is quite enough to keep them right. They will not follow a stranger, for they know not the voice of strangers.

II. JESUS CAN SAY MORE FOR THE SHEEP THAN FOR THE SHEPHERDS. He can say this of a sheep, that if a shepherd gives it a name, and then calls it by that name, it will make its way to the familiar voice, even though it be amid a large crowd of other sheep. But take a lad and entrust him with a flock of sheep. Explain to him their ways, their wants, and their perils. Still you cannot tell beforehand what sort of shepherd he will turn out. He must be tried by actual experience, and the name good or bad given to him according to the way in which he behaves.

III. JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. What power there is in the word "I" when Jesus uses it! We like Jesus all the bettor when he talks about himself. We do not call him egotist. Think in how many respects men are like sheep, and need a good shepherd. In many things we can look after ourselves, but in the most important things we need to be looked after. The true shepherd will not submit to have his property scattered and lost without a determined attempt to save it. He has a special and supreme interest in the sheep because they are his sheep. Every human being has something of the sheep-nature in him. Jesus looks on every company of human beings as a fold wherein sheep of different flocks are gathered together, and he has to get his own flock out of them. We cannot do without some shepherd, and happy is it for us if we have the good shepherd. He laid down his life for the sheep, seemed to be destroyed by the wolf, but really he was engaged in its effectual destruction. He has gained for his sheep broad, even measureless lands of green pastures and still waters, where the sheep may feed at leisure without a foe and without a fear. In all those lands no ravenous beast has his haunt. Nothing shall hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord. - Y.

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KJV: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

WEB: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.