There was a shepherd who owned many sheep and took good care of them in his pasture. However, not all the sheep took a liking to the plentiful feeding provided in the grassy sheepfold. One day, the shepherd notices that one of his sheep is missing. Being a faithful shepherd, he scans the fold for the sheep. Missing sheep is not an uncommon thing. Now and then a renegade sheep will bolt the fold only to end up tangled in a bramble bush upside down, or worse.

But this time, the shepherd does not have to go far to find the missing sheep. As he scans the grassy yard, he notices the sheep just on the other side of the fence. The sheep stands there nonchalantly, just looking at the shepherd. He wasn’t running, moving, struggling, or hurt. He was just standing there by the fence.

So, knowing it was that sheep’s first escapade, he gently moves the wandering sheep back into the lush barnyard and reminds it of what it already knows; that there is plenty of good food inside the fold. The next day, when the shepherd wakes up to feed the flock, he notices that the same sheep is missing. Sure enough, there it was standing in the same place on the other side of the fence. It looks at him. He looks at it. It doesn’t move, but stands there, again, nonchalantly and unhurt.

Since the sheep was full-grown, the shepherd couldn’t quite figure out how it was even squeezing out of the fence, but he brings it back in again anyways, perplexed. The next day, the shepherd wakes up earlier and finally sees the same, full-grown sheep in action…Like a snake slithering on the ground, the sheep is straining to flatten itself, and slink underneath the tightly woven barbed-wire fence.

He notices the sheep exerted great effort throughout the laborious process, lowering its body, wiggling its way under the wire, and crawling inch by inch until finally, it emerges on the other side of the fence. What’s interesting is that it took far more effort to snake under the few inches between the barbed wire and the ground than it did to humbly integrate into the flock. For days the sheep continued to do the same thing, and, interestingly, it never ran away. It always just stood right on the other side of the fence. It loved to crawl under the fence and just stand there, ever near the sheepfold, but never in the sheepfold.

And I think this story poignantly illustrates the spiritual reality that Jesus soberingly spells out for his disciples, the religious leaders, and all the Jews listening nearby in this famous passage in John 10, about the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep…And put simply, that reality is this: not everyone born of Israel and of Jewish decent is necessarily one of his sheep…Not every religious person is part of his fold…Not every person is a part of his fold…

It doesn’t matter how religious you are…It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are… It doesn’t matter how famous you are…It doesn’t matter how powerful you are…It doesn’t matter how influential you are…It doesn’t matter how poor you are…It doesn’t matter how lowly you are…It doesn’t matter how “good” you are…None of these things are marks of a true sheep of the true Shepherd.

No, there is a single criterion and test that all the biblical marks and traits and characteristics of a sheep, a true believer, can be reduced to, and it is this: If you are truly a sheep—and if you are truly a sheep that truly belongs to the true fold of Jesus Christ and not another fold—then you will know his voice, listen to his voice and obey his voice, and his voice alone—following him alone—not any other supposed shepherd—you don’t recognize their voice, you don’t listen to their voice, and you don’t follow their voice—you follow the voice—the commands—the words—of Jesus Christ alone—and he will not only lead you into greener pastures in this life, but into a far more abundant life than you could ever imagine, eternity, with him, in his kingdom forever—eternal life.