John 10:3

“To him the porter opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

God, the Porter, opens the door for this Shepherd, for God is happy with Him and His work. But God does not open to everyone for they would be harmful to the sheep. He only at this time opens to the One Whose message is true and acceptable, and Whose life is the same. For among the sheep are His chosen ones and He will not allow them to be harmed.

(Some see the porter as, for example, John the Baptiser. But the idea is surely of One Who has sovereign, overall supervision of the door and day by day oversight over the flocks of Israel).

In a sense the picture is a sad one. God had set up the fold in order that He might bless and protect all Israel. But He is limited by the quality of the shepherds who have sneaked in by false routes, and by the failure of many of the sheep to respond to the true Shepherd because they are not His sheep.

We may ask, if God is the Porter how can there be such failure? The answer is that Jesus is describing the world as it was, as God's world, and that this was precisely the situation that it was in.

But there is the positive side. The sheep Who have been given by the Father to Jesus are responding to Jesus' call. Each of them is known to Him by name and He leads them out. Many Eastern shepherds worked in this way. Their sheep knew them and responded to their call. And they knew each of their sheep by name. And, because of their close relationship with their sheep, their sheep followed them like pets, they did not need to drive them from behind.

Here we learn of the infinitely loving relationship between Christ and those Whom He calls by name, those who respond to Him. Those, we learn elsewhere, who have been given to Him and drawn by the Father (John 6:37; John 6:39; John 6:44; John 10:29).