13. What change did God make as to his sheepfold?

¹³ The important thing is for a person to get into the right sheepfold, back then and today. Is that to suggest that there could be a change in sheepfolds approved by Jehovah God? Yes. What Jesus went on to say in John chapter 10 and what the historical facts show​—both of these indicate that God was going to replace the Israelite sheepfold under the Law with a new fold. Note this as we continue with Jesus’ words.

14, 15. Why is it evident that in John 10:7-10 Jesus referred to a new sheepfold?

¹⁴ “Therefore Jesus said again,” at John 10:7-10

I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasturage.

¹⁵ Observe from this passage that Jesus speaks of himself as the door of the sheepfold he now mentions, the door into this sheepfold of the Supreme Shepherd, Jehovah God. Jesus was not the figurative door into the sheepfold of natural Israel, for he himself had been born into it by his birth from the Jewish virgin Mary. Jesus was not the doorlike mediator of the Law covenant by means of which the nation of Israel had been brought into an exclusive relationship with Jehovah God. It was long before Jesus’ earthly birth that Jehovah God had said to the nation of Israel: “You people only have I known out of all the families of the ground.” (Amos 3:2) It was out of the symbolic Jewish sheepfold that the true Undershepherd of Jehovah God was to call the first sheep of his flock and to lead them into a special spiritual pasturage. So Jesus must now have begun speaking of a new sheepfold for which he, the Fine Shepherd, was in another sense the door.

16. (a) What earlier indication had there been that Jehovah was going to have a new sheepfold? (b) How did Jesus show that the new sheepfold was about to come into being?

¹⁶ Those Jews who refused to become his sheeplike disciples felt that theirs was the only sheepfold that Jehovah God had in mind and that it was bound to keep on existing into the indefinite future. They did not take into account the “new covenant” that Jehovah God had promised to establish according to the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34. This meant a new relationship with Jehovah God and, hence, a new figurative sheepfold. Jesus Christ was not the door into a sheep pen that was to become obsolete, no longer enclosed by the wall of Jehovah’s protection. (Hebrews 8:7-13) On the night of celebrating his last Passover with his Jewish disciples, Jesus said some significant words when serving them Passover wine. He gave a symbolic meaning to the wine, saying: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf.”​—Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:27-29.

17, 18. (a) What was this new sheepfold for which Jesus was the Fine Shepherd? (b) How could he also be likened to the door of this new fold?

¹⁷ Jesus Christ was to be the door to an enduring sheep pen, one that would supersede the former sheep pen for the natural Israelites under the Mosaic Law covenant. When Jesus left his disciples behind on earth and ascended to heaven 40 days after his resurrection from the dead, he ascended still in possession of his right to perfect human life, a right that he had not forfeited by any sin in the flesh. (Isaiah 53:3-12; Acts 8:30-35) Hence, he was equipped to serve as a Mediator and apply this life-right, symbolized by his blood, in the sealing of a new and better covenant in behalf of his disciples on earth. This he did at the latest by the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., when the holy spirit was poured out upon his obedient Jewish disciples waiting in Jerusalem.

¹⁸ These disciples thus were brought into the new covenant, and a new sheep pen came into existence, that of relationship with Jehovah God on the basis of the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The symbolic sheep in this new pen were begotten by Jehovah’s spirit and anointed with his spirit. Jesus Christ was the door to this pen as well as Jehovah’s appointed Fine Shepherd over the sheep inside this pen, or fold.