“I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep'.
The relationship between Jesus and His own is likened to His relationship with the Father, and nothing could be closer than that. What an incredible privilege that is. The idea is of an intimate, personal two-way relationship which cannot be broken. He knows them. They know Him. It is like the relationship between the Father and the Son, the deepest relationship of which it is possible to conceive.
Then He emphasised that He will indeed lay down His life for the sheep. Such was His love for them that for their safety and their deliverance He must suffer and die, although they did not yet take that in.