I AM: The Door

Intro:

Have you ever gone to an escape room? {explain premise}

Our family went to one on Alex’s birthday the other year. It’a lot of fun. Of course, several times the attendant came over the speaker and gave us “gentle nudges” in the right direction without us officially using one of our designated clues.

But... imagine the timer is counting down the last 20 seconds and you still have 3 keys to find.

Your heart starts to race, you don’t want to be “that group” that can’t make it out of the escape room.

Although there is no real danger, they’re going to let you out.... still... you feel trapped.

If we can feel so… disconcerted with an amusement device, how much weaker do we feel when life throws us curve-balls.?

We all have times of feeling exposed… vulnerable… like a deer in an open field during hunting season with no wooded areas in which to hide.

Full disclosure: I’m there today. {share what the Holy Spirit directs}

When you have these times in your life. When you are certain that you ARE that deer with a hunter’s rifle trained on you: You’re looking for a tree to hide behind.

When you are in an inescapable room: You are looking for that escape hatch.

It is then that Jesus says:

I AM: the Door

This fall we are exploring the “I AM” statements of Jesus found in the book of John.

So far, we’ve covered: I AM: The Light of the World and I AM: The Bread of Life

Then we had a couple of weeks hiatus for our Missions Expo, and Pastor Mark’s message on a Spiritual House.

Today we return, as I said, with

I AM: The Door

We find this declaration in John chapter 10.

Let’s read the first 9 verses.

John 10:1–9 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

If we keep reading we will find next weeks focus: I am the good shepherd. These two are connected- 1st - by the analogy and then by function. I will make the connection next week when we get to the good shepherd, but today we focus on the door.

But before we get to the door let’s talk about the pen.

When the weather is fine such as in summer, the shepherd may rest at night with his flock on the hills or in a rough shelter made of brush he has collected. That’s how it was in the fields with the shepherds at the birth of Jesus.

When more permanent sheep-pens were required, such shelters were usually built by the shepherd in a valley, or else on the sunny side of a hill where there is protection from cold winds.

Sometimes the pens would be low buildings or caves with archways in front of them, and walls forming an outdoor enclosure, joining the building. (picture the stable where Jesus was born)

When the weather is mild, the sheep and goats are allowed to be in the enclosure during the night, but if the weather is stormy, or the evenings are cold, then the flock is shut up in the interior part of the fold, with its protection of a roof.

The walls of the enclosure are about three feet wide at the bottom, and become narrower at the top. They are from four to six feet high.

Large stones are used in constructing the outsides of the wall, and they are also placed on the top, and then the centre is filled with smaller pieces of stone, (if there’s one thing Israel has… it’s rocks.)

Sharp, thorn bushes were sometimes put on the top of this wall to protect the sheep from wild animals or robbers.

The door is the legitimate entry to the sheepfold.

It…just… wasn’t… a door, as we know a door, but an entry... like a threshold.

An open doorway, you’d pass through. Like a doorway from your dining room to your kitchen.

The shepherd would sleep across the entry way. He WAS the door.

Admitting the sheep in. Keeping the wolves out. Protecting the sheep.

(When the sheep were on the hillsides, the shepherds would sleep among them.

If there was a good shepherd on duty, thieves and predators would have a fight on their hands to get to their targets.

Verse 1 and verse 7 both use the term:

“thieves and robbers”

John 10:1 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

You might ask, “Aren’t they they same thing?”

In English they are interchangeable.

But what if I said: “Burglars and bandits”?

That’s a little different, isn’t it?

Burglars and stealthy striking in the cover of night.

Bandits are brash and arrogant attacking in broad daylight.

That’s the difference in the Greek words here. Thief = burglar Robber = bandit

The idea Jesus wants you to get here is:

“If you are MY sheep, I’ve got you protected.”

Whether the threat is “in your face” or you have no idea that it’s even coming...

“I’ve got your back.”

Jesus loves you and will commit himself to the.

For that reason he will guard the access to your life with his own body.

That’s what He did on the cross.

John 10:14 ESV

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

The shepherd has intimate knowledge of the sheep, and cares deeply for every single one of his flock.

They are usually counted each evening as they enter the fold, but some shepherds just “know” if any one of his sheep is missing.

H.R. P. Dickson was a military administrator back in the days when the United Kingdom governed the Holy Land.

He wrote these accounts about shepherds.

One shepherd in the Lebanon district was asked if he always counted his sheep each evening.

He replied in the negative, and then was asked how then he knew if all his sheep were present. This was his reply: "Master, if you were to put a cloth over my eyes, and bring me any sheep and only let me put hands on its face, I could tell in a moment if it was mine or not."

One evening, shortly after dark, an Arab shepherd began to call out one by one the names of his fifty-one mother sheep, and was able to pick out each one's lamb, and restore it to its mother to suckle. To do this in the light would be a feat for many shepherds, but this was done in complete darkness, and in the midst of the noise coming from the ewes crying for their lambs, and the lambs crying for their mothers.

Jesus is our wonderful DOOR to the sheepfold, the One who cares for us personally, and treasurers us intimately.

Jesus is the door to the sheep. He is our protection, our sustainer; our leader; and our Saviour.

John 10:9 ESV

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

This is the critical verse in our passage, today.

Jesus has been speaking about shepherding and the significance of the door or the entrance to the sheepfold.

Then, here in verse 9, He says very clearly, “I AM the Door”.

In other words He is the entry into the sheepfold. He is the Protector of the sheep.

He is the Door of the sheep - their safety, security and well-being.

Then He added an eternal truth of entry – that entry is ONLY available through Him.

Ideologies today declare that any path… all paths… or no path at all will equally get you to God.

The problem with this “big tent” philosophy is that Jesus himself, declared that this simply isn’t true.

Acts 4:11–12 (ESV)

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.