The Door of the Sheep John 10:1-10

Good morning. What is the goal of Life? To accumulate the most money.

That’s what I learned from reading the obituary of Reuben Klamer, the creator of the board game, The Game of Life, who died at 99.

When The Game of Life was introduced, in 1960, the purpose was to earn the most wealth. The way you got there was simple enough—by going to college, getting a job, buying insurance, saving for retirement. That was “indicative of what sold in that era,” a former Hasbro VP told the NYT.

Over time, designers realized that the game didn’t reflect consumers’ changing views of #lifegoals. So they gave it a big update in 2007, allowing players to score points for virtuous deeds like saving an endangered species, opening a health-food chain, and recycling. And instead of starting the game at point A and finishing at point Z, there is no fixed path: You decide how you want to spend your time.

How do you have the eternal and abundant life? It’s only through Jesus!

-Jesus is the only door that leads us to eternal life

I. Jesus is the Door of Protection v. 1

Our passage this morning comes immediately on the heels of a beautiful healing and a terrible tragedy

Jesus has healed a man born blind and opens the door to a completely new kind of life for the man

Unfortunately, the man is rejected by the religious leaders at the synagogue and he is completed removed from the religious life of the community

Jesus highlights the problem in the teaching here:

They are trying to craft other ways to the life that God intends for us

What are some ways that people try to get to that life?

Self-sacrifice: I do a lot of good things- exhausting

Self-discipline: I try not to do bad things- insufficient

Self-fulfillment: I do what I want to do- destructive

Celebrity: I follow somebody who inspires me

Anybody who tries to show us any other way is a thief and a robber!

Jesus defines the parameters for us:

The way to God is through Jesus, by trusting in His sacrifice poured out for us

It is a pathway by grace through faith

It is not dependent on any other teacher!

If you are trying to find life apart from Jesus, you are pursuing a path that only leads to destruction

One illustration I recently found helpful came from a blogger named Tim Challies. He wrote a post entitled “Dumb as Sheep“. In it, he records this story about an unfortunate situation in Turkey:

ISTANBUL: Hundreds of sheep followed their leader off a cliff in eastern Turkey, plunging to their deaths this week while shepherds looked on in dismay. Four hundred sheep fell 15 metres to their deaths in a ravine in Van province near Iran but broke the fall of another 1,100 animals who survived, newspaper reports said yesterday. Shepherds from Ikizler village neglected the flock while eating breakfast, leaving the sheep to roam free, the Radikal daily said. The loss to local farmers was estimated at $74,000.

II. Jesus is the Door of Guidance vv. 2-6

Jesus goes on tells us that there is a Good Shepherd that has the authority to enter the sheepfold through the gate (it turns out Jesus is both the door of the sheep and the shepherd of the sheep!)

This Shepherd is incredible!

He knows His sheep in a personal way; He calls each one of them by name

He leads His sheep, going out before them into the pastures where they feed and back to the sheepfold for safety

The Sheep respond to this shepherd:

They recognize His voice and follow

Likewise, they do not listen to the voices of the strange robbers and thieves who would take them away to destroy them

This is the life that God wants for you:

This is a life where you know the shepherd in a personal way

This is a life where we have a leader to follow

Rather than rampant confusion and constantly making our own way, He will show us the way to life

This is also a life where we recognize the danger of the lies of our heart, our culture, and our Enemy and we stop following them!

In Palestine today, it is still possible to witness a scene that Jesus almost certainly saw two thousand years ago, that of Bedouin shepherds bringing their flocks home from the various pastures they have grazed during the day. Often those flocks will end up at the same watering hole around dusk, so that they get all mixed up together—eight or nine small flocks turning into a convention of thirsty sheep. Their shepherds do not worry about the mix-up, however. When it is time to go home, each one issues his or her own distinctive call—a special trill or whistle, or a particular tune on a particular reed pipe, and that shepherd's sheep withdraw from the crowd to follow their shepherd home. They know whom they belong to; they know their shepherd's voice, and it is the only one they will follow.

III. Jesus is the Door to Life vv. 7-10

Jesus makes it clear to us one more time: He is the door

Apart from Him and the way that He has made for us to come to God, there is only destruction

Everyone who points you in any other direction is a thief and a robber; the lie of the Enemy is not merely ignorant, but is intended to rob you of the life that God has for you

When we walk through the Door and follow the Shepherd we experience the safety of the sheepfold and the plenty of the pasture

This is a life where you can be certain that God will provide for your needs

This is a life where you can be certain that God will protect you

This is a life where you can be certain that God will be present with you

There is a stark contrast here between the abundant life of God and the intention of the Enemy: the stakes are too high to get it wrong!

A young man who often listened to a great Scotch preacher wanted to be saved. He had a longing in his heart to know Christ as his deliverer and to know the blessedness of God’s salvation; although he wept and prayed and sought, he could get no sense of forgiveness, no assurance that he was received by God. One night the minister preached on those words, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” and he showed that “any man” took in poor sinners, no matter how vile, how wicked, how corrupt they were. As he preached, he could see the cloud lift from this young man’s face; at the close of the meeting, he came to the front and said, “I got in tonight.”

“What do you mean,” asked the preacher.

“Why, I got in at the open door tonight while you were preaching.”

“I am glad to hear it. But why did you not get in before? You have been troubled for a fortnight and I have been trying to help you, and others have been doing their best to help you. How was it that you did not get in until tonight?”

“Well,” said the young man, “I have been at the wrong door all the time. I have been knocking at the saints’ door and I found it locked against me. I thought I had to become good enough for God to save me, but I said tonight, I will try the sinner’s door, and when I came to it, it was open and I got right inside.”