Door of the Sheep John 10:7,9

Sermon on John 10:7,9 prepared by Jonathan Shradar

John 9:35-41; 10:1-10

Jesus is the way to the life you were meant for.

This week I was having 1980’s flashbacks to the game show Let’s Make a Deal. The original with Monty Hall. The ultimate deal would be the choice between three doors and whatever was behind them. Behind one would be a new car. One would have goats. One an oven. You had to choose wisely, and randomly!

Some trickery involved I am sure. Once you made your choice Monty would try to convince you to take cash instead of the door, hundreds, a thousand dollars. Surely it would be better than your choice.

The anxiety of what would be behind that door! To this day doors make some of us anxious!

Joking, but the unknown that lies behind the doors of opportunity in our lives, the unknown of which to open and walk through… Or thought of differently and maybe matching our story today, the door of home. Familiar, safe, always open to us. Welcoming…

Elements of all of this are in what Jesus is claiming for himself in John 10 as we continue our “I am” series evaluating his self-declarations of his personality, character and what that means for us as followers.

Jesus is the way to the life you were meant for.

Context flow. Some big things have just transpired in John’s Gospel.

He has claimed the water and light for himself, as the God Man, the very presence of God.

In 8:58 Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” And the crowd tried to stone him.

Right on the heels of that exchange Jesus heals a man born blind and he does it on a Sabbath (day of rest) nonetheless. He is doing amazing things, but he is doing them off-script. It is riling up the religious leaders who are trying to maintain some kind of power or influence.

And these leaders confront the man who was healed. Demand to know how he was healed and try to belittle him…

John 9:32–38 “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” [34] They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

[35] Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [36] He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” [37] Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” [38] He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.” (ESV)

They reject; Jesus finds him and he believes.

This is the tension in our text. Domineering religious thievery or salvation, promised and finally arriving in Jesus.

In making the comparison Jesus uses the imagery of sheep and shepherd, long used in the Bible to describe the relationship between God and his people.

There are actually two “I am” statements just a sentence apart.

The longed for shepherd has arrived. God’s people, sheep will be cared for.

Sheep - it’s appropriate. Sheep are an animal that come with significant need. They couldn’t survive on their own. They are evidence against evolution! They are terrible at finding food. They can’t get up when they fall. Generally not intelligent. But they can learn the voice of their shepherd and follow it.

Over the last several years I have seen bumper stickers that say “Lions not sheep.” I understand the sentiment, but that’s certainly not a Christian idea. Over and over again in Scripture God’s people, the church, and followers of Jesus are described as sheep. Not once are you called a lion. I digress!

Before he is a shepherd though, he is the door of the sheep.

Sheepfold - we are not farmfolk - don’t let my Nebraska roots fool you! A Sheepfold can be thought of as a homebase. A large pen that is secure, fenced. So this imagery is important.

One pastor recounted being in the middle east visiting with a muslim shepherd and seeing his sheepfold noticing there was no gate he asked, “where is the gate, where is the door?” The shepherd answered “I am, they go through me.” Once the sheep were in he would lie down as the door, they would have to go over him to go in or out.

Same thing here. The man born blind saying “Lord, I believe” is going through the door. Entering into real life, into the kingdom.

Jesus is the way to the life you were meant for.

John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (ESV)

The Door to Salvation

In this dialogue Jesus is contrasting his way (essentially himself, the kingdom of God) and the corrupt burden of religiosity that denies him. And the imposters that have pretended to be him.

John 10:8 “All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” (ESV)

This is where I want to hit what you were meant for.

There are so many voices that will tickle your ears and tell you all sorts of sweet things about what you should want in life and how you should go about getting it.

But your story goes deeper than that.

You are not the universe experiencing itself. You are not a random collision of coincidence. You were thought of, designed, loved into existence. When we quiet the noise of everything else long enough our souls give us hints that it's true.

Psalm 139:13–16 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. [14] I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. [15] My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. [16] Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (ESV)

Like sheep though, humanity, all of us stumble, we’ve fallen and can’t get up, on our own. We are in need of a Shepherd. In need of salvation because of sin, because of rejection of God, because of our running after other wanna be gods…

Romans 3:10–11 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; [11] no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (ESV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (ESV)

Ephesians 2:12 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (ESV)

Being left outside of Christ is death…

John 10:10a “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” (ESV)

Pharisees refuse to see their blindness, still in their sin. Jesus opens the door to all who will believe. And that’s how you walk in. How you change from death to life, to salvation.

Philippian jailer Acts 16:30–31 “Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” [31] And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (ESV)

Believe… is it what Jesus asks the man born blind, do you believe? “If anyone enters by me they will be saved…”

“There is only one door, you may search the whole realm of nature, and you shall never discover another. Not by self-sufficiency, nor self-righteousness, nor priests, nor rites and ceremonies; not by anything of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, can you obtain admission there.” C. H. Spurgeon

Jesus the gate is the sole means by which the sheep may enter the safety of the fold.

“This is a proverbial way of insisting that there is only one means of receiving eternal life, only one source of knowledge of God, only one fount of spiritual nourishment, only one basis for spiritual security—Jesus alone.” D. A. Carson

Like sheep we bring our need to Jesus. He rescues us from those that would steal, kill, and destroy. He protects us. When everyone else casts us out he finds us. Welcomes us in, takes the misfits and calls us his own. Gives us security in him, making us part of his kingdom forever.

The sheepfold was commonly attached to the shepherd’s home. Thus, to enter the sheepfold was to come home. As the “door of the sheep,” Jesus is the only means of coming home to God—of becoming a member of the household of faith. This is salvation.

The Door to Freedom

Before salvation our identity is “sinner” in need of grace. When we come through the door, our identity changes. We are now saints. In Christ, in union with Jesus. As secure as He is.

Freedom is in the words “will go in and out.” Now, this does not mean the sheep will gain and lose salvation. But it speaks of the liberty, or freedom that security affords the sheep.

The shackles that previously controlled are broken, patterns changed. Saints living free because they have entered by Jesus.

Free to live the way we were meant, His way. This means things will look different than we probably expect.

Christian freedom is living not under the burdensome obligations of the Law but under God’s grace. Freely giving ourselves to Jesus and his way.

Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (ESV)

This week I was listening to a podcast where Sam Allberry shared the story of the life-long thief who came to faith in Jesus - he walked through the door. He knew nothing other than stealing. One Sunday he happened to go to a church that had the ten commandments on the wall. And he sat under “Thou shall not steal.”

Where we might expect he would feel convicted, he felt immense joy. The former thief saw this not as prohibition but as a promise in Jesus. That by the Spirit he would no longer steal! How glorious!

No longer slaves! We are free from the penalty of sin, and we are free from the power of sin. “All the charges against me are dropped!”

“I came that they may have life…” Real life. Not performing, pretending, but living from promise. Being our true self with Jesus. Living excited and expectant.

“If God has come in the flesh, and if God keeps coming to us in our fleshly existence, then all of life is shot through with meaning. Earth is crammed with heaven, and heaven (when we finally get there) will be crammed with earth. Nothing wasted. Nothing lost. Nothing secular. Nothing absurd.... All are grist for the mill of a down-to-earth spirituality.” ― David G. Benner

This is us going in and out… life in the kingdom.

“There is no such liberty as you who believe in Jesus have;—liberty to go to your bed at night, and to feel that it does not matter whether you wake up here or not;—liberty to go out into the world, and feel that losses and crosses cannot happen to you without your Father’s permission, and that you will have grace to bear them; liberty to go wherever you please on the errands of God, always protected by his almighty power.” C. H. Spurgeon

There is so much to this life. And we get to live it together!

The Door to Provision

“If anyone enters by me they will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture.”

They will be fed. Provided for.

Psalm 23:1-6 “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. [2] He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. [3] He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. [4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. [5] You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. [6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” (ESV)

This does not necessarily mean bling, but it does mean a different perspective. Peace that suprasses understanding, and a people to bear our burdens with, in his kingdom.

Gives himself for us - a life we couldn’t live, a righteousness we couldn’t achieve. Grace we would never earn. All of that unleashes joy, contentment, community, and purpose.

Breath in our lungs. Daily bread.

Life at its scarcely imagined best, life to be lived abundantly.

Given all we need in him, the door.

His Spirit to fill us, to breathe life in us. To comfort us, to empower us, to send us.

This is what you were meant for.

Jesus is the way to the life you were meant for.

If we come to Jesus and say to him, “Lord, you can teach us how to get to heaven, will you please tell us how we can enter your kingdom of glory?” He answers, “I am the way, I am the door.” What do you mean, Master? Tell us, what is the door? “I am the door.” But surely, Lord, you mean that, by copying and imitating you, we shall enter in? He shakes his head and says, “Not so; I am the door.” Certainly then, you mean that, by performing certain rites which you have ordained we shall enter? Brothers and sisters, he simply said, “I am the door.” But doesn’t Jesus mean that, by being orthodox, and believing certain doctrines which he has taught us, and that are identified with himself, we shall enter into life, and be saved? He does not say so, he says, “I am the door.” But is not baptism the door? No, for he says, “I am the door.” But holy living must be the way into the kingdom of heaven? No, it is not; for Jesus says, “I am the door.” Jesus himself, personally, is the way into his kingdom, salvation, freedom, and provision. There is no door into his sheepfold except himself. So we must just come, and believe in him, trust him, for he is the door.

Go through the Door - “the true simple gospel is, “Christ is all; trust him, and be saved.” Believe. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” That he lived, died, was resurrected for you? That you would have salvation, freedom, and new life?

Matthew 7:7–8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [8] For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (ESV)

Live Free - Hebrews 12:1–2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” Shake off the accusations of the thieves. Live in the promise of Christ.

I have met with countless people where my immediate response to their situations could have been, “you were not meant for this.” As they tried to negotiate with the Monty Halls of life, hoping for a prize behind a door of idolatry, or self-priority.

Here is the door open to you, that leads to where every cell of your existence was meant for. His name is Jesus.

May we be his sheep and know his voice.