The Gate

Bookmark:

Needs: Easter services card, Sunday School card, mirror?

Welcome everyone to the family gathering. We are having to gather virtually, and as a result, there won’t be as much feedback going on for the moment. Each member of our church staff is currently on our Facebook Live page, and you can feel free to comment and do emojis and such during the service if you’re on a device that allows that. I believe that worship is more than singing, more than listening. Even though we can’t meet together physically, that doesn’t mean that we can’t do some of the same things as we would if we were together. Worship isn’t a spectator sport. If you would normally sing out as we praise together, then sing out at home or wherever you’re watching. If you would clap your hands, go for it. When I ask us to stand, stand if you can. When we pray, lift your own prayers, or even share them in the comments on Facebook Live.

If you’re able to use two devices at the same time this morning, feel free to jump onto our Live Event on YouVersion. This week, we’ve put the song lyrics in the Live Event to make singing along easier, since we won’t be able to show them on screen (we haven’t gotten that far yet). Trevor will be posting the lyrics here in the comments of the Facebook Live stream as well.

PRAY

MUSIC:

Filled with Your Glory

Do It Again

Great Are You Lord

Build My Life

PRAY

This coming Saturday, we have the opportunity to perhaps see one another and have fun together, but still maintain the social distancing that we are being instructed to maintain in order to try to limit the spike of cases of COVID-19.

We are currently collecting our offering to support SBC missionaries and church planters in the United States and Canada, called the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Our goal this year is $14,000, and we have given $6,020 over the last three weeks. We will be collecting this offering during March and April. Please pray and ask God how He would lead you to give to this important offering this year.

Use online giving. Go to our website, and right there on the front page is a button linking to our online giving page. It’s even mobile-friendly. You just choose the fund you want to give to (Church budget or something specific, like Annie Armstrong), and walk through the steps.

I need to let you know that Georgia Crabtree, who got up and testified in front of the church family just like 3 weeks ago, went to be with the Lord this past Tuesday night. Her daughter Amy is planning on holding her memorial service once people can more easily be together.

I want to encourage everyone to check out a Bible Study class on Sunday mornings. Our Sunday morning Bible study time is our primary avenue for people to get to know one another and build relationships. While it’s great to be all together in here to worship God as a family, it’s not the most productive time for relationship building in the body. Smaller groups are where that happens best. We have a lot of different classes, and I would invite you to explore one class or several.

We are going to plan to do services online for at least the next two weeks, but hopefully will be able to come together to worship on Eastern Sunday. We’ll communicate through all of our social media channels, the website, and through One Call to keep you apprised of plans.

Along with being a blessing, the SBC requested on Friday morning that all SBC churches set aside a special time during their services today as a Day of Prayer today. The POTUS then, following his declaration of a state of national emergency, also declared today to be a Day of Prayer for our nation and the world. The SBC call to prayer opened with, “In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic, we are asking all Southern Baptists and our 47,5000+ churches of the SBC to commit to a dedicated time of prayer this Sunday, March 15, 2020, to seek the Lord in unity about these matters:”

Ask God, in His mercy, to stop this pandemic and save lives—not only in our communities but around the world, particularly in places that are unequipped medically to deal with the virus. ()

Pray for President Donald Trump and other government leaders—international, federal, state, and local—to have the wisdom to direct us in the best courses of action for prevention and care. ()

Scripture says—teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom in this moment of fear as the foundations of what we know are shaken, that others would realize how fragile life is and how real eternity is, and they would see their need to turn to God. ()

Ask God to protect our missionaries and their families around the globe, using this global crisis to advance His Good News to the whole world. ()

We’re not going to stop the series that we’re looking at here on Sunday mornings during this time of uncertainty. This is because in the midst of all of the chaos, Jesus hasn’t changed. He is still and will always be everything that He has said that He is, and we are going to continue to look at His identity and ministry through the eight “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John. Perhaps more than ever right now, the world need to hear about the hope that we have in Christ, and so we are going to use the medium of being able to stream our services to nearly every corner of the globe to proclaim that truth. I hope that over the next couple of weeks, or longer if necessary, as we don’t have the opportunity to gather together in this room, you’ll plan to be here virtually to worship with the rest of the body, and that you’ll invite others to join us in this time as well.

Let’s stand in honor of the Word of God and read our focal passage this morning:

John 10:1–10 CSB

1 “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. 7 Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

PRAY

When we approach this passage from our modern, industrial, western perspective, there are some aspects about the picture that Jesus is painting here that we are going to miss. In verses 1-5, Jesus speaks about sheep and a shepherd. Most likely none of us shepherd actual herds of sheep.

I have a gate that leads to my back yard from the front of my house. It’s nothing special. It’s about 6 feet tall, but it’s kind of skinny and not very easy to get things through. The wood rubs when you open and close it, and if you’re not a fan of squeaky noises, like me, it can be honestly painful to open and close it. There’s a little pull-string at the top so it can be opened from the outside, but the string isn’t particularly noticeable, and I can tell you that I’ve had more than one occasion when PNM (our local power company) has sent me an “estimated” bill because the reader couldn’t get into my backyard because they didn’t notice the string.

I have a gate that leads to my back yard. It’s nothing special. It’s about 6 feet tall, but it’s kind of skinny and not very easy to get things through. The wood rubs when you open and close it, and if you’re not a fan of squeaky noises, like me, it can be honestly painful to open and close it. There’s a little pull-string at the top so it can be opened from the outside, but the string isn’t particularly noticeable, and I can tell you that I’ve had more than one occasion when PNM (our local power company) has sent me an “estimated” bill because the reader couldn’t get into my backyard because they didn’t notice the string.

When we approach this passage from our modern, industrial, western perspective, there are some aspects about the picture that Jesus is painting here that we are going to miss. In verses 1-5, Jesus speaks about sheep and a shepherd. Most likely none of us shepherd actual herds of sheep.

In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Gerald Borchert

In ancient Hebrew literature, there was a device called a mashal. We tend to come to things like this passage in verses 1-5 and see it as either a parable or an allegory. A parable is a simple story with a spiritual meaning. An allegory is a more complicated illustration that often makes several points, and uses a lot of metaphor and simile. What we see here in verses 1-5 is neither parable nor allegory. This would be what the Hebrew people would have called a mashal. A mashal is “a symbolic illustration.” According to Gerald Borchert, a mashal, “is a figurative text that can interweave as few or as many tangents and implications as are considered necessary by the writer or storyteller.” (John, Vol. 1, p. 329)

In this mashal, Jesus is drawing from something that most of them would have been familiar with, the role of shepherds, the management of the flock, and the functions of the sheep pen:

In ancient Hebrew literature, there was a device called a mashal. We tend to come to things like this passage in verses 1-5 and see it as either a parable or an allegory. A parable is a simple story with a spiritual meaning. An allegory is a more complicated illustration that often makes several points, and uses a lot of metaphor and simile. What we see here in verses 1-5 is neither parable nor allegory. This would be what the Hebrew people would have called a mashal. A mashal is “a symbolic illustration.” According to Gerald Borchert, a mashal, “is a figurative text that can interweave as few or as many tangents and implications as are considered necessary by the writer or storyteller.” (John, Vol. 1, p. 329)

John 10:1–6 CSB

1 “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

John 10:1–5 CSB

1 “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

In Jesus’ mashal in verses 1-5, He is preparing His listeners to hear and understand some truth about Him in what follows. He’s actually describing sort of two different, but related, aspects about Himself and His ministry. And in each of those two meanings of His shepherd mashal, Jesus says something about His centrality, His presence, and His activity by using that phrase again, “I AM.”

In Jesus’ mashal in verses 1-5, He is preparing His listeners to hear and understand some truth about Him in what follows. What He’s describing in verses 1-5 is very practical in nature. It’s how things work for shepherds, sheep pens, and sheep. To say that Jesus only represents one thing in the mashal in verses 1-5 goes against what He actually says about Himself.

He’s actually describing two different, but related, aspects about Himself and His ministry. And in each of those two meanings of His shepherd mashal, Jesus says something about His centrality, His presence, and His activity by using that phrase again, “I AM.” Since He was teaching two meanings, and since He uses two different “I AM’s”, we will use verses 1-6 both this week and next.

Understand that the mashal can mean as much or as little as the storyteller wants it to mean. In fact, Jesus means for His listeners to see two things about Him from this mashal.

For this morning, Jesus gives us our focal text in verses 7-10, which He begins with a very clear statement in verse 7:

I have a gate that leads to my back yard. It’s nothing special. It’s about 6 feet tall, but it’s kind of skinny and not very easy to get things through. The wood rubs when you open and close it, and if you’re not a fan of squeaky noises, like me, it can be honestly painful to open and close it. There’s a little pull-string at the top so it can be opened from the outside, but the string isn’t particularly noticeable, and I can tell you that I’ve had more than one occasion when PNM (our local power company) has sent me an “estimated” bill because the reader couldn’t get into my backyard because they didn’t notice the string.

For this morning, Jesus gives us our focal text in verses 7-10, which He begins with a very clear statement in verse 7:

He is the gate for the sheep. Believers are the sheep.

In fact, Jesus means for His listeners to see two things about Him from this mashal.

Also included in these illustrations is a criticism of the religious leaders at the time. Never mentions thieves and robbers in the shepherd picture, only the gate picture. Just had excommunicated someone from the synagogue for believing in the Messiah.

John 10:7 CSB

7 Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

He is the gate for the sheep. Believers are the sheep.

In our society here in the modern West, we’re fond of fences. We like walls. They serve a couple of very specific purposes: they mark off where our lot stops, and where our neighbor’s lot starts. They keep our stuff in and safe, and keep bad guys out.

He is the gate for the sheep. Believers are the sheep.

I have a gate that leads to my back yard from the front of my house. It’s nothing special. It’s about 6 feet tall, but it’s kind of skinny and not very easy to get things through. The wood rubs when you open and close it, and if you’re not a fan of squeaky noises, like me, it can be honestly painful to open and close it. There’s a little pull-string at the top so it can be opened from the outside, but the string isn’t particularly noticeable, and I can tell you that I’ve had more than one occasion when PNM (our local power company) has sent me an “estimated” bill because the reader couldn’t get into my backyard because they didn’t notice the string.

In our society here in the modern West, we’re fond of fences. We like walls. They serve a couple of very specific purposes: they mark off where our lot stops, and where our neighbor’s lot starts. They keep our stuff in and safe, and keep bad guys out. But if we want to get from the front yard to the back yard without going through the house, we have to have a gate.

I have a gate that leads to my back yard. It’s nothing special. It’s about 6 feet tall, but it’s kind of skinny and not very easy to get things through. The wood rubs when you open and close it, and if you’re not a fan of squeaky noises, like me, it can be honestly painful to open and close it. There’s a little pull-string at the top so it can be opened from the outside, but the string isn’t particularly noticeable, and I can tell you that I’ve had more than one occasion when PNM (our local power company) has sent me an “estimated” bill because the reader couldn’t get into my backyard because they didn’t notice the string.

Now, I’m just using my gate as an illustration. If you were relatively agile, or even just tall, you could easily jump the wall on the other side of my house and get into the back yard. However, the point is this: the gate it the legitimate way in. It provides a means of access that people who have appropriate business being in my back yard are going to use. Anyone else might find the side wall more inviting.

Likewise, in our mashal, in verse 1, Jesus said that the one who climbs into the sheep pen by a way other than the gate is a thief and a robber. The legitimate shepherd would enter by the gate. Jesus explains his picture of the thief and robber in verse 8:

Now, for the sheep, there is just one legitimate way into and out of a sheep pen for a sheep. The gate. Verse 8. Draw from the illustration that only those with the sheep’s best interests at heart come by the gate. They point them to the gate. The religious leaders didn’t point the people to jesus, the gate. Instead, they puffed themselves up. Woe to you.

John 10:8 CSB

8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

When Jesus says, “All who came before me,” He’s referring to those who had been given the task of leading the people of Israel since the time of Jeremiah, those who were to be their shepherds. We’ll look at that more closely next week. But notice that the thieves and robbers don’t come in through the gate, and they don’t lead the sheep that way, either. Only those with the sheep’s best interests at heart come in and go out by the gate.

Jesus is the gate, but the religious leaders of the day didn’t point to Him. They didn’t lead the sheep to Him. In fact, this passage comes right on the heels of what we looked at last week, where Jesus said that He is the light of the world. And He had given sight to one of the “sheep of Israel” (). When the religious leaders questioned that formerly blind man about Jesus and He had testified that He believed, they treated him terribly () and then kicked him out of the synagogue, basically removing him from being able to worship with the community (). They were exactly the opposite of who they were supposed to be. This sort of thing is why Jesus said in :

Now, for the sheep, there is just one legitimate way into and out of a sheep pen for a sheep. The gate. Verse 8. Draw from the illustration that only those with the sheep’s best interests at heart come by the gate. They point them to the gate. The religious leaders didn’t point the people to jesus, the gate. Instead, they puffed themselves up. Woe to you.

Matthew 23:13–14 CSB

13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in.

Now, for the sheep, there is just one legitimate way into and out of a sheep pen for a sheep: the gate. Jesus says that the “the sheep” (those who believe) didn’t listen to these “thieves and robbers.” They know the way that they should go: the gate. Because the shepherd uses the gate. The gate gives them direction. There is only one way to go.

Matthew 23:13–14 CSB

13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in.

Matthew 7:13–14 CSB

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

And the gate is

Likewise, Jesus is the gate for us. When we belong to Christ through faith, He gives us direction.

matthew 23:131-4

Likewise, Jesus is the gate for us. When we belong to Christ through faith, He gives us direction. The way of Jesus, like the gate that leads into my back yard, is a narrow one, and few find it. But once we’re through the narrow gate of Jesus, our direction is determined. We know exactly where we’re going, and we know Who to follow to get there. We don’t have to question, we don’t have to wonder. We’ve been promised. More about that in a moment.

Application: Direction: the narrow and wide roads. The way of Jesus, like a gate, is narrow.

The first is the idea of the “thief and robber” in verse 1. The thief and robber are only mentioned again in this part (the gate) of Jesus’ explanation of the mashal.

But in addition to that, we have direction in the day-to-day of life as well. We are given counsel by the Holy Spirit. We have the Word of God and the guidance that it provides. We have the rest of the church, the Body of Christ, to walk alongside us and help us along the way. There’s not a situation in life that the Bible won’t speak to through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Application: Direction: the narrow and wide roads. The way of Jesus, like a gate, is narrow.

As the staff has been managing things for EHBC through this whole COVID-19 situation, God has spoken to us through the Scriptures and given us direction, wisdom, and peace. I won’t say that we weren’t concerned or burdened, because we have been in a lot of ways. But God had been faithful to lead us to get creative in keeping the community of faith at Eastern Hills together as best we can with the technology available to us in this time, and we have truly just tried to walk by faith one day at a time, through the narrow gate.

Matthew 7:13–14 CSB

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

John 5:39–40 CSB

39 You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me. 40 But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

Our problem is that we think the narrow gate is too constricting. It’s too confining. It’s too, well… narrow. But that’s the point. We’re sheep. Sheep on their own are not smart. We need to be given direction, or we will go off believing the messages of the world, or the pressure of the culture, or the call of our feelings instead of the call of our Shepherd, who is also that Gate. And then, as we go our own way, we will find that we lack the second thing that the Gate provides for us:

john 5:

Condemnation of the religious elite.

The gate leading to my back yard does something great for me. It provides me peace. I can open my back door, and let my little dog Hunny out, and I don’t worry that she’s going to run away, or get eaten by another dog. I can let Abbie go out in the back yard and jump rope or read or whatever, and not worry. Why? Because I have a fence with a gate. And someone would basically have to go through that gate to get back there. So there’s security and peace in that. If someone comes through my gate, its ordinarily that they’re supposed to come through it, by my invitation.

Jesus says that He’s the gate for the sheep. But He is more than just a means of safety to make us feel comfortable. He’s more than access to a cookout or a party. In verse 9, Jesus says this about Himself as the gate. If you don’t hear anything else I say today, hear this verse: 9A

In verse 9, Jesus says this about Himself as the gate. If you don’t hear anything else I say today, hear this verse:

verse 9. The gate is the only way for the sheep to be saved. If anyone comes enters by Him, that person will be saved… He will become a sheep.

John 10:9 CSB

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

Jesus reiterates that He is the gate. But notice what He says: “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” We’ll finish the verse in our next point. Going through the gate, going through Jesus, is the only way for us to be saved. And that offer of salvation is available to anyone who comes through Jesus.

John 3:17 CSB

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:16–18 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

John 5:34 CSB

34 I don’t receive human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

The gate is the only way for the sheep to be saved. If anyone comes enters by Him, that person will be saved… He will become a sheep.

John only uses this word for

God loves you, because He made you to be in a relationship with Him, to know Him.

John 12:47 CSB

47 If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

But we have sinned… done things that God doesn’t want us to do or chosen not to do things that God wants us to do.

That sin breaks our relationship with God because He is perfect. We deserve to be separated from Him. We are no longer at peace with Him, but we act as His enemies.

We can’t do anything to fix our relationship with God, because we can never be perfect once we’ve sinned. It doesn’t matter how nice we are or giving we are or popular we are or how much we serve others. We can’t ever get back to perfect.

So we need someone to give us perfection that we can’t earn for ourselves.

That’s what Jesus did. He lived a perfect life, and took the punishment we deserve for our sin and gives us His perfection if we trust Him alone for our salvation instead of ourselves.

If we surrender our lives to Jesus, we are forgiven of our sins, and we are saved —brought back into a right relationship, a relationship of PEACE with God again.

This is the biggest way that Christ, the gate, gives us peace. But there’s even more to it than that.

This is a trying time for all of us. There’s not a lot of peace to be found. We don’t know what tomorrow, or next week, or even next month look like. We want to understand, we want to see the future, we want to be in control. We think that somehow that will give us peace. But Jesus wants to be our peace in a very practical way as well.

Present the Gospel.

John only uses this word 5 times in this Gospel. See also , ,

John 14:27 CSB

27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

The peace that believers are given by Christ isn’t about understanding or clairvoyance or control. It’s that we can trust Jesus because He is God. We struggle because we can’t see what’s going on behind the scenes. We know that the world is broken, and that broken things happen in broken places, so we might fret or worry. But notice that Jesus says that He gives HIS peace, not as the world gives. If we are in Christ, if we have entered through the gate, we have true peace because we know that we are safe in His hands. We can rest inside the sheep pen because we have come through the gate:

Matthew 11:28–30 CSB

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This isn’t to say that “bad” things won’t happen to believers. It’s that God can use even the bad things that happen to believers as something to bring Him glory. He wants to give us peace in any and every circumstance. Pastor Joe read yesterday during His online Children’s Bible study. If you need a reminder of the peace that Jesus brings, go and read that passage as well.

One last thing that the gate provides in this passage, and we’ll be done.

John 14:27 CSB

27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

How does a gate provide life? Partially, it’s what happens behind the gate. The last couple of summers when I was the Youth Pastor, we did a thing on Sunday nights called BB&B—Barbecue and Bible. Everyone came through my back gate into the back yard and we would eat together, play yard games, talk, and study the Bible on Sunday nights through the summer. Trevor has continued this in his time as Youth Pastor.

But the gate was the access to the life of the community. We’d come together and enjoy each other’s friendship and fellowship, engaging in learning from the Word together. Jesus, as the gate, does something similar, again:

end of verse 9. Go in and out and find pasture. We aren’t just saved for the sheep pen. We’re to go out into the world and gather back together.

John 10:9 CSB

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

The sheep are saved, in part, to “come in.” Sheep gather in the pen. They find comfort there, community there. Coming in allows for rest with the other sheep.

But the gate provides another avenue for life: “Going out and finding pasture.” We aren’t just saved for the sheep pen. We are to take the rest, the strengthening, the relationships that we find in the body of Christ and “go out” and find a place to feed… a pasture. We are called to serve out in the world, brothers and sisters. We’ll never find that pasture if we don’t leave the pen. We have to go out of our gates and minister.

Go in and out and find pasture. We aren’t just saved for the sheep pen. We’re to go out into the world and gather back together.

Now, in this time, that’s extremely difficult for us. We should be responsible and wise. But we don’t have to actually leave our homes to be effective at ministering outside of our gates. We have phones. We have texting. We have this great technology that most of us can use from our phones to be able to look at people and talk with them and pray for them. We have social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and Insta and Nextdoor that we can use to minister to other people. That’s the life we’re supposed to have.

verse 10.

John 10:10 CSB

10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

The thief, the religious leader, came only to steal and kill and destroy… they kept people from finding true life. But Jesus, the Gate, came so that we might have life forever, but also have abundant life right now. A life filled with the direction and power of God. A life filled with the purpose of being the hands and feet of Jesus in this broken world. A life, like we saw last week, where we “shine like stars,” as we hold out the Word of life to a lost and dying world.

Life now and forever. Life abundant.

John 5:24–26 CSB

24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself.

John 5:24–27 CSB

24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has granted him the right to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

John 5:24-

John 3:16–18 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

1 John 5:11–13 CSB

11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John 5:39–40 CSB

39 You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me. 40 But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

Jesus defeated death so that we could have life. If we have Jesus, if we’ve entered through the gate, we have eternal life. Life that will last forever, but also life that is abundant and full in ways that world cannot offer in the here and now.

Enter through the gate. You’re invited. If you’re already in the sheep pen: you have trusted Christ as your Savior, having surrendered your life to Him as Lord, I’m going to ask you to do something right now: enter into a time of prayer for those who are seeing or hearing this message right now, and for those who will see and hear it in the future who haven’t entered through the gate.

For those of you who have never trusted in Christ alone for your salvation, I want to extend an invitation to you. We obviously can’t do an invitation where you come down and share with me what God is doing in your heart and life. But you can send me an email (bill@ehbc.org) or message another way, perhaps through our website, or through Facebook Messenger. Reach out to me or to Joe or Trevor, and we will be glad to talk with you about trusting in Christ and being saved.

PRAY

We are going to close our worship service with one last song together. We’ll sing some of Filled with Your Glory, which we started the service with. If during this time, you would like to use it as our offertory, feel free to go over to our online giving portal and use it during this time. I pray that each of you has a blessed day and coming week, and that you remain healthy. God bless you.

FILLED WITH YOUR GLORY (REPRISE)

The Gate

Bookmarks & Needs:

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Opening

The Gate provides direction.

The Gate provides peace.

The Gate provides life.

The Gate provides life.

The gate provides life.

Closing