I Am The Gate

I am the Gate

John 10:1-10

I. Intro.

A. story of a spy captured and sentenced to death by a general in the Persian

army.

1. general had the strange custom of giving condemned criminals a choice

a. the firing squad and ’the big, black door."

b. spy to the Persian general,

c. ’What will it be, the firing squad or ’the big, black door?’"

d. The spy hesitated for a long time.

e. Finally he chose the firing squad.

2. A few minutes later, hearing the shots ring out confirming the spy’s

execution,

a. the general turned to his aide and said, ’They always prefer the known to

the unknown. People fear what they don’t know. Yet, we gave him a

choice."

3. ’What lies beyond the big door?" asked the aide.

a. ’Freedom," replied the general. ’I’ve known only a few brave enough to

take that door."

B. Doors, they are one of the most common things in the world.

1. There are so many kinds and types of doors.

2. There are ornate doors of cathedrals, steel doors to vaults in a bank, canvas

doors to tents, large and small doors in all kinds of vehicles, glass doors to

greenhouses, and every other kind imaginable in homes throughout the

world.

3. They can be expensive or inexpensive, strong or weak, beautiful or

unattractive, but they have one thing in common they are doors!

4. As in a bank vault the door is designed not for beauty but for strength.

5. Doors for our homes are a combination of beauty and strength, a

combination of being inviting yet offering a level of security.

II. Scripture

A. Easter season, Eric & I – Jesus “I Am” statements

B. 7Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.

8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did

not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

He will come in and go out, and find pasture.

C. There were two ways that sheep were kept in Jesus day.

1. In towns, the sheep were kept in a large, communal pen where shepherds

would often bring their flocks at night.

a. So several flocks would be mixed together under the care of a watchman,

b. In the morning, the shepherds would walk up to the pen and call their

sheep and the sheep would respond to the voice of the shepherd.

c. That is we hear in John 10:2-4 “2The man who enters by the gate is the

shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the

sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them

out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and

his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

2. The second way that sheep were kept in Jesus’ day was when the flock was

in the field or the countryside.

a. The shepherd would make a makeshift pen without a door—just an

opening.

b. The shepherd would literally become the door to keep the sheep in and

the wild animals out.

D. Jesus introduces this teaching in the middle of a sort of tug of war.

1. Jesus had just previously healed a man who had been blind from birth.

a. This miracle had drawn the attention of many Jews – in Jerusalem –

wondering how in the world such a miracle happened.

b. Jesus healed him, it was also a Sabbath

c. with this “major infraction” of the Sabbath, the Pharisees had a reason to

debate as to whether this man was really healed - and if he was healed –

whether the man who healed him was really from God.

d. They didn’t want to believe that Jesus was from God.

e. Pharisees were doing all they could to discredit him.

f. In answer to their accusations and anger, Jesus gave this teaching to the

Jews who weren’t sure WHO Jesus was

g. answering whether they should follow Him as their Shepherd.

III. C. S. Lewis

A. John 10 like the classic novel by CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the

Wardrobe

1. tells of four London children who are sent to a professor’s country home in

for protection during World War II

2. There they find a magic wardrobe which leads to a mystical land called

Narnia, a world bewitched, where winter never stops and Christmas never

happens; a world where animals talk and plot, where nymphs and fauns live

oppressed under the power of an evil witch turned Queen who turns her

enemies into stone statues, and where redemption eventually comes

for all from The Lion, Aslan, who is a kind and fierce Lion, and who isn’t