One of the first things that came to mind as I began to prepare the message this week was the game show “Let’s Make a Deal”. Many of you, like me, remember the original show, hosted by Monty Hall where the contestants were given a number of choices throughout the show. At the end of the show, two of the contestants were offered the opportunity to win the big deal, which was hidden behind one of three doors. For each of those final contestants, their choice of Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3 determined what prize they would go home with that day – something valuable like a new car, or something of far less worth.
Today, we’ll examine another door, one that is far more important than any of the three doors on “Let’s Make a Deal” because it has consequences not only for our lives here on earth, but also for eternity.
This is the third of seven messages where we’re getting to know Jesus better through His own words as we examine the seven “I am” sayings found in John’s gospel account. As we’ve seen previously, Jesus is clearly claiming to be God with each one of these statements and He uses each of the statements to reveal something about His character. And even more importantly for us, each of those statements also reveals how we are to respond to Jesus in order to appropriate what He offers to those who choose to follow Him.
For me, the passage that we’ll begin looking at this morning and continue with next week is by far the most challenging that we’ll face during this series. As we’ll see, the next two statements we’ll look at – “I am the door” and “I am the good shepherd” – are intertwined to a large degree and can’t be totally separated from each other. So it becomes even more critical than usual to put our passage into its proper context – both in terms of the surrounding text as well as in the cultural and historical background of the time.
So go ahead and turn to John chapter 10. In just a few minutes we’ll read the first 10 verses of that chapter. But before we do that we’ll take some time to set the stage.
Textual Background
Jesus’ discourse in chapter 10 follows immediately the event recorded in chapter 9. There Jesus has healed a man who had been blind from birth. But because the healing had taken place on the Sabbath, the Jewish religious leaders cast the man out from their assembly and also condemned Jesus for violating the Sabbath regulations. There is little doubt that Jesus is addressing those religious leaders with His words in chapter 10.
Cultural/Historical Background
As He does so many other times, Jesus uses something familiar to His audience to make his point. But since not too many of us are familiar with how shepherds operated in that culture and that is the key to understanding what Jesus says let’s make sure we have that needed background.
There were two different types of sheepfolds that are relevant to our passage. In each town there was a common sheepfold. At the end of the day, after the sheep had been grazing in the nearby pasture, all the shepherds would bring their sheep to that common sheepfold to stay for the night. And there would be a gatekeeper who would keep watch over that sheepfold overnight. That duty was probably rotated among the various shepherds. The next morning, the shepherds would come to claim their sheep by calling to them and the sheep would follow their shepherd because they recognized his or her voice. And the gatekeeper would insure that only the legitimate shepherds were able to enter the sheepfold and that each one left with only his or her sheep.
But often when the areas around the town became overgrazed the shepherd would have to take his sheep to a more remote area and it was too far to return to the town at night. So the shepherd would have his own sheepfold, just for his sheep. This might be a natural feature like a narrow canyon with only one opening or a cave or the shepherd might have to fashion a sheepfold out of rocks or branches. But regardless of how the sheepfold was constructed, there would be only one narrow way in or out of that enclosure and the shepherd would actually sleep in that opening in order to keep the sheep from escaping or for predators to be able to enter into the sheepfold to harm the sheep.
With that background in mind we are now ready to read our passage:
“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.
John 10:1-6 (ESV)
We’ll continue reading in verse 7 in just a few minutes, but let’s pause here for a moment and see if we can’t identify some of the key figures and objects in these first six verses. In order to do that, we must keep in mind that verses 1-6 and verses 7-10 are two separate, but related, discourses. Here in verses 1-6, it is the community wide sheepfold that provides the background for Jesus’ teaching.
Key figures and objects:
• sheepfold = Israel
There are several different possibilities for the identification of the sheepfold. One possibility is that it is the church. But that doesn’t really seem to work when we see that the shepherd leads the sheep out of the sheepfold. Why would the shepherd lead the sheep out of the church?
Some claim it represents heaven. But there are a couple problems with that. First, thieves and robbers can’t climb into heaven. And again there would be no reason for the shepherd to lead the sheep out of heaven.
It will become even clearer as we proceed through John 10 this week and next week, but even with what we have so far, it seems most likely that the sheepfold here represents Israel. Remember that Jesus’ primary audience here is the Jewish religious leaders
• “a thief and a robber” = Jewish religious leaders
Jesus uses two different words here. The word “thief” indicates someone who steals what belongs to another. We get our English word “kleptomaniac” from that Greek word. The word “robber” refers to someone who takes from another through the use of violence.
There is little doubt here that Jesus is speaking of the Jewish religious leaders and all of their predecessors who claimed to be the shepherds of Israel, but whose main concern was really only their own well-being. So rather than protecting and caring for those who had been entrusted to them, they served only to promote their own self interests. Since they were not permitted to enter through the door, they had to try and sneak in some other way.
• door = Messianic authority
In many ways, identifying the door in verse 2 is the key to understanding this entire passage and I’ll have to admit I was really confused on this myself when I first began to study this passage early in the week. It was not until I realized that this is not the same door that Jesus uses to describe himself later in verse 7 that God began to give me a better understanding of Jesus’ words here.
In the Old Testament, we find frequent references to God being a shepherd for His people. And we also find numerous prophecies concerning the Messiah who God would send to be a permanent shepherd. We’ll spend some more time in “Connections” looking at some of that Old Testament background. One passage that is particularly relevant here is Ezekiel 34. There God leads Ezekiel to prophesy against all of the false shepherds of Israel. But near the end of that chapter God gives His people a promise:
And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.
Ezekiel 34:23 (ESV)
This is an obvious reference to Jesus, who is from the lineage of David. The idea here, and in all the other prophecies of the Messiah that we find in the Old Testament is that there is only one person who can enter through the door of Messianic authority and fulfill what God has promised. Anyone else who attempts to do so or claims to do so is nothing but a thief and a robber.
So the door that Jesus describes here appears to be the door of Messianic authority.
• shepherd = Jesus
Based on what we’ve learned so far, it’s pretty easy now to identify the shepherd. The shepherd can be none other than Jesus Himself. Jesus confirms that later in the chapter when he moves from speaking in the third person - The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out – to speaking of Himself in the first person:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27 (ESV)
• own sheep = Jewish Christ-followers
By moving through this passage rather methodically it is now quite easy to identify the shepherds own sheep in this passage. They are those who have followed the shepherd, Jesus, out of their sheepfold, Israel, in order to become His followers. So these are Jewish Christ followers.
This truth will be really important for us next week when Jesus speaks of having other sheep that are not of this fold, so we’ll discuss it some more then.
Jesus’ audience was still confused after He spoke these words, so He goes on to give them a second illustration. Let’s continue reading in John 10 beginning in verse 7:
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. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
John 10:7-10 (ESV)
As we’ll see more clearly as we move through this passage, Jesus is now referring to the second type of sheepfold – the one that each individual shepherd had for his or her flock. With that in mind, we can easily identify the key figures:
Key figures and objects:
• door = Jesus
It couldn’t be any more straightforward than this could it? Jesus tells us He is the door. So we have something quite interesting here in this chapter. Jesus is both the shepherd and the door – at the same time. But that really makes sense when we understand that the shepherd literally was the door to his sheepfold.
But both descriptions of Jesus –as the door and the shepherd – reveal different aspects of who He is and how we need to respond to Him. So in just a few minutes we’ll explore further the significance of Jesus being the door and then next week we’ll focus on the importance of Him being our shepherd.
• sheep = Jewish Christ-followers
Although the common sheepfold contained sheep that belonged to many different shepherds, all of the sheep in this section are those who belong to the shepherd, Jesus.
• thieves and robbers = Jewish religious leaders
There is little doubt that Jesus is still speaking to the Jewish religious leaders here. And Jesus exposes their true motives. They are willing to steal and kill and destroy spiritually in order to serve their own interests.
Up until this point, we’ve covered a lot of information, which has been really crucial to understanding this passage. But we would be remiss if we just quit here without taking some time to reflect on what this means for us. So with our remaining time, let’s discuss the significance of Jesus being the door.
As “the door” Jesus provides His followers with:
• Salvation
One of the functions of a door is that it is a means of entry. As our door, Jesus offers us entry into an eternal relationship with Him that we call salvation.
Jesus said, “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved…”
There are two crucial aspects of that salvation:
o The salvation Jesus provides is available to all
The salvation that Jesus offers is available to anyone – Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor. Jesus had made that quite clear earlier in His discussion with Nicodemus:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (ESV)
Once again we see that salvation is available to all – whoever believes in Jesus, regardless of race, gender, religious background, social status or any other identifying factor has eternal life. That verse also confirms the second aspect of salvation that we find in John 10:
o Jesus is the exclusive means of salvation
In the Greek, the phase “by me” is in what is known as the emphatic position. That means that Jesus is placing emphasis on the fact that it is only those who enter by Him that can receive the salvation that He offers. That’s not a real popular message in a culture that likes choices.
When we turn on our radios we can choose to listen to sports, or news, or talk radio or dozens of different kinds of music. And if I can’t find something I want to listen to there, my iPod has 400 more songs I can choose from. If you have satellite or cable TV you have hundreds of stations you can watch. If you want to go to the movies, there are multiple theaters, each with a different movie. And if I want to go out to eat, I have all kinds of options available to me.
So when Jesus claims that the only way a person can receive the salvation He offers is to come through Him as the door, that truth is often viewed as “narrow minded” or “discriminatory”. You know what that’s exactly what it is, but I’m not going to apologize for that. Since Jesus is the only one that is capable of providing for our salvation, then He is the one who gets to determine how we receive it. And He has determined that the only way to be saved is through faith in Him.
When Peter was brought before the high priest and the other Jewish religious leaders, He confirmed that Jesus is the exclusive means of salvation:
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.”
Acts 4:12 (ESV)
If you’re here this morning and you’ve been led astray by the thieves and robbers of our generation who teach that there are many ways to God, or that you somehow need to earn favor with God by something that you can do, then I pray that today as you see the truth of the words of Jesus, that you will no longer be deceived. I pray that today, you’ll accept the salvation that Jesus is offering to you as you enter through Him as the door.
• Security
Several months ago Mary and I purchased a new security door for our house. That door is designed to allow us to be able to get some fresh air into our house while still protecting our house against thieves and robbers.
As the door, one of the things that Jesus offers to us is security. In the same way that the shepherd would protect His sheep by serving as the door to the sheepfold, Jesus offers spiritual security to us as the door. That is the idea that is expressed when Jesus says that those who enter by Him will be able to “go in and out”.
Because the sheep had confidence in the shepherd they could go out into the surrounding countryside during the day to feed and then return at night to the safety of the sheepfold. While the sheep were out of the sheepfold during the day, they were exposed to the dangers of being outside their enclosure. But because they know the shepherd was nearby, they trusted that he would protect them from those dangers.
Although Jesus never promised His followers that they would be immune to the problems that come from living in this world, what He did promise is the security of being with us through those trials and tribulations. The shepherd imagery of Psalm 23 certainly speaks to the security we have in Jesus:
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.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies…
Psalm 23:4-5 (ESV)
Even though we may be in the presence of our enemies or be walking through the valley of the shadow of death, if we have placed our faith in Jesus, we have the security of knowing that He is with us and that He comforts and sustains us.
Jesus also expands some more on the security He offers as the door later in John 10:
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
John 10:28-29 (ESV)
We can be assured that if we have genuinely entered through Jesus as our door, then nothing or no one can ever snatch us out of His hands.
• Sustenance
Jesus also promises that those who enter by the door will “find pasture”. In the Palestine of Jesus’ day it was not always easy to find pasture that had adequate food for the flock. So the sheep were dependent on the shepherd to locate adequate pasture where they could feed. Over time, the sheep developed a deep trust in the shepherd and knew that when the shepherd allowed them to leave the sheepfold that they would be able to be sustained by the pasture around them.
Once again the shepherd imagery of Psalm 23 is relevant:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
Psalm 23:1-2 (ESV)
Once we enter through the door of Jesus, He promises to provide sustenance for us – not merely physical food, but more importantly spiritual food that we can feed on. He provides green pastures and still waters for us to enjoy. For us, he primarily provides that spiritual nourishment through His Word. But just like we saw with Jesus as the “bread of life” that food won’t do us any good unless we make it our consistent diet. It is in the Bible that we hear the voice of Jesus so that we can follow Him out into the green pastures that he has for us. And when we do that consistently, we find that Jesus doesn’t just provide us with enough to get by, but instead makes available a…
• Surplus
To those who enter through the door, Jesus promises an abundant life. Unfortunately, this is one of those passages that is often taken out of context in order to teach that if we’ll just follow Jesus He will pour out material riches into our lives. But clearly, taken in context, that is not what Jesus means here. In fact, one of the reasons Jesus consistently condemns the religious leaders is that they were attempting to benefit materially from their position.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that there are several different Greek words that can be translated “life.” The two primary words are:
o bios = quantitative life which can be measured in terms of length, accomplishments, wealth, etc.
o zoe = both quantitative and qualitative life. This is the word Jesus uses here. It is the life that characterizes God and which can only come from God. In the New Testament, and especially in John’s gospel account, it is frequently linked together with “eternal” to describe life that is unlimited in both length and quality.
While all humans have “bios” life, not all have “zoe” life because “zoe” life is God-centered, God-produced life that is found only in Jesus.
The word “abundant” is an accounting term that means to have a “surplus”. It is the same word used to describe the twelve baskets of bread fragments that were left after Jesus had fed thousands of people in the account in John 6.
When we put these two words together, we find that the abundant life that Jesus describes in verse 10 cannot be measured by the length of our lives or what we accomplish or accumulate in those lives. It is a life that overflows with both quantity and quality. It is abundant because it extends well beyond our physical life here on earth into eternity and it is also abundant because it is a quality of life that cannot be experienced outside of our relationship with Jesus.
Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” With those words, He brings every one of us face to face with two questions we must answer this morning:
1. Have I entered into a relationship with God by going through Jesus as my door?
• If your answer to that question is no, then perhaps you’ve been deceived by the thieves and robbers of our time into believing that there are many doors that lead to God. But just like with “Let’s Make a Deal” the prize is only behind one door and that door is Jesus. But this prize has eternal consequences. If that’s the case, then in just a moment, I ‘m going to ask you to commit your life to Jesus and go through the door that He has opened right before your eyes this morning.
• If you can honestly answer yes to that question, then there is a second question you need to answer:
2. Am I experiencing the abundant life that Jesus promised to His followers?
My guess is that if we’re completely honest, none of us could say that we are completely experience that kind of abundance all the time. I know I sure don’t at times. But if you’re really struggling here, it’s not Jesus’ fault. As the door, He has provided all that you need to have an abundant life – salvation, security and sustenance. But perhaps you’re just not taking the time to feed in those green pastures of His Word. Or you’re not really sure about the security of your salvation. Or maybe there is something else in your life that is preventing you from experiencing that abundance.
If that’s the case, then we want to help you find the abundance that God wants you to have. So right now, I’m going to ask all of our elders to come to the front. In just a moment I’ll ask everyone to bow your heads and close your eyes. Then first, I’m going ask anyone who has never committed your life to Jesus as the only door into the presence of God and who is interested in doing that to raise your hands.
Then secondly, I’ll ask anyone who doesn’t feel like they are experiencing the abundant life that Jesus promised to raise your hand.
Our elders are here to do two things. First, we want to pray for you. But even more importantly, if you raise your hand, we’ll note that and we’ll make sure that one of us get in contact with you to see what we can do to assist you in whatever decision you need to make.
[Response time]
Finally, if for some reason, you just didn’t feel comfortable raising your hand, then please find one of us after the service so that we can talk to you some more about how you can experience the abundant life that Jesus is offering you.
