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
tame at all.
3. this wardrobe becomes a doorway to a better life.
B. In his first Chronicle, The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis wrote of a magical tree
from which that wardrobe was built.
1. There was another tree, not magical, but wonderful in the sense that from
it was fashioned a cruel Roman cross.
2. And it is was this cross that opened the way to a better world and a
better life.
C. Just as the children stepped through the wardrobe to a life of adventure, we
need to step through the door which is Jesus.
IV. Abundant Life
A. What Jesus is telling us here is that He came that we might have super
abundant, over flowing life!
B. He is the door to a not just new life, but rather, He is the door to a super
abundant life.
C. That is His intent for His sheep, for His children.
D. Are you living a super abundant life?
1. Are you even living an abundant life?
E. Think about it “How You Spend Your Time?”
1. In an average lifetime, the average American spends:
3 years in business meetings
13 years watching TV
Spends 24 years sleeping.
2. Unfortunately, many Christians never wake up!
a. They get their fire insurance paid up and then they fall into a deep
spiritual coma.
F. Some reports indicate that boredom comes as much from overstimulation as
it does from under stimulation.
1. In our day, we are in danger of entertaining ourselves to death!
2. We get so overwhelmed with what others are doing we forget to seek out
that individual adventure that Christ has for us, both as individuals and as a
body.
3. Theodore Roosevelt said that ‘We have got but one life here…It pays, no
matter what comes after it, to try and do things, to accomplish things in this
life, and not merely to have a soft and pleasant time.’
4. Please pay attention to the fact that Jesus is a door, not a wall or window.
1. There is little effort on your part to get in.
2. You do not have to climb in or over or knock down any walls.
3. It only takes one step! It’s that simple.
G. Jesus also promises that those who enter by the door will “find pasture”.
1. In the Palestine of Jesus’ day it was not always easy to find pasture that had
adequate food for the flock.
2. So the sheep were dependent on the shepherd to locate adequate pasture
where they could feed.
3. 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.
H. 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)
I. Once we enter through the door of Jesus, He promises to provide sustenance
for us
V. A. M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar relates the story of a dying man who
asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he
was going.
A. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he
had his answer. ’Do you hear that?" he asked his patient.
B. ’It’s my dog.
C. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and
hears my voice.
D. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here.
E. Isn’t it the same with you? You don’t know what lies beyond the Door, but
you know that your Master/Shepherd is there."
F. Let’s step through the Door and never settle for life as it was.
