Chapter 10: Jesus, The Good Shepherd.
Week One: Guarding the Entrance. (10:1-21)
I. Introduction.
A. I once worked as a Loss Control Manager at a major retail establishment. Part of my duties were to observe the night cleaning crew to make sure that they were doing their job and not pilfering the store, etc. At night, it was vitally important that someone locked and alarmed the door. There are several reasons why they required the Store Manager or his assistants to do that. It all amounted to the fact that the door was vitally important.
B. The title of the message tonight is “Guarding the Entrance.” Let’s look together at John 10, and beginning at vs. 1. (Read vs. 1-3)
II. Doors are vitally important for security against intrusion.
A. We see here a new title for Jesus Christ: The Door.
1. Perhaps this strikes you as an odd title for the Son of God, but let’s examine it. The Door.
2. (vs. 7)- Jesus Christ states that He is “the door of the sheep.”
B. In the retail world, in the world of incarceration, and in the world of shepherding, the door is a safeguard against intrusion.
1. It is not a failsafe method. Every year thousands of homes are broken into, for a variety of reasons.
2. Doors and windows are inevitably the access routes that criminals take to enter a house or building. It is because the doors and windows are the weakest points in the structure.
III. Doors are vitally important for security against theft.
A. Countless stores are looted and robbed because someone broke down a door, or smashed a window pane on the door, put their fingers through the opening, and flipped the lock.
B. This kind of action happened against Providence Baptist Church last year. Thankfully, damage was minimized by the use of an alarm.
C. To help prevent theft, doors are fitted oftentimes with alarms of a variety of kinds, so that if someone accessed the door by smashing it or even entering it with a key, the alarm would not only sound, but also alert the authorities to what was an unauthorized entry.
--Satan countless times will sneak into the sheepfold and try to steal a lamb of God away from the fellowship through a variety of means. Perhaps he has tried to do that to you. Have you let him? The alarm should be going off- the Holy Spirit is alert and God is trying to get through to you that an unauthorized entry in your heart has taken place. Do you respond to the sound, or simply ignore it?
IV. Doors are vitally important for security against escape.
A. Where would prisons be without guards and complex alarm systems and checkpoints? Without barriers, prisoners would escape. Our penitentiaries are outfitted with special devices to limit prisoner escapes, and the focus that they put are on doors, or entrance ways, to the facility.
B. In the retail world, doors are alarmed not only to keep people out, but to keep people in as well.
--When people would work on the night crew, they would be let into the store building around 10 at night, and then be “released” by the opening store manager the next morning. They were captured each time they did their cleaning shift. To not do so would result in uncountable dollars lost to internal theft. It was a safeguard to help prevent these things from happening.
V. The Door of our spiritual lives must be guarded with even greater attention to security.
A. The wolves are on the prowl, and they are dressed in sheep’s clothing. They want to sneak through the gate and infiltrate the flock. And when they do, there only goal is tragedy.
B. How do we avoid counterfeits that are loose among God’s flock?
1. Make sure they exit and enter through the right doors. (v. 1-2)
a. In Jewish culture, when regarding this idea of shepherding, the shepherd would gather up the sheep for the night, put them into a pen, and then sleep in the open entrance. Literally, he was the door, and everything that came and went had to go through Him.
b. Jesus Christ is literally, the Door. But sometimes Christians want to bypass Him…do things their own way. Are you doing things God’s way? Are you checking to make sure that not only are right things done, but that they are done the right way as well?
2. Make sure that the person leading has the porter’s approval. (v. 3a)
a. The word for porter here is the Greek thuroros, meaning “warden,” or “door-keeper.”
b. In our lives as Christians, the Holy Spirit lives in us to warn us of impending attacks. Is the Holy Spirit “open” to what’s going on in the flock? If He’s not, He will sound the alarm and we best listen to it.
3. Make sure that it is a familiar voice that is calling you. (v. 3b; 5)
a. Let’s face it: There are a lot of voices out there calling to you. God’s voice is not always the loudest, but it is the clearest.
b. Who are you listening to?
4. Make sure that they are leading, and not pushing. (v. 3c-4)
a. A leader does just that, he leads. Just as Jesus Christ and the shepherd here leads the flock through example, godly leaders are built the same way. Leaders are not people who grab the spotlight and put themselves into a prominent role, they are people who are chosen as leaders, respected, admired, and an example.
b. Leaders are not the greatest bosses in the world, but they are always to be the greatest servants to those around them.
c. Want to find a true leader? Find someone who is not afraid to take the initiative, a humble servant of God and man, and one who motivates , not intimidates. These are the kinds of leaders God needs…and the kind he can use.
