...from the desk of Rande Wayne Smith D.Min., Th.M., M.Div.

I AM - 3

I AM THE GATE

John 10:7-10

So Jesus said again, “I am telling you the truth: I am the gate for the sheep. All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Those who come in by me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness.”

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion to His glory and our edification.  Amen.

We are in the 3rd week of a 7 part series … 7 different names by which Jesus chooses to identify Himself. Each of these names pop-up in the Gospel of John, and each give us a glimpse at who Jesus is. And He introduces each name with an expression … I AM.

1st it was, “I am the bread of life.” Then last week, “I am the light of the world.”

This morning, and next week, we’re going to look at “names” that deal with sheep.

If we lived in 1st century Palestine, we’d know a lot about sheep. But we’re 21st century suburbanites. Most of us know something about cats and dogs, maybe some of us have goldfish, but that’s about it.

So, we’re going to have to do a little background study if we want to understand what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the gate for the sheep.” And then continuing with it next week, “I am the good shepherd.”

What did Jesus mean when He called Himself the gate for the sheep?

1st … He meant that He was the doorway to security. “So Jesus said again, ‘I am telling you the truth: I am the gate for the sheep.

“‘All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.’”

The gate that Jesus is referring to belongs to the kind of sheep pen that shepherds would use during summer months.

The shepherds would stay out in the fields with their sheep for weeks at a time. They would do their best to find good pasture land, and then they would gather some stones to build a make-shift corral that would have one single opening.

Then at night the shepherd would herd his sheep through that opening into the pen. He would then lie down across the opening. The shepherd himself became the gate to the sheep pen.

He was literally the sheep’s protection. He was their security from thieves and robbers who wanted to kill, steal, or destroy the flock.

So, who are these thieves and robbers that Jesus is alluding to? He gives us several clues. Jesus said, “All others who came before me are thieves and robbers.”

The key there is the verb “are” … it’s present tense. Jesus is referring to people who are presently on the scene. These thieves and robbers are contemporaries of His.

Now in the original text, the book that John wrote, there were no chapter or verse divisions. So what we see as John 10 was just a continuation of John 9. The numbers came hundreds of years later.

So, since our chapter 10 begins with Jesus talking about how thieves and robbers climb into a sheep pen without going through the gate … there’s a good chance that He’s referring to those people that He had just been talking to at the end of chapter 9.

And then, when Jesus uses the metaphor sheep and shepherds, He is tying into a word picture that would have been all too familiar to His Jewish listeners who knew their O.T.

Shepherds and sheep were not only thought of in a good sense … for example, the 23rd Psalm.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need.”

But “shepherd” was also used to speak of bad religious leaders, who failed to nurture, who failed to protect, who failed to guide … the sheep.

Passages like Ezekiel 34, Jeremiah 23, and Zechariah 11, are about bad shepherds. Bad shepherds were more concerned with keeping Sabbath laws than they were about seeing people who had been blind since birth get healed.

Who do you think these thieves and robbers were? They were the status quo religious leaders … and Jesus wanted to protect His sheep from them.

So, the primary objective of the shepherd is to lie across the opening of the sheep pen to keep out thieves and robbers, keep out bad religious leaders.

In The Acts, the Apostle Paul deals with this very same subject. Paul is speaking to a group of Pastors, who he refers to as shepherds of their churches.

Paul says that the primary role of a shepherd is to protect the sheep. He refers to the enemies of the sheep as wolves. (But they’re the same group of people that Jesus was talking about.)

“Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he made his own through the blood of his Son. I know that after I leave, fierce wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. The time will come when some men from your own group will tell lies to lead the believers away after them.”

Who are the wolves that Paul is talking about? Once again, they are the religious leaders. They are false teachers who distort God’s truth, and in doing so, misled the sheep.

How does Paul tell the shepherds to protect their sheep from this dangerous false teaching?

He says, “And now I commend you to the care of God and to the message of his grace.” The message … the Word … this is how pastor/shepherds are to protect the sheep from thieves and robbers, from wolves, from false teachers that would do things to take them away from God.

That’s why I put so much emphasis on Scripture. That’s why I encourage each of you to regularly read this Book.

That’s why I want you to take notes when God’s Word is preached. This is your protection. This is your security.

I can’t tell you how many times, people have said to me, sometimes with hurt, sometimes with bitterness in their voices, “I can’t believe I went to church for so many years and nobody ever told me how I could know God personally.”

Or, “I can’t believe I went to church for years and nobody ever told me that salvation is a gift that’s been purchased by Christ that I receive by faith. No one ever told me that.”

“I can’t believe I went to church for years and nobody ever told me that I can get a fresh start. My slate can be washed clean.”

“I went to church for years and no one ever introduced me to the Bible and said that this Book is understandable. It’s accessible. God can speak to me through it.”

My friends, Jesus is frustrated about that too. He wants you to be part of a sheepfold that is secure from error … a sheepfold where His Word is used to teach and to protect and to nourish.

That’s why it’s so important to be grounded in the Word.

But false teaching can come from other sources too, from peer influences, from marketing people who tell us that our life is incomplete unless we buy this or that. From best selling authors, radio talk show hosts that we may listen to.

It can come from a number of places. God’s Word is our protection. Jesus wants you to be part of His fold. He’s going to lie down across the opening to protect you. He’s going to use His Word to make the sheep pen secure. Jesus says, “I am the gate for the sheep.”

2ndly, Jesus is the doorway to salvation. “I am the gate. Those who come in by me will be saved.” What does it mean to be saved? Some, who are outside the bounds of Christianity, get uncomfortable when they hear people talking about “getting saved.”

I have in my files this definition. “Saved is the comprehensive term for the whole process whereby people are delivered from the consequences of sin and brought into the blessing of God.”

And Jesus is the doorway, not a doorway, (definite article here) … “the” doorway to salvation.

This is something that really bugs skeptical people. They’re fond of saying, “Oh you Christians are too exclusive with your truth claims. … You talk as if Jesus is the only way to God.”

How do you respond when you hear people say that?

Let me tell you how I typically respond to that kind of accusation. I say, “Yes, Jesus is the exclusive way to God. Here’s why I believe it … 1st, because Jesus has said it for Himself.” (I understand that’s a little bit of a dodge. It’s my way of saying, blame Him don’t blame me. But it’s the truth.)

This is something that Jesus has said about Himself. Just taking the imagery of a gate indicates that. There was only one gate. To have had multiple gates in a sheep pen would have been disastrous for the sheep.

There was one gate and the shepherd would lie down across it. He guarded it. He was the entrance … and he alone was the entrance. (So, just the idea of the gate that Jesus uses here indicates that He is the only way.)

Now if that sounds exclusive to you, listen to this cross reference.

Jesus said, “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it.

“But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.”

Now, I didn’t say that … Jesus said it. In John, when Jesus is talking about this, He uses the 1st person pronoun twice. “I am the gate. Those who come in by me will be saved.”

Jesus leaves no doubt what He is talking about. He is the exclusive access point to a relationship with God.

2ndly, Jesus is the exclusive way to God because He did something that no one else has ever done for you, or for me, and it’s related to the gate theme.

Scripture tells us that our sin alienates us from a perfectly holy God.

Our sin keeps a holy God at arms length. It keeps Him at a distance.

This is dramatically portrayed in the 1st book in the Bible, Genesis. In the 3rd chapter we read how the 1st man and woman disobeyed God and were banished from the Garden of Eden. And on their way out God posts an angel guard at the gate brandishing “a flaming sword which turned in all directions,” as a way of saying, “you’re not getting back in. You’re on the outside now.”

Thousands of years later when Solomon went to build the Temple, this idea was underscored in the design. There was an inner sanctum where God could be met called the Most Holy Place. But only the High Priest could go there, and he could go only once a year.

Everyone else was kept on the outside. In fact, there was a thick curtain, actually several inches thick, which hung across the opening. It was another way of saying … the gate is closed … no access … no entry.

When Jesus died on the cross, one of the things that happened was that this curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom, ripped in 2. It was a symbolic way of saying that something has happened that has opened the access to God that people never had before.

What happened was that our sin had been dealt with. The penalty which we deserved to pay for our sin was paid on the cross by Christ. “He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain – through his own body.”

Have you come to God through that gate? Have you ever stepped across the threshold of Jesus Christ, acknowledging that He is the only way to come into a right relationship with God?

Let me warn you … that gate will not stay open forever.

Jesus said, “Do your best to go in through the narrow door; because many people will surely try to go in but will not be able. The master of the house will get up and close the door; then when you stand outside and say, ‘Open the door for us, sir!’ he will answer you, ‘I don’t know where you come from!’”

Take advantage of it while the door is open, because you never know when it will close.

Have you ever been frustrated by a too narrow door? I remember once buying a sofa for a house that I lived in. I called a friend of mine with a truck. (He was a friend.) We went and picked up the sofa, drove it home, uncrated it in my driveway and carried it over and put it up against the door frame … and sure enough, we couldn’t get it in. We turned that stupid sofa (the sofa was stupid!) … we turned that stupid sofa every which way, and after about 45 minutes realized that it wasn’t going through the door.

You never want to find yourself on the outside of Heaven … realizing that you can’t get through the door. It’s not just frustrating … it will be eternally disastrous. Have you put your hope and trust in Jesus Christ? Have you gone through that door?

Jesus is either who He claimed to be … the only gate … or He’s crazy, or He’s an out and out liar. He can’t be just a good moral teacher, as some skeptics want to acknowledge … because a deluded person, a crazy person, or a liar cannot be a good moral teacher.

What does it mean that Jesus is the gate? 3rdly, it means that He is the doorway to satisfaction. “They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness.”

I’ve told you before, when John’s Gospel speaks of eternal life it’s not just a quantity of life … it’s more than just a life that goes on forever and ever and ever … it’s a quality of life.

Jesus describes it as “life in all its fullness.” It is something way beyond what people normally experience.

Are you experiencing life in all its fullness? In other words, where are you turning for your satisfaction?

Well, the spiritually correct answer to that question is … “I’m turning to God. He’s giving me life to the fullest.” But practically speaking, I wonder, is that true, or are we trying to fill up on other things?

Someone has said that theologically many of us are Christians, but practically we’re atheists. In other words, we believe it up here … Jesus gives life to the fullest, but practically speaking we seek to meet our needs in every other way imaginable.

When was the last time you chose to spend time with Jesus, rather than spend time in front of the TV, rather than spend time on the phone, rather than spend time on your treadmill?

I want to get real practical here with some suggested applications. Maybe my applications won’t necessarily fit you, but I hope they will at least stimulate your thinking.

How do I get life in all its fullness from Jesus?

• Consider doing less of something you’re doing too much of right now so that you can spend more time with Christ. Maybe you’re spending too much time on the internet, or too much time exercising, or too much time at work.

• How about this? Let me suggest that you come to church 10 minutes earlier on a Sunday morning. Think about it, rather than zooming in here seconds before we begin, rushing in … imagine being here to be able to take a deep cleansing breath, spending a moment in prayer, realigning your spirit, so that you can get the most out of our time together … it would be wonderful.

• How about recommitting yourself to our daily Scripture reading? How about taking the sermon outline home with you and making it a part of your prayer life? Today we’re talking about Jesus being the gate/door. Pray this week, “Thank you Jesus for being the gate so that I can come through you into God’s presence. When I had no access to God, you made a way for me.”

• Start talking to Jesus spontaneously during the day. Talk to Him about the traffic. Talk to Him about whatever you’re working on. Practice the presence of God.

• If you haven’t already, consider putting our Wednesday evening Lenten supper and study time on your calendar. We have 3 more weeks, 6:00 to 6:45. You get a shot in the middle of the week!

We live busy lives. What Jesus wants for His sheep is to “come in and go out and find pasture” … to feel protected and be nourished. So, let’s make a conscious effort to spend time with Him. “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.”

MARANA THA