I'm going to be reading today from John chapter 10 verse 7 through 10.
Now this is the last of the I Am sayings that we're going to cover.
It's not the last in the book of John, but it's the last we're going to do in this particular series of sermons we've been going through.
And in some sense it's also a little bit more of a difficult one to look at, which we'll get to a little bit later.
This passage comes right after the healing of the man who was born blind, and then is kicked out of the synagogue because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
So let's listen to what God's word says about who Jesus Christ is.
Therefore Jesus said again, very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
I am the gate whoever enters through me will be saved.
They will come in and go out and find pastor.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.
Let's pray and ask God to give thanks for his word.
Lord Jesus, please be with us now.
As we look at what your Bible says about who Jesus Christ is,
please help us today to be attentive to your word so that we obey your will and we find the grace that is there in the Bible.
Be with your people. I make this prayer in your name. Amen.
The I am statements tell us about who Jesus Christ is.
And part of the I am statements is that phrase itself, I am, it takes us back to the book of Exodus where God revealed himself as Yahweh.
And one way you translate that is I am.
But also these I am statements give us images of Jesus Christ, such as I am the good shepherd.
I am the vine. I am the way, which is like a road, the way, the truth and the life.
And all these images that Jesus used are to tell us about who he is, but they're also to move us.
Because God's word is not meant to be intellectually understood, but it's to have an impact on our lives.
And so it is with this passage here that we're looking at today.
It tells us how our life is to be different, how much more trust we should have in Jesus Christ.
But this one is hard to figure out. And I'll tell you why. Because at the exact same time that Jesus is saying I am the gate or the door in some of your Bibles,
He's also saying I'm the good shepherd. You got a lot of metaphors going on here.
And it's hard to figure out exactly what is Jesus trying to say in all this.
It would have been a lot better maybe from our perspective if he just stuck with the shepherd idea.
But he doesn't. So let me clarify a little bit.
He's telling us about salvation when he uses that image of the door or the gate, as some of your Bibles may say.
And I want you to think of other passages, such as what you might find in Luke's Gospel where Jesus said,
You've got to enter by the narrow gate, not the wide he is referring to heaven and being with Jesus.
And our great hope resides in the fact that Jesus died for our sins and opened up a way for us in heaven.
And what the Holy Spirit wants to do this morning is to show you that Jesus Christ is the entrance into kingdom blessedness.
Let me repeat myself again. Jesus Christ is the entrance into kingdom blessedness.
I want you to think for a moment, Christmas time, and right now with all the heat, we are probably wishing it was Christmas.
But I want you to think for a moment about you go to your grandmother's house, you go to your parents' home,
and you open up the door and there is the Christmas tree, there are the presents, there are the relatives.
You are going through a door in which it's going to be very, very pleasant beyond what is normally there.
Well, that's what Christ is getting at here. You go through him as a door,
you are coming into a time of blessedness.
So now, let's see why you and I need to cling to that truth so much.
And one reason is because Jesus alone is the gate to heaven.
Now let's start out by looking at the differences maybe in your Bibles for a moment.
If you are reading the King James, if you are reading the New American Standard, it will say door.
And to tell you the truth, that's the term I'm most familiar with.
However, modern versions have gate.
And you are saying to yourself, well, why is that?
Well, it's the same Greek word, but that one word in Greek can be looked at two different ways.
In some instances, it is used for a door.
In other instances, it is used for a gate.
Now the reason that the NIV and some of the other translations have gone with that idea of gate instead of door
is because of what's taking place in the passage.
You are dealing with sheep out in the fields.
You are not going to find a door like you would have on your house.
Sheep usually have gates.
And I want you to think about the picture here for a moment.
Now back in Biblical days, there were sheep pens.
And these were round, rough enclosures.
And they were made of rock.
And on top of the rock, there were thorns.
Now there was no literal gate.
The shepherd was the gate.
He would lie across the front and the entrance of the sheep pens.
He was the one who was guarding the sheep.
And if anybody was going to get into that sheep pen, they'd have to go over the shepherd.
So when Jesus here is talking about a shepherd and a gate, it's the same job.
The shepherd was the gate or the door that the sheep would have to go through.
And if you were a wild animal or a thief or a robber, you were going to have to deal with the shepherd
because he was there to protect the sheep.
Think of it this way.
If you ever see, for example, the president, he's got the secret service around him.
He's got the big guys, dark suits, glasses.
They're to guard.
Well, Jesus as the gate is the one who is guarding the sheep.
He's taking care of them.
And what Jesus is saying here is, if you want to get into the sheep pen, you got to come through me.
I can either let you in or keep you out.
And think of other passages in the Scripture.
Think of one of the other, I am saying.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
We can look at other Scriptures which points to the fact that there is only one way and it is through Jesus.
That one gets into the kingdom of God.
So for example, in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 18,
for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.
You can turn to Hebrews and you'll find that same thought, one way through Jesus Christ to God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way open for us through the curtain that is his body,
since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart
and with full assurance that faith brings.
Only one way to heaven, only one way into the kingdom of God and it is through Jesus.
We use that term today, you got gatekeepers who will let you into an institution, the gatekeeper is Jesus.
Now, let's talk about basic Christianity for a moment here.
How do you get to heaven?
How do you get into the new heavens and the new earth?
How do you get to be part of the kingdom of God?
Basic answer, you need to say Jesus.
You need to focus in on him and let me tell you, in our multicultural world, we will say such things as,
oh, Buddha is a way to God.
Buddha did not die for your sins.
Muhammad, Muhammad didn't die for your sins.
He's not going to open up the way to heaven.
The pope, the pope didn't die for your sins.
Confucius, he didn't die for your sins.
There is only one gatekeeper and it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The others can't let you into heaven, but Jesus Christ, the God man, he did do it.
Now, what do you got to do today when you get into a building?
You got to swipe the card, put in the code.
Christianity doesn't do that. There is no secret code.
Remember the old days, and I love this in the Perry Mason movies and shows.
You used to have people who run the elevators.
They let you in.
Now, we're not personalized today.
Let me tell you, there's no secret code.
You're not going to get a card that's going to open the kingdom of heaven for you.
It has to be because of a person who is going to let you in and a person who knows you.
Think of that basic evangelistic question which you can all use.
If you died today and Jesus said, why should I let you into my kingdom?
What are you going to say?
Because I've been good.
I kept all the 10 commandments?
No. You need Christ.
He is the door.
He's the one who's going to let in.
You need to say, I believe in you Jesus who has forgiven me of my sins and died in my place.
I've heard it said that Albert Einstein could not find his way home when he was at Princeton.
How did they get him home?
They had to paint his door a different color so he could find it.
I think they painted it red.
I don't know if that's true or not.
But I will say this.
You've got to go to the right door to get into heaven.
That door is Jesus Christ.
Remember that show?
Let's make a deal.
You can choose door number one, door number two, or door number three.
Well, there isn't a door number one, a door number two, and a door number three.
There is Jesus.
And what this passage wants us to drill into our heads and our hearts is you've got to have Jesus.
And we should never grow tired of looking at it or proclaiming it.
Because in our multicultural world, the temptation is for all of us to be confused about this.
To be too encompassing of everything.
There's no shame.
If Jesus said it, then we need to believe.
So why should you believe?
Because Jesus says, I am the gate.
Why can you have some comfort in this life? Because Jesus said, I'm the gate.
But there's more here, isn't it?
It's because there might be people out there who are going to deceive you about this.
Jesus is the gate.
You've got to believe it.
But beware.
Here's another reason you need to believe it.
Deception.
I want you to notice here that this is what Jesus warns his disciples about in verse eight and verse ten.
He tells them, all have come before me are thieves and robbers.
But the sheep, they haven't listened to him.
This is done in the context of the man born blind.
Now these disciples were asking Jesus at this point, did this man sin or his parents?
Jesus says, now this is all going to be done for the glory of God.
So Jesus heals them.
And then what happens?
The Pharisees come out.
They try to disprove that Jesus is God's representative.
And do you know what happens?
Threaten his parents.
Parents are worried about getting kicked out of the synagogue.
Oh, ask my son, he's old enough.
So the son just says, look, I just know what I've experienced.
He healed me.
And they're going to run him out of the synagogue.
Here you have a man who was blind and what are they trying to do?
Run him out of the synagogue.
They were not true leaders.
They were not true shepherds.
And in the Old Testament it warns us over and over again about false shepherds and false teachers and pastors.
So for example in Exodus 34, the word of God says, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.
Prophecy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says, woe to you shepherds of Israel.
You only take care of yourself.
And there are people who can be ministers of the gospel, who are supposed to be shepherds, who are doing it for themselves.
And Jesus also warns his disciples about those Pharisees who were not true leaders because they didn't have a heart for God.
They didn't have a heart for the people of God. And listen to what Jesus says to them.
He says, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You shut the doors of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
You yourself do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying.
False shepherds.
And Jesus is warning us here, be careful, be careful, because some who may come as representatives of the kingdom of God don't really care about God.
They don't care about human suffering.
They don't care about the people who are the sheep of God.
What do they care about?
Power, traditions that are unbiblical, keeping their reputations intact.
That's what they're into.
They are not true shepherds because they don't care about you at all.
No, not true shepherds.
And I want you to think about this for a moment.
Just because someone parades around in a religious garment,
just because they have the trappings of an office doesn't mean they're the true leaders.
They may have a position, but they don't have any power.
And what you've got to do as one of the sheep is make sure you're listening to true shepherds.
Now let me give you an example of this. He is called Bishop Blaine.
He was in New York City.
You may remember some time ago that he was robbed while he was in the pulpit, lost over a million dollars of jewelry.
Now I'm thinking to myself, hey, who has a million dollars worth of jewelry and why are you wearing it in a church?
Always the big headlines.
Police investigated.
You know what happened to Bishop Blaine?
He got arrested.
He was tried and he was found guilty of exhorting people.
Extortion.
He was taken from the flock, taken people's retirement accounts.
He's not true shepherd.
Right now, the church overall, Protestant churches, are suffering from ministers who are taking advantage of young women.
And then covering up with nondisclosures agreements.
What are they in it for?
And you also have ministers being dismissed from pulpits because of their tyrannical style of leadership.
I can tell you in a situation like that, it's not about the sheep.
It's about the leo and they're not true leaders.
And I can tell you from going to seminary and jumping through all the hoops,
there were people at seminary who should not have been there.
They were not going to make good ministers and if they became a minister, they did not last long.
Beware.
Beware of who you follow.
Because only Jesus is the gate who's willing to lie down to protect you and let you in.
No other person can do that.
But there is another reason here why you need to look to him.
It's because of what you will receive.
Let's go back to that imagery here of the gate.
When a sheep goes into the gate and can go out, it means they're safe.
And look at what it says in verse 9.
I am the gate. Whoever enters to me will be saved.
If you're looking at a footnote in your NIV, it says, or will be safe.
The word can mean either thing.
They will come in and they will go out.
They will find pasture.
What the Word of God is telling us here is that with Jesus as the gate, he's sheep or safe.
No one is going to snatch them out of his hands.
And a little later on, in verse 27 and through 28,
he says, my sheep, listen to my voice. I know them and they will follow me.
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
No one shall snatch them out of my hands.
If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, you have a shepherd,
just like God in the Old Testament, who is never going to let you go.
Nothing will come between you and him.
Now, I'm not saying you won't sin.
I'm not saying at times you won't experience the discipline of God,
but Jesus is going to let you go.
You think of all those times when you have done things that have been sinful,
Jesus isn't going to let you go. You need to repent, but Jesus isn't going to let you go.
And keep in mind something else it says here about what you will receive.
The blessing of God.
Look at verse 10.
I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
Now, we may be tempted just to go through that section of the verse a little too quickly.
That word can mean over and above, extraordinary, more than enough.
Jesus is saying, if you believe in me, you're going to have an extraordinary life.
You're going to have a life that is beyond measure.
You're going to have a full life if you believe in me.
And that is partially true now, but certainly when he comes back a second time,
the life that you will experience will be beyond what you can ever imagine.
All those frustrations are gone. Your limitations are gone.
You're going to have a full life. That is something we do not have in this world.
But one day you will.
And you know, there is a sense where that show Let's Make a Deal is sort of correct.
Because what happens if you choose the right door?
Oh, you get the big prize, not the booby prize, not the wrench.
You know the vacation to Hawaii or whatever, if that's where you want to go.
Well, it's even better for the kingdom of God.
All of you in this life have seen some frustrations, haven't you?
Your job didn't go like what you wanted.
Relationships didn't work out like you wanted, but you had plans, you had dreams,
you wanted to come to pass.
Jesus says, if you believe in me, one day it's going to be better than what you think.
And as Christians, here's what you need to do.
You need to have a little sanctified imagination.
Because too often we don't think heaven is that good.
We don't think eternal life is that good.
We've made it boring.
But that's not what Jesus means when he says, I'm coming so that you can have life to the fullest.
And the older you get, and the more frustrations you will face,
you need to spend more time thinking about what life with Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth will be like.
Let me just tell you, it will be that good.
And you need to focus on that.
The I Ams.
They tell us about Jesus, but have you also noticed that in every one of these I Ams,
there's been good news for God's people.
It's as if Jesus wants you to be excited about the kingdom of God.
He wants you to believe salvation is that good.
And today he says, I am the gate.
One way to heaven.
Don't listen to those false shepherds, but life is going to be that good.
That's what it means to look at Jesus as the gate.
Let's pray.
Our Lord and our God, we ask now that you will show us the goodness of your kingdom.
Keep us from the false shepherds and help us to focus on you.
The gate or the door of our salvation, which opens up into a world beyond our human belief.
Hear us now, Lord. Amen.