Please be seated.
This morning we're going to continue our series, or the series that I've been doing every time you've seen me during Matthew's sabbatical, through the I Am statements of Jesus.
And this morning we come to John 10. It's a familiar one, but we're going to be talking about a kind of unfamiliar statement of Jesus.
So if you have a Bible, you can turn with me to John 10. If you have a bulletin, you can turn there as well. The text is printed before you.
John 10, verses 1 through 10.
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 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.
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, and if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.
He 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.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
We ask for your spirit.
Give it more and more measure, even now.
May we see the glory of Jesus through this text.
And may we worship you through Christ, your son, because of it.
And we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
I don't know if you've heard this.
I've become recently fascinated with this idea, this part of Colorado culture,
that we have castles in Colorado.
It's kind of bizarre.
But they're not just any castles.
We have one here in the Springs, up by Garden of the Gods,
and there's one that's south of Fort Carson, down towards Pueblo.
Now, I don't want to insult anyone, and chances are there's somebody in this congregation
that knows one of the owners of these castles,
and I don't mean this with any malintent.
But they're not castles.
They're lacking one really important feature,
because none of these castles, either the one north of us,
or the one down towards Pueblo, or the other ones all around the state,
none of them have walls.
So they're not castles.
They're missing the critical components.
And if you have watched a documentary,
I think there was a castle documentary,
or you've visited around Europe, or even been to Asia,
you will see castles that have walls.
If you watch Frozen, Elsa's house has a wall.
If you visit Disney World, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Castles have walls.
They're fortified.
They have moats.
Some even have a drawbridge.
And that's the genius of them,
because they're fortified in a way,
they're made and structured in such a way
that there's one way in and one way out.
It keeps the people inside safe.
That's the purpose of the castle.
It's to keep intruders out,
and keep the people safe inside.
And there's one way in and one way out.
Whether it's a castle,
or Robert Frost, who reminds us,
the only way out is through it,
or a gate to your backyard,
or a bridge across that,
the one bridge across the river,
or a tunnel through the mountainside.
There's one way in.
One way.
It might be a castle.
It might be a bridge.
It might be in architecture.
It might be in literature.
It might be in nature.
We see that idea that there's one way in
in this text this morning.
The only way into the sheepfold is through the door.
Jesus is telling them,
and he's telling us,
there's one way into the sheepfold.
There's one way,
and it's through that door.
There are no side doors.
There's no cracks.
There's no alternate plans to get inside.
There is one way,
and he's really clear about it.
Now, whenever we hear something like that,
some of you,
and I might be one of you too,
I think in my mind,
because I'm maybe an outside-the-box thinker,
or I'm a contrarian,
you tell me the sky's blue,
I tell you,
no, it's pale blue.
If you're one of those,
let me be really clear to you.
This morning,
Jesus says,
in the realm of eternal life,
in the spiritual realm,
there is one way.
There is one way in.
And as we look at that this morning,
we're going to contrast two big themes.
One big theme is that
there are thieves and robbers,
and the other big theme
is there is one door.
One door.
Now, this morning,
we read a larger chunk of John 10,
and if we did so,
we're going to focus really on verses 7 through 10.
Verses 7 through 10.
And we're doing that
because we're walking through
the I am statements of Jesus.
It's really important
to look at somebody's life's work,
or what other people have said about them,
but it's even more so important
when we come to the figure of Jesus
to figure out
what has he said about himself.
And that's why we're looking at the I am statements.
And in verses 7 through 10,
he says very clearly,
very plainly,
I am the door.
Now,
what's confusing about this
is often overshadowed
by this more dominant theme of John 10.
We have this idea of the shepherd,
the sheep,
the thieves,
the robbers,
but he says here
that I am the door.
And we're familiar
with that theme of shepherds.
It's idyllic.
We see it
even on the walls of nurseries.
We see it in pictures,
in modern pictures,
of what the good life looks like.
It's pastoral.
It has those warm, fluffy sheep.
Who doesn't love warm, fluffy sheep?
Right?
But Jesus is focusing our attention here
on the fact that he is the door.
Now, if you've been around Christianity
for any amount of time,
this is something that we're familiar with.
Even if you didn't grow up on a farm
or around any kind of sheep
or any kind of livestock,
we know,
because we've heard at some point,
that sheep are not very smart
and they're smelly
and they need a shepherd.
And if they don't have the shepherd,
they're going to run
and go kill themselves.
Now, we all know that.
But why is that such a perpetual,
persistent theme throughout Scripture?
Because it's not just here that we see it.
We see it in all the Old Testament.
Remember, Moses is the great shepherd of Israel.
And what happens when Moses isn't there?
The sheep scatter.
They're like sheep without a shepherd.
This idea of a shepherd
is not anything new to us
and it's not anything new to them.
So Jesus begins in John chapter 10
with this idea of sheep and a shepherd,
thieves and robbers.
They know the voice of the shepherd.
But then he figures out really quickly
in verse six.
Look at it with me.
The figure of speech
that Jesus was using with them,
they did not understand
what he was saying to them.
It's the great peril of any preacher, right?
We're talking, we're talking,
and all of a sudden you realize
blank faces
and nobody knows what you're talking about.
Or if you're a parent
or you present at work,
you realize at that point,
I have to reattack.
I have to figure out some other way
to explain this
to these people so they understand.
And Jesus is no different.
So in the midst of this big,
grand idea of him being the great shepherd,
he says,
instead,
I am the door.
He says in verse seven,
truly, truly,
I say to you,
I am the door of the sheep.
Now before we get to that door,
let's look at that other big theme,
the one of thieves and robbers.
We're going to look at who they are
and what they do for each of them,
who they are and what they do.
If the robbers are supposed to be there,
how did they get there?
Well, they're not supposed to be there at all.
They kind of enter in like mice.
They find any crack or way to get through,
but they don't come through the front door.
You don't invite mice through your front door.
They get into your house through another way.
Same with a robber.
You don't invite him through the front door.
Keep that in mind
because often we think about thieves and robbers
in contrast to Jesus.
We'd think they're misguided or misinformed.
If they just knew better,
it would be a little bit different.
But you don't think about that
when a robber's in your home
and grabbing all your stuff.
You don't think that he's misguided or misunderstood.
You just say,
I want my stuff.
Don't take my stuff.
It doesn't matter what their intentions are
because the effects are devastating.
Who are they?
Verse eight tells us really clearly who they are.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
All became before me.
Does that mean every person before Jesus' time
was a thief and a robber?
Was it all those faithful men of scripture?
Was it all the judges,
all the prophets,
all the kings?
Was it John the Baptist?
Is he a thief?
Is he a robber?
No, he doesn't mean that.
He means something a little different.
How do we know that though?
How do we know he's not talking
about all those Old Testament saints?
Because he talks very positively
about someone that we just talked about earlier,
Abraham.
When those opponents of Jesus came to him,
he said,
Abraham,
they asked him,
is he greater than you?
Are you greater than Abraham?
Are you confused?
And Jesus answers very clearly
to what they asked him.
Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.
And then they get even more confused
and say,
how do you know that?
Like,
you guys didn't cross paths.
You're young.
He's old.
And he answers with the scandalous,
I am.
And then they get really angry
and they try to kill Jesus.
The thieves,
the robbers,
are not the ones
who came before in scripture.
They're the ones he's talking to now.
They're the ones who should have been
the shepherds of Israel.
They're the ones
right there,
right now.
Think about this.
Who are the Sadducees?
What are they doing
during Jesus' time?
They're profiting off of God's people
and their worship.
Who are the Pharisees?
Mark reminds us
that they do this.
They walk around in long robes.
They liked greetings in the street.
They want the best seats in the synagogue.
They want the places of honor at feast.
All the while,
they're devouring the widow's houses.
Luke reminds us
the Pharisees were lovers of money.
Those are the thieves and the robbers.
They should have been shepherds,
but instead,
they're preying on the very sheep
they were supposed to protect,
supposed to feed,
just like Ezekiel reminds us.
The opponents that John's speaking about,
the thieves and robbers,
are those people that in John 9,
immediately before this,
if you have a Bible,
got angry that Jesus healed a blind man.
And Jesus responds
and reminds them that they are blind.
They can't see the true picture,
the true beauty of the gospel.
They don't know as much as they think.
They are the thieves and robbers.
The emphasis is on are.
They are the robbers.
Not they were the robbers.
They are present.
They are active even now.
But what do the robbers do?
The robbers do this.
Verse 10 tells us,
the thief comes only to steal,
kill, and destroy.
They don't seek out the best interests of the sheep.
They don't care for them.
They don't care about the people of Israel.
They don't feed them.
Their motivation is their own profit
and their own desires.
That's who the thieves and robbers are.
If you've ever had a babysitter
when you were a kid
or you've been a parent,
the babysitter is supposed to put kids down to sleep
at night.
That's what we pay you for, right?
But then,
when you show back up,
the babysitter has invited over her boyfriend.
Another man has entered your home.
They've neglected what they were supposed to do,
put the kids to sleep,
and then you come home
to find a stranger in your house.
The babysitter is probably not going to work for you again.
But their responsibility
is to care for their children.
The responsibility
of these shepherds
is to care for the sheep of Israel,
to care for the people.
And they've actually
only concerned
themselves
with themselves.
They've used the sheep
for their own gain.
It's a tale as old as time.
This issue
is of false shepherds,
Ezekiel reminds us.
They prey on the sheep.
The thief
only comes to kill
and destroy.
All of us know the story
of Little Red Riding Hood.
And so,
anytime that you
talk about a story,
you risk, like,
ruining the story for everyone.
But everyone knows
the grandma
gets eaten
by the wolf.
Okay?
I didn't spoil it for you.
And Little Red Riding Hood
doesn't recognize
that
the wolf
has eaten the grandma
because
with all the gleaming teeth
she's wearing,
or the wolf is wearing
the grandma's clothes.
that's often
what we think of
when we think of
these people
that are thieves
and robbers.
But the picture
is not that.
It's instead
the grandma herself
has turned
on Little Red Riding Hood.
She was supposed
to take care of her.
She was supposed
to protect her.
But instead,
she eats
Little Red Riding Hood
just like the wolf.
That's the picture
that we have in John.
That's the picture
that we have
in Ezekiel.
the grandma
has turned
on the little girl.
These images
are both in view
in John 10
and Ezekiel.
The thieves
and the robbers
are charged
to protect God's people
and they don't do it.
And these people
that now speak
to Jesus
don't recognize
that they are
the ones doing it.
They don't recognize
the great shepherd
of the sheep
stands before them
and they're talking
about how
they're such
great shepherds.
Do they model
the true shepherd?
Or are they like
Little Red Riding Hood's
grandma
that has eaten her?
How does that apply
to all of us?
Well, one,
we have to be aware.
We have to be on guard
and recognize
that there are
thieves and robbers.
We're reminded
in the first part
of John 10
that there are sheep
and they must know
the voice
of the shepherd.
We have to know
the voice
of the shepherd.
We have to know God.
If you want
a tangible,
practical checklist
of how to prevent
thieves and robbers
from coming in
and devouring
and destroying,
I can't give you that.
But I can give you this.
Remember
that whether
it's me
or Matthew
or the elders
of this church,
the thing that we can
give you
that point you to
more than anything
is not a checklist
against thieves
and robbers
to validate
whether we're doing
things or not doing
things.
If we are pointing
you to God
and giving you
more of him
and away from yourself
and away from us,
that is the only
checklist that we need.
We need more
of God
and more of him
and less of ourselves.
That's the test
of thieves
and robbers.
We're also
to know
our own hearts.
Last week
we were reminded
from Galatians
that the law
doesn't bring life
because the law
we could never
perfectly fulfill
but it shows us
our need of Christ.
In this picture
that Jesus has set up
of these walls
and the door
and only going
through the door,
we often think
through the wall
we can climb over
the wall
and we can get
eternal life.
We can do it
ourselves
but Jesus
is reminding us
the only way in
is through himself,
only through
the gate.
Beware of your own heart,
beware of the thieves
and robbers.
That's one theme.
The second theme
is this,
there is a door
and that door
is Jesus Christ.
He tells us that
very clearly
and then he doubles
down on it.
He says it in seven,
truly, truly,
I say to you,
I am the door
of the sheep
and then he says
in nine,
I am the door
if you're confused.
He's the only
entry point
for salvation.
Jesus is speaking
of himself
saying you cannot
have eternal life,
you cannot have
these great
and glorious pastures
unless you come
through me.
If that doesn't
excite us,
if that doesn't
stir our hearts,
what will?
we can't climb
over the fence.
Christ is calling
each of us
to enter through
that door,
to have this abundance,
to have life,
to have pasture,
to have life
to the full
and if we do not
enter through
that door,
we cannot have it
at all.
That's what he's
speaking to us.
Now,
in our day and age,
we like to think
that there's lots
of ways
that we can have
this good life,
whether it's
pursuit of success,
worldly success,
whether it's
pursuit of the
good life,
of eternal life,
through some
other means,
but those are
all false.
They can only
come through the
door that is
Jesus Christ
and he is really,
really clear
about it.
And so the call
for each of us
this morning
is to come
through Christ,
come to him
because we cannot
have life
or have it
to the full
unless we have
Jesus.
And he invites
all of us.
That might sound
pretty exclusive
to say,
hey,
there's only one
gate into this
sheepfold.
There's only one
gate into this
pen.
There's no other
gate.
And it is
exclusive.
But it's because
it was purchased
with the precious
blood of Jesus
himself.
But it's
inclusive in the
sense that he
has asked all
of us to
come through
Christ and
to come to
him.
The former's
got that right.
They said,
in Christ alone.
But they're just
repeating back
this idea of
scripture,
this idea from
John 10,
that there is
one gate,
there is one
door,
there is no
other.
Some of you
might be
familiar with
the famous
minor league
baseball team,
the Durham
Bulls.
There was a
movie made
about them.
I can't
recommend it.
But the
Durham Bulls
stadium is in
downtown Durham.
Now, it's a
great stadium.
It's built off of
Fenway Park,
which is the
Boston Red Sox.
It's an exact
replica.
But there's one
interesting fact
about this
stadium.
And it's not
anything in the
stadium.
It's what lies
across the street.
Immediately across
the street is the
Durham County
Jail.
people.
And so if you're
a resident,
part-time or
full-time of
the Durham County
Jail, and you
start moving up
the floors, you're
able to watch all
of the Durham Bulls
baseball games.
Now, obviously,
this angered much
of the Durham County
government, but they
didn't do anything
about it for a
really, really long
time.
You see, those
inmates up a couple
floors could watch
all the baseball
games.
They could see the
numbers on the back
of the jerseys, and
they could see the
names.
They could hear the
game.
Didn't matter if it
was night, day game,
they could see all of
it.
And they had a
perfect view, because
it was right out of
center field, and it
was right across the
street.
There wasn't a
better seat in the
house to see all of
the game.
But even though they
could watch,
they're really
different than a fan
who comes and has a
ticket and gets a
hot dog, peanuts, and
can smell the grass,
and is in the stadium.
They can see dimly what
that fan in the game
sees clearly, because
beyond the bars on his
window, he is not at
the game.
He is not in the
stadium.
He is not participating
as a fan.
He cannot see all the
glory.
And when we think of
that prisoner in the
jail looking out onto
the baseball field, we
think of ourselves, or
we should.
Because when we think of
eternal life and what's
promised in John 10, we
think that God gives to
us his greatness.
Not really.
We think so little of
God.
We think that he gives
us something that we
view through the bars of
the jail across the
street.
When he's invited us in
to the glory that's in
the arena.
We see so clearly.
We experience the
abundant life, and we
have it to the full.
But we think so little
of God.
We think so little of
heaven that that's not
attractive.
We esteem it not.
We think that God is
stingy and miserly.
But instead, Paul
reminds us that he has
blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in
Christ Jesus.
All of it is ours in
Christ Jesus.
We all, we experience it
all, and it all turns on
the door that is Jesus
Christ.
We've all been invited to
have life and have it
abundantly.
We've all been invited in
through this door, but
we're called to be on
guard against thieves and
robbers, but we are
promised through the
door of Jesus Christ to
have life and have it to
the full.
He's the only door through
which to enter.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Lord, we thank you for
the clear reminder that
Christ is the only door by
which we might have life
and have it to the full.
We ask that despite the
words and voices in our
day and even in our own
hearts that say we can do
something else, that there
is another way, may we
stand on guard against
robbers and thieves.
And may we find our way
into the pasture through
Christ our Lord.
We ask in his name.
Amen.