Faith Outreach Church

I am the door of the Sheepfold

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been looking at the I am statements found in the book of John. We specifically have been trying to understand what Jesus was declaring in those statements. In order to determine their meaning, we have been using the lenses of context and content.

The overall context for these statements is Jesus was speaking to the nation of Israel. Israel was a nation looking and longing for the Messiah, a deliver, to come and set them free from Roman oppression.

The content was by using “I am” He was declaring He was God. He was connecting Himself to the name God used at the burning bush.

This morning we are going to look at John 10:1-10
10 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” 6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Jesus declared “I am the gate”. To use that doesn’t sound all that impressive. We encounter doors or gates all the time. So, what is the significance of Jesus being a gate.

Let us again return to the lense of context.

The setting is the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was teaching inside the Temple. This teaching was taking place after the celebration of the Festival of Booths. This was happening after the healing of the Blind Beggar.

The Festival of Booths was one of three pilgrimages festival in a year.

Three time the people were to visit the Temple in Jerusalem.

· The first festival was Passover – The death angel passing over. We celebrate Easter where death was defeated.

· The second festival was the Feast of Pentecost. This celebrated God blessing them with a wheat harvest. It was counted off 50 days from Passover

· The third festival, the one that just happened as Jesus was speaking, was the Festival of Booth. This festival had an agricultural and historical significance.

The agricultural significance was it marked the harvest. It was a celebration of all God had provided in harvest.

The historical significance was it commemorated the 40 years of wondering in desert. It was called the Festival of Booths because the people were to dwell in temporary shelters during the festival.

It commemorated the Israelites dwelt in temporary shelters while in the desert.

Why did they wander 40 years in the desert?

No get this. The Israelites was in slavery in Egypt and God heard their cries for deliverance. Look what God did do demonstrate He was God.

· He sent 10 plagues to deliver Israel. Ten times God showed up in a supernatural act to show He was God.

· He showed up at the Red Sea as the armies of Egypt pursued them. Trapped by the Sea on one side and mountains of the other. God parted the Red Sea and they crossed on dry land. He then drowned their enemies in that same Sea

· On the other side, God provided manna. He also sent quail. He brought water from a rock

· God furthered introduced Himself when He healed the water of Marah. He introduced Himself as Jehovah-Rapha. He is the God who heals

· God furthered show off as the Amalekites attacked them. As long as Moses hand was raised to God Israel was winning the battle. He declared Himself to be Jehovah-Nissi. He was the banner or our covering.

· God furthered demonstrated Himself by ascending on Mt. Sinai

o He gave them the ten commandments

o He spoke to them from the mountain

o When He ascended, He came in smoke, fire and the whole mountain trembled in His presence

God sent them to take the promise land. But after all those things to demonstrate He was God, Israel believed the report of the ten spies instead of God’s report.

God said for 40 year you will wonder in this desert. You will wonder and die in this place. You will not see the inside of the promise land. He said I will raise up a new generation that will believe me and take the Promised Land.

Look at this, even after their disobedience God still cared from them. Still looked after them. For 40 years’ manna appeared every morning. For 40 years, their clothes never wore out.

Deuteronomy 29:5
5 For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.

Nehemiah 9:21
21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell!

The Festival of Booth remembered God looked after them even in the desert. God was the door to them. No one could touch them unless they went through God first.

After celebrating that Jesus using those feeling spoke this I am statement.
The Jewish people had always seen their selves as the flock of Jehovah.

They were carried for by Him. The event they just celebrated demonstrated that fact.

Now He was using the illustration to teach a spiritual truth. For use to fully understand the illustration we must know a little about the Sheepfold.
The sheepfold was an enclosure made of walls of rocks that was too high for the sheep to jump. The shepherd would place thorny branches on top of the wall to deter thieves from climbing over. There was an opening in the wall that allowed sheep to enter and exit. The Shepherd would literally sleep in this opening. He slept in the opening so no sheep would wonder into danger. He slept in the opening so no danger could get to the sheep. He keep out wild animal. He keep out thieves. Many towns would have a community sheepfold where all the shepherds would keep their sheep. In the morning, the Shepherd would call their sheep and their sheep would follow them to pasture. They would know the voice of their shepherd.
This is the context of the message.

He was declaring Himself to the gate. The guardian. The one who looked after Israel.

What is the content?

What is Jesus trying to say?

Jesus being the gate means there is a Separation, a Division
We have a theme in scripture of separations.

The wheat from the chaff
Matthew 3:12
12 He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

The harvesters will separate the wheat from the weeds
Matthew 13:29
29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”

The shepherd separate sheep from the goats
Matthew 25:32
32 All the nations[b] will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

We must be in the world but we don’t have to be of the world. God is calling us to separate from the world.

The problem is to some the sheepfold seems to be a prison. It keeps them from the thing their flesh is longing to do. It seems to limit.

For others, it is a fortress that bring blessing. It keeps out those who want to destroy them.

When we realize the things, Jesus is trying to separate us from is not to take our enjoyment, but instead meant to enhance our enjoyment it becomes a fortress instead of a prison.

His sheepfold is meant to keep out the enemy who intent according to the scripture we read this morning is to kill steal and destroy. The enemy wants to introduce the things that bring happiness for a moment but is quickly gone.

The sheepfold instead allows those things that produce life, bring life and give life to grow in our lives.

The sheepfold is meant to separate and divide and He is the gate. He is the way into life abundant. We only find it by enter His sheepfold through Himself.

Jesus being the gate means there is Protection.

Sometimes that protection is simply staying inside the sheepfold. Staying inside the principles He has established. Those principles guard our lives. Those principles keep us safe.

Jesus being the gate means there is Compassion.

The shepherd would endure the weather and the elements to protect the sheep. Jesus endured the cross that He might be a gate for us. He saw we needed help. He had compassion for us and did what only He could do. He died for our sins that we might come into the fold. He is the gate because He is the only one who is an all sufficient savior for us.

Jesus being the gate means there is a Decision to make.

Will we follow His voice? Are we listening for His voice and where it is guiding us?

We must decide to walk in truth. It’s funny because the world would and does declare when it comes to moral or spiritual matters that truth is what you think truth is. If it is true for you than it is true.

Yet in other areas of their lives they want absolutes. When it is about money, medicine or measurements they want absolutes.

If I owed them 100 dollars and gave them 10 one dollar bills, would they accept that as full payment? Even if I explained that I truly believe one dollar is the same as 10 dollars.

Or how about medicine. Would they swallow their prescription if the pharmacist really believed with all their heart that arsenic was the same as aspirin?

Of if I was to build them a bookshelf and brought them a bookshelf 10 inches wide by 8 inches tall. Could I tell them it is my belief that an inch is the same as a foot? Would they accept it and pay me?

Some people are trying to sue Subway because their foot long was only 11 inches.

Are we going to follow the absolute truth that Jesus give us or are we going to let it be determined by what we feel?

As I was studying this material this is what He asked me? What voices are you following when you aint following mine? I have a decision. I am I going to make His voice the only voice I follow.

I had to begin to ponder, “Do I have other voices that I allow to drown out His voice?” Are their voices calling that I follow when they call?
· When success calls, do I answer it above Jesus
· When possessions call, do I answer them above Jesus
· When popularity or being liked calls, do I answer it about Jesus
· When money calls, do I follow the money or do I follow Christ
· When my fear of failure calls, do I answer it instead of following the voice of my savior.

What voice is calling me, trying to lure me away? Do I heed that voice or I am following Jesus voice?

I have a decision to make. It is not much of a decision. The answer is obvious but sometimes the obvious decision is the hardest to make?

Will I walk in the truth that bring me abundant life or will I choose the world where there is an enemy ready to rob us and kill us.