Scripture reading: Psalm 23.
Sermon text: John 10:1-10.
A popular game show in America often makes contestants guess to win prizes. One of their most common antics requires the contestants to choose between 3 doors. Only 1 door contains a prize; the other 2 doors hide only duds. The luck contestant will guess the right door and then walk away with a wonderful prize.
Today’s sermon text reminds us that when it comes to our salvation, we have no reason to guess. There’s only 1 true door to salvation, and it’s the same door every time: Jesus, the risen Lord. Only in Jesus will we find reconciliation with God, our Creator and Father; only in Jesus will we find grace for our sins; only in Jesus will we find eternal life.
Unfortunately, we find an almost unlimited number of people throughout history who claim to have another way to God. It’s almost as if something within us insists we connect to something greater than we are, but our instincts, guided by our own pride, seems to insist we can do something to merit this connection. Nearly every religion except Christianity offers some merit system that will guarantee peace with a god. Only Christianity contradicts our instinctive desire to earn our salvation by insisting that salvation comes to us only by the grace of God, offered by God to everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord.
We don’t know whether the words of Jesus in John 10 followed the incident of John 9 or if some time elapsed between the healing of the blind man and these teachings. If Jesus continued to teach these precepts immediately following the last verses of chapter 9, then the Pharisees in the crowd probably saw more of Jesus’ opinion of them than they cared to admit.
Jesus had already seen the Pharisees’ attempts to clarify the Mosaic Law to insure perfect adherence to the Law. By the time the rabbis over the centuries had finished, the Pharisees had added an additional 613 laws to the requirements of the Mosaic Law. Many Pharisees had developed a condescending attitude toward the common people, believing themselves superior to everyone who either ignored their additional laws or somehow failed to keep them if they tried.
Jesus targeted the Pharisees’ attitude toward the Law and their belief that their additional laws would guarantee a relationship with God. “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.” The Mosaic Law would have sufficed for everyone who followed it by faith in God; the additional laws, to Jesus, better resembled “thieves and robbers” rather than true faith in God.
Jesus, however, told the Jews, “he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Only the true shepherd could open the door; “To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” The true Shepherd can enter freely, and He knows the sheep. The true Shepherd doesn’t have to guess at the names of the sheep, and when He calls the sheep to pasture, the sheep follow Him. “When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
When the Shepherd calls, the sheep follow Him. “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” As the Shepherd calls the sheep, they obey; however, the sheep will not follow anyone whose voice they don’t recognize.
Apparently, the Jews didn’t understand the reference, so Jesus spoke clearly. “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.” Jesus alone could claim access to God; as His Son, Jesus could assure that those who come to God through Him could find peace and reconciliation with their Creator. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”
Jesus then told the Jews, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” When you look at the history of religions, you find many charlatans who stole everything from their followers. One founder of a religion plainly stated once, “If you want to get rich, you start a religion” (Source: Wikiquote.org, L Ron Hubbard, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard). You don’t even have to look at cults to see examples of religious leaders getting rich at the expense of their followers. Unfortunately, American Evangelicalism offers examples galore of wealthy church leaders with fortunes, jets, and mansions, usually accumulated by promising their followers that God will give them riches if they give money to their leaders.
Jesus, on the other hand, never offered riches, much less accumulated any. Jesus owned no mansions; He once told a man, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus possessed no fortunes; once, He told St. Peter to go fishing to find a coin to pay His taxes (Matthew 17:24-27). In fact, when Jesus died, the Roman soldiers parted His only possessions; they gambled for His clothes.
Instead, Jesus promised those who followed Him, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus, the true Shepherd, offers life that goes beyond the promises of temporal wealth offered by so many charlatans.
The words of Jesus remind us of the true reasons for His coming, His crucifixion, and His resurrection.
When we look at our lives, we find we confirm what history tells us. We all realize we need to restore the relationship with our Creator that our sins have broken, and we all want to work our way to God. We all really want to believe we can do something to make God owe us; we all want God in our debt, so we can make demands on Him for whatever we want.
Instead, Jesus’ resurrection reminds us that God has done everything required for the salvation of humanity. Jesus atoned for our sins with His crucifixion and death, and He defeated death with His resurrection.
What, therefore, must we do? There’s only one thing we can do; we can believe in Jesus’ work on our behalf and accept His work for us. We cannot work our way to salvation; we can do nothing to bring God into our debt. We enter into a relationship with God through Jesus, or we never enter the relationship.
When we believe in Jesus, confessing Him as Lord of our lives, we find He meets what He promises. Jesus promises life; He sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts, giving us the guidance we need to live as He expects us to live. Jesus doesn’t burden us with a list of rules and regulations as the Pharisees had done. Instead, Jesus tells us only 2 rules: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). When we follow these 2 commands, we experience the joy that comes from obeying God.
So many people today think that salvation — our relationship with God — begins only when we die. The “abundant life” that Jesus promises actually begins when the Holy Spirit enters our lives and begins working within us.
The abundant life includes fellowship with God’s people. The Holy Spirit leads us to join other believers so we can help grow together. The Church includes everyone who believes in Jesus, confessing Him as Lord of our lives and accepting Christian Baptism as the means of telling the world of our new allegiance and life. The abundant life gives us encouragement and accountability. The abundant life within the Church also gives us opportunities to learn more about God through study of His word, the Bible.
The Holy Spirit also encourages us to tell others about the abundant life we’ve received. As we demonstrate God’s love to others (remember the “love your neighbor as yourself rule”?), they’ll start noticing we live differently.
This happens especially in times of suffering as we’re experiencing now. The Church has more opportunities to live out Jesus’ command to love others than we’ve experienced in years. We have opportunities to do more than give physical aid; we have opportunities to listen to people, to tell them why we can help them when we’re suffering ourselves, and to help them understand why Jesus lived and now lives again.
The world has heard plenty about all the false ways to try to reach God. Now, let’s seize the opportunity to tell them about Jesus, the true Gate to God.
