The Door of Life | What's in a Name?

As I mentioned at the beginning of service, we continue this What's in the Name sermon

series looking at the distinctives of Jesus and we will continue that in Lent, like I

said, with a little bit different flavor, especially getting a couple weeks from now

to Holy Week, which is the week starting with Palm Sunday, going through Maundy Thursday,

which is midweek service we have here at Munster, more on that later, where we look at that

communion table, that last supper of Jesus and His disciples then leading to, obviously,

Easter Resurrection Sunday, and we have 40 day journey through all of that, starting

on Wednesday.

But it feels good to be back in the pulpit.

It's been a couple, three weeks, which as a lot of you have pointed out, that's the

longest I've ever gone, so I don't know if that was a hope that it would be three more

weeks or you wanted me to come back.

It's always a good thing to feel that way.

You may be split on that.

I'm not going to have you raise your hands.

But put yourself in gospel times, put yourself in the first century.

We've now gone through eight sermons that talk about a distinctive of Jesus, and though

let's go seven, because that first one was John's preamble, word made flesh.

That was not a declarative done by Jesus.

That was John putting that on Jesus in the way he talked about the logos in John 1.

So let's go nine.

We've heard nine other distinctives.

Now put yourself in Jesus' day.

Put yourself roughly in Jerusalem or Galilee or even Samaria, because Jesus has now had

those teachings and those miracles and those, insert whatever here, those experiences, and

you're hearing about this guy that is calling himself, claiming himself to be all of these

things, whether it's Nicodemus, whether it's the woman at the well, whether it's the disciples

or the feeding of the 5,000.

A couple people, what would you be thinking about this guy, this person of Jesus?

Mind you, there have been people before Jesus that claimed to be the Messiah, a little m.

There were claims like that all over the place, but now this Jesus steps on the scene and

now he's claiming these things.

And not only is he claiming, not only is he talking the talk, he's walking the walk in

some fairly incredible miracles.

What would be going on through your mind if you were a Gentile or even a Jew during this

season, during this time?

I know you haven't had a lot of pastors ask you questions over the last three weeks, so

I'll give it a minute.

Let's check it out.

I'd like to go see this guy.

There's something about him, okay?

Where can I buy a ticket?

All those things, okay?

Others?

What?

Fake news?

I knew I shouldn't have asked.

Oh gosh, fake news.

I got to double down on you.

Why?

Ah, what's the difference in this?

Okay, Jesse, I'm just going to rip that up.

You're going to change that.

It's good.

No, I think that that's an excellent point.

I still don't know.

I still doubt, right?

I maybe wasn't one of the ones that got fed, which I got my fill and saw leftovers, right?

Anyone else?

Afraid.

Came from somewhere on this side.

Afraid.

Interesting.

Why afraid?

You're like, nope, I said my word.

I'm good.

I'm not.

Does anyone want to take it?

Why would that person say afraid?

Where are you?

Oh, thank you.

Oh, you're up in the balcony.

I'm looking at all these people going, nope, nope, nope, up in the balcony.

Yeah.

Oh, a fear drew you in.

Interesting.

Okay.

One more.

Nope, didn't think you could top fear.

Fair enough.

So, fear, doubt, and somewhat excitement.

I think that that's all good.

I think that that engagement in the text, that he's claiming things, claiming to be

things that we haven't heard those same claims before.

And if we did, he doubled down and actually walked it out.

He didn't just talk it out.

The thing that got me from two weeks ago when my little brother was preaching was this woman

that, and then Jonathan preached on it a little bit three weeks ago, this woman at the well.

And just the whole thing, again, I'm not going to re-preach it, but she goes and tells.

She goes and tells.

And she doesn't tell the gospel, because the gospel hasn't been done yet.

Wait, Pastor, what do you mean?

What is the gospel?

The life, death, and if you're a really good Christian, the, okay, three of you are good

Christians, good, the ascension, the life, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus.

That hasn't happened yet.

But what did she tell?

She went and gave testimony of a guy that knew everything about me.

Now, to Jesse's point, okay, so you had someone that was a good guesser, someone that was

a psychic or something like that, but yet there was something different.

She did it with joy.

And how many people, if your story was the same of the woman at the well story, would

go, this guy knew everything about me, all of the guys that I have been with, all of

the things that I have done, all the shame that has brought, and because she's been delivered

from it, because Jesus gave her part of himself in the assurance that he was different, which

would have spoken into the doubt a little bit, would have drawn a lot of the excitement

and still would have brought fear, because you could have engaged her testimony like,

I don't want to meet that guy.

She only had this many husbands.

I've had that many.

Or this many wives.

Or I've done these things, or I don't want him to tell me my stuff.

So that's where that fear came from.

But there's going to be a context here in John 10.

We take a little bit of a turn, because what Jesus is doing now, Jesus is setting up to

teach the Jews something.

Where we just saw him in Gentile country, he's now going to be kind of talking specifically

to the Jews and their understanding of their faith system, their faith or belief system.

Even though the Gentiles will pick up stuff from it, because there's a declaration that

comes, there's a claim being made, the context for the church is very, very important here.

And so we're going to read the first six verses of John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

So John 10 we read from the ESV, but whatever translation you have with you is fine.

Where Jesus says, truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the

door, but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by 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 is making this claim, or really this teaching, he hasn't claimed it yet, this teaching,

he uses imagery of a shepherd and a sheep.

So this would have been something that everybody would have picked up on.

Shepherds were one of the lowliest jobs, but they were all over the place, because the

amount of sheep, the amount of animals you had showed a lot about your status, your wealth,

your possessions, these were the hired hands.

That Jesus used the imagery of the shepherd and the sheepfold to describe his relationship

to his followers.

But we have to look at, there's a historical and a cultural context here that we need to

dive in, in order for verses seven through 10 to make sense.

You see in Jesus' time, shepherds would lead their flocks into walled sheepfolds or sheep

pens at night for what?

Why would they do this?

Protection, absolutely.

They brought them in for protection, the enclosure of a single opening without a door.

The shepherd himself would lie across the opening, literally becoming the door.

I don't know how many of you guys ever thought that.

I've been to farmers' farms, and I think you guys have a door to your pen, right?

Or is that something the kids have to do?

They have to lay across it, right?

Or if Jesse gets in trouble, you don't go to the couch, you go in front of the pig pen.

But how many of you actually realize that?

They didn't do doors.

The shepherd himself was the door.

They literally became the door, keeping predators out and ensuring the safety of the sheep.

And why?

Because animals, right, can be classically conditioned to work through certain things.

So you put a door up, and a wolf, first couple times, probably can't figure out a way through

the door, and you're mostly safe.

But again, this wasn't the industrial revolution.

This was the first century.

So the technology of all these things really wasn't great.

And my guess is this door, if they were to put one up, wouldn't be like the big brass

doors of cathedrals in Europe, or even like our doors with magnetic locks.

They didn't have any of that.

And if they did, that would be expensive.

And so there wasn't that kind of materialistic protection.

It was a person.

But a person was there to protect the sheep.

So there's the historical context.

They would have put all that together.

And I'm seeing in a lot of you, you just assume there was a door, as I would have assumed

there was a door.

But the fact that there wasn't and the shepherd is the door really lifts up what Jesus is

about to claim.

Because this imagery reveals that Jesus is not just the way into salvation, but he is

the only way.

And the reason why he's going to attempt it, but it's Jesus, so he did it, is he's going

to make this claim because there were others trying to steal the sheep.

There were false shepherds and there were thieves.

Jesus warns of thieves and robbers who climb in another way.

These represent false teachers, religious leaders, and any who attempt to lead people

astray from the true salvation of Christ.

Because let's be honest, a door back in that day, a pen back in that day, maybe a wolf

wouldn't be able to get in, but people could.

And if sheep were the commodity of the day, or animals were a commodity of the day, they'd

just go in and climb over and steal them.

It's just something that they could do.

That's why a person was the actual door.

And this rebuke, now going a little bit deeper contextually and theologically, this rebuke

by Jesus was aimed at who?

For a cup of coffee and a conversation with Pastor Jim, who is this claim about the thieves

or the false shepherds would be aimed at who?

Who said it?

Somewhere way up in the balcony again.

Okay, you have like a voice shifter.

I keep hearing you down there.

All right, coffee up there.

It was the Pharisees.

He is making this claim.

So not only is he around the Jews, he's around the Pharisees, he's around the Sadducees and

the teachers of the law.

What Jesus is rebuking, this aim at the Pharisees is because they've misled the people to think

of a legalism way of walking out their faith in Yahweh rather than leading them to God's

grace.

You have not done this, so therefore you're not in the fold.

You're not part of the elect.

You're not a true Israelite.

They made those claims all the time.

They became judge, jury, and at times executioner.

And Jesus is calling that out saying this is false.

So what does that mean for us?

This may make you, some of you uncomfortable, may get mad at me.

We are not to be judge, jury, and executioner.

Because if we're going to take Jesus' claims and we're going to stand them and walk them

out, we can't be like the Pharisees.

Because notice there isn't grace there.

You cannot give the gospel of Christ without grace.

Because if you are going to attempt to give the gospel without grace, what are you actually

giving?

It works righteousness understanding.

You do enough things, you teach enough things, you give enough money, you'll make it to heaven.

Jesus is refuting that a hundred times over and going to double down on it.

So as we see the life of Jesus really making the Pharisees mad, no wonder sin and human

flesh carnal nature takes over.

This guy is going to upset the apple cart of everything we're trying to do.

Our power, our authority, our money, that everything needs to be done our way.

And if not, they're gone.

They're out.

Jesus is calling the whole system and turning it on its head saying this is not my father's

house.

This is not what we attempted and this is not what we intended this to be.

For the true shepherd enters by the door and the sheep recognize his voice.

One of the things I love about having animals, though there's a lot of reasons why I don't

like them anymore, being many dogs in, I still love them ish, is hopefully you have an obedient

trained animal.

And kids.

But understand that you see it more in animals and I will remember our first dog, Pierce.

Some of you remember we had him when we moved up.

He was our Dalmatian.

We loved that dog.

Way more than Annie and Archie now.

They're not going to see this.

But understand that he was a very well trained dog.

To the point where he was almost too trained that he would try to manipulate Carrie and

I.

If I would tell him no on something, he would literally go try to get it from Carrie.

That's how it was.

And then she usually gave in.

But understand that he, with just a look, he knew what we meant.

He knew to sit or to lie down.

He hated rolling over but if you got a treat he would do it.

But understand that we see that obedience, it was the same with sheep.

And sheep, I'm going to ask my resident farmers, not the brightest animals in the bunch, right?

No.

Just say no.

No, don't go into more stuff.

Just say no.

Thank you.

Okay.

So they're not.

And the Bible makes that very clear.

But they are repetitious animals.

They know and learn classically conditioned by habits of many things.

They always kind of go through the same door.

They come back from the same door but here Jesus is going, they know my voice.

So what does that tell us?

You had people that didn't know the Pharisee's voice.

They just knew the fear.

They just knew the submissiveness that they needed to cower.

They needed to cower to understand the things of God.

That is a different kind of fear than we're called to fear the Lord.

They exploited that.

Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

God says that we recognize the reverence of God, that God is here and we are here and

that's okay.

But they turned it into fear of damnation.

If you break this law, you're out.

That was what they tried to get the sheep to understand.

So what do we pull from this?

That those who belong to Christ will not follow a stranger.

We're showing the necessity for spiritual discernment and recognizing Jesus' voice in

our life.

More on that in a minute.

So now he makes this claim and this claim is a big one and we're going to be in verse

7 through 9.

So Jesus said 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.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Can you go back April to that?

So talking about how the Pharisees got, we're getting more and more kind of upset with Jesus

and aggravated and frustrated and wrathful about him.

What would they have gotten really upset about in this, what Jesus says?

I'm not going to put coffee on it because you can read it.

But who has a guess?

What?

He will be saved.

Good answer but no.

All right, all right, all right.

Over here, someone back here.

What did you think?

You call them thieves?

That makes total sense and I love it but it's wrong.

Anyone else?

They're like, now I'm afraid to answer.

Don't be.

What?

He is, nope.

I mean that is a good answer but again, you're with Nikki, great answer but wrong.

Middle right in the middle but the sheep did not listen to them.

So Jesus is recognizing the heart of the people that looked at what was going on in this religious

system through their expectations of a Messiah, through their understanding of cultural kind

of milieus, if you will, of norms that, wait, hang on, he's telling us something different.

We have been indoctrinated in understanding that if A equals B equals C equals A, this

is how I live my life, it's how I live out my faith.

Yahweh will love me if I do my A, my B, my C back to my A every day.

Again, sheep like repetition.

The Pharisees knew what they were doing.

Though it was dark and evil, they knew what they were doing.

They were exploiting the understanding of how we live out that vertical relationship

with Jesus.

But what Jesus is saying here is there are people that you are killing spiritually.

You are stealing them.

What are you stealing?

You're stealing their joy.

You're stealing their hope.

You're stealing any opportunity they have to receive grace.

So this claim is massive.

Because what he's saying, and Tucker, that is where you do get part of the coffee I didn't

offer on that, is he's claiming to be the door.

He's claiming to be the way.

If anyone enters by me, they will be saved.

Record scratch.

Let's kill them now.

Jesus just completely overthrew everything the temple had become.

Salvation is found in Christ alone.

Not through works, not through religion, not by human effort.

And I know I'm saying that to a predominantly Dutch church.

And a church in the Midwest that we like to work.

That we like to do a good, honest work.

We have our businesses, our jobs.

It's part of who we are.

And we like to climb that ladder and what that looks like.

And that working is not a bad thing, but being defined by what you do pre-Christ means nothing.

Defining how I live after Christ is what matters.

Heideberg Catechism, question answer 20 says this.

Are all people saved through Christ just as they were lost through Adam?

No.

Only those are saved by true faith.

Are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.

True faith.

Right?

Lord's Day 7 says a knowledge and conviction of the things of Christ.

Right?

If I believe and confess or confess and believe, I will be saved.

Some of you may look at this and go, but Jesus is short circuiting this.

Jesus is saying it's about faith and belief, not about the things I have to do.

When the things that I do are important and they matter, yes, but he's putting them in

the right sequence.

Works Righteousness says I will do all these things, give all these things, be leader in

church and not miss more than two Sundays a year.

And God will look at me and say you have done enough.

You have climbed the ladder to heaven.

I just described all other world religions.

You lowly people down here, earn your way to God.

Christianity is so much different.

God comes down to his people and says believe in me.

Woman at the well, this guy told me everything.

He brought me to salvation.

He brought me to himself.

And Jesus says follow me.

And through me you will find heaven and glory.

It's a knowledge.

It's an understanding and conviction.

This echoes John 14 six when he says I am the way, the truth and the life.

Nobody comes to the father except through me, which is where we find security in Christ.

Another way of saying it, assurance of our faith.

The door provides protection.

What's inside, the sheep are safe from danger.

It doesn't mean when we go out we won't have those highs and lows, the fires and the waters,

but we have the shepherd, the true shepherd that protects us.

That's why we can claim to me one of the simplest understandings of the gospel and the way to

verbalize it.

And I totally forgot to have Mike make a slide for it.

It is what is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own, but belong.

That I belong to Christ.

What does that mean?

Well, you just walked in it at the table.

You stepped in what it means to be belonging to Christ.

You take him upon yourself and together you live out this life.

What life?

Well, it's the promise.

The promise of abundant life, John 10.

John 10, 10.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.

So this should excite us.

This should terrify us and should destroy our doubt.

Because the others never claimed this through themselves.

They claimed it like some kind of cult that you have to do it this way.

But the leader never does.

Jesus is going to double down.

How can he say that he is this?

How can he say that I may come that may have life and have it abundantly?

How in the world does this guy offer life and life abundantly?

Let's talk about what abundant life means.

It is not about material wealth or earthly success.

For true abundance are found in three things.

First, spiritual fulfillment.

Knowing Christ and growing in him.

Think about that.

That if you know Christ, the savior of the world knows you, claims you, and is with you

to the very end of the age.

So we should grow in him.

It's not a once saved always saved.

I went to church once.

I got the message.

I am now in.

My name is in the book of life.

I am out.

No.

You get to some churches, that's a false conversion.

We've talked about that a couple of sermons here before.

But the promise, the abundant life is that we get to know Christ and grow in him.

Second is the security in salvation.

Resting in God's grace and his promises.

I think about this week Jim Wulcher struggling in the hospital of Andy Reinsma struggling

at home.

And we pray for them.

But they are blood bought believers.

Their faith is secure in Jesus come what may.

And though for Jim it may be a gallbladder issue that will probably be out of the hospital

in a couple of days, for Andy it's not.

And though we think and we have, we want to pray for them, we want to show compassion

to them because we love them, it is the reminder that they have of the assurance of faith.

That they are bought by Christ and they are resting in his grace and his promises.

Yeah, it may be hard to see it in the midst of a hospital bed.

In the midst of kind of just withering away within your physical body.

But it puts the right perspective.

It's not about this life.

Guess what?

It's never been about this life.

It's about the next.

It's about the abundant life we will have forever and ever.

Amen.

And the third is the joy in obedience.

And I love and hate this one.

Following Christ leads to lasting joy.

I'm sure if I did a straw poll today, how many of you have joy in life right now?

I'd probably give it an average grade.

Because I'm sure there are some of you right now that just don't have it.

For whatever reason, it's hard for you to get to joy.

Or you're finding joy in other things.

Yet, the joy of Christ, the joy of abundant life is a lasting joy.

And this is the part of my job, of the job of the elders and the deacons to meet with

people in their bad days in the fires and waters of life.

And we can't just say, I know life stinks right now, but find joy.

Take joy in your suffering.

No.

That's going to probably fall on deaf ears.

But it's the perspective shift that abundant life gives us.

I've said this before.

I'll continue to say it.

This turns, and kids listen up, this turns the I have to's to the I get to's.

I have to go to church?

Probably said by 80% of the people in this room at one point in their life this morning.

No, you get to come to church.

Not because I'm the world's best preacher because I'm not.

Not because our stage is the world's best band.

They're not, though they're real good.

It's not because of what we do.

It's because of where we are.

It's who we're resting in.

It's why we get to.

Wait, I have to show grace as I drive in my car?

Some of you blank out for that.

And again, if you do, just don't put a magnet that says you're from this church.

No, you get to.

I have to send my kid to youth group?

No, you get to.

Even in the unknowns of life.

What does that mean?

Because a couple weeks ago when we did the baptism, that was, the dikes committed to

that.

Now, that doesn't mean we're going to take attendance at every youth group, but if we

get to be a part of it, we get to be a part of what God is doing.

I have to give two bags of candy every year for the trunker treat?

Yes.

Just yes.

I'm not even going to go any farther.

Yes, we always run out of candy.

We need it.

Okay?

That's it.

You have to and I have to deal with it.

But no, we get to.

Because what kind of trunker treat do you go to where they don't, they give out pencils?

We don't want to be that church.

No, we get to do these things.

I have to pray to God?

No, you get to.

The God of the universe wants to hear from you.

He wants to walk alongside you.

He wants you to recognize him in your struggles because he wants to give you his mercy and

his joy.

That's abundant life.

We could keep going.

I could do that for a long time and I'll probably bring it back.

But in those times we were just like, oh, I have to do these things.

Try to change it.

You get to do these things.

Because the opposite holds true.

That the thief comes to destroy but Christ comes to give life.

Satan and false teachers seek to steal our joy, kill our faith and destroy our hope.

But Jesus who is the door brings life, purpose and eternal satisfaction.

So what does this mean for us?

Like I started, I'll continue.

Three things.

For the head, the heart and the hands.

For the head, know the door.

Know who the door is.

Study the exclusivity of Christ and salvation.

Read John 10, John 14, Acts 4.

And reflect, have I truly embraced Jesus as the only way to salvation or do I still doubt?

For the heart, trust the door.

Rest in the security that Christ provides.

Let go of fear and trust that in him you are eternally safe.

And reflect, am I relying on Jesus alone for salvation or am I trying to earn my way in?

Listen for our hands, walk through the door, share the good news of Christ as the door,

invite others into the safety and the abundance found only in him.

Final challenge.

Who in your life needs to hear about Jesus as the only way to salvation?

How can you share this truth with them this week?

Let's pray.

Jesus.