I AM: The Door

All right. Well, for those of you that don't know who I am,

I'm Brandon. I'm the lead pastor of the church. Glad that you're

here with us President's weekend, you're at church. I looked online and it

looked like all of you were out of town on vacation, So I'm glad

someone's here. I do want to give you a heads up that Di and

I will not be here next Sunday. We have the privilege of traveling with

Compassion International, which is one of our missions partners with our church, So

we will be visiting a new Compassion International base in the Dominican Republic next week.

So I'll be back the week afterwards. But Pastor Morgan will be preaching

next week. Grab your Bible's turn to John chapter ten. While you're turning

there, I want to describe the dynamic of my family. It's probably similar

to many of yours. We tend to categorize people in one two areas.

We either say they're introverts or they're extroverts. Just out of curiosity, how

many people here consider yourself an extrovert? So the extroverts proudly raising their hands

without I'm gonna ask everyone to close your eyes. No, I am curious.

If you consider yourself an introvert and you're brave enough to raise your hand,

will you want you to stand up? Not just kidding? There you

go, introvert. How many of you think you're a little bit of both

at times? Okay, here's the dynamic of my family. I have three

intense extroverts in my family. My wife Die shocking Die has never met anyone

who is not her friend. Die will let every single person that lives in

Western World, Washington come to our house for Thanksgiving. Let's everybody in.

My daughter is more of an extrovert than my wife, and then my son

Elijah is more of an extrovert. My other son, Judah, is an

introvert. Judah lives in an apartment by himself and has never had one person

over, and he loves it. Now you also have my son in law.

I would say my son in law Ben is an introvert extrovert. It's

totally cool being by himself, but when like he flips the switch and he

becomes the life of the party, he can do that. I am an

extrovert introvert, so I love being around people. I'll be energized I won't

be able to sleep tonight because I'm with all of you today, but I

will very proudly this evening go to a movie by myself. An extrovert introvert.

I was thinking about introverts and extroverts, and I was thinking about when

we enter an extrovert or introverts house, you typically know who they are and

the type of people in the house by the doormat. The doormat tells you

whether these people are introverts or extroverts. This is the doormat of an extrovert.

Welcome, you know when dies home, because it's welcome. She rarely

remembers to lock the door, shut the door. It's like, come in,

come out, everyone is welcome. Here's the doormat that you would find

in front of Judah's house. This is strictly functional. Wipe the dirt off

your feet should you decide to come into my house. For those of you

that are introvert extroverts, extrovert introverts like me, this would be your doormat.

When I saw that doormat, I was like, I want to buy

it because it is so true. You're welcome. It depends on who you

are and how long you're planning on staying welcome ish. This reminds me of

the I am statement that we are looking at today. For the last couple

of weeks, we've been in the middle of this series looking at these statements

that Jesus made about himself. And I think this is really important because if

you were to talk to people in our community and you were to ask them

the question what do you think about Christians? What do you think about church?

There's a good chance you're going to find a bunch of people that will

say something like I don't like Christians, I don't go to church, but

I'm really cool with Jesus. And I've told you that that makes no sense

because if you hear the things that Jesus said about himself, it is impossible

to reconcile the person of Jesus apart from the things that Jesus said about himself.

So we are looking at the claims that Jesus made about himself. Two

weeks ago, I talked to you about the fact that Jesus said I am

the Bread of life. Then last week Pastor Christian taught on I Am the

Light of the World, And today we look at the third I am statement.

You find it in John ten nine, and Jesus makes this claim.

He says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he'll

be saved. Go in and out and find pasture. I want to ask

everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes. I want you to repeat

this prayer after me. Everyone say, dear Jesus, speak to my heart,

change my life in Jesus' name. Amen. So Jesus makes this really

weird statement. He says, I am the door. If you have an

NIV, it says I am the gate. What does this mean? Well,

you have to understand the context. And you see the context in John

nine. And I'm gonna tell you the story. I'm gonna read a few

verses, but I'm gonna tell you the story of what happened. So it

starts this way. So you got to imagine Jesus is with his disciples and

they're wandering around Jerusalem, and it tells us what happened. As he's talking,

Jesus and his disciples went along, he saw a man blind from birth.

His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents

that he was born blind. You see, there was this belief in Jewish

thought that suffering was because of punishment, that an affliction like blindness or being

crippled was a punishment because someone had sinned. It was either you were being

punished for your sin or the sins of your parents were being passed on to

you. Now we're told right away that this guy was born blind. So

you gotta immediately be able to put all these dots together and figure out that

John, who wrote this gospel, at the moment they didn't know that the

guy I was born blind. John is adding that in so that you get

context, so that you understand, this is a guy born blind. A

baby hasn't been around long enough to sin. So when the disciples said who

sinned this man or his parents that he has this affliction, Jesus immediately corrects

that thinking. So if you're here today and you think this, maybe you

think the opposite. You think, well, I got saved, I became

a follower of Jesus. My finances should blow up, I should always be

healthy, my marriage should be perfect, my kids should be perfect, and

everything should be perfect. And then all of a sudden, something bad happens

and you're convinced, I need to go to church and repent because I must

have done something wrong. This is Jesus correcting that thought. He is saying,

bad things happen to good people all the time. This is just life.

Life happens. There's good things that happen in life, and there's bad

things that happen in life. So Jesus is correcting this thinking. And then

Jesus does something very strange. So I was a youth pastor in the nineties,

and in the nineties everybody wore these little bracelets that said WWJD, and

you were supposed to look at this bracelet and always ask yourself, what would

Jesus do? And in whatever Jesus would do, that's what you should do.

I actually don't think that's a great statement, while it applies in a

lot of circumstances. You should ask yourself what would Jesus do, and do

that. But there are moments only Jesus should do something. There are things

that Jesus does that you should not do yourself. For example, he walked

on water. You shouldn't try that. You also shouldn't do this. So

remember this man born blind, Jesus having this deep philosophical conversation with his disciples,

and he says this. He says, sometimes God allows people to suffer

because he wants to do a miracle through their life to show off. There's

sometimes God has you go through something and he already has a plan on how

he's going to deliver you. You just heard a testimony from someone. I

think every single one of us would say, there's moments in our life where

we have been a mess, and God can take your mess and make it

a message. I think there's times in our life we'd say we've been tested.

God can take your tests and make them a test testimony. And he

says sometimes God allows these things because he wants to show off his glory.

And then Jesus does this. You shouldn't do this. Some celebrity pastors have

tried. This is a really bad idea and would go viral. Jesus grabs

some dirt and he spits in it, and he makes some mud, and

he takes it and he shoves it in the eyes of the blind person.

I mean, if you were a witness to this, you were like,

that is so mean. And then after doing this, he looks at the

blind man and he says, go to the pool of Shalom and wash and

then Jesus leaves. So the blind man makes his way to the pool of

Shalom and he washes the mud off of his eyes, and a miracle happens.

He can see Jesus, heals him. Uh, he can't find Jesus

anywhere, but he goes back to where he come from, and his friends

and his family see him and see that he can see, and they start

saying, what happened to you? This is a miracle. We can't believe

this, And he says, well, this guy named Jesus cross my path.

He took some mud and he shoved it in my eyes, and he

told me to go wash it off, and now I can see. So

they took him and they brought him before the Pharisees. So you got to

get this impression that there that the Pharisees were near the synagogue, were near

the church, and they bring this blind man because they want to show them

that this is a legitimate miracle. And the Pharisees begin to investigate. We

see it in John nine thirteen. They brought to the Pharisees the man who'd

been born blind. So the Pharisees were the religious leaders, these were the

skeptics. And they begin to investigate this healing. The interview is parents,

is this really your son? Yes, this is our son. Has he

been blind? He was born this way, He's been blind his whole life.

So they brought its friends in. Can you verify that you know this

man? Yes, we know him. Has he always been blind? Yes,

he's been blind. This is a miracle. And then the Pharisees they

get in this huge argument with everyone there about sin and the Sabbath and whether

or not Jesus is from God or not. They get in this huge debate,

and this man who was blind but now he sees, kind of cuts

through everything and says this in verse twenty five. He says, whether Jesus

is a sinner or not, I don't know. The one thing I do

know is that I was blind, and now I see. The one thing

I do know is that my life was a mess, and now I see.

And this just enraged the Pharisees. Bible says they began to hurl insults

at him. If you actually look up that word in the original Greek,

it meant they cussed him out and they were so mad at him. And

it leads to John nine thirty four listen to this. So remember they're standing

in front of the synagogue, which is the church, and it says,

this is their accusation against the blind man. You we're steeped in sin at

birth, like you were blind because of the sin of your parents and your

grandparents. This was a just punishment. How dare you lecture us? And

they threw him out, In other words, they kicked him out of the

church. They excommunicated him from the synagogue. Well, eventually Jesus hears about

this, and Jesus shows up, and that takes us to John ten.

So now you understand the setting. So the setting is Jesus does this miracle.

This guy gets in a fight with the Pharisees, he gets kicked out

of church. Jesus shows up. That's John ten. Are you with me?

Now we're getting to the im statement. So the first thing Jesus says

is this very truly, and I told you a couple of weeks ago.

Whenever Jesus says very truly, that is his way of saying, I'm being

serious. Really listen to me. I'm gonna be honest with you. This

is something that you need to hear, something that you need to understand,

he says, very truly, I tell you, Pharisees. So he's talking

to these Pharisees that kick this man out of church. So the blind man

is there, his family's there, the disciples are there, and Jesus is

having a conversation with the Pharisees. And he says, anyone who does not

enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way

is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is

the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and

the sheep listened to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and

leads them out. When he has brought out all of his own, he

goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his

voice. But they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will

run away from him because they do not recognize the stranger's voice. So Jesus'

response to all of this, as he tells a parable. He shares a

story with an actual relevant meaning. And Jesus uses a picture an image that

would have been familiar to everyone there, because everywhere you went people had sheep,

they had flocks and shepherds and sheep pens or sheep folds. So let

me explain who the people are supposed to be. Why am I explaining it?

Because it tells us this verse six, Jesus used this figure of speech,

but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. So if

these smart religious leaders didn't get it, maybe you don't get it either.

So let me help. So, a shepherd is someone who cares for and

protects the sheep. In the Jewish culture, they would have connected that just

about any leader. They would use this metaphor of a shepherd for that person.

They would use it for military leaders, political leaders, spiritual leaders.

That these people cared for and protected the sheep. Who are the sheep?

Us like we are the sheep. So when we take this metaphor to its

extreme, Jesus is the good shepherd and we are his sheep in his flock.

What is the sheepfold? The sheepfold is an enclosure of rocks with an

opening or door. Now here's a picture of one. This is an excavated

sheepfold. You'll notice the rocks stacked all the way around, and then you

will notice that there is an opening right here a door. I'm going to

actually use kind of a painted image because it does a better picture of it,

so that we'll use this. This is a sheepfold. This would have

been familiar. These are all over the landscape. They would have known that

inside of a sheepfold, this rock wall with one entrance in and out,

had many different flocks of sheep. But then you will notice Jesus refers to

a gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is the person that is positioned at the door and

allows access in and out to the pen. At night, the gatekeeper would

lay across the door while he slept so no one could get in or out.

Because these sheep equaled money, thieves and robbers would try to steal these

sheep. But then in addition to that, wild animals would try to come

and kill the sheep. And it is the responsibility of the gatekeeper to protect

the flock. So then when a shepherd comes, he would allow the shepherd

in. The shepherd would speak, The sheep that were a part of that

shepherd's flock would recognize his voice and would follow him out, and they would

go in and out and find pasture. Are you with me? That is

the gatekeeper so Jesus is using this imagery that all these people completely understood.

And then he drops the ball, and the bomb was John ten nine.

Therefore, Jesus said again, very truly, which means seriously, listen to

what I'm saying. I mean the words that are coming out of my mouth.

He says, I am the gate for the sheep. Or again,

if you have an NA or if you have a different translation, I like

door for the sheep. I like that word better. I am the door

for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers.

It's like all these people that have come before you have come to deceive you.

They're like thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. So

Jesus says, I am. Put the picture back up. Jesus says,

I am the door outside here thieves, robbers, wild animals, things that

are trying to do harm to the sheep. You can come in and be

safe in here, in the sheep fold. But there's only one door that

allows you in and out, and I am that door. There was no

denying to any person that heard Jesus say that what he was saying. He

then says, I am the door. They will come in and go out

and find pasture. But then he warns, and he says, but the

thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I've come that they

may have life and have it to the full. Put the picture up again.

Here is the crazy thing about this is can thieves and robbers climb over

this wall? Yes they can. But anybody who climbs over this wall only

a thief or a robber would do that. But there's something you notice that

these sheep are grazing peacefully. It's safe. They feel protected. Now.

Thieves and robbers and wild animals surround this area, but because of this person

at this door, they can have pasture in here and feel safe. It

is such an amazing metaphor for our spiritual lives. Ma, I'm gonna tell

you church, thieves and robbers and wild animals are everywhere. There's people that

are trying to steal from you and rob from you spiritually. There are wild

animals that are trying to attack and destroy. But why can we, as

followers of Jesus walk through this world with peace? Why can we walk through

this world feeling safe because we entered through the door and we get to go

in and out and find pasture. One of the greatest lies is that Christianity

is all about what you can't do. Have you ever heard that from someone?

They think, but I mean, you Christians, you gotta follow all

these rules and all these regulations, and you're right. As a follower of

Jesus. The Bible is my guideline. And the Bible is really clear that

if I do these certain things, these things are sined. The Bible is

also clear that if I repent, he will restore me that I may serve

him. So there is I'm not going to lie to you and say there's

not expectations for what holiness and living a righteous, blameless life is. That

is what the Bible is a clear guide. The Bible provides this stone fence

around our lives. So people think, well, I want freedom. I'm

an American. I don't want any restraints. I don't want any control.

I want to be able to live my life the way that I do.

In the sixties and seventies, there was this idea that was prevalent in the

educational system. It was called the open classroom concept. So many of you

were tons of teachers and people that work in education in our church today.

I want you to imagine this in your environment right now. So with the

open classroom concept, and you would have seen them everywhere, they kind of

built schools kind of they were like big circles and instead of different classrooms,

there was just one large classroom that all the students from all the grades would

be in this one large room. And the thought was you would still have

teachers for every grade, but the teachers would float around and help all of

the different students. And the thought process was students that highly excelled were able

to get taught and helped by teachers that normally worked with older grades. Students

that struggled could have teachers from younger grades come and help them. So that

was the overall concept. They thought it would help students strive better with more

freedom in this open classroom concept. And then not only that, but they

built schools with playgrounds that weren't fenced. There was no fences around schools because

it was believed that those fences, those boundaries suppressed students' desire to play.

So that is what they did. By the way that was totally prevalent in

the sixties and seventies. If you don't believe me, look it up.

By the time I was in elementary school in the eighties at Beverly Elementary,

I had a classroom and our playground had a fence around it. What changed?

What went away with the open classroom? Here's what They discovered that the

open classroom concept allowed students that were gifted to strive, but those that struggled

struggled even more. They discovered that the open classroom actually provided greater segregation,

that kids felt comfortable only hanging out with people that were around their academic level.

The teachers were naturally inclined to work with students that were interested in education

and avoid those that weren't, so it provided greater segregation in the classroom.

And then they discovered this with the playground, that the kids would only play

near the school building because the further they got away from the school building because

there was no fences, they didn't feel safe. Now, there were still

thieves, robbers, this is the seventies, so kidnappers, there were still

all those people. There still exists today. But there's something about the fence

that provided peace, that provided security, having boundaries, having a fence,

having guidelines actually gives us the freedom in which to this is what they said.

It gives them the freedom to experience the fullness of play in the playground.

So they actually determined that having a box allows our creativity to flourish.

Without any boundaries, we go crazy. Come on, you know that that

is true. So Jesus says, I'm the door, I'm the gate.

Whoever comes through me can go in and out and find pastor. You're right,

there's a box that as a follower of Jesus I have to live in.

I have a definite sense of right and wrong. I have a definite

sense that my life is blessed when I follow the commandments of God and I

live a righteous, blameless life. I understand that. But living within the

confines of that fence, I have complete peace and safety. I was trying

to illustrate it for you, for people in the first service this way.

I have a house like you. I live on a very busy street.

My house probably has I don't know, twenty thirty windows and two doors.

So people come in and out to our house through the doors. And when

we want to feel safe and secure, we shut the door and lock the

door. Now I'm smart enough to know I have twenty to thirty windows,

like I have this false security that locking my door is keeping the thieves and

robbers and wild peasts out of my house. If they want in, they

can smash a window and get in. But there's something about shutting that door

and locking that door that gives me peace. That is the peace that Jesus

is offering. You want peace, you want safety, you want security in

your life. He's the door. He's it. If you enter in through

him, you can come in and out and find Pastor. Cool thing about

Jesus. Go back to that doormat. A keyboard player is supposed to be

playing or something. All right, as long were you shouting me down back

there? Okay, good, good good. This is not the way Jesus

is though. He's not welcome ish. I mean, he is welcome.

Anyone can come, well, Pastor Brandon, I've done so many things wrong.

I'm not welcome into Heaven. I'm not welcome through that door. Uh.

Too many people feel the door is closed for them. It is not.

It is never locked, always open. You just have to go through

Jesus. One of my favorite verses. It's one of the very first verses

that I ever memorized as a follower of Jesus is Revelations three twenty and it

says this, it's going back to this door metaphor. But Jesus is talking

about the door that covers your heart. And he says, here I am.

I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone hears my voice

and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and

he with me. It is Jesus saying, not only am I the door,

I am the way for you to have eternal life. I am the

way for you to be saved. He says, But you have a door

that guards your heart, and you have to open up that door and let

me in. And if you do, I'll come in and eat with you,

and you with me. Jesus said, I am the door. I

want to ask everyone to buy your heads and close your eyes. If you

are here today and you want to enter through that door. Maybe you're here

today and you don't know Jesus, but you want to stay pastor Brandon,

and I want to I want to walk through that door. I want to

accept Jesus. I want to go in and out and find pasture, and

I realize he is the door. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna

count to three, and if that is you, when I say three,

I want you to raise your hand. I also know that they're there are

some of you. You've gone to church before, you've prayed prayers before.

But if you were to be very honest to this question, are you in

a right relationship with Jesus? You couldn't emphatically answer yes, I am.

If you want to know that you are in a right relationship with Jesus,

you want to leave this place knowing you are right with God. When I

say three, I want you to raise your hand to Jesus is the door,

and it has a welcome Matt. It is unlocked, and he wants

you and I to walk through it. You're here today, do not know

Jesus, but you want to or you know you're not right with him,

and you want to leave knowing you're right with him. When I say three,

raise your hand. One, two, raise your hand. Now three

you can put your hands down. I want to ask everyone to stand up.

It's probably I'm gonna say fifty of you raise your hand. I want

to lead you in a prayer for all of you that raised your hand.

When you pray this prayer, if you mean this prayer, you leave this

place knowing I am right with Jesus. I have walked through that door.

I can come in and out and find pasture. When I pray this prayer,

I invite everybody in our church to pray it together. And that's because

I don't want those that raise their hand to feel like they're alone. So

I want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes, repeat

this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, I stand before you

today. I admit I've messed up. But today I ask you to forgive

me, and I invite you to come into my life and to change me.

I choose from this day forward to serve you with my life. Thank you,