Message 07-30-06
Series: Longing for Life
Scripture: John 10:1-10
Title: Confidence
Intro:
Jesus said, “I Am the Bread of Life”
He compared himself to one of the fundamental elements we need to sustain life.
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.”
He compared us, his followers, to one of the elements that preserves and enhances our existence.
Jesus said, “I Am the light of the world.”
He compared himself to the fundamental element of life that gives us direction and discernment.
Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.”
He compared us, his followers, to himself in helping others to find their way and guidance, especially in dark times.
Jesus said, “I Am the gate for the sheep.”
He compared himself to a… a… well, to a gate… for sheep.
You know, if nothing else, you just have to be curious about this one. I mean, up to this statement, the claims of Jesus seem profound. They seem universal. This one seems… what… weird? Is it okay to say that? I mean it sounds kind of poetic. “I am the gate for the sheep.”
And the people who were with him didn’t even get it right off. And these are people who are around sheep. These people handle lambs. They know what shepherds do because they watch it on a regular basis.
Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees. He’s confronting the establishment with their own hypocrisy. They’re arguing the law of God and Scripture with him and then he draws this little verbal picture of thieves and robbers and sheep and watchmen and shepherds and they all go, “Yeah, well… ah… what was that? What… Did you get that?
Doesn’t that give you a good feeling?
Isn’t it good to realize that you don’t have to understand everything that Jesus said the first time you hear it. And isn’t even better to know that Jesus doesn’t leave you there. The example we find here is that Jesus is someone who understands that we sometimes don’t understand and he’s willing to meet us half-way. He’s willing to stick with us and help us get it.
But Jesus also subtly shifts the normal picture of a shepherd. Normally the shepherd would have been out in the country, and in the country the shepherds throw together branches and create a little enclosure for the sheep with an opening and then they lay across the opening and become a gate. But Jesus uses an urban illustration.
He says the enclosure has walls and a door. It’s a house with a courtyard for animals. The picture is a little different from what is expected.
But I’m willing to guess that the thing that threw them wasn’t the different image, but the story itself.
So Jesus shifts to make it simpler and more direct.
Study
“I tell you I am the gate for the sheep.”
I’m not sure that the people around Jesus actually understood it better when he did this, but I bet it caught their attention. I bet they were listening to him.
And then he lays out that he is the way in and out of this sheep pen. He’s the one who opens the way. “All” who came before him, Jesus says, were thieves and robbers. The image he holds up is both of bandits and terrorists, people who rob for their own gain and people who bring down damage on others in order to be in power.
Who were these people? Who was Jesus referring to? Probably the priests and the Pharisees understood or had at least an idea of who Jesus meant. He was talking about leaders like them. He was talking about leaders who are trying to get their own and to rule instead of loving.
The Pharisees, the teachers of the law and the priestly group all knew that they were in charge, but in the gospel of Matthew Jesus lashed out at them. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you actors! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
Our friend, Jesus, tells us that he isn’t a wall. He isn’t a slammed door. He is a gate that opens. Through him people get into the kingdom of heaven.
That’s who we serve, isn’t it. That’s why we’re here.
That’s who we have confidence in… Jesus, who let’s people in.
And Jesus goes on. He says, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.
In the time of Jesus the religion of the priests was a ruling, confining experience. In saying that he is the gate Jesus claims to be in charge of the way into heaven. It’s funny that people find that restrictive – Jesus saying that he is the gate, that he is the way, the truth and the life, or the living, true way, and that no one gets to God except by him. Personally, I’d rather have someone like Jesus handling the gate, being the gate.
That’s who we have confidence in… Jesus, who saves people, who gives people freedom, who provides spiritual nourishment and satisfaction.
Whoever enters by him, Jesus says, is saved, he goes in and out and finds pasture. Jesus saves us, gives us freedom and feeds us. That’s who I want. That’s where Christ followers put their confidence.
It’s important to have the right person in place. Do you remember when President Clinton had his affair? Here he is lying and dissecting statements in order to cover himself. I was really disappointed with the people who tried to defend him during that time. Instead of just admitting what he did was wrong, they tried to surround him with nice arguments. It went so far, I remember, that a friend of mine said to me, “Suppose you had a terrible ailment and you needed the best surgeon. Suppose the best surgeon was available but you heard that he was having an affair with his nurse. Would you want to stop him from being your surgeon because of that?”
I’ve never met a hypothetical I didn’t like. So, yes, if he’s going to get distracted by this nurse being in the operating room, if he’s going to feel guilty because his wife shows up at the door, then yes, I’m thinking I’d rather have the second best surgeon who is going to concentrate on my situation.
Now, I’m not picking any bones with President Clinton because I was pleased that he went to get help. You know what gave me confidence though? President Clinton got spiritual help and guidance from three men – Bill Hybels, pastor of a big church in Illinois, Gordon MacDonald, former pastor of a big church in Massachusetts and Tony Campolo, a Christian sociology professor in PA. These three men met with the President on a regular basis. Now, I’ve had good conversations and even corresponded with the two pastors, and I felt good about them. But Tony Campolo is my friend. I’ve worked with him and been on the board of directors of his ministry. Knowing that Tony was meeting with the president gave me confidence that good stuff was going on. If I was to defend the President at all during that time, it was on the basis of knowing who was helping him and standing with him.
Knowing that someone like Jesus is in charge, gives me confidence. I want to know that it’s someone like him who is in charge of the gate. It’s not someone like me who is in charge of the gate. I mean, imagine that it was Apostle John who had a conversation with the woman at the well. Imagine that some how in the conversation it gets around to the fact that she was married 5 times and that she hasn’t married the guy she’s living with. From what we read about John he’d probably be saying, “What! Are you messed up! You know what… You need Jesus in your heart. You need to be cleansed and changed.” Isn’t it fascinating that the conversation the woman had with Jesus gave her freedom, set her free to go back to the people of her town, in which she probably was an outcast. She was able to find life.
That’s who we have confidence in, isn’t it?
Jesus says thieves come only to steal and kill and destroy. He compares false leaders to terrorists. That’s my problem with TV preachers who come on telling you who is the enemy and who is against our families and who is corrupting our country. They drop fear bombs. They slam doors. They push people away from God and his kingdom. Jesus says, “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.”
Jesus calls the people of our world into a quality of relationship that creates safety and confidence. He provides life and life to Jesus is the quality of relationship between human beings and God and himself.
Now that’s not enough for some people. Some people want a relationship with God, but they get confidence from stuff or from stretching the limits of their days. But abundant life or life to the full is not filling every moment or piling on so much stuff that it’s difficult to close our closet door. Life to the full is a relationship that lets us know that we can trust God. We can trust that there is a loving heart at the center of the universe and that limits are set on evil and death. You see we might be in poverty or we might be in riches, but with Jesus we gain victory over our poverty. We gain victory over our extravagant needs.
So what does this mean for us today?
It means that we can have confidence and live confident lives. Through Jesus we have a sustaining satisfaction in life, we have freedom and we have salvation. But we also know that we are sheep. We are frail and fragile, but we have a shepherd who also is the gate. No one else is the gate. No one else says whether or not we get in. We’re not even the watchman who opens the gate for the shepherd. Jesus runs it all.
And you know what… this is the answer to a prayer. Moses, the great man of God, was shown the Promised Land by God before he died and before the people of Israel when into it. When Moses saw the land stretched out before him he made a prayer. In Numbers 27 we read
15 Moses said to the LORD, 16 "May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
When Moses made his prayer he thought he was talking about just the people he was leading, but he was talking, as he said, to the God of the spirits of all humanity. God had a bigger plan in mind.
God had you in mind.
Be confident in God, trust in him as you face your day. He is the one who sets you free and makes sure you find pasture.
