Preached at Markham Baptist Church, March 4, 2001

I will never forget her face as it beamed with the revelation she had received that week. She had been taking part in a "Precept Bible Study", a very intense and helpful study of the Book of John. She looked as if she had just made the greatest discovery known to humankind.

"Pastor, Pastor, I just have to tell you what happened to me this week in my Bible study," she said excitedly.

"What happened?" I could tell it was something good.

"Well it was just the greatest thing; it all makes sense to me now - we were studying the first chapter of the book of John; you know how it goes. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' When all of a sudden it hit me! And there in a class of thirty people I just blurted out, 'you mean Jesus was God?!' I never knew that. I never knew they were one and the same. That's amazing! It makes so many things clear now."

I rejoiced with her in her new discovery and we praised God for his goodness. Afterward I couldn't help but think - here was a woman who had been in and out of churches, including my own, and no-one ever told her who Jesus was. Maybe she had been told but had never heard. So, while I rejoiced in her discovery, I mourned the fact that it had taken so long for her to see.

It is a sad fact that there are many Christians who are unclear about who Jesus is. So our series for the next number of weeks focuses in on that very question, who is Jesus? We have learned that he is to be the focus of our faith, the Christian faith is all about being in relationship with Him. If that is true, then who is he? What is he like?

This is a question that John sets out to answer in his gospel. Who is Jesus? And as we read through his book we discover that John gives seven portraits of Jesus that we don't find in any other gospel. These seven portraits are called the seven "I am" statements of Jesus. We have examined one statement for the last three weeks - "I am the vine" (John 15:5). Now I want us to look at the other six with the view of discovering "Who is Jesus?"

It is a question that John seeks to address because it is a question that many people of his day were asking. Even during the day of Jesus people were asking, "who is Jesus?"

If you turn to chapter 9 of your Bibles you will discover that this is a question that was on everyone's lips the day Jesus healed a blind man. After the healing we see the man brought to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, for questioning. This is the exchange they had,

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "he put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "this man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "how can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, "what do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "he is a prophet."
(John 9:13-17) (NRSV)

Then the Pharisees bring in the man's parents; then they question him again, saying "we do not know where this man comes from." That is, we don't know who this man is.

And the man answers in verse 30-34.

The man answered, "here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They answered him, "you were born entirely in sins, and you are trying to teach us?" And they drove him out.
(John 9:30-34) (NRSV)

Because of the man's answer he is driven out of the synagogue and never allowed to enter again.

It is this incident then that sets the scene for the words that Jesus speaks in chapter 10. And it is here that we receive a revelation of who Jesus is - I am the door, or in this version [NRSV], I am the gate.

"Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, "very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
(John 10:1-10) (NRSV)

Now, why did Jesus choose this picture to describe himself? Why a gate? Well the context tells us he uses this to show us the difference between himself and the Pharisees. In verses 1 through 6, Jesus explains that the Pharisees are thieves and bandits; they do not care for the people. They were stealing from the people their joy, their relationship with the living God. But Jesus is the real shepherd of the sheep; he is the one who cares for the people. He has come through the gate, and did not sneak in through a back door. No, he came through the gate, meaning he came in accordance with Scripture. He is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament promises in a Messiah. He is also one to whom, when he speaks, the sheep listen. When he speaks the people recognize his voice; they hear that he speaks as one with authority.

This picture describes the distinction that exists between the Pharisees and Jesus. But this picture also vividly depicts who Jesus is for all Christians today.

From verse 7 on, he explains that he is the gate for the sheep. Now a sheep pen in the Middle East is very different from one here in North America.

The Middle Eastern sheepfold was very simple. Sometimes it was an enclosure made of stone, or sometimes it was a wall of thorn branches, sort of an early edition of barbed wire. This surrounded the sheep on all four sides and at one spot there would be an opening, no wider than a person. There would be no door with a hinge there - it would simply be an opening. And there, after the shepherd had herded all the sheep safely into the fold, the shepherd would lay across the opening. So you see how the shepherd actually becomes a door? Nothing can leave the fold or enter the fold without passing over the shepherd.

"All who came before me," says Jesus in verse 8, "are thieves and bandits."

These thieves and bandits were not the Old Testament prophets who faithfully carried out their calling in God's sight. No, Jesus is referring to the religious leaders of the day, who by their additions to the law and their traditions, had stolen from the sheep their joy and freedom.

Jesus says, "I am the gate," in verse 9. So what do we learn here about who Jesus is?

We learn that Jesus is the door to salvation. He says in verse 9, "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be SAVED, and will come in and go out and find pasture." He has saved us; he has saved us from our sins; he has saved us from death. I remind you of this every week because it is such a marvelous truth; may I never grow tired of proclaiming it, and may you never grow tired of hearing it. Jesus Christ is the door through which we enter into God's presence. It is through faith in him that we are saved. In the words of Peter, there is no other name under heaven by which we might be saved.

Jesus Christ is the gate of salvation from sin and death.

But there is also this - have you ever thought that Jesus has also saved you from yourself?

This is important for us who have grown up in the church, for those of us who have grown up in Christian homes. We sometimes get to thinking about salvation and we get to thinking, "what has Jesus saved me from?" You know, I hear some testimonies, wonderful testimonies, about how through faith in Christ people are saved from a life of addiction, a life of abuse, a life of hellish darkness filled with depravity. And I think, wow. They really know God's forgiveness in Christ; they really have been saved.

And I think about my life, and think - what have I done that is bad in my life? From what has God saved this Richie Cunningham of a kid? Everyone knew me as a good kid.

But have you ever thought what your life would have become without Christ? Some of us here today have not been saved out of a situation, but have been saved from a situation. Some of you have a nervous energy; you are always moving, needing to do something. Have you ever thought what you would have become, with all that nervous energy, without God in your life? Maybe a chain smoker? Maybe something worse. Some of you have a temperament that is easily angered. Have you ever thought what could have become of you without Christ in your life? But because Christ is in your life you have been saved from a life that is too horrible to contemplate.

Jesus Christ is the door of salvation.

Then Jesus says that he is the door of protection. Verse 10, "the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life." Jesus is the door; he is the one who lays down across the entrance of the sheepfold to protect the sheep. My friends, you need to know that Jesus Christ is taking care of you. Whatever situation you are in, you need to know that nothing has separated you from his love. Nothing has taken you away from him so that he would care for you less. You need to know, like David wrote in Psalm 63, that God is a shelter for you, a strong tower from the enemy. If you have trusted him with your life, you are now in his sheepfold and he now protects you completely and fully. He is the door.

This verse doesn't promise that there will be no difficult times, trying times, hard times, but it does say that we can be sure of our heavenly Father's continued care and provision in the midst of such times.

Dr. Tony Evans, a pastor and preacher from Dallas Texas, some of you are familiar with because of his radio program on WDCX, tells of how he and his wife were on a cruise to Alaska. On their way back they hit a horrific storm. It was the worst storm the cruise line had ever experienced with waves 40 feet high. So this huge vessel was being tossed around like a row boat. Food was flying off the tables. The workers were throwing up, regurgitating. People could be heard screaming; they were fainting. It was a terrifying scenario.

And, says Evans, "my wife was evangelically ticked off." She was upset because the captain knew that they were going into the storm. And she was upset because she wondered, why would he leave where they were, where it was safe and the sea was calm, to go where they needed to be, when his instrumentation told him that they would have to go through a storm? Well the answer was simple. There were people on the other end who had to get on the boat and take this Alaska trip and, storm or no storm, he had to get back.

So, Dr. Evans says that his wife decided to get on the telephone and give the captain a piece of her Christian mind. So she picked up the telephone and said to the operator, "I want to speak to the captain."

The operator said, "lady, the captain is on the bridge and can't speak to you right now."

"Well I just don't understand why, if he knew we were going into the storm, he would go anyway."

"Okay ma'am, I will relay that to the captain, but I'm sorry he cannot speak to you now."

She hung up the phone.

Five minutes later the phone rang. It was the same operator. She said, "I just want to let you know that I told the captain what you said. And he asked me to relay two messages back to you. The first message is, 'lady, go to sleep.' He said, 'I am awake on the bridge; no need for both of us to stay up. Go to bed.' The second message is, 'lady, this ship was built with this storm in mind.'"

My friends, some of you came into this worship service today with a heart full of worry. Some of you are burdened with some pretty large concerns in your life. You need to know, my friends, that Jesus Christ is on the bridge, looking for your safe passage, and he knows the storm, and he knows your ship.

Or, to return to our Lord's picture, he is the door; he knows the danger you are facing. You are safely in his fold and there is nothing or no-one who can snatch you out of the palm of his hand. That doesn't just mean that there's nothing that can steal your salvation away from you, but there is nothing or no-one that can steal you away from his continual love for you, his continual care for you, his continual provision for you.