Matt Chandler - The Only Door

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We’re going to be in John 10. This is a phenomenal passage, a teaching of Jesus that helps us see His supremacy and our need to enter into His supremacy if life is going to work as He designed it to work. But before we dive into that, I want to say this: Hey parents, congratulations! Week one of online school is done. And especially, let me say this to single moms — you are the real MVPs! Juggling that with a job and all the other things you’ve got going on, you made it. You might not be proud of how you made it, but you did it. And teachers, who had to transition from teaching in person to teaching to a screen, I know the loss that exists in that space. So listen, all around, great job this week! You survived it; you should be proud. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’ve got week one in the books, and now we’ll optimize, we’ll tweak, we’ll get better. We learned some things, but you did it! I want you to be proud. Don’t beat yourself up; this is new ground for all of us. Show grace to yourself, show grace to the teachers, and show grace to the parents. Listen, we’ve got week one in the books, and I’m proud of you — great job!

One of the interesting things about the way Jesus teaches, especially in the Gospel of John but also in the synoptics of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is that Jesus teaches as one who has authority. Everybody agrees on that. The Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious rulers of the day, are like, «Man, this guy is something else!» The unlearned people are like, «I can understand what this guy is saying!» unless He doesn’t want them to understand. He teaches in parables so that they would not, to fulfill some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Himself. But what we see in this passage is Jesus using simple language to help people understand who He is and what it looks like to have life in His name. In fact, hopefully, you’ve noticed that one of the great themes of the Gospel of John is this idea of full life or real life. If you think back to last week, rivers bursting forth unto eternal life, rivers of living water coming from the innermost parts of our being — this is the great theme of the Gospel of John: life. As Jesus said in this passage, life to the full.

So let’s dive into this passage. He’s going to use an illustration we’re going to focus on today to cover chapters 9 and 10. This idea is that Jesus is the door. It’s a simple concept. In fact, many of us often talk about doors that have been opened or closed. We can look back with gratitude on the day God opened a door for us, and we were able to walk through it, resulting in blessings. Even last night at dinner, Lauren had her parents over, and I had my parents over. We were sitting around eating barbecued chicken, and we talked about how I’m here preaching this right now as a result of a door that was opened for me, one I wasn’t even looking for. By stepping through that door, I met Lauren, the woman who became the conduit God used to bring me to this church as a pastor. Almost everything good in my life came from walking through that door. So we have this concept in our minds, and Jesus is going to use it, but He’s talking about the ultimate door you walk through.

What I’m discussing is less than ultimate but still significant. This was a door that opened when I moved to Abilene. In Abilene, I met Elaine Cottle and then Lauren Walker. When I moved to Abilene, I would come to Dallas to get away from there, visiting Highland Village First Baptist Church on the weekends with Rich Cottle, one of my college roommates. God started to work and move, but those are minor doors compared to the ones He wants to make today. He’s going to make this huge claim about the door that He is, and I have prayed all week that, by the grace of God, you would walk through it if you have not.

So, let’s look at this passage together: John chapter 10. I’m going to start in verse 7. 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 he will go in and 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. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.»

So here’s what I want to talk about, and the reason I picked the door is that I covered «I am the good shepherd» when we did the «I am» series a couple of years ago, and today I want to focus on what He means by «I am the door.»