Hey, everybody.
Thanks for being back with us.
Thanks for coming back to join us after the holidays.
Hope they were good for you and yours.
We are,
starting a new chapter in this new year
as we move into the 10th chapter, the Gospel of John.
So some of these words are going to
I think if you've been around church much and there's no value in that.
But if you have,
I think that you will find these words familiar.
Let me start and read for about ten verses
or so, and we'll come back and we'll talk these through.
This is Jesus talking.
I tell you the truth.
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 of 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 didn't understand
what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, I'm 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 have come that they may have life
and have it abundantly.
In this chapter, at least in the early part of this chapter, we get Jesus
using the shepherding metaphor, which is known in the church
and I think is beloved, maybe more so what we will run in tomorrow.
We have said a couple of times that one of the one of the distinctiveness
of the Gospel of John are these seven moments where Jesus says,
I am and then gives himself a title, and here we get I am the gate.
This is the third that we've seen so far as we've moved through the gospel.
To get there, Jesus uses
this idea essentially from the sheep's perspective.
I don't know that he asks people to do that, Michael, but if you read this
carefully, I think that the one way to get in touch with this passage
is to say, from the sheep's perspective, there are two choices.
There is a person who can be trusted and a person who cannot be trusted.
The person who can be trusted is up front, calls the sheep
by name, knows them, has their best interest at heart.
The person who cannot be trusted is a thief, is a liar.
Is dishonest, comes in not through the gate,
but sneaks in and tries to steal.
Take the sheep away.
Now obviously the backdrop for this is Jesus and his enemies, the Pharisees,
the religious leaders who are, in the language
of the text, bad shepherds.
They're thieves.
They are not the ones who have the best interests of the sheep in mind.
It's an interesting metaphor for us, I think, Michael, because a
though we live in an
area that is agricultural,
the idea of shepherding is a little bit foreign, right?
But I still think in many ways these are some of the beloved images, less so.
I am the gate.
I don't know if we if you ask people for their favorite statements of Jesus,
I don't know where that one would fall.
My guess is maybe a little lower, but Jesus is saying something
pretty significant here.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think you mentioned context.
I think it's worth taking a moment here to just bring ourself back to speed.
That's kind of the crazy thing you might be watching this months,
maybe even years after the initial recording.
So you may have just hit next video from the last study.
But if you're with us as we're doing this live, you might,
a couple weeks ago have forgotten that
the thing that precedes this is the Pharisees,
the leaders, the the people who would be
the spiritual shepherds of the people.
They are the ones who are asking, we're not blind, are we?
And and Jesus.
Then immediately, in the gospel of John rolls into chapter ten, verse one here
and makes a very, very, very strong statement,
not just blindness as in going without sight.
Also claiming that there is this connection
to the thief and the bandit who sneaks in another way.
Make no mistake about it, that's a substantial charge
against those who would claim for themselves spiritual authority,
who would certainly claim to be the keepers of the people.
And here, Jesus, he does not beat around the bush at all.
He calls that out with ill intent.
He says that this is ultimately not for the sake of the sheep.
And in fact, Jesus says, the sheep haven't even listened.
They're not even responding to the care of the shepherd.
And so here, as you look towards the back end of this passage,
Jesus then transitions into this gate language.
And I agree with you wholeheartedly.
I think that this is tough language for a modern person to process.
And I think, a quick word of
probably,
caution would be to
not underestimate how powerful of a claim that this is,
that there's only one way in to the sheep, that there's only one path
that is truly the the right path, and that's the path through the center.
It's through the gate.
And Jesus is claiming to be the one who stands at that center.
That's a very, very strong claim to be first
to to be highest, to be the first mover.
And then Jesus is claiming that for himself here.
Now, you know,
I think you could debate all day long about what the implications of that are.
But just on its surface, Jesus's claim here is clear
that he is the gate by which all the sheep must enter,
and the only gate meaning that those who get to the sheep
from other pastures and through other ways, they are not coming through the
the first order, they're coming as thieves and bandits,
and that their actions will therefore prove who they are.
I think you have to be a little careful to build literalism into this story.
I don't know a great deal about sheep, but the implication here,
especially in the front part of the text, is that the sheep know the difference
between the good shepherd or the true shepherd and the
and the false shepherds, the the shepherd and the thieves.
And I think that's a lot of credit to give sheep,
but I don't I don't actually know if that's accurate.
I'm sure there's some sense in which sheep
come to be familiar with the person who's with them the most.
However,
don't
think for a moment that Jesus is trying to tell us a farm story.
If you remember this entire eighth and ninth chapters of John,
and if you haven't been with us through those,
you might want to go back and pick them up.
It was moment after moment of calling people to make a decision.
They have to make a choice.
What they believe about Jesus, the crowds, the Pharisees,
even the disciples have to decide who is this man?
That's the driving question of the narrative.
And now Jesus is saying that the sheep
know the difference, the true sheep.
They follow the true shepherd and and think about
what's the purpose of a gate, right?
Whether it's to go into the safety of the pen
or whether it's to go out to water and pasture,
or the idea is by passing through the gate,
one is able to go
where they need to be and do what is best for them.
And in that sense, Jesus says, I am the gate.
I'm the way in. I'm the way out.
I'm the way to safety.
I'm the way to refreshment and nurture.
We already saw I am living water.
I you know I am the spring of life.
We've seen that language.
And now we see it again.
In a very different picture, a very different image.
But Jesus again, saying, I am the way
in, in this case in a very earthy kind of illustration.
And that's actually the jumping point I want to take here, just very briefly,
Clint. So
don't miss this.
This is, at its core, a very simple
and in Jesus's day, very relatable story.
The idea that there are shepherds, the idea that,
someone is going to tend that gate and letting some in, some out,
the idea that there are bandits and thieves, these are not novel ideas.
These are very common economic, lived realities of people.
This this is the world in which Jesus lives.
So on it's very base level.
I think this story operates in a very simplistic form.
It is not complicated. It's not academic.
It connects with people's experience.
But don't let that to your point.
Don't don't let that sort of lull you
into a false sense of simplicity in what Jesus is teaching here.
And that's what makes this story and Jesus's
particular teaching edge throughout the gospel.
John, so incredibly powerful is
it can be delivered to the most common person in society.
It does not require special tools or frameworks to be able to understand it,
except for the fact that the people who should most readily understand it.
And we've said this over and over again, they so readily
misunderstand it or don't understand it at all.
And here we get that said explicitly.
When Jesus uses this figure of speech in verse six,
they don't understand what he's saying to them.
So even though Jesus is using this very accessible form of teaching,
the people who should be experts at understanding this spiritual lesson
completely misunderstand that they don't connect to what Jesus is teaching them.
I think that that is one of the consistent themes through John, showing that Jesus
is, yes, the word, but the word not in some kind
of highfalutin or some kind of, you know, very inaccessible form.
Rather, it's almost so accessible and so understandable
that if you're expecting it to be something else,
you won't be able to understand it where it comes.
There's a kind of amazing gift
in seeing Jesus with that tension held together.
Because even in our own day, some people are want to make Jesus
into a PhD professor, and some want everything that Jesus says
to just be simple, literal words that you take and people are confused.
Why Jesus is calling himself a gate, right?
Isn't he a person? No.
Jesus is always in the gospel.
John doing this amazing combination of teaching that's accessible
while it being clouded and and hard to process
for the very people who should have the skills and training and ability
to understand what he's saying.
We've we've seen throughout the Gospel of John
so far
this interplay or
this tension between those who are in and those who are out.
And we've seen that from the Samaritan woman at the well.
We've seen that in the last chapter from the man who had been blind.
We've seen the religious leaders
accuse people or label people as outsiders.
We've seen them level that charge against Jesus.
And so the theme of who is inside and who is outside has been already,
I think, fairly prominent in this book and think literally for a moment.
What does a gate do?
A gate is a doorway by which one goes from out to in.
And what's Jesus saying?
That if you want to be in, it's not about
the temple and it's not about the sacrifice,
and it's not about self-righteousness, and it's not about ethnicity.
It is about coming to Jesus.
I am the gate. I am the way in.
And so then, by definition, who are left out?
Those who won't come to Jesus, those
who refuse to engage Jesus as the Messiah, those
who refuse to listen to the truth and the teaching of Jesus.
They keep themselves on the outside and because they're outsiders,
because they stand outside the fold, they're a danger to the sheep
because they don't know the right way to lead them.
Their lost themselves.
And so the true sheep know
not not to, give them heed not to follow them.
And I think, you know, again, I don't know that I don't know anyone there.
I'm sure they're out there.
I don't know anyone who would say of of the 7 a.m.
statements, I'm the gate is my favorite.
But there's a, there's a lot here, a lot of layers, a lot of nuance.
I agree with you.
I don't think many people would, though.
I think it is shocking how many people do know and love
the very final verse of this section that we've read.
The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.
But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly, and that word
abundantly here means exceedingly over and above what you could possibly imagine.
It's a very, very, strong emphasis kind of word.
And, Clint, I think what is amazing
about a passage like this is the diversity of interpretations.
And it all hinges on what you think Jesus is saying here by life, right?
It's all defined by that word.
Because if you define life as a particular kind of lived life, right?
Or a wealthy life or a healthy life, or you think of, adventurous life
or whatever you might fill in to that, then this text
sort of gives you legs that you can run with, that you can say,
well, Jesus is going to give me
whatever this thing that I desire, and it's going to be abundant.
It's going to be exceeding, it's going to be flowing over.
Right.
But but here's the thing.
It's going to be tempered by tomorrow, immediately.
How Jesus is going to move into,
talking about what the shepherd is willing to give up for the sheep.
So come back for that.
But also, I just want to point out the life here is is biological life.
The worth here is is lived life.
And I think, Clint, one thing that we forget maybe 21st
century, a lot of us here in the Western world reading a text
like this is every day we're given our daily bread.
The idea that Jesus Christ is going to give you a life that is full,
not just a life that's full of what
your stomach needs today, but a life that is full unto eternity.
A life that extends beyond the horizon, that we can see
the claim that Jesus is making here,
has cosmic significance,
and he is making it as a person who says it's not just about, you know,
that you follow this new teaching plan or this new spiritual meditation guide.
You know, Jesus is claiming the way to life that overflows.
Outside of that, just live life and the things that we need
for today, but life that leads into the eternity,
that kind of life can only be found if one goes through the gate.
Who is Jesus Christ himself.
It is a claim that God in Jesus Christ has done
something that cannot be gone around,
and that is a strong, strong claim for Jesus to make.
And it's paired with this amazing promise.
And I think that that's John showing us that that's what's at stake here.
Either we listen to Jesus or we don't.
And the thing that stands along that way is the gate, the choice of will
you go through it to pasture, or will you not?
And ultimately, Jesus is strong words against the Pharisees
and any false teacher would be that the moment
you become a thief or a robber, right then you become the enemy.
You become the one outside the bounds of God's plan.
I think one of the unfortunate.
Of the
unfortunate developments of this beloved verse
is that at times in the church's life,
we have put the emphasis on the word abundantly.
And so we've tried to make this a verse about
having a lot,
you know, at its worst, this verse has been used by people to
advocate that God wants you to have a new house
and a new car and an airplane, whatever that might be.
You know, the idea that the the point is the abundance.
But I don't think you can I don't think you can read this text that way.
In the Gospel of John.
For John, Jesus brings life
and he brings not just regular life, but but supreme life,
beautiful, wonderful, gifted life.
I, I have come. Why is Jesus here?
That the sheep that the followers that people
would have life and that they would have it in abundance.
That they would have more life than they could know what to do with it.
And I think when we, you know, I,
I just think when we have fallen
into the temptation to make this a materialistic verse,
man, I think we're doing something with it that I personally,
don't think was John's intention at all.
Yeah.
I also think it it withholds something from us, Clint.
I think because when we think about this verse as being contained by the things
that we might be able to possess, we fail to see how distant and far
and wide that vision that God has for life way beyond our human capacity for it.
And and you're going to see that tension once again.
Join us for the study tomorrow.
Because right now Jesus is talking about abundant life.
The next thing he's going to move to is the fact that he's going to give up
divine life for the sake of those who are the sheep.
And so there's this turning on its head.
If we make this about what we have and having more of it, an abundant
increase within our lives, we are no doubt going to miss the vast
horizon way more than the stuff that we could ever possess
to actual God's intention for the creation that God gave life to.
And so yeah, this is an amazing image, but one that we can be tempted by nature.
Some of the things that that take precedence in culture
to to make Jesus say a thing that he had no intention of saying.
I certainly think you'd make the case that John had no intention of passing along.
And in doing so, I think we actually miss the richness of the teaching.
So stick with us.
There's more to come.
But, we're certainly glad to have you with us today.
Yeah. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.
Good to be back with you and hope to see you tomorrow.