In our 49 years of marriage, we have moved several times to different parts of the United States. Each time we would find that each area had a little different style of homes. Some had an open concept where all the common areas were together, some were two stories, while other areas almost always had basements to their design, but there was one thing constant in all, they had a main entrance and exit. They had a door!
In John 10:9, Jesus begins this discourse with something they could all understand. He talks about the right and wrong entry to the sheepfold. The true shepherd would enter by the door. There was no reason for him to try to climb over the wall or gain access any other way because the Shepherd had rightful access to the sheep. Only a thief or a robber would try to gain entrance any other way.
As the door, Jesus is making it very clear that he is the only way to God. He uses the example of the shepherd who protects his sheep. The Shepherd always enters by the door because he has rightful access to the sheep. The sheep are His, and when he enters they follow Him. They know His voice. They can go in and out through the door with no fear. Jesus is THE DOOR, not a door.
John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
There is no other way to eternal life than through Jesus.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
In Biblical times there were two kinds of pens for sheep. Sometimes, there was a public sheepfold in the villages or towns. It would be large enough to hold several flocks. There would be a porter or doorkeeper. His job was to guard the door during the night and to admit only the shepherds in the morning. When the shepherd would arrive, all he had to do to separate the sheep was call them. They knew his voice and would follow him. He could then lead them out to pasture. It is through one door, or opening in the pen, that they would come in for safety and protection and exit for nourishment each day.
The other kind of pen was out in the countryside where the grass was plentiful and probably far from town. This pen would be a large circle of piled-up rocks, with one opening. In the evening the shepherd would lead the sheep into the pen, then the shepherd would lay down across the entrance to protect his sheep from wild animals or thieves. Nothing could get to his sheep unless it went across the shepherd.
John 10:1-5 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”
The method of keeping sheep may have changed, but the analogy of the door is still true. There is no other way to God but through Jesus Christ. There are many religions that teach Jesus was just a man, but they are wrong. The Pharisees knew exactly the point Jesus was making to them. All their rituals, rules, and ceremonies were of no value when it came to gaining eternal life. They were the thieves and robbers he was talking about. They were perverting the gospel by making it all about them, and the regulations they had imposed on man. Their pride had blinded them to the truth of The Door. They did not like teaching such as Luke 13:3 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
The gospel has always been simple, and it has always been about what Jesus did, not what we can do. This Door not only allows us entrance to the Father, but it also protects us from the predators of our time. Those whose sole purpose is to destroy us. In I Peter 5:8, we are warned of this enemy.
I Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
The True Door offers us life, not death, and not just life, but abundant life!
John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
