I Am the Door: Assurance, Abundance, Access

We face countless temptations and dangers. We face cranky religious leaders. We face human threats in our world, and we face this incredibly dangerous, invisible, supernatural enemy, and we are sheep. That's enough to make you want to curl up somewhere. Just gonna suck your thumb, maybe. What does Peter say? Be scared. No. Be watchful and sober minded. How can he say that? You should be freaked out. Not if you believe what Jesus said. Jesus said, I am the door of the sheep. Like like the reinforced steel doors that can't be blasted open, Jesus stands as a type of shield between us and danger. His open arms provide us safety and rest that cannot be found anywhere else.

Every other door, every other place you want to become an insider, you got to work for it, except this one. In this case, the ultimate insider, Jesus, comes outside and he says, your name. He calls you by name. That's it. And then, you just have to humbly listen. That's that's the whole thing. He knows your name. You know, that's how you feel like an insider when somebody knows your name. When my old high school is trying to raise money and they they send me a letter and it says, Tyler Lemke. Nothing wrong with that name. Tyson, by the way, in case you weren't sure. I'm like, garbage. Hope College, I'm calling for Tyson Lemke, and we're done here. Right? They don't even know my name. I paid them a bunch of money. They don't even know Jesus calls us by name. All you have to do to get in is listen, bow to him like a sheep to a shepherd and come inside. That's it. And, you're invited.

We live in a world of danger. It is a very scary place in some ways. There are thieves and robbers and predators. There's all kinds of stuff out there that can get us. This is why parents get so nervous when they send their children to university because the child is leaving the fold. Like, safe place, and they're going to big, bad Ann Arbor or wherever, and who knows what they're going to encounter when they're there. They're going to be learning things and they're gonna be tempted by things and it's gonna be a very dangerous world. And it is in some ways. But so is the office.

So is walking down the street. So is looking at our phones. There's dangers everywhere. No matter where we go, there's ideas, there's philosophies, there's temptations, there are challenges, there are opportunities for us to get into trouble. I mean, the pull of money, the temptation of lust, the stirring of political rage, the unhealthy quest for influence, the lure of laziness, this stuff is all around all of us. Here, the wolves and the sheep that Jesus was confronting were the religious leaders themselves. The very people that are supposed to keep you safe from all that scary stuff were the ones in this instance who had put up such high walls

Some of us may have spent much of our lives thinking about the safety part that Jesus offers here. Jesus is in the safety business. Some of us think that Jesus' primary job is to keep us out of hell. In fact, for some of us, when we were young, that's why we said the prayer. Somebody scared us about hell and we're like, I don't want that. Jesus, come into my heart so I don't have to go to hell. We don't normally say that out loud but we think that inside. Some of us, that's how we approach this, that we know we're supposed to trust Jesus with our lives and then he'll keep us safe from hell. And that's true.

It is true that when you trust Jesus and you place your faith in him that you will not be going to hell. But is this really all that Jesus is saying when he says that he's a door, just that he's a door that protects? Is Jesus like an insurance policy that you sign up for, you send your check someday because maybe you're gonna need the insurance policy? But there's no joy in making payment. No one keeps their insurance coverages on their nightstand every morning joyfully flipping through the paperwork. If they do, be very afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Look, eventually, you'd need to eat some stew for bios or some food, but it's not going to take you to Zoe life. It is not. And he gave it up over an appetite. Jesus is the door to the abundant life. Zoe. Life. Life. He is the way to experience what we're ultimately longing for. He's not placing boundaries and rules on us to take joy out of our lives. He's not trying to harm us in the things that he holds from us. I mean, unless it's you're watching a really ridiculous Disney movie, generally speaking, a fish jumping out of water for freedom's sake onto the shore is how you die. That's how a person who's made for water dies. We Jesus, when he when he, like, calls us to this different kind of life, it's actually the abundant life. And it might feel like, yeah, but I'm here in the water and I wanna jump up there on the shore. Don't do it. He's the door. He keeps us safe. If we'll trust his leading, if we'll hang in there, if we persevere, if we lean on him when our stomachs start to growl, we will see that Jesus is showing us the good life, the abundant life, the gravity defying, wide smiling, fist pumping, heavenly, joy filled life.

Nobody is in love with their insurance policy. They just send the checks in hopes that they don't need it, but if they do, it's there. Is that what Jesus is saying? Is it like a person who gets married not because they delight in someone, but because they're afraid of being alone? I mean, that happens. People get married for maybe not so healthy reasons. Lord willing, over time, they will fall in love with one another. But is faith a mere payment? Is it a commitment without any joy? What does he say? I'm the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Believe. No hell. Right? I'm saved. Cool. But but where's the abundance part? What does he say? I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Well, that sounds pretty good. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So, he's actually offering something far more than just protection from hell. We talked about this a few weeks ago.

There's two words in Greek for life, bios and zoe. And generally speaking, bios gets used for the biological type of functions of life. Zoe gets used differently. Here's here's a word study from the HELPS word study. Life is physical and spiritual. It's all life throughout the universe is derived. It comes from, sustained by God's self existent life. The Lord intimately shares his gift of life with people, creating each in his image, which gives all the capacity to know his eternal life. Zoe is more than just life, it's the life.

The life. And Jesus said, I came that they may have the life. And then he adds another Greek word, perisos, which means abundant, super abundant, superior, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, etcetera. More, more, more. This is the life life life. I came that they may have the life life. Yes. Yes. There there is this protection, this assurance you can have of his protection, but there is also this abundance that Jesus is offering, this bounty.

and such a narrow little set of rules and gates and entrances, they were actively pushing people away. So, some things are luring us away, some things are pushing us away. On top of all of that, we find out as we read the bible that there's also a spiritual war that's going on. There are evil spiritual forces that would love nothing better than to lead us away from the place of flourishing. They would happily wound and cripple us, even kill us if they got a chance. The Apostle Peter, in a letter to the church, he encouraged the leaders of that church to shepherd the flock

We are made for this. Jesus is the door to that life, and this is very important. Because when temptation shows up, it claims that it's going to give you life life, but it never does. There's a story in the Old Testament, it's kind of crazy and awesome, about this guy named Esau, and he's got a brother named Jacob, and he's just kinda hairy, sort of an outdoorsy guy, whatever. And, his younger sneaky brother made some stew this one day, and Esau came in out of the fields and he walked into the tent, and he smells that stew that he really enjoys. His stomach starts to grumble, his mouth starts to water, and he says, hey, can I have some? And Jacob, being a classic younger brother, is like, sure if Right? Recognizing the power dynamics just shifted. I have an opportunity here. Yes, you can have this if you simply exchange your birthright for it. Now, without going too far down the rabbit hole, a birthright is like a double portion of inheritance. It's like a special blessing that you get from your parents. It's like some added authority, that sort of thing. It's a big deal. And Esau and his hunger is like,

doubling portion of my inheritance, that's gonna be way down the road. Some added authority, I mean, that can be good or bad, I guess. Special blessing from dad. I mean, blessings, schmessings, you know. This stew smells really good. So he he exchanges his birthright for stew. Has anybody ever read that story or heard that story and been like, stew? Like stew. Who would do that? Sheep. We would do that. It might not be stew, it's something like anger, you know? Like we we feel so just and right in our political opinions and we blow up at our families over some social media post and we destroy everything. Who would do that over a social media post? It's stew. Or it's pornography, you know, it makes us feel alive when we look at it, but then it creates all this heartache and damage in our relationships or it's an affair with prominent pastor or politician or whatever. They destroy their entire lives for a night of stew. Or it's money, Somebody chases and they chase and they never have enough of it, and it grips their soul and it destroys them and everybody else around. Stews are these things that we really, really want in the moment that take us away from the greater thing that God is offering.

The door is open if we will simply acknowledge we don't even get to deserve to go in it. He's calling us. Let's talk to him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that this longing that we each have to be on the inside, we can experience in the one place that truly matters. We thank you that Jesus came outside in a manner of speaking to to call to us and to draw us to himself. God, apologize if I'm one of those religious leaders that has put up barriers that shouldn't have been there, been confusing or insensitive or something and had driven people away, may may every person in this room hear you calling them, and may they humbly respond in faith.

It means that Jesus is the door. And, if we are in Christ, if we've placed our faith in his death and resurrection, we can know Romans eight twenty eight, we can know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. In other words, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. What does kill us makes us strongest. That's what we can know because Jesus is the door. So there is assurance in this statement. Part two. There's also abundance in this statement. Some of us may have spent much of our lives thinking about the safety part

He is the door that keeps the bad guys at bay and he's the door from whom we go in and out and find pasture, incredible life giving joy, abundant pasture. He is the way to find the good life. John Piper said, none of us want to be merely safe. We're not created merely to be safe. The human heart wants infinitely more than safety. Oh, yeah. Safety is basic and necessary. We want to be protected from what can destroy us. We want life life, but we want more than mere life. We want abundant life, overflowing life, deep life, weighty life, joyful life. We don't just want to survive, we want to thrive at every level of our human being.