I am the Door

John 10:9

This is the third of the 'I am sayings' in John's Gospel: 'I am the door'. It appears that this discourse in chapter 10 follows immediately on from the events in chapter 9, all of which take place around the conclusion of the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.

The Feast of Tabernacles was significant for the second of the 'I am sayings' -- 'I am the light of the world'. You will remember that at the feast of tabernacles there was a lot of light around the temple precincts, and on the last night there was one lamp, or candelabrum which was left unlit to show that full salvation had not yet come. Against that background Jesus claims to be the light of the world.

That claim was illustrated very vividly in the experience of the man in chapter 9, the man born blind, whose sight God restored. Here was a man who was literally walking in darkness, and the light of the world met with him and gave him light. Immediately there was a conflict between the light and the darkness. There is always a conflict between the light and the darkness. Over the man whose sight was restored there was great controversy.

It is natural now to hear Jesus drawing on the contrast between himself and the religious leaders. He contrasts himself with 'thieves and robbers'. The shepherd image of this chapter may well also be drawn from the feast of tabernacles, in which God shepherded his people through the wilderness. Maybe Jesus is linking himself into the history of Moses shepherding the people.

Before he describes himself as the good shepherd he says 'I am the door'. We noted at the outset that there are no parables in John's Gospel. It is true that the word 'parable' is used in the Authorised Version translation of John 10:6, to describe the language of Jesus. The ESV uses the term 'figure of speech'.

There is an analogy here between Jesus' teaching about himself as the shepherd of the sheep.

It is not a parable in the sense of a story, as the other three Gospels use the term 'parable'; it is an analogy, and an illustration. The Jewish people were familiar with the world of shepherding and looking after sheep. Jesus sheds light on his own ministry and message by means of illustration.

Jesus mixes his figures of speech here. Before he describes himself as the shepherd of the sheep, he describes himself as the door of the sheep. But even when you try to work out the significance of the door, you discover that the door is that by which the shepherd enters, in comparison with the robbers and the thieves who break in over the wall by some other way. There is a gatekeeper who allows the shepherd in. Jesus therefore is the shepherd, who is also the door.

So what is he saying? He is illustrating something with which we are all familiar: when sheep are gathered they need to be gathered somewhere; they need to be enclosed in some kind of pen or in some enclosure. They can wander about for a good part of the year, but there are other points when they need to be gathered in for one reason or another. They need to be secured and closed in.

Very often the sheep would be enclosed in an area that was simply a wall with a gap in it. The shepherd himself would sometimes stand, or sleep in that gap to keep the sheep in. Perhaps there might be several of these enclosures, with a 'doorkeeper' or 'gatekeeper' looking after the different pens and the sheepfolds, so that each shepherd could then tend to the sheep.

So Jesus is, at one level, the one who enters in by the door. He has legitimacy and authority. He is the true shepherd, who knows his sheep. This comes before us in the great teaching of this chapter that Jesus is the good shepherd.

But at another level, Jesus can also claim to be the door. In its own way it is a powerful, vivid and important statement of what Jesus is and does. He is the one who guards and protects his sheep. By him, people can enter and be safe. At one level it is the most staggering claim in the whole world. Here is this one, unique individual, the Jesus of the Gospels, and he is saying that in what he is and has done there is salvation for anyone and everyone who comes to him.

Nobody else could make that claim. There is not one figure on the stage of human history who can speak the way Jesus speaks here. He is making the most absolute and ultimate statement of all. There is salvation for us, but it is alone in him. There is salvation for anyone, and it is in him. It is possible for anyone and everyone to come to him as one would enter through a door, and find salvation.

It is the most remarkable thing. If we all came to Jesus at the same time, with all our sins, seeking salvation, we would find it in him immediately. If the world came to him right now, seeking salvation, it would find it in him, instantaneously and immediately. He is the door. This is the Jesus of the gospel, offering, guaranteeing and pledging himself to us. If we come to him, through the door we shall be saved.

Let's explore this image. What is Jesus telling us when he says 'I am the door'.

Let's take the door as a SYMBOL OF IDENTITY.

Very often you can identify a building by the door. In many ways it is the first point of contact you have with the building. You want to give someone directions to a house, so you point htem in the general direction of the village they are going to, and you tell them to count the doors, and look for the house with this particular door. If they find that door they will be at the right place. The door identifies the house.

There are some famous doors, are there not. A picture of a large, black door with the number 10 on it would identify itself as the door of 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's dwelling. You wouldn't have to think very hard about it; the door behind which the Prime Minister resides and the government meets is so powerful an image that you identify it easily. It is only a door, yet it identifies the most famous and one of the most powerful buildings in the world.

Let me begin there. You identify salvation with Jesus. He is the door. He says that to enter by HIM is to have salvation. If you are looking for a salvation but it doesn't have Jesus at the first point of contact, and immediately, you are at the wrong door. And if you are at the wrong door, you are at the wrong house.

The tragedy is that so many people are looking for salvation, for emancipation -- they need rest for their conscience and peace in their hearts, they want their lives to have direction and purpose, and peace with God -- but they are at the wrong door. You know you are at the right door if you have Jesus. Every aspect of his life, his death, his resurrection and ascension and all that he does in Heaven -- that is what sinners need. I identify salvation by the door which is Jesus.

That has so many profound consequences in our lives and thinking. I must look away from myself to him. I must focus on him and look to him. In Pilgrim's Progress there is a point where Christian is coming out of the City of Destruction at the beginning. He has the burden on his back, and he meets Evangelist, who explains to him something about his situation. He says 'Do you see that gate? You make for it. Head for the wicket gate, and from there you will see the cross'. Spurgeon comments on that point in Bunyan. Why didn't Evangelist just point him directly to the cross? Why did he put the gate in between? People need to be directed to the cross. It is there for them. Send them to the cross!

I'm not so sure that Bunyan was preaching anything else at that point, but the point is valid nonetheless. If we want to show people where salvation is to be found, we send them straight to Jesus. We don't say to them 'Make sure you are dressed first'. There are some houses to which you would not want to come unless you were dressed in a particular way. You wouldn't want to cross the threshold unless you are well dressed.

But this door accepts everyone; it's for sinners that this Jesus came. I can go to him immediately and as I am. Whatever my past, present or future, whatever the situation, I can go to him now. Age doesn't matter, experience doesn't matter, reformation doesn't matter. This Jesus came for sinners, and sinners can come directly to him. Anything else is not the salvation of the New Testament. Anything else is not the gospel of the New Testament.

If I identify this salvation with anything else, I have it all wrong. Whether that salvation is based on my good works, or my righteousness, or my obedience; if that is the basis of my salvation, I have it all wrong. I know I must stand before God, and if my argument is that my life has been relatively decent, not a bad life, more good in it than bad; if this is what I identify salvation with, I have it all wrong.

It's not my spiritual experiences, or the nature of my testimony, or what moves me, or my feelings. If these are the things with which I identify salvation, I have it wrong. It is not a particular set of creeds that saves: things I believe or subscribe -- it is not my Calvinism that will save me, or my grasp of reformed doctrine, or my knowledge of the Bible. These are not the things with which I identify this salvation. No -- I must simply look to Jesus. He is the door. He is the frontpiece. He is the one thing by which I can identify God's salvation.

If I have a claim to salvation that is divorced from Jesus Christ, it is no salvation at all. It must be him. Jesus alone, in his glory and grandeur and finished work: absolute salvation is guaranteed to me in him. If his person and work are the basis of my salvation, I have it all right.

Second, I take the door as a SYMBOL OF ACCESS.

'If anyone enters by me he shall be saved'. Now I know that Jesus goes on in this verse to talk about going in and out and finding pasture; he is extending the imagery vividly, but the point is still clear. It is by entering THROUGH the door that a person is saved.

Could it be more simple or clear? By coming through this door, one is saved. No other door. No other access. No other way. Jesus is talking here in the most exclusive of terms. There is no other door into the kingdom, but there is a glorious door here.

The glory of it is that it is not locked. It is not even closed if the gospel is being preached. Perhaps the door of our heart is closed against Jesus. Perhaps he is not getting in. But the beauty of the gospel is that even though we may close our door against him, he does not close his door against us. His door is wide open.

This door is here to give access. We open the doors of the church so that people will get in. We do not open them so that people will stand outside admiring the doors; we don't open them so that people will stay at the threshold. We open the doors so that people will enter. The door is the point of access to the building.

And here is Jesus, saying to us the same thing. 'I am the door'. Are there people who are content to stand and marvel at the door? Just stand and look, with an interest in Jesus, but they have never crossed the threshold. They have admired his life, his death, his teachings, his examples -- but they have never entered the building.

Jesus is saying that if he is the door, then he is there to give us access through himself into this salvation, and until we enter we cannot be in his kingdom. It is the same point that is made in the Sermon on the Mount: there is a narrow gate and way which lead to life (Matthew 7:13-14). But what is the point of knowing this unless we enter the gate and walk the way?

I have often referred to Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermon on these words from Matthew. What is the strait gate like? Lloyd-Jones says: 'I like to think of it as a turnstile. It is just like a turnstile that admits one person at a time and no more. And it is so narrow that there are certain things which you simply cannot take through with you. It is exclusive from the very beginning' (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, vol 2, p221). Think of a football stadium. All these thousands of spectators come in through the turnstiles one by one. That is how the great company of the redeemed enter the kingdom of God -- individually. They fill his house to overflowing, having entered the door one by one.

We enter churches this way. We don't let others enter for us -- we take the step ourselves. Wasn't it like this for Noah and his generation? He hears God's word and builds the ark. So there is a huge ark here; and it is going to rain for forty days and forty nights. There is not going to be any salvation anywhere; no one will be safe when God's judgement comes.

But the God of the judgement is also the God of grace; the God who sends the rain also sends the plan for the ark. The God who judges the world is the God who makes a way of salvation for Noah and his family, and that ark is only as good as the door. The ark is only as good as their entering into it. So the time comes when the flood is to be poured, and it is not the building of the ark that is going to save Noah. The construction of this great boat is not what is going to keep the family safe. By faith he built the ark according to God's command, but God said to him: 'GO IN!'.

Thoruhg the door he goes, and then he is withint he security and safety of the ark. Where are we? Jesus says 'I am the door'. Have we crossed this threshold? Maybe we have decided we are not good enough. But he does not keep out those who are not good enough! These are the very ones he calls to come in!

He opens the door of salvation wide open for sinners who are not good enough. He pleads with men and women and boys and girls to come in by the open door to Jesus. His shed blood and righteousness -- his life and his death and his resurrection are the essence of the gospel, and we are called to go in by this door, and not by any other.

Thirdly, we take the door as a SYMBOL OF SECURITY

I think this is the first and immediate point of the image here. There is security in Jesus, who guards the sheepfold. He stands in the gap so that the sheep are safe behind the door.

Is it not a magnificent moment in the story of Noah in Genesis 7 where the ark is ready, and the clouds are ready, God is ready. God says to Noah to enter the ark, so they go in to it, and we read in the Bible that 'God shut him in'.

Now he is safe. Now he is secure. The Lord shut him in. When our children are small it is easy to close up the house at night, to lock the door. They were all in bed and asleep. You could get off to bed at the end of the day. It was all so wonderful.

Then they got a little older, and started exerting their own independence. They weren't always back home when you wanted them; sometimes it was such a relief to hear the door closing, and you knew they were in and they were safe.

Of course they did not understand what you were worrying about . Of course they were safe! Nothing was going to happen. But they didn't have a parent's heart, and concern and worry, using these long hours just to hear the door close.

The Lord shut him in. There was safety and security there -- everything was shut in behind the locked door. There is a Jesus in the gospel who says 'I am the door'. You want to know you are safe? Your safety is just as good as your door. Your security is guaranteed by the strength of the door.

So Jesus says that everything he has done is guaranteeing the eternal security and salvation of everyone who puts their trust in him. That guarantee is underscored in this chapter -- 'they will never perish. No-one will pluck them out of my hand.' They are closed in with Jesus.

The psalmist in the Book of Psalms expresses this thought: 'I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers' (Psalm 39:12). What a marvellous thought. He does not say 'I am a stranger to you', but 'I am a stranger with you'. By nature we are strangers TO God, but when you cross this threshold and enter this door, and come into this salvation, instead of being a stranger to God, and a sojourner here without him, you become a stranger WITH God, and a pilgrim here in his company.

Where would Noah rather be? To be closed in with God was his security. To be closed out from God was to face judegement and death. For all its discomfort and trial, for these long weeks of confinement he would rather be shut in by God and preserved and kept safe. If you are in Christ, there is nothing in life, or death, or in this world or that to come that can threaten your security (Romans 8:39). Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Nothing is the answer! God's people are secure behind this door.

Let me finally take the door as a SYMBOL OF DIVISION.

The same door that closed Noah in closed the world out. Have you ever gone somewhere and you realised you were late. You got there but the doors were closed. It is not a nice feeling. Yet the Lord takes up the image in Matthew 25:10, with the wedding feast to which people came and the doors were shut.

The same doors which closed some in to the banquet closed others out. Isn't that what happens when you close the doors of your house at night? You close the family in and the world out. That door becomes the most powerful symbol of divison at that point in your life.

I think Jesus is capturing that also. 'I am the door' he says. There is salvation, and you identify it with him. There is access to it by him. There is security behind this door. But the same door that closes his people in to the glory of this salvation closes others out.

What matters supremely is the side of the door you are on. Do you know him. Have you come to find pasture and salvation in him? Can you say with the psalmist in Psalm 118:20, 'this is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it'. There is the voice of salvation where the righteous dwell. Do we sing this song? Do we know we are saved by trusting in his finished work at Calvary?

The door is open, but it still divides. Jesus says 'Come for all things are ready' but it won't be like this always, and one day he will close the door and it will matter supremely when the flood can dht ejudgement comes not what kind of life we have lived, or what people we've been, or how often we went to church or read our Bibles, but what side of the door we are on.

Am I saying that is what matters then? NO -- it is what matters right now. Where are we in relation to him? If we have come in we are safe. If we are lingering outside we are not. What a blessing that he still offers the salvation -- may we all know it just by crossing this threshold.

Who are you Jesus?

'I am the door , if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.'