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I Am the Door
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Fourth in a Lenten series entitled, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”
The Eight “I Ams” of Jesus from John’s Gospel
In each “I am”
statements in John’s gospel Jesus defines who he is and what he is not. In some
ways the words are so simple, one syllable, bread, light. This morning, door.
And yet you spend a lifetime pondering the depths of the names, the genius of
the Lord Jesus continues to amaze us all. If you have your Bibles the passage
is John, 10th chapter, 7-10. If you need a pew Bible the page number
is 1666.
Beginning with verse 10: “Therefore Jesus said again I
tell you the truth I am the gate for the sheep.” The word gate can be
translated door. “All whoever came before me with thieves and robbers the chief
did not listen to them I am the door, the gate, whoever enters through me will
be saved. He will come in, go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to
steal, kill and destroy. But I am come that you might have life and have it to
the full.” This is the word of the Lord.
I am the door. Doors play a major role in our lives if you
think about it. Almost no activity in your life does not have a door mixed in
it somehow from the front door of where you live to a refrigerator door. And
you remember the little question that went around some time ago, if God had a
refrigerator would your picture be on that door? And if you’re a child of God
that’s true. Doors are part of us from the car door to the closet door, from
the open door to the closed door. And doors play basically two roles for us,
they protect and they make possibilities. When they’re closed they protect.
When they’re open they create possibilities. When Jesus said I am the door he
was talking about on occasion being a protector and other times being the
possibility bringer. A crucial question for all of us today is what door of my
life needs the Lord Jesus to be there to either open it up or to shut it tight.
A highly individual matter really, even at different stages of our lives. What
door needs the special attention of the Lord Jesus right now may not be the same
door a year from now. And at the different chapters in our lives, what is
that? I’m thinking of a college student I will call Ed. Ed is full of
possibilities. He has more talent than you can imagine. He’s in the
university, he’s not living up to his potential and there’s one big reason he is
absolutely addicted to pornography, can’t let it alone. The door needs to be
shut. It is so available anymore it’s becoming a national addiction. And you
see part of the problem is not only the lust factor but of the energy it drains
off from what could be spent in such a profitable way. The door needs shutting.
Evelyn I will call her, she’s 50 years old and she sits in
an oncologist’s office waiting for the word. She’s always been able to handle
things; she’s very self-assured and confident, very much admired by friends and
family. She has been the strong one and she has been the caregiver but now she
hears the words: you have breast cancer. Who’s going to stand with her at that
door? A door she’s never entered and hopefully will never enter again but now
she needs help.
And Jesus said I am the door. Now what would He mean by
that? Well notice the “I”. In that day and time when shepherds were out from
villages, towns, cities, out on hillsides they would have their flock and it
would begin to be dusk, through the years they would put together folds, sheep
folds, little corrals we would say with walls about this high, waist high,
usually made out of rocks from the hillside and inside of those sheepfolds the
shepherd will leave the sheep. The gate was just a space. There is no gate.
The shepherd becomes the gate and when all of the sheep are in the fold the Son
has gone back, he sits there with his back against one of the walls and makes
himself as comfortable as he can and for anybody to get inside of that sheepfold
has to go through him, literally he is the gate. Jesus is calling that
illustration to mind and says in life when things to wrong or right I will be
your gatekeeper. I will be your door.
Remember protection and potential, protection and
possibility. As Jesus tells us about being the gate I’m thinking this week as
I’m preparing this sermon, you know I am going to repeat things I have said a
zillion times, well not that many but almost. How can I make it a little more
clear, vibrant, alive, full of energy. Then it occurred to me that sometimes
you can do this by means of contrast. We see white best against black, red
against green and so forth. Let me contrast Jesus with one you probably know
from the gospels named John the Baptist, JB. Now John the Baptist was an
absolutely unique made out of a different cut of cloth person. And there isn’t
anything in our culture that compares in any way that I can think of. Here was
a celebrity that had people leaving the city and going out to a wilderness area
near the Jordan River to hear that preacher land blast them for their sins and
for the evil of the society. The only thing I can think of that would compare
in our American history was during the frontier era when they had what they
called camp meetings and families would get in buggies, they would get in
wagons, sometimes horseback and they’d go to where the camp meeting was. And
for a week they would live there. And this, whoever the preacher was would
preach at them and they got religion that week. In those days they called it
hell fire and damnation preaching. I think there was probably a little of all.
In the first century John the Baptist was the hell fire
and damnation preacher. He was the judgment guy and John knew and believed that
Jesus was the messiah. And when Jesus stood in line for John to baptize Him he
refused. He said not me, I’m not going to baptize you, Lord. You ought to
baptize me. And I understand that feeling, I really do.
This last Wednesday night Journey to the Cross Service I
was comparing the basin that Pilot used to wash his hands of responsibility of
the crucifixion. With the basin Jesus had used a few hours earlier to kneel
down and wash His disciples’ feet. At the end of the service Wednesday night
one of our very finest came by. You see, I had said to them let Jesus into your
lives tonight. You are believers or you wouldn’t be here. Many of you have been
busy serving the Lord all day in our volunteer work here at the church. Let
Christ serve you. Let Him kneel down in front of you as it were and wash your
feet. This one came by, tears in her eyes to say I couldn’t. You couldn’t
what? I couldn’t let Jesus wash my feet. And I knew exactly what she was
talking about. You know if the Lord asked me to wash His feet I’d do it in a
heartbeat. But for Him to wash my feet? Some how or another that doesn’t fit.
You don’t feel worthy. There’s something wrong with the Lord God of all things
pausing and kneeling in front of you to wash your feet. But it’s that same kind
of thing when He said I am the door, willing to be a common, ordinary
exit/entrance place. He’ll do it for you if you will let Him. For John the
Baptist in those days had the deep feeling that Jesus was the Messiah and that
He would be the One to come and straighten everything out. Here’s how he
described it, he said even now the ax is laid to the roots of the trees and one
is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He will
clear the threshing floor and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, all images
of judgment, all images of condemnation and then his dream of wrath begins to
unravel.
Herod wasn’t deposed from his throne, in fact he put John
in prison, far side of the Dead Sea in a place worthy only of hell. Not only
that Jesus himself turned out not to be the kind of hell fire and damnation
preacher that John expected and there was no ax laid to the root and instead of
fire from heaven burning everything up Jesus talked about loving your enemies.
John was eating locusts out in the wilderness and Jesus was turning water into
wine. John was walking around the block to avoid having any contact with
sinners and Jesus was eating with them. John thundered damnation and Jesus said
I am the door to life. John spoke of a power and a judgment that would
straighten everything out and Jesus said become like little children or you
can’t enter into the Kingdom of God. I am the door He said.
Well Jesus sent a message back to John saying, John pay
attention to what you see and what you hear. The blind see, the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the
gospel preached to them and blessed are those who don’t find offense in the way
I do things. Jesus, you see, didn’t say I am the ax, He said I am the door. He
didn’t say I’m the fire from heaven, He said I’m the light of the world.
Whether you’re at the top of the world or in a place of shattered dreams you
need a door and Jesus knows it better than anyone. The question is will you let
Him be your door? Notice once more that I, emphasis “I” am the door. It’s so
personal and it’s, you know, one of the most frustrating things about being a
preacher is that people think that our faith has to do with rituals and do’s and
don’ts. Well those come into play but they do in everything, education,
hospitals, policies, anywhere. Here’s the difference, Jesus is the One who is
the door personally for you and all of the different kinds of doors in your life
He will be if you will let Him.
A man named David Shepherd wrote to a friend, Larry Crabb.
Larry got his permission to publish a letter in one of his books; it went like
this because his friend had been through a shattering experience. His friend
wrote: Faith, as I begin to understand it more is not about my circumstances
it’s about a person. To have faith in better circumstances even in God creating
better circumstances is not true faith. I want to be the kind of man that can
watch my dream go down and still cling to the Kind of my life, Jesus the Lord.
Personal relationship.
A wonderful Methodist minister in a book that he has
written tells of his last conversation with a friend of his who was a Baptist
minister, they’d been in the same community for ever and ever, worked together,
loved each other, prayed together. And then his friend, the Baptist minister,
was diagnosed as having cancer and went very quickly. And toward the last his
Methodist brother friend he just went to see him and said you have walked with
other people through this time now that you are there tell me about it. And the
minister said well, let me tell you, the closer I get to the end it’s all about
Jesus. And what I did for the denomination, all of the meetings I attended, all
of the theological arguments that I was in, are really completely unimportant
and I realize Jesus is the Son of the Almighty and that one of these breaths
will be one of my last and He’s the One who will be the door to the next life.
Friend, I am the door is the personal proclamation, not about religion but about
Jesus Himself and sometimes, sometimes it happens the Lord Jesus uses His people
to be the door, the door to recovery, the door to motivate, the door to healing.
A week ago was a difficult week for our family. It was 15
years ago that our son died of Leukemia at age 33. His family was with us, the
three daughters who for those five years became like children, his wife like a
daughter. Let me tell you something and all of our family would back it up if
everyone of them were here behind, we would never have made it without you. You
were the door of recovery. You were the path we could depend upon, you loved
and cared, you were the door. St. Patrick’s Day 16 years ago there was a walk
from the church all the way down to the hospital, MCV. St. Patrick’s Day every
since has been different for me because you made it possible for treatments but
more than that you prayed and supported, you were the door.
I want you to know something if you don’t have a church
home, you’re robbing yourself of one of the great experiences of life to love,
to be loved, to receive the door and to be the door. Jesus said I am the door.
Bow your head and close your eyes and in the quiet moment what door to your life
needs healing right now, either to close it tight or to open it wide or both?
I’m going to let you have just a minute here of quiet as you let the Lord Christ
who is the living door walk into your life, let Him.
Oh Lord Jesus thank you for being here today. Thank you
for all You have been for us through all of these years. It helps to know that
we never outgrow needing You to be the door. Open for us the possibilities that
we need, chase away, Lord, the stuff that needs to be shut out. And if there’s
somebody here this day who doesn’t know You personally may they not leave this
place without You. And if there’s anyone here who really needs a church home
may it happen and I pray this in the strong name of Jesus the Christ who is the
Lord, Amen.
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