A gate, a door is a barrier.
A door provides protection. That’s why we have them. Think of your home without doors, open to the weather on a stormy day, your possessions available to the robbers, your beloved people vulnerable to the aggressors. What stops them most of the time? A door.
That is what Jesus wanted us to understand. In 10:1-5, he described himself as the legitimate shepherd, the good shepherd who comes in by the door. [More about the Shepherd next week.] The ancient middle Eastern shepherd would bring his flocks into a pen or fold at night. The wall would protect them on most sides, but there was a watcher at the gate (10:3) who let the legitimate shepherds in. Thieves and robbers came in over the wall, but the legitimate owner of the flock came in the legitimate way. At first, his audience did not understand him, so he changed the metaphor briefly.
READ 10:6-10.
If the paddock was small enough, there would only be one flock inside and the shepherd himself would stand or lie down in the entrance. No sheep, no predator and no thief could come in or go out without going through the gate. Jesus told his followers, you and me, that he is the only way into the fold. He is the door.
A door keeps dangers out. It keeps wolves and bears out. It keeps unwanted people out.
They knew this in Jerusalem. The religious leaders used doors and barriers to separate. The Law of Moses commanded them. The Jerusalem rulers used them diligently.
READ Hebrews 9:1-7
The temple had barriers, so many barriers. The Holy of Holies had an impenetrable curtain through which only the high priest could go. The sanctuary had barriers to separate the priests from the commoners. The men’s court had warnings against the women and children approaching. And here is the warning written to refuse like me to keep me at a distance.
Carved in Greek for the Greeks to read, it warns:
No stranger is to enter within the balustrade round the temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be himself responsible for his ensuing death.
The door provides a barrier until it opens and then…
A door is access
According to Ps 24:3-4 who could live happily in God’s presence? Whoever has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in idols or false gods.
That would keep most of the world out. Even us.
Isaiah 26:4 reads, “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.”
That would keep most of the world out. Even us.
Until that door opens, we are outside the fold. And, oh, did it open! Listen:
Mark 15:37-39, With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Jesus the Door lets you in. No one else could do it. No one else is the Door. He is the way in. The moment he died for the sin of the world, the barriers to the world flew open. The temple sacrifices became irrelevant. The courts of Gentiles, Jewish women and children, Jewish men, the priesthood, the high priesthood became irrelevant. The Jerusalem-centred religious system became irrelevant. God’s presence became accessible to the whole world through Jesus. Only through Jesus.
Listen: Romans 5:1-2, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Listen: Ephesians 2:14-18, For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Listen: Revelation 3:8, These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.
A door separates in from out.
It separates those who belong to the shepherd from those that don’t. Life inside looks entirely different than life outside.
Thieves are busy stealing, killing and destroying right now. Don’t you know someone who is easy prey right now? Don’t you pray for people you love your are being robbed by the enemy, attacked by the enemy, destroyed by the enemy? Addictions, malice, unforgiveness, neglect, abuse, lawlessness, lust, laziness, purposelessness, souls adrift. That is life outside the gate. That is life without protection and defence of Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God.
Inside, 10:10 says we have life and life to the full. Abundant life. That doesn’t mean perpetual pleasure, opulent riches and endless physical health. You know of people with all those things that are still experiencing the old life outside the door. Those things can be present even while the enemy steals and kills and destroys.
No, the abundant life that Jesus came to give is the life worth living. That’s what Hebrews 10 describes after the barriers to God come down.
- It means confidence in our relationship with God (10:19).
- It means Jesus is all the religious system we need (10:20-21). No more intervention of priests or religious oppressors.
- It means we can go straight to God through Jesus (10:22) because we are already cleansed by him.
- It means we can live in confidence that all the promises of God will be kept since he already kept the promise to send the Saviour the whole world needed (10:23).
- It means we who are inside the flock of God have obligations of love toward one another (10:24-25).
We have a responsibility to love generously and encourage constantly others who have entered by the gate. We can motivate one another to the abundant living Jesus has for us. We can turn up for one another. We can encourage one another to follow Jesus more closely.