Sermon Summary - Jan. 17 - Jesus Is - Week 3

Impostors can be found most anywhere... Actors playing a part, a stand-in for a leader's protection (Wild Wild West Movie), Cosplay... the list goes on. My Pastor shared a fun story about a group of husbands infiltrating the Women's Conference!! LOL

In John 10:1-10 Jesus is speaking to a group that includes Pharisees. (Ch. 9:40) The discussion has been on Spiritual Blindness leading to sin. In this passage, Jesus is telling them that anyone claiming to have access to God through their own knowledge rather than through Him is a thief and a liar. Jesus is showing them that He is The Gate to God as a Shepherd is the gate for sheep.

Historically, shepherds in that day would literally sit and sleep in the gap of the wall around the sheep pen. Thus acting as the gate. No sheep got out and no fox got in under his watch. And the shepherds didn't just guard their own flocks, but those of the community. The sheep knew these men's voices, followed them, and trusted them for safety. The shepherd would literally lay down their lives for the sheep. The sheep knew an impostor if they heard one and wouldn't follow. In a world of impostors, Jesus is the Gate that leads to true life.

Impostors can be subtle in our lives. Looking down to verse 10 we read that, "the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (NIV) There are 3 major sources of impostors we may find in our lives.

1) "Do Good-ism" or the idea that living a good life can lead to Heaven. Jesus is the Way, Light, Gate, etc... He guards against pride and judgmental attitudes.

2) Religious posturing, self-righteousness, desire to control others by fear, guilt, or shame. Jesus gives us practices that anchor us in Him.

3) Political Partisanship -- Jesus came to destroy human notions of power and brought love. Remember that Peter was originally a zealot. ('Nuff said on that)

Israel was known as God's Sheep, but Jesus invites us ALL to be His Sheep. (Jn. 3:16 "whosoever believes") Jesus has a special affinity for the outcast and forgotten in particular. We see this throughout the Gospels when He ate with "sinners" or forgave the prostitute, healed the Lepers, etc... Matt. 5:2-12 gives us the Beatitudes where Jesus "flips the script" on notions that had been widely accepted as truth. Essentially, that the weak don't matter. Jesus emphatically shows in this passage that they actually do in God's eyes.

Looking at the last part of John 10:10 we see that God wants our lives to be abundant and that we can only find that in Him. If we go back to Genesis, we see that God literally created abundance!! The Garden of Eden was a lush environment that provided everything Adam and Eve could ever need or want in their time. Water, fruit, beauty, companionship, fellowship with Him... God doesn't just want us to observe abundance in other people's lives, but to have it for ourselves. All we need to do is listen to and obey our Shepherd by showing love for Him and love for others every day. Rest in the peace of Psalm 121 where it speaks of God always looking out for us. (we are adopted into the fold of Israel through Abraham's seed in Jesus) Rom. 4:16 and others... God Bless!!