Our first scripture reading is taken from the Old Testament, which is related to my sermon for tonight from the Gospel of John chapter 10, 1 to 10. So I will be reading Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 1 through 7. And as I read this portion of the scripture from the Old Testament, I would like to encourage you to think and consider about this righteous branch that God promised His people that He will give them this righteous branch to come and shepherd them and bless them with safety and plenty in their life. Jeremiah 23, 1 to 7. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. declares the Lord. Therefore, that says the Lord, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who care for my people, you have scattered my flock and have driven them away and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more. not be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, as the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But as the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of the countries where he had driven them, then they shall dwell in their own land. Now let's turn a Bible to the gospel of John chapter 10, one through 10. Hear the word of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the ship fold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the ship. To him the gatekeeper opens, The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the ship. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the ship did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. May the Lord bless the reading of his word into our hearts by the power of his Holy Spirit. Is there anyone among you who has got a direct access to the President of the United States of America? Now, when I say an access, I mean a direct access to go to his office and talk to him about any issue that you have in your life. I don't know what your experience has been, But coming from Africa, my experience has been if you go to a certain governmental office in most countries in Africa, before you even meet the high rank governmental official with whom you want to have a conversation, You have to go through many other people, multiple offices and departments. You go to the office and you tell them whom you want to see. And it's common for people to say to you, you first go to room number five. And then the person in that room will tell you what to do. You go to number 5 and then the person in door number 5 will tell you go to door number 10. And the one in number 10 will tell you how to get to that government official. Before you even meet or someone will tell you there is no way that you can meet with that government official, you have to go through many other doors. You know, in matters of religion, matters of eternity, salvation, and redemption, there is only one door by which anyone should enter. There is only one door by which you can go in and have eternal life. in 1960 and 70 here in America. There was an evangelical movement by the name Jesus Movement. And it was a diverse movement by its kind. There was Jesus People Movement within that movement that involved the use of the time. And the young people in that movement with their life, with their preaching, and with their teaching, with their witnessing, they were declaring that Jesus Christ was the Savior. And there was a group within that movement which was very fundamental in its nature and in its understanding. And that movement rejected all kinds of contemporary thinking. But all the movement, all members of that movement, they had one thing in common. They all knew and believed that Jesus Christ was the only way for salvation. They knew and they declared that Jesus Christ was the only way to the Father. You are in the car at that time, or you go to offices, you see these posters and pamper stickers with this one sign, the spiritual slogan of the time, one way. Wherever you go, you see one way, one way, one way. Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is not the case in today's America. And you agree with me. Today, even among evangelical preachers in America, the notion and the conviction and the understanding of preaching Christ's exclusiveness. is irrelevant to the American culture. Evangelical preachers today will tell you, if you teach, if you preach that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father, your message will be irrelevant. You will be out of harmony. No one will come to your church. No one will watch your program. So you have to preach, you have to tell people that all religions will go, will take us to the same and one God. And you know it is not true. You know it is not what our Lord Jesus Christ claimed about himself. In our text tonight, Jesus is claiming about Himself. Jesus Christ is referring to Himself as the only door to the sheepfold. And it is Jesus who is making that claim. And this is the third I am statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. We already considered that too. I am the bread of life. That bread is for your soul. I am the light of the world. That light is for your spiritual eyes. for your eyes to be opened and see God and understand the things of salvation. And here is now the door for you to enter, to enter to eternal life, to enter to safety and plenty. And in this text that we are dealing with tonight, our Lord Jesus Christ is teaching us that He is the only true door, the only true gate to safety and plenty in life. And by God's grace, I would like to show you this in three ways. First, we'll consider Jesus Christ the only door to the sheepfold. And secondly then, we'll consider the safety and the plenty that we have in this door or through this door. And then thirdly, we will ask the question, now what do we do with this door? You see, He's claiming to be the door, so what do you do with this door? So first, Jesus Christ is the only door to the ship fold. And in order to understand what Jesus was saying, and why He's claiming to be the only door to the ship fold, we need to understand the context of what's taking place here. I'm sure you have read the Gospel of John chapter 9 and 10 before this time, or previously in your life. And you need to know that there is no bridge in between chapter 9 and 10. We just say chapter 9, chapter 10. But everything that happened in chapter 9 and 10 took place in one day. Jesus Christ was addressing the Pharisees of His day. Jesus Christ was putting the Pharisees of His day into test. So everything that took place in both chapters took place in one time. And what happened was our Lord Jesus Christ healed a man who was born blind. And many people knew that man who was blind and a beggar in their town. And our Lord Jesus Christ healed this man. And instead they rejoice and give glory to God for the healing of the blind man. The Pharisees rejected the Messiah. The Pharisees actually want to kill Jesus for healing this blind man. And they call it the blind man in chapter 9 verse 35. And this is what they say to him. Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. And you know what they were doing? The moment they called Jesus a sinner, they became blasphemy. They were insulting God. Jesus is God. Jesus is God in the flesh. And our Lord Jesus Christ heard that they cast out this man from the synagogue. And in verse 35, our Lord Jesus Christ met this man who was born blind and was healed by Jesus. And He asked him, Do you believe in the Son of God? And the man replied by saying, Who is He? Help me to find out who he is." And Jesus told him, it is I, the one who's talking to you. It is, he is the son of God. And listen to the response of the man, unlike the Pharisees. The man said, Lord, I believe. And then follows, and he worshiped him. You see, my brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever you are, in which time you are living in, everything comes to this. Blasphemy or worship. You would either blasphemy against God, or you will worship the Son of God. And God's people, we worship Jesus Christ. The one thing that you need to discover here is we worship Jesus Christ. We don't only follow Jesus Christ. We are not only the followers of Jesus Christ. We worship Jesus Christ. We don't just admire Jesus Christ. We worship Jesus Christ. And when we worship Jesus Christ, we worship Him as eternal God. We worship Him as omnipotent God. We worship Him as everlasting. We worship Him as someone who had never been who have never a beginning. We worship Him as God. We worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Triune God. One God in three persons. We worship Jesus Christ. And the blindness with the Pharisees. was the blindness that Jesus Christ was indeed God. He was the Son of God. He was the eternal Son of God. So for everyone who stands before the Gospel message, for everyone who stands before Jesus Christ and His Holy Word, there is no in-between ground. There is no in-between position. You're either blasphemer or worshiper. There is no other position in between. And Jesus Christ was telling these Pharisees that He was God. He was God in the flesh. And the one thing that really triggered to the blindness of the Pharisees. You see, when Jesus healed the man, his insight was getting clearer and clearer. And the more Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, their darkness was becoming darker and darker. And he had to use a figurative speech to help them understand what he really was saying about himself. But the one thing that triggered them was this. Jesus told them the reason why his father loves him. Because he has the authority to lay his own life by himself and take it up again. And there was division among the Jewish people, even among the Pharisees. Some of them, their response was, this man is insane. This man is crazy. He's going to kill himself and bring it up again. He is insane. You see, the insanity was coming from rejecting the Messiah, from rejecting Christ being God in the flesh. But observe what Jesus was saying to them. I do what any one of you cannot do. You see, everyone has authority in a sense to kill his own life. You have authority on your own life to go off a cliff and kill yourself. But once you die, you are dead. There is no way that you can bring your life back to yourself. You see, the only one who can do that is God. God in the flesh. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And they couldn't understand that. They couldn't see that. They wouldn't believe in Him as God, as the Son of God. So he used this figure of speech. And in verse 7, he tells them this, So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the ship. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." Now he's referring to himself as the one and only door. Why did he use this figure of speech? Because in verse 1 and 2, he told them, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the ship fold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But who enters by the door is the shepherd of the ship. Let me tell you what Jesus is telling them. Because, you see, you haven't entered through me, through one door, that gate that the keeper of the gate, my father in heaven, would open for him as a shepherd. Because you didn't go in through that door, you are qualified to be thieves and robbers. My father didn't bless your ministry. You were not appointed by my father to be the shepherds of God's people. You are thieves and robbers because you didn't enter through this door, which means through me, I am the only door to the sheepfold. I'm the only one, Jesus is telling them, I'm the only one who can gather and perfect my people. And I'm the one who appoints ministers, shepherds for my people to do what I do, to gather saints and perfect them with the teaching of the scripture. You don't have that authority. Simply because you didn't enter through these gates. And that gate is I. I am the door. Now you might wonder why is Jesus the only door to the sheepfold? Tonight I will tell you two things or two answers for that question. Jesus Christ is the only door to the sheepfold because He is the only mediator between God and man. The one thing that qualified Jesus Christ to become the only door to the sheepfold is he's the only mediator between God and man. Think about that. What is the work of a mediator? The work of a mediator is to bring reconciliation in between two parties. And for the mediator to bring peace and establish reconciliation between the two parties, he should be accepted by the two parties. You have to agree that you will accept his judgment, that he will judge on the issue that you have with other people. That's the work of a mediator. But he needs to be accepted by both parties. Which means he should be near to the two parties. He should be known by the two parties. He should be accepted by the two parties. And both parties should believe in his work of reconciliation. That's the work of a mediator. Now consider Jesus. He was so close, so dear to his Father in heaven. He's called the only begotten son. In fact, God the Father witnessed it about his son. This is my son in whom I'm well-pleased. The only son, the only person in whom and by whom the Father is well-pleased. He was so near from eternity. He was in the bosom of his Father. No one has seen God. The one who was with the Father from eternity, He made Him known to us. And who is that? He's Jesus. The only mediator between God and man. The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2. He reminds us about that truth, for there is one God. And there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. My friends, when you think of coming to God the Father, don't come to God the Father without a mediator. You need a mediator because you are coming to the most holy and exalted and holy God on the universe. And when you do come through a mediator, you need only one mediator. And that is Jesus Christ, the man Jesus. You see, whenever we come to God, we need to have righteousness. Whenever we need to God, we think about, how would I be accepted in the sight of God? You need righteousness. You need not only righteousness, but you need perfect righteousness, which you don't have. Your only perfect righteousness is Jesus Christ. And that righteousness has been imputed to you by faith in Jesus Christ. That's the reason why Jesus becomes the only door to the Father, the only door to the sheepfold, because He is the only perfect Son of God, who imputed His righteousness upon you through faith alone. But remember, when you come to Jesus, when you come to Jesus, do you need righteousness? When you come to Jesus, you need to admit that you are a sinner. You don't come to Jesus with your own righteousness. You don't have any righteousness. You come to Jesus admitting that you are a sinner, and the only hope that you have for salvation is Christ himself. Then Jesus takes you in, washes you by his blood, imputes his righteousness on you, and he brings you in to the Father, Being the only gate, He brings you to His Father. The only one who was dear and near and close to the Father was Jesus Christ, your only mediator. What about His closeness to you? What about His friendship to you? You remember Jesus calling His disciples, my friends? What a title! What a name! He left The heavenly glory came to men and women like us, sinners, and He actually called us, My friends. He became a friend of sinners. He died for you on the cross. He sacrificed His own life on the cross. He was so dear to us to the point of calling us, my friends. In John 15, 15, Jesus said, no longer I do call you servants. For the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You are my friends. I am so close and dear to you. I am your mediator. The only mediator that you have is me, but I'm your friend. I remember Lou Ivy and myself were at the prison to preach to the inmates. And after the worship service, I was talking to one of the inmates who has been in prison for more than 15 years. And he is a believer, but he is on the death row because he killed members of his family. And he told to me, he said to me, you see pastor, no one visits me. My family, my relatives, my friends, because of what I did, no one comes here to visit me. I don't have friends. And he said to me, the only friend that I have is Jesus Christ. No one comes to me, no one visits me. The only one, the only friend that I have in my life is Jesus Christ, and I'm going to die. That's the verdict. I'll be executed, I will die, but I know this, I have a friend, Jesus Christ. That's what it means, you see, for Christ to be the mediator between God and man. But He is also the only door, the only gate to the sheepfold, to salvation, to eternal blessing, because He is the only great High Priest that we have in life. Pastor Peter mentioned Aaron in his preaching this morning, a priest in Israel. Dino Aaron in Israel was the most beloved priest. He was so close to the people in the temple and outside of the temple. He was so dear to the people of Israel. He was appointed by God to be their priest. Even though today you see the title priest smells bad to all of us, in the Old Testament it was not like that. There were priests in Israel who abused their office, but priests like Aaron were representing the love of God, the mercy of God to the people of God. They were pointing to the great high priest who was to come, Jesus Christ himself. But remember Aaron never sacrificed his life for the people of God. Aaron sacrificed an animal and he sprinkled the blood of the animal on the people as a sign of the remission of their sins. But Aaron is no more, he's dead. Jesus Christ opened a new way through new living. When He died on the cross and He said, it is finished, the curtain at the temple was torn from the top to the bottom. And that was your entrance to the presence of God. The Reformers, when they started the Reformation, they had three principles. And I hope you all remember the three principles of Reformation. One was scripture alone. And they rejected all the traditions and teachings of men. The second one was justification by faith alone. But you remember the same principle. The priesthood of all believers. The priesthood of all believers. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. Peter said, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God. Your entrance, the gate by which we can come to the presence of God is Jesus Christ Himself. And it is because He is the only mediator between God and man. It is because He is the only high priest that we have today. That makes Him the only door, the only gate to the Father. But you see, Jesus also said in verse 9 and 10, and that is the second thing that I want us to see. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. I want you to notice two things here. Jesus said, if you enter by me, if you enter by me to the sheep fold, You're coming in through me, through the only and one gate will bring two things to you, safety and planning, safety and abundance. And what does safety mean here? You see, safety here means two things. One is our salvation. One is our redemption. When we come to Jesus and we come to the father by faith through Jesus Christ, his son, then the work of salvation of our Savior Jesus Christ will be effective in our life and will be saved. That is our redemption. That is our salvation. But the second meaning of the safety here is protection. It's directly related to the reaction of the Pharisees who were false shepherds in Israel. And Jesus is telling the Pharisees and all the people who are listening to him, if you come in through me, you will be protected. I will protect you from what? I'll protect you from the false shepherds, false teachers in Israel who didn't come in through me, whom the Father didn't bless them. I will protect them from you. At times I talk to Christians, even here in our church. And people tell you, I was visiting a friend last Sunday, and I attended his church for worship. And we usually ask as pastors, so how was the preaching? And people say to you, ah. And then sometimes they say to you, it was terrible. You know what they are saying? I know the voice of my shepherd. That was not the voice of my shepherd. I'm a sheep who knows the voice of his shepherd, which means that they're running for their life. They will tell you, I'm not going back to that place ever again. They're running for their life because they know the voice of their shepherd. Which means Jesus is protecting you by the true teaching of his word. You can identify in between the true and faithful preacher and false preacher. But also it means, I'll protect you from other wolves who will come to attack you, to kill you. You see, David said, my help comes from God, the maker of heaven and earth. In Hebrews, you see, the writer of the Hebrews tells us that God always protects his people. He will never forsake his people. He is the protector of his people. But there is one reality of the Christian life that we need to remember. We can be persecuted being a Christian. We can be killed being a Christian. There are places in this world today for following Jesus Christ, for confessing Jesus Christ as the only way for salvation, you can be killed. Under the plan of God, with the will of God, you can suffer for the sake of the gospel. You can die, you can be killed for the sake of the gospel. But a general provision has been given to you through Jesus Christ, your Savior. You are protected for what Jesus said, I have come to give my life. to give my life. What kind of life? Jesus said, an abundant life. Tonight, let me ask you this. What's the purpose of your Christian life? Why are you savored? Sometimes we emphasize on the fact that we are savored. Savored for what? Savored for abundance, my friends. saved for eternal life. Jesus said, if you come in through me, you will come in and go out. You see, if a sheep remains in the fold all the time, the sheep will starve and die. You have to go, you have to come in and go out. To where? To the green pasture. That's exactly what you are doing tonight. Sitting in the worship service of God You are in the green pasture, but you have to leave your house, your home, your comfort to come here, to sit here and being fed by the green pasture, the Word and the Spirit. Our Christian life is not about survival. You see, survival and safety is basic and necessary. And God has promised us that He will protect us, not from a temporary life, but He will preserve us for eternity. We have been created for eternity, not for survival. But as Jesus is saying, you have to come to my green pasture. Let your soul be satisfied by me. That is what it means, you see, to come in and go out and find the green pasture. The psalmist in Psalm 23, he presents to us the abundance of the Christian life. the restoration of our soul, our righteousness. You see, spiritual food and drink through the shepherd, Jesus Christ, our eternal inheritance. I will live in your house forever. All the abundance of life has been described to us in Psalm 23. And that's exactly what Jesus is telling us here. When I was preparing this sermon, I really struggled to separate the door from the shepherd. Because Jesus also said, I am the good shepherd. And that would be my next sermon. But now concentrate on the door. That the shepherd, the good shepherd opens for you. And Jesus is saying, if he comes through me, you will be saved. but also you will have life, which is abundant. So my friends, what do you do with this door now? What do we do with this door? You remember when we heard the message on the bread of life, what we said was the bread has been given to us not to look at, but to eat it. to take in and make it part of our life. And the light has been given to us so that we would see. And the door has been given to us, Jesus Christ, the only door, so that we would enter. But notice what Jesus is saying here. There is no distinction between the shepherds and the sheep here. And I say this to my fellow ministers in the gospel and to those brothers who are preparing for ministry. We are not exempted. We have to go in through this door. It's Christ who calls you to the ministry. It's Christ who is the door to the sheepfold. So you need to enter through the door, Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus called the Pharisees thieves and robbers because they were self-appointed shepherds. So this exhortation is for both shepherds and the sheep. This door is for us to enter Why? Because we all need a shepherd. We all need green pasture. And the other ministers here in the sanctuary would agree with me, we need a green pasture. When you are frustrated, when you lose hope, even in ministry, when you think that you are not producing fruit in the gospel ministry, you need this green pasture. You need this door. You need Jesus. And how do we enter? We enter by faith. We enter through a living relationship with God. And the psalmist in Psalm 118 shows us in a very beautiful way, shows us how we can enter through this gate. And listen to what the psalmist says. Open to me the gates of righteousness. Of course, he was referring to the gates of the temple in Israel. And righteousness here, you see, because you have multiple gates here. Open to me the gates of righteousness. You know, the worship in the temple and all God's ordinance in the temple, the gates of righteousness, that they may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. I may come to the sanctuary and give you praise for everything that you have done for me. But now listen to this. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. Notice carefully, the one who enters through this door is the righteous. And who is the righteous? The righteous is the one in whom Christ imputed His righteousness. The righteous is the one whom the Father draws to His Son. No one can come to this gate unless the Father draws him. Many people would say to you, Revelation 3, 20, we have our own will. We can open the door, we can close the door. No. He calls you with an irresistible call. There is no way for you to close the door for Him. He has the power to open the door of your heart. But listen what the psalmist is saying here. This is the gate of the Lord. the righteous shall enter through it. So my brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the question to all of us tonight. Have you entered through this door? Those of you who are ministers of the gospel, have you entered through this door to the ship fold? And those brothers who are preparing for the ministry, who are in the seminary preparing for gospel ministry, have you considered this? Enter through this door, the one only door. to the ship fold. Are you inviting others to enter only through this door? Let me encourage you tonight. When you go and witness to people and you tell them to enter through this one door, they will say to you things like, you are the most strange person that I have ever heard in my life. There are many ways. You sound Strange. Your message is strange. Your testimony is strange. I have heard all these preachers tell me there are many ways to God. When you confront, when you are encountered with those kind of responses, tell them, yes, I sound strange. So do Jesus. Whenever Jesus spoke, there was division among the people. When you speak on behalf of Jesus, people will be divided. They will call you a strange person and tell them, yes, I'm a strange person living in a strange world. It's not going to change the message of the gospel. It is one way. Jesus, the Son of God. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, We ask you to make these simple words that came out from your holy, infallible, and life-giving word to your people effective in their lives. Help us to be reminded that Jesus Christ, your son, is the only way to the sheepfold. that He is our only mediator between you, our God, and us, your people. He is the only, our High Priest. Through Him, we can come to your presence, our Heavenly Father. Tonight, make these words effective in our own life and help us to go to other people and proclaim Christ as the only way to the sheepfold, the only way to eternity. Grant us your grace. Help us by your Holy Spirit to be faithful to Jesus Christ, who is the only door to the sheep gate. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.