John 10:7

A Wonderful Door

I am the door of the sheep. John 10:7.

I want to speak to you today about doors. Perhaps you will think that is a odd subject for a sermon. Doors are such commonplace things; everybody has a door even if they live in one room. Yes, doors are very commonplace things, and yet they are very important; for, you see, it matters very much on which side of the door you are. If you were in prison, the best side of the door would be the outside; and if you were shut out of your home at night, the best side of the door would be the inside. Sometimes it is good to be on the outside of a door, and sometimes it is good to be on the inside.

Now a door can be two things two exactly opposite things. It can be either a way of entrance or a barrier. A door is a thing that lets us in, but it is also a thing that keeps us out. I wonder if any of you have been locked out of a room by your friends. Perhaps they were planning something they didn't wish you to know about. If you have, you will remember how “out in the cold” you felt.

I don't suppose any of you have had the experience that David Livingstone, the great missionary explorer, had when he was a small boy. His father was a very strict man, and one of his rules was that the cottage door should be locked every evening at dusk. One evening David stayed out playing rather longer than usual. When he reached home he found the door shut and barred. He stood looking at that door for a few minutes; but he did not attempt to knock at it or to kick it, as some boys might have done, for he knew that his father's rules were unalterable. A neighbor took pity on him and gave him a bit of bread for supper, and then he curled himself up on the doorstep and prepared to spend the night there. Fortunately his mother grew anxious about him, and, late in the evening, she opened the door to go out to look for him; so the boy was brought in after all. I should think David Livingstone realized that night the disadvantage of being outside a door.

But the door of a home is not meant to keep the children outside, it is meant to keep out only those who would harm the home thieves and robbers, and those who have no business there. It is meant to keep the children safe and secure inside, and if the children are not within, it is their own fault, and their own loss.

Now the Bible has a good deal to say about doors, and about the opening and shutting of them. You remember the story about the five foolish virgins who took no oil in their lamps. While they were away buying it, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. And when the five foolish ones returned they found the door shut.

Then St. Paul speaks more than once about doors being opened to him. By this he means opportunities for preaching and for winning disciples for Christ.

Again, there is that beautiful verse in the last book of the Bible “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” It is a picture of Jesus standing patiently outside the fast-closed door of our heart, waiting to get in.

But the best text of all is the one in which Jesus tells us that He Himself is the Door “the door of the sheep.” Now what did Jesus mean by saying that He was “the door of the sheep”? And who are the sheep? To understand that you must know a little about the life of sheep in the land where Jesus lived.

In the daytime the sheep are taken out to feed on the hillside pastures, but at night the shepherd brings his flock down to the fold. The fold is an enclosure surrounded by a high wall, and entered by a door or gate. After all the sheep are in, an shepherd fastens the door on the inside, and stays with the sheep to guard them. The door keeps the sheep safe; they enter by it, and when they are inside the closed door keeps them secure from wild beasts and robbers.

Now all the boys and girls and men and women in the world are like sheep. God wished all the sheep to be safe within the fold, but they shut themselves out of the fold by their sins. So a way in had to be found, and that way was Christ. Christ came to be a Door for us back into God's fold.

I was reading the other day about a brave Indian Sikh who, during the time of the Indian Mutiny, fought on the side of the British. The British troops were trying to capture a certain city from the mutineers. It was surrounded by a great wall, and in the wall was a very strong iron gate which our cannon had failed to shatter.

One day a wagon with food for the enemy was seen dashing towards the gate. The British army made a rush for the gate, for they hoped to get in before it closed again. One splendid Sikh was ahead of the others, and he reached the entrance just as the two halves of the gate were rolling together. Very swiftly he thrust his arm between them. It was crushed in an instant, but the mutineers could not quite close the gates so long as the arm was there, so they began hacking it off on the other side. When it was almost gone the Sikh thrust in his other arm, and just before it was hacked off the main body of our army arrived. The men flung themselves upon the gate, it yielded, and the city was conquered.

That splendid Sikh gave his arms to make an entrance for the British army into one Indian city; Jesus gave Himself to make an entrance for us into God's safe fold.

But Jesus is not only a way of entrance, He is also a protection to the sheep in the fold. A traveler in Palestine was once talking to a shepherd about the sheepfold. The shepherd was explaining everything to him, but there was one thing which puzzled the traveler there was no door to the sheepfold. When he asked the shepherd where the door was, the man replied, “I am the door.” When night came on he wrapped himself in a blanket and lay down across the entrance. No sheep could get out, and no wild beast could get in except across his body.

And Jesus is our Door. He is our defense, and if we trust in Him and keep near Him, the enemies of sin and temptation can do us no harm. He will not let them hurt us.

Perhaps you ask, “How can I get in at the Door?” Well, you can get in just by coming to the Door. Jesus does not wish anyone to stay outside the fold. He has shelter and food enough to spare for all within. But some poor silly sheep prefer to stay outside on the bare mountain, and to risk being devoured by wild beasts. You can get in at the Door if you want to get in. You can get in by opening your door the door of your heart, and letting Christ into it.