Michael Youssef - I Am the Door to the Sheepfold

We all know that doors and gates are very important in our lives. We don’t think about them, but they are very, very important to us. But in a moment, I’m going to tell you about a door. Consider how many times we think about or mention the term «door.» You know, how many times we go in and out of doors throughout the day. How many times do we say, «Did you shut the door?» «Did you open the door?» «Did you walk through the door?» «Did you go through the gate?» And on and on it goes. Why? Because these doors and gates play a vital role in our lives. They are essential for our privacy, protection, and safety.

Of course, these days we need more than just doors and gates, right? They’re not enough for our safety and protection. We need alarms, right? Lock pads. And we ask, «Did you set the alarm?» «Did you forget to set the alarm?» «Did the alarm go off again in the middle of the night and wake up the neighbors again?» The question is, what are the doors and gates for? What are the alarms for? What is security for? They are for our safety, for our protection, and the protection of our provisions. For our shelter, for our peace of mind. Can I get a witness? After all, we know we live in a dangerous world, right? We live in a very, very insecure world. We live in a very hazardous world.

And that is why when our Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter 10, beginning at verses 7, 8, 9, and 10, «I am the door of the sheep,» when He said, «I am the gate of the sheep,» door and gate, by the way, are used interchangeably in the original text. What is Jesus saying when He says, «I am the door. I am the gate?» He is communicating something far deeper than what doors and gates represent. Now let me take you back to the first century because, even though we have discussed the importance of doors and gates and alarms, you still cannot comprehend what Jesus is conveying until I take you to first-century Israel.

Back then, shepherds did not have solid mahogany doors or even iron gates for the sheepfold where they placed the sheep to rest for the night. They did not have electronic alarms that would go off when an intruder approached. They didn’t even have a flimsy gate—not even a flimsy gate as we would understand it. You might say, «Well, Michael, why would Jesus say, 'I’m the door, ' when they didn’t even have a flimsy gate?» I’m glad you asked because I am more anxious to answer than you realize. Back then, shepherds had some form of a flimsy enclosure.

Now, the very wealthy shepherds with many sheep could have stone-built enclosures, but these were very rare. Most average shepherds had a very flimsy enclosure in the place where the door or the gate should go. It wasn’t very wide; it was wide enough for one or two sheep to go through, but it was open. It was an open enclosure. So what happens at night? I don’t know if I can do this, but here you go. Imagine this: The shepherd gets into that enclosure and goes to sleep at night. Imagine the poor guy—one eye is open, and one eye is closed, right? All night, he fills that space—that space called the doorway or the gateway. He is there in that opening enclosure. In other words, he is the door; he is the gate.

The shepherd is the one who puts his body across that open enclosure, and that is how the sheep can truly rest at night, knowing that the shepherd is the door, that the shepherd is in that opening. Listen to me: the shepherd’s own body serves as a barrier that allows the sheep either to go in or come out. The shepherd’s body is placed between the sheep and either the robbers or the wolves. The shepherd’s body is placed between the sheep and, on one hand, any harmful animals that want to disturb, steal, or destroy the sheep. If anyone wants to steal or kill the sheep, they are protected by the shepherd himself—not by a door, not by an alarm system. The shepherd is the one who guarantees the safety and security of the sheep.

The shepherd is the one who guarantees the sheep’s peace of mind so that they can rest. You see, there is no sheep that can enter the fold without his invitation; no sheep can be harmed as long as the shepherd has placed his body in that open enclosure. In the next message, I’m going to talk in more depth about the shepherd—the true shepherd, the good shepherd, the loving shepherd. But today I want you to focus with me on the claim of Jesus to be the only door, the only gate.

And I want to show you why in three ways. Please write them down if you can. I don’t want you to forget that our precious Lord, when He claimed to be the door, the gate, was trying to tell us that being our only gate means that He is the only entrance to the truth. Secondly, being our only gate means that He is our only protector. And thirdly, being our only gate means He is our only provider. Let’s look at these very quickly.

Being our only gate means that He is the only truth. All the others are fakes; all the others are not the truth. All the others are falsehoods. Listen to me: when we first come to Christ, when we first give our lives to Christ and begin to know the truth, Jesus said that this very truth sets us free. He sets us free. And Jesus looks at these self-serving church leaders, these self-serving Pharisees who are very much like the false teachers and false preachers of today, and says to them that some of them are robbers. You say, «Really?» Yes, some of them are robbers who rob people of the real truth, which is Jesus. Sadly, He uses some wicked and evil people—his foot soldiers—to do his dirty work for him.

That is why Jesus said in Matthew 23:13, «Woe to you teachers of the law and the Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not go in, and you do not let others come in.» The most desperate need today is to discern and distinguish between those who feed the flock on the word of God and those who feed them on pop psychology. We desperately need to teach our children to discern and distinguish between the truth and falsehood, between those who lead them to Jesus and those who lead them to be accepted by pop culture.

Jesus said, «I am the door. I am the door, the gate,» which means that He is not a way among other ways, as just so-called 60% of churchgoers believe in America. No, and a million nos but rather He is the only exclusive way to the truth of God the Father. It is only when you go through Jesus—the door; when you go through Jesus—the gate—that you will truly experience joy, peace, and eternal life. It’s impossible to find anywhere else—only in Jesus. Look at verse 9. We’re in John chapter 10, verse 9. «Whoever enters through me will be safe or be saved.» Either way, it can be translated.

Hey, remember, please, this is important: Whether you live in a hut or in a mansion, whether you are rich or poor; whether you have a high position or a lowly position, there can be no real safety apart from Jesus. There can be no truth apart from Jesus. But inside the sheepfold, inside the sheep pen, where the shepherd—Jesus—has placed Himself in the doorway, you find inexplicable peace even in the midst of trouble. When Jesus said, «I am the gate of the sheepfold,» He was assuring every one of His true sheep.

Let me repeat this: every one of His true sheep. There are so many people in churches that are not His true sheep. They may be Catholics; they may be Protestants; they may be evangelicals; they may belong to all denominations—of all kinds, of all sorts—but they’re not His true sheep. But Jesus, when He said, «I am the gate,» was assuring every one of His true sheep that they can truly live in safety and security in His truth. Please don’t miss this. Don’t miss this. That means that His true sheep can be absolutely sure that nothing will harm them as long as they are in the sheepfold. You can be absolutely sure that no one and nothing can pluck them out of His hands—the hands of the true shepherd.

There is no harm; there is no enemy that can steal them when they are in the sheepfold. No wolf can devour them whenever they are in the sheepfold. I know and you know that life can batter us. That circumstances can beat us up. That Satan is constantly looking for an opening through which he can penetrate our lives. Temptation is forever beckoning us, and the world is longing to suck us in, and the fire of sin threatens to burn us. But listen to me: the truth is our eternal Savior is the door, and He shelters us. And all of God’s people said, «Amen!»

So the second point is He is our protection. He is our protection. The same John who wrote this gospel, the same John, a few years later when he was writing his epistles from the city of Ephesus, in 1 John chapter 2, verses 15, he said, «Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does—these things do not come from the Father but from the world.»

You see, that is what happens when you get out of the sheepfold. That is when you put one foot in the sheepfold and another foot in the world. People who wander away from the sheepfold, from the sheep pen, should not be surprised when they find themselves in trouble. Why? Because the only protection is inside the sheepfold, inside the sheep pen. But listen, those of us who bet everything—we’re not betting people—but if we bet everything in our lives on the fact that Jesus is the only door, we’re going to experience life and experience it abundantly.

Listen to me: it means that in Christ, and in Christ alone, you will discover your true freedom. That’s what I mean—you’ll discover your true freedom in Christ; true liberty, true victory, true joy, true contentment. When you come to the Father through the door—Jesus, His only Son—you will find sustenance and refreshment.

I want to tell you a true story to illustrate what I’m saying, and it’s really my own testimony, but I hope I can get through it. I’m pleading with you not to misunderstand me. Will you promise? Don’t misunderstand me because I know we live in a very sensitive age, and people don’t even want to know the truth. But this is a truth: during those horrible, despicable, dreadful days of slavery, there was a young woman who was being sold at an auction. She was a beautiful young lady, and the bidding started in earnest. Many people wanted to buy her. The bidding kept going higher and higher until the last two men were left to bid against each other. One man was evil and wicked; he kept bidding higher while cursing and cussing.

But in the background, there was a quiet gentleman, a refined, thoughtful, kind man. He stood quietly, going higher and higher than the wicked man, determined that this wicked man would not succeed until this quiet gentleman outbid him. When that gentleman was given the papers that made him the lawful owner of the slave, the young woman stood there and looked at him with disgust, loathing him with every fiber of her being. But suddenly, a change came over her face, filled with astonishment, as she watched the new owner rip up the papers of ownership. Ripping them apart, with a kind smile, he said to the young woman, «My dear, you are free. I have bought you to set you free.»

The young woman was stunned and overcome with emotion. Then, she looked at this man, who was now her friend, and there was a cry of happiness. She said, «Oh master, I love you! I will serve you for life!» What ownership papers could not accomplish, this man’s kindness has achieved. Beloved, please listen to me. This young woman is me. This young woman represents so many of you.

When I foolishly followed Satan and cursed God, when I foolishly rejected the kindness of the Savior until one day that incredible kindness, the shedding of His own blood on the cross for me on Calvary, overcame me and set me free. It was when our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the door, died on that cross and rose again that He purchased me and every one of His true sheep. He purchased us to set us free from Satan, sin, death, and the grave. He bought us from the slavery of sin—not with money, but with His precious blood. He paid a colossal price to set us free from the dominance of sin and Satan, and He said to us, «I no longer call you servants.» Beloved, I joyfully call myself a servant of Jesus. But Jesus said, «I no longer call you servants, but friends.»

My attitude is the same as that young lady’s. My attitude from that day on, after receiving freedom in Christ, has been, is now, and God help me until the day I close my eyes in death, «Oh master, I love you, and I will serve you all of my life.» The door is the truth, which is our safety. The door is for our eternal protection.

Thirdly, the door is for our provision. For our provision, Jesus said about His sheep, «They will enter in by the door.» And when they come in, they are free in Christ. They are free to come and be blessed, then go out and bless others. But He said that when they come in, they are going to find provision, support, strength. No doubt our Lord was thinking of Psalm 23, which is a very well-known psalm, even to non-Christians. I hear it sung every time I go to a Jewish funeral. Psalm 23, particularly verse two: «He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.»

And that is why Jesus could say, «Come unto me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.» Only Jesus could have said, «Come unto me.» If you have not come to the Father, please hear this invitation loud and clear; it is for everyone here and for everyone watching around the world. Millions of people are watching right now on Kingdom Set. Know that this invitation is for everyone: «Come, enter the sheepfold through only the door, Jesus.» But if you’re inside the sheepfold and you’re troubled by so many distractions in the world, you turn on the news and get all worked up, mad, and confused-wondering what to do -listen to me. You know what to do: rest in Christ.