Sermon Pastor Jenkins May 3, 20203

“Jesus Our Gate Keeper”“Jesus Our Gate Keeper”
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
Opening pray:
Loving Shepherd,
we feel the wolves close at hand.
Gather us to yourself,
that we might dwell secure in your ways.
Deliver us from evil that we might build a community
where all may dwell secure.
Mark our fellowship with study, prayer, communion,
and the sharing of our possessions
with those in need. Amen.
Sermon theme:
The shepherd that is revered by the psalmist is celebrated by John as both shepherd and gate for the sheep. We rejoice that Jesus our shepherd calls us each by name!
Here Jesus reveals to us why he came. He came that we might have abundant life. When I think about this and what it might mean for me, I will say to myself, what is life-giving for me? Is that where I will find God? Is that where you will find God?
On the other hand, what is not life-giving for me? Is there something toxic in my life that I can avoid, or give up? Selah. So, I guess I need to have a little talk with Jesus about my all our problems knowing that He understands. In the fourth gospel, there is an incredible saying that I believe many of us have heard before. The 'I am' sayings of Jesus. 'I am … the bread of life … the living water … the light of the world. This indication is based on Jesus' divine status, since God himself (when asked his name by Moses) declared: I AM WHO I AM. The pictures and images which Jesus uses show us the face of God. This is the true image used here.
When Jesus says he is the 'gate' of the sheepfold, his listeners will be aware that God is presented as a shepherd in the Old Testament- most famously, in Psalm 23 Read and Meditate. The ideal of a good, caring shepherd is even more vivid, when we are told that the custom was for the shepherd himself to sleep crouched at the entrance of the sheepfold- in other words, the watchful shepherd was, literally, the 'gate'. What is this gate? In John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The lovely phrase found only in John's gospel, is that Jesus is that gate. He 'has come so that we might have life and have it to the full. This is a perfect picture of total freedom, together with total security in Jesus Christ. The New Testament version of Psalm 23 is where the sheep wants for absolutely nothing, and who is followed, for its whole life, by goodness and mercy.