We have been looking at the seven I am statements found the book of John by Jesus. We have looked so far that Jesus says I am: the Light of the world and bread of life.
Today we are looking at Jesus saying I am the door. Looking at John 10:7 it says, “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.’” The Jews were very familiar with the life of the shepherd. Most of us might see a sheep in the pasture somewhere, but most of us know very little about them. That was a way of life for the Jewish people, although they were not all shepherds. Sheep were very common. It was part of the economy and part of their lifestyle. Many of them worked as shepherds at one point or perhaps continuously, so they understood these things.
The sheep were often out looking for grazing. They had to find pasture and so they were often taken wherever that grass might be. It was the job of the shepherds to guide them and to protect them and to take them to places where they could get sustenance, water, food and so forth. Out in the wilderness there were a lot of predators. As a result of that, one of the ways to protect the sheep was known as the sheepfold. If you left the sheep to wander around at night, almost certainly a predator would get one or more of them or they would get lost and not find their way back. So, the only way to keep from losing your flock at night was to keep them together. In the wilderness, there were these small containers, they were short walls that the sheep could be driven into at night for protection, but they did not have a gate in the front of them. So, the shepherd would lay out in front of that opening so that the sheep could not get out . . .
