Tuesday July 7, 2020

John 10:1-10

1 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Our God who has chosen you and me in his love before all creation. He has done more for us than we could ever do for our kids. He loves us more than we could ever love our kids. He calls us each by name. He is the good shepherd and he is the gate. The life we are chosen for is only through Jesus. Anything else isn’t truly life. The good good life, the full full life isn’t in thinking more of ourselves or less of ourselves, it’s in thinking of ourselves less and fixing our eyes on Jesus and attending our ears to his voice. Going through the gate is the life we are chosen for. Go through the gate. “They will come in and go out and find pasture” (verse 9). We come in to pray and worship. We come in to listen and proclaim God’s word. We come in to listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. We go out to make disciples. We go out to serve the least and the last and the lost. We go out to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We go out to prophetically declare what righteousness and justice looks like in God’s Kingdom. We go out to make peace.

Go through the gate every single day. We come in and go out through Jesus Christ our Lord. Go through the gate of his mercy. Go through the gate of his grace. Go through the gate of his judgement. Go through the gate of his peace. Go through the gate of his mighty name every single day. Go out through the gate and come in through the gate every single day. That is the life we’re chosen for. That is the way of salvation. This pandemic is no excuse to disrupt the life we are chosen for. Our going out and coming in may look different right now but the gate is the same. And the gate is unavoidable if we are to truly live. The good shepherd is up ahead calling you. What are you going to do?

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (Prayer of Jesus for his disciples and the world taken from John 17:20-25).