St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Easter 4 -- April 14^th and April 17^th -- 2005

Dear fellow sheep of God’s flock. Amen

One of the things that my family and I enjoy doing on occasion is going shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. To truly get all the benefits of the sales that are offered by the many stores, we many times will get up early and try be first in line or towards the front of the line. One year I can remember that we were one of the first ones in line at Wal-Mart. We were right next to the door. By the time that the store opened there were more than a couple hundred people in line behind us – all waiting to get through those doors. As the gentleman came to open the doors I can remember the crowd of people surging forward. Finally the door opened and it was like we are all set free. People began to sprint throughout the store to find whatever sale items they wanted. It is probably one of the few times that you will ever be allowed to sprint inside a Wal-Mart store. What makes this so interesting is that all of those people had to enter through the front doors. There ! were no other ways to get to the sale.

As we look at our lives as sinners, and as sheep that often stray from the path that God has set before us, the picture of a gate or door and a shepherd is very comforting. God calls us his sheep and calls himself our Gate and our Shepherd. Today we would like to take a closer view at what is so special about the fact that Jesus is our Gate and our Shepherd. Our text for this morning talks very precisely on this topic, and that is why we are using the theme:

The picture we have in our text is of the task of taking care of sheep. In the time of Israel it was very common for sheep to be herded into an enclosed pen at night. There was only one entrance or gate into this pen. This insured that the safety of the sheep was in good hands. Only the shepherd of the sheep would be let into this pen. This picture of the one gate is exactly what Jesus was trying to teach us with these words. But before we go too far, we want to take care that we don’t try to add to many different ideas to this text. Jesus‘ main point was that he is the only gate. Everyone would have to go through him.

Why is it important that Jesus calls himself the gate? What does it mean that Jesus is the gate? Jesus as our Gate is important, because it tells us the only way to get to heaven.. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) There are not many ways to heaven. There are not alternate plans in case God’s way doesn’t work. This is hard for us to imagine in a world full of choices. We have choices as to what stores we can shop at. We have choices as to what foods we want to buy and eat. We have choices as to what kind of things we want to buy for our homes and what kind of people we want to associate with. But we don’t have any choices when it comes to our salvation. It is not like waiting in line at the bank and trying to decide what line is going to be the quickest. There are no short cuts or other doors or gates that lead to heaven. Jesus plainly tells us that he is the on! ly gate to heaven.

But what about those who don’t know about Jesus as the true gate? Our text talks about those who try to get in without using the gate. They think that the can possibly sneak into God’s kingdom. Jesus calls them robbers and thieves. As we look at the world around us, we can think of many people who try to sneak into God’s kingdom without using the only gate of Jesus Christ. Maybe they were confirmed at the ripe age of 13 years old and have never went to church again – thinking that Confirmation class and a Confirmation certificate is enough to keep God happy. Maybe there are those who think that all that God asks is that they come to church on Easter and Christmas and this will be enough for heaven. Maybe we think we can get into heaven because we have lived a fairly decent life, or because I’ve been such a good parent. Maybe we think that because our parents go to church all the times that should be good enough to cover me also. These are all excuses, shortcu! ts, lies and deceits which are not leading us to look at the one way that leads to eternal life – faith in Jesus as our Savior!

When we stand before God on Judgment Day, our excuse and shortcuts will mean nothing. God will look into our hearts and will look to see if we have trusted in the one eternal Gate of Jesus as my Savior from sin. That is all that God looks at. He doesn’t want what he calls robbers and thieves who try to enter through other ways. These others ways may have looked good while on earth, but in the end they will lead to eternal destruction. We are not just talking about one wrong turn. We are talking about an eternity in Hell.

That is why Jesus as our Good Shepherd is such a comforting picture. Jesus, as our Good Shepherd, is leading and guiding us all the way to the eternal gate of heaven. As our Good Shepherd, Jesus knows what the gate is and is eager to bring everyone to this gate. This past week we heard about the people in the van driving in Columbus who apparently were distracted while they were crossing over the railroad tracks. This distraction cost them their lives, as they were hit by a train that they didn’t even seem to notice. In much the same way. the world that we live in is a world full of temptations and distractions. All it takes sometimes is to be distracted just slightly and the devil jumps right in. The devil is always looking to find one of Jesus’ sheep, which is slightly distracted. He is looking for sheep that might be to preoccupied with the things and toys of this world. He is looking for someone who is so distracted that he hasn’t been to God’s house or ! the Lord’s Supper very often. He is looking for those who are distracted by sorrows and pains, which the sin of this world has caused. The devil doesn’t go easy on us, just because our lives are getting tough. It is exactly the opposite.

That is why we need to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and not the voices of the stranger’s. The strangers of this world can come to us with some fine sounding arguments – much like the guy from the info-commericials who is trying to sell you on the new exercise equipment or the new gadget for your home. It all sounds so nice, but thankfully our wisdom and knowledge takes over and tell us that this is not right for me.. The devil is also trying to sell his new and improved kind of sin. He doctors it up and makes it sound so enticing that many people listen to the voice of the devil. Jesus points out to us that we are to listen to his voice and not the voice of those trying to lead us away from the true gate of Jesus Christ. For instance, I was reading about a man living in West Bend who went shopping at a Goodwill store and bought a shirt. When he got home he found out that there was $2000 dollars in the shirt pocket. The nice voice of the devil would! lead us to say to ourselves, "finders keepers losers weepers." The devil would lead us to say that no one is going to know who got the shirt and the money so why not keep it. What would you do? Would you listen to the voice of the sinful nature in you or would you listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, which tells us to return the money and try and find the rightful owner? That is exactly what the man from West Bend did. He returned it.

Maybe you are asking yourself, how do I know what Jesus’ voice sounds like? How do I know what God wants me to do? How do I know that I am listening to the right voice? It is simple. Jesus’ voice is revealed to us through his holy Word. In his holy Word, Jesus talks to us and tells us exactly what he wants us to do. He tells us the way to heaven. He tells us about what kind of life we will want to live for him. But we have to open his Bible to hear his voice. It is much like trying to cook. People say that they don’t know how to cook. But I can tell you that it isn’t all that hard. You find yourself a great cookbook and you find the recipe that you want to use and you follow that recipe. It is that simple, as long as you use the cookbook. As we read his scriptures more and more we can hear exactly what Jesus’ voice sounds like. It is a voice, which points out the only way to heaven. It is the guiding voice, which leads us every step of the way to our et! ernal gate, found in Jesus and his death on the cross. As our Good shepherd Jesus has given each of us the Word of God so that we can hear exactly what the voice of Jesus sounds like.

Have any of you ever gone on long driving trips? Have you ever gotten to that point where your eyes become very heavy and you just plain need a rest? When we travel that has happened on occasion. It is at times like this that we will stop at a rest area to sleep if it is during the night or maybe we will stop for a bite to eat. Something to get us rested up and ready to move on. Isn’t that the way our journey on this earth is at times? We seem to be moving along fairly smoothly, but there are times where we get tired from sin and all the temptations of the devil and we feel like we need to stop and rest. The truth is that we do need to stop and to stop often. We don’t need to stop at a rest area or restaurant, instead we need to stop and get re-energized with the food of God’s saving Word and through Gospel found in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper so that we are renewed to continue the journey of following our Good Shepherd who leads us directly to the sav! ing Gate of Heaven.

Thank goodness that Jesus has showed himself to be the one true gate to heaven and that he has promised to be our Good Shepherd who leads his sheep to that gate where we may enter the heavenly sheep-pen where we will be together with all those who have been called by the Good Shepherd. On our own we would never find the gate, but with the Good Shepherd as our guide we will find eternal joy as we are led through the gate of Jesus to eternal life. Amen.