The Thief of Religion
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jeremy_2_10-30-2025_135633: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts, and today we have made it to chapter 10. My friends, we've, we, we've made it, we're moving right along through the gospel of John. If you were with me the last few weeks, as we looked at chapter nine, you saw tons of arguments with Jesus and the religious leaders over him, healing someone who was blind and not doing it in the way that they approved of, and they had to explain how does Jesus have this ability?
In Chapter 10, Jesus is going to continue this disagreement with the religious leaders, but he's. Gonna do it in a more creative way. So this is not as direct. He's going to use some analogies to explain who he is, but as I'll show you, this is still, uh, basically an affront on what the religious leaders were doing in that day [00:01:00] and offering something different.
Now, today, Jesus is going to tie into an image that's a very common image. The idea of theft.
You think we need one more? You think we need one more?
Alright, we'll get one more.
jeremy_2_10-30-2025_135633: Theft is something that was. Just as much a problem for them in their day as it is in hours. In fact, recently you likely have seen, the thieves that stole $102 million worth of crown jewels from Paris's Lure Museum in under eight minutes.
This became a huge news point, uh, as you can imagine. Everyone wondered, how on earth do you get away with this? How on earth was this even possible? Theft is a fear that everyone lives with. No matter how much you have, how little you have, you are afraid of losing that which you do have, and it is a [00:02:00] fear probably just of being a human, probably something we can all relate to.
And so Jesus is going to tap into this image, this very human emotion or concern. As he explains who he is and the role that he wants to play in our lives today. So this is John chapter 10, beginning in verse one. I tell you the truth. Anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheep fold rather than going through the gate must surely be a thief and a robber.
But the one who enters the gate through the gate is the good shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him. The sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. And after he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice.
They won't follow a stranger. They will run from him because they don't [00:03:00] know his voice. They might be thinking, why is Jesus suddenly talking about farm animals? Like, what? What's going on here? Why this? Transition. Well, he's creatively insulting the religious leaders. Yet again, he's, he's back at it. And it's worth exploring a passage in the Old Testament, Ezekiel 34, to understand the image that Jesus is using.
This is a callback to an idea that in Judaism they would've been more familiar with than we are today. Here's how Ezekiel 34 begins. This is the first three verses. Then this message came to me. From the Lord, son of man prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel give them this message from the sovereign Lord.
What sorrow awaits you, shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn't shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, [00:04:00] and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. So in this whole chapter, Ezekiel 34, you have this image about corrupt leaders being like bad shepherds.
These, these shepherds who just take advantage of the sheep rather than having the sheep's best interest in mind. And, and it's calling out these leaders who doing the same thing. Now, this sounds just as applicable, Ezekiel 34 to us today. As it did when it was written more than 2,500 years ago. I mean, I can imagine quite a few members of Congress and Senate filling out, you know, the criteria being mentioned here, that you drink the milk, you wear the wool, and you butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve.
That seems to describe a lot of the way leaders are leading today. Now, Jesus is tacking onto this image in [00:05:00] Ezekiel 34 to bring it into the context of the leaders in his day as well. Then we get to John chapter 10, verse six. Those who heard Jesus used this illustration, didn't understand what he meant, so he explained it to them.
I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves. Robbers, but the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.
My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. Now, Jesus is contrasting himself here. To religion, to the very systems around him. [00:06:00] Now, the religious gatekeepers thought they were the ones who controlled the gate. They were the people who got to decide who could come in and who could come out. And Jesus is disregarding them and he is saying, no, I am that gate.
I get to decide who is in and who is out, not you, not these religious leaders, which this idea would've been very good news. If you were not particularly enamored with the religious leaders in that time, right? When you have leaders telling you you don't fit, you can't be included, you're not part of the in crowd, it's great news.
When all of a sudden Jesus says, well, guess what? They don't get to decide that I am the gate, and I would suggest that today many Christians seem to have forgotten this idea. We, we love to be the gate. We love to decide what sins you can do and can't do and what you can't do to be a Christian. And we, we make [00:07:00] these statements all the times.
You can't be a Christian and or you can't be a Christian and believe, right? We, we say these kind of ideas. These are us trying to be the gate. Unless you go through the way I say, unless you do things the way I tell you, you're not really a Christian or you're not really even saved. Yet, Jesus is saying just the opposite.
You are not the gate. He is the gate. Now notice the purpose that Jesus says as he defines it for us in verse 10. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. That's the purpose of Jesus. Many versions, depending on which version you're reading, will say a life in abundance. Which means that following Jesus should cause you to come alive and, and it should cause you to thrive, and it should cause you to be the fullest [00:08:00] version of who you are, which is not what religion often produces, right?
Religion often makes you conform, makes you fit in, makes you mute down versions of yourself in order to be a part. Of the community and not stand out. And yet what we're seeing is Jesus offering something very different. Jesus offering you the chance to be fully you. The you that he created you to be.
Why are you smiling like that? I just like to smile. Smiling's. My favorite
jeremy_2_10-30-2025_135633: and it's often at odds with the role of religion. So we don't live in fear of God or fear of hell of not being enough, or not fitting in right or not believing the right way. No, we follow Jesus because he is inviting us to thrive, to experience a different kind of life as we allow him to be the [00:09:00] gate rather than any person around us who wants to serve in that role.
I'll close with something that the author Ann Voskamp has said that I think is such a beautiful image. She writes this abundance. Is not something to be attained. It is something to be awakened to, and I think that's a great way to describe what happens when you understand the invitation Jesus makes in this passage for him to be the Gate and Him alone.
I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
