Sermon Tone Analysis
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We now come to some of the most precious pictures of our Lord found in the Gospels.
There is great comfort to be found in them.
But let us remember that Jesus is saying these things with the same crowd from last week and the ones before in chapters 8 and 9.
In the crowd there were those who saw the bright lights of the torches and heard Jesus say: I am the Light of the World and to illustrate this he took a blind man and healed him.
Also there in the crowd are His disciples witnessing everything we have been told.
And then there are the Pharisees and this passage is yet another needle at them.
This is a good and bad news passage.
Good for those who are true followers of Jesus and bad for those who claim to be leaders of the Jews.
The imagery that Jesus uses here would not have been lost on those present.
There would have been no mistaking what Jesus was on about.
But to us who live in present times it is almost like an idyllic picture of the past and we miss the import of what is being said.
Even if we are familiar with farming today we would understand but part of this.
So let me fill in the details as we go and truly wonder at the kind of Saviour we have.
The life of a shepherd was not easy.
Let us throw away an idea that it was a wonderful time and living for this is just pure fantasy.
It was an incredibly hard life.
Most of where they worked were on uneven, rocky and stony ground for they would tend to the sheep on land not suitable for crops or general farming.
There was a large ground in the area Jesus was that had a plateau of about 500 square miles.
And the shepherd and the sheep would have been a very familiar sight.
Such ground, though, produces little grass which forces the continual movement from one place to another.
Sheep, being sheep, would often go over the edge or get trapped between stones, or go off somewhere.
Then, there were, of course, wild animals like wolves, foxes and bears, and then there were thieves and robbers who would steal the sheep.
The shepherd would have to be vigilant, courageous, patient and have a care and love for the sheep.
He could not just stand and watch.
So, why is Jesus telling us about this?
Jesus Christ calls Himself a shepherd and His own church His flock.
He is the shepherd who will risk His life to seek and to save that one lost sheep, Matthew 18.
He is the shepherd who has pity upon the people because they are as sheep having no shepherd, Matthew 9.
He is the shepherd who called His disciples a little flock, Luke 12.
And when He, the shepherd, was smitten, you remember, He said in Mark 14, quoting the Old Testament, “When the shepherd was smitten, the sheep are scattered.”
Peter says He’s the shepherd of our souls.
And the writer of Hebrews says He is the Great shepherd of the sheep.
This is in contradistinction to the Pharisees.
They were shepherds of an entirely different stock.
They were the leaders of the people but actually they were not true shepherds but thieves and robbers.
In this passage Jesus makes it clear that He is the Shepherd.
Now, let me fill you in on a bit more of how they shepherded in the past.
in each village located as the common property of the village in the center somewhere, a common sheepfold.
And all of the shepherds in that village who would have their sheep out grazing on the hillside would at night lead their sheep into the sheepfold.
There was a man who was hired to care for the sheepfold during the night and he was called the porter.
And all the sheep would be led into the fold and they would spend the night there while the shepherd went home.
The porter’s job was to shut the door and to be in front of the door on guard lest animals or thieves and robbers would come to steal or slaughter the sheep.
Remember this is a common sheepfold and you’d think they’d get mixed up.
But no, when the shepherd was there they knew His voice.
Now, you see, only the shepherd could get in through the door.
The porter wouldn’t let a thief and a robber in, only the shepherd could get in through the door.
And so the thieves and the robbers, in order to get the sheep, would have to climb the wall.
Thief and robber are two different words.
Thief is kleptes from which we get our word kleptomaniac, one who steals.
And robber is lestes which means one who slaughters.
Depending on whether they were after meat or the wool depended upon how the sheep was stolen.
And , there has always been false shepherds.
Ezekiel 34 speaks a great deal about them.
In it we find the shepherds fed themselves rather than the sheep.
They were getting fat and the sheep were starving.
They were getting all the benefits and not passing them on.
Hear the words God has to say to them:
These shepherds couldn’t care less for the sheep.
They were rough and cruel.
They are what we call heavy shepherds and causes the sheep to scatter.
When they did travel to get a disciple they made them twice as bad as them.
We find the same warnings in the New Testament.
Our pulpits are full of them and on the TV deceiving, defrauding, lying, two-faced, and teaching liberal satanic things for their own benefit.
But Jesus is the true Christ, the true Messiah who has the right to go through the door of the sheepfold because of His sacrificial laying down of His own life.
His sheep hear His voice.
Incredible.
And not only that He speaks our name.
He knows our names.
Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life; we were known before the foundation of the world came into being.
He knew us from way before we were born and knew that we would know Him.
His sheep hear His voice.
To think that He knows my name and that He knew it before the foundation of the world.
And that He has that kind of a personal intimate relationship with me that He actually cares and loves Me in a special personal way.
You know, the shepherds always named their sheep.
Brown leg, or black ear, or something like that, or whatever particular characteristic the sheep might have, he knew their names.
When he called, they knew his call.
They knew it.
And so He steps into the fold and He calls and they come to Him.
There a great illustration of this later on in John 20 on that first Resurrection morning and Mary Magdalene had arrived early
What happened.
She did not recognise Jesus.
After all she was not expecting Him to be alive.
What changed?
One word: ‘Mary’.
And immediately she knew her shepherd.
One of the Scriptures that brings comfort to me is:
He is there for us.
And as our shepherd He leads us out.
“In green pastures by still waters through the valley of the shadow of death, He leads me all the time.”
There is another things I want us to understand:
Sometimes the shepherd stayed out on the hills with their sheep.
And they would make a sheepfold with mud or stone or other material that would have an opening for the sheep.
Jesus said that not only is He the Shepherd He is also the Door of the fold.
How did that work?
At night the shepherd would lead His sheep into the fold for their warmth and safety and then the shepherd would lay down against the opening becoming, in effect, the door.
Nothing could go in or out without first passing over the body of the shepherd.
He is the door.
Indeed He laid down His body for us and the only way we could be His sheep was to pass through His body.
This is, of course, offensive in this age, as it has always been, for Jesus is exclusive.
There is no other way, no other person, nothing that can lead to life to the full and life forevermore.
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