Sermon Tone Analysis

Text

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.

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

Introduction

Introduction

Illustration/humour.

I have been warned regarding talking about Sheep in a farming community.......

Literary Context

Literary Context

The question that dominated chapter 9 was: is Jesus from God or not?

Is he a prophet or not?

Is he the Messiah or not, the one whom God will set as judge over the world?

Jesus has Just healed a blind man, the Irony is that this blind man had eyes to see who Jesus was, so much so that he worships him, rather than listening to the voice of the Pharisees who do not love him or care for him, he decides to follows Jesus.

The Pharisees, who claimed they knew God, could not see who Jesus was, they were in fact Blind and they ridicule this man for wanting to follow Jesus!

in the Bible the picture of the shepherd with his sheep is frequently used to refer to the king and his people

The Pharisees are not only blind and willingly ignorant to the light of the world, they are also spiritually deaf.

They are unable to hear God’s voice, not because their physical ears are broken, but their spiritual ears are dead.

Consequently, they do not understand the parable Jesus tells in about thieves, robbers and sheep.

Israel’s leaders it seems are deaf and blind even though they claim they can see.

Cultural Context

Historical Context

Historical Context

The setting of Jesus engagement with the pharisees in chapter 10 is another religious festival of light.

This time, it’s the Festival of Dedication, Usually referred to today as Hanukah.

Hanakuh looks back and celebrates a time when Mattathias (a Jewish priest) and his five sons (known as the maccabees) led a rebellion against the occupying Greeks (Seleucid empire) and cleansed the temple.

So you can just imagine the festivals atmosphere, it was characterised and charged by a-lot of jewish nationalistic zeal and pride.

The people of Israel where just like you and I in many ways, They had longings and hopes of living peaceably and dwelling in safety and security.

They wanted the blessings of God on their people and nation and land, they wanted Gods security and protection.

But Various groups had different Ideas about how to acquire Gods blessing.

Israel where just like you and me in many ways, They had longings and hopes of living peaceably and dwelling in safety and security, they wanted the blessings of God on their people and land.

Various groups had different Ideas about how to acquire it.

For the zealots the way to Gods shelter and protection was through, nationalistic zeal and to drive out the occupying forces, For the Pharisees the the way to God’s shelter and protection was found by adherence to, Torah, obedience to Gods law, This was what the Pharisees where teaching, they were hoping to lead Isreal into a Golden age by bringing them into external obedience to the Torah.

(God had said in )

For a group known as the the zealots the way to Gods shelter and protection was to do what the maccabeas had done before them, to drive out the occupying Foreign power from the land, only then could Isreal dwell in safety and Security.

For the Pharisees the the way to God’s shelter, protection and blessing was found by strict adherence to, Torah, obedience to Gods law, they feared the present occupation was on account of Gods Judgment, Gods curse for disobedience (In some ways it was).

The Pharisees were afraid of another exile and were hoping to lead Israel into a Golden age of blessing and prosperity by bringing them into external obedience to the Torah, it was their political and spiritual mandate.

(God had promised in ):

(God had said in

28 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

7 The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you.

They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

8 The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.

The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in obedience to him.

10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.

11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

...........For you and I the answer is often..........

this might have been thought of as the peace of Pasture......

For them them the way to Gods pasture was found by adherence to, Torah, obedience to Gods law, nationalistic zeal, freedom from Roman Occupation.

For you and I the answer is often..........

They (The Pharisees) very much saw themselves as the spiritual shepherds of Israel and had hoped when the Messiah came, he would be one of them.

But, they had also become self appointing gatekeepers, determining who was in and who was out of Gods Fold.

They despised this blind man for wanting to follow Jesus as a sheep follows a shepherd, but this man knew that Jesus loved him and they did not, this man knew that the safest place to be was with Jesus.

Jesus criticises them not just because they are poor gatekeepers and poor shepherds, but because they are actually thieves and robbers.

They want the blessings of God, but they don’t want God nor are they really interested in caring for God’s sheep.

Cultural

The Problem was that no one kept Gods law, it wasn't the blessings.

You and I have never kept Gods laws but one King has....One Israelite was perfectly obedient to the

Yet Jesus describes them as thieves and Robbers.

Cultural Context

Do you and I not have the same aspirations in life dont we?

To live peaceably in security, with no need or want for anything?

The pharisees wanted the shelter and blessings of God alright but in their rejection of Jesus it seems that they do not want God.

Cultural

Some people try to acquire peace and protection via

The Following information is from William Barclay.

“In the villages and towns themselves, there were communal sheepfolds where all the village flocks were sheltered when they returned home at night.

These folds were protected by a strong door of which only the guardian of the door held the key.

It was to that kind of fold Jesus referred in verses 2 and 3.

But when the sheep were out on the hills in the warm season and did not return at night to the village at all, they were collected into sheepfolds on the hillside.

These hillside sheepfolds were just open spaces enclosed by a wall.

In them, there was an opening by which the sheep came in and went out; but there was no door of any kind.

What happened was that at night the shepherd himself lay down across the opening, and no sheep could get out or in except over his body.

In the most literal sense, the shepherd was the door.”

In this parable, Jesus spoke about two kinds of sheepfolds.

William Barclay (an old Church of Scotland minister) writing on this passage said:

In the villages and towns themselves, there were communal sheepfolds where all the village flocks were sheltered when they returned home at night.

These folds were protected by a strong door of which only the guardian of the door held the key.

It was to that kind of fold Jesus referred in verses 2 and 3.

But when the sheep were out on the hills in the warm season and did not return at night to the village at all, they were collected into sheepfolds on the hillside.

These hillside sheepfolds were just open spaces enclosed by a wall.

In them, there was an opening by which the sheep came in and went out; but there was no door of any kind.

What happened was that at night the shepherd himself lay down across the opening, and no sheep could get out or in except over his body.

In the most literal sense, the shepherd was the door.

The Problem was that no one kept Gods law, it wasn't the blessings.

You and I have never kept Gods laws but one King has....One Israelite was perfectly obedient to the

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

“In the villages and towns themselves, there were communal sheepfolds where all the village flocks were sheltered when they returned home at night.

These folds were protected by a strong door of which only the guardian of the door held the key.

It was to that kind of fold Jesus referred in verses 2 and 3, when he says “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.