Sermon Tone Analysis

The Real/The Rub

Do you guys meet new people on airplanes?

I love it when I get a seat on an airplane by someone I don’t know.

When my family gets on a plane and we get seperated there are very different experiences for Bre and I.

She doesn’t want to talk to anyone or get to know anyone and she feels bad if she has to ask to go use the restroom.

I on the other hand make a new friend every time I’m on a plane and by the time it’s over I know about their upbringing, their job, their family, and where we may be able to meet up for coffee next time our paths cross.

A couple of years ago I was on my way to Southern California for a youth ministry conference and I got sat down next to this guy named JB.

As it turned out we were headed to the same conference.

He was a youth pastor on a volunteer basis.

His job that paid the bills and put food on the table was as a shepherd.

He literally farmed sheep.

He had some really good stories from being a shepherd but one story that he told really reminded me of the passage of scripture that we are studying tonight.

The Read

He and his wife were running late one Wednesday night on the way to church and they got about a mile and a half down the road and saw a sheep.

He immediately knew that this was one of his sheep was out on the highway eating grass and watching the cars go by.

They didn’t have time to go back home get, the farm truck, and take it back home.

So he got out and called for the sheep and it turned and ran right to him and jumped in the back seat of his wife’s Honda.

They were so late they couldn’t even take it home.

They took it to church with them.

The stupid sheep ate his notes that he was going to teach from that night.

He had a halter in the car.

Which makes me wonder if this was the first time that a sheep had ever been in the back seat of his wife’s Honda.

So he put the halter on and found some rope at the church and tied it up out on the front lawn.

Can you imagine if you showed up out here one night and we had a sheep tied up out front.

And when it came time for the lesson I said, “Sorry, my sheep ate it.”

So he put the halter on and found some rope at the church and tied it up out on the front lawn

A couple things about that story that parallel with our passage of scripture tonight.

He knew his sheep as soon as he saw it.

His sheep knew him also and came as soon as called.

This is the relationship between shepherd and sheep.

I told you last week that people are alot like sheep and that analogy is used all through out scripture.

Last week we looked at ourselves in comparision with Jesus as the gate.

This week we’re going to look at ourselves in comparison with Jesus as the Shepherd.

The Read

The passage of scripture that we studied contains two of the “I AM” statements.

We read through last week and we unpacked the claim that Jesus made saying, “I AM the gate for the sheep.”

This week, while reading the same passage.

We’re going to discover the other “I AM” statement: “I AM the good shepherd.”

(NIV) 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.

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

Jesus comes right out and states the contrast between a thief and a shepherd and this theme sort of sticks with this passage throughout as Jesus indicates the differences between himself and the Pharisees.

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.

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.

Let’s not beat the Pharisees up to bad for what it says in verse 6 about them not understanding what Jesus was saying.

Because we don’t understand it either when we first hear it.

The sheep pen would contain the herds of several shepherds.

When the morning came the shepherd would go there and call out to his sheep and the ones that were his and that recognized his voice would make there way through the crowd and would come gather with the shepherd and he would lead them out to a pasture some where that they could graze all day.

They could only do this because they knew his voice.

They also would not come out for a stranger’s voice because they didn’t trust it and they didn’t know it.

So Jesus said, “My sheep will never follow a stranger.

Actually they’ll turn and run the other way.”

When I was a kid I was always amazed watching my grandpa work cattle.

He’d step out on his back porch and yell, “Come on Cows.”

And it really didn’t matter where they were at on the farm.

They’d show up there just because they hear his voice.

And I tried to mimmic that same thing and it never worked for me.

They knew.

And listen I’m a lot like my grandpa and always have been.

But they could tell the difference between his voice and mine.

So I have a question for you?

Don’t answer out loud but think about it.

Who’s voice are you following?

Who’s voice do you recognize?

Are you following the voice of Jesus when he’s trying to show you new things or teach you new things?

Are you following the voice of Jesus when he’s calling you to something?

Do you recognize his voice?

Do you study his word enough to recognize when he’s speaking to you? Do you pray enough to recognize when his spirit is urging you?

Or are you following another voice?

Are you more familiar with another voice?

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.

There’s the “I AM” statement from last week and then there’s a verse that really defines this whole passage and again shows the difference when the Pharisees and Jesus.

Jesus says in verse 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.”

Jesus says that the thieves who came before the couldn’t get the attention of the sheep.

They wouldn’t listen to them because even the sheep knew they had bad intentions for coming.

But they would listen to him because he came to give them a good life.

11 “I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.

So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.

Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

Jesus makes his second “I AM” statement of the passage here.

He says he’s the good shepherd and that he lays down his life for the sheep.

One of the things we said last week about the sheep, who let me remind you is us, was that sheep were valuable to the shepherd.

But the weren’t quite that way for the hired hand.

Jesus said as the shepherd, he’d lay his life down to protect his sheep.

But the hired hand doesn’t place the same value on the sheep.