Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

(Michael) Mom’s… you are doing great work!

(Michael) I love reflecting on how God chose you to be a mother to your children.

He trusts you to love and care for them, and to teach them all about life.

(Becca) And so we just want to celebrate you today.

And we want to encourage you and bless you…

(Becca) Remember that you are way more than what you do… and what you do is vitally important.

(Michael) I once read my Great-grandmother’s journal.

She was a pastor in Salem, Oregon.

And I found prayers for her great-grandchildren, who were a long way from being born.

Her faithful prayers for me are still bearing fruit today.

Jesus invites us into a flourishing life

(Michael) The picture throughout the scriptures is pretty clear… we are meant to flourish under the care of God…

In the Torah (first five books of our bible) the basic view of the good life is obedience to God.

The righteous are blessed and the wicked are cursed.

In the Wisdom Literature, especially the books of Psalms and Proverbs, we see detailed attention on the nature of human well-being and guidance towards the good life.

Living this good life is like being a “tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:3).

I taught this passage in detail a couple weeks ago.

As part of wisdom literature, Job asks the question about why the righteous suffer… and we learn that God is God, and we are not… and that many of our experiences are mysterious, transcending human comprehension…and we’re invited into a life of faith in God rather than in our ability to figure everything out.

The OT introduces us to the concept of shalom; often translated as peace.…meaning

that things are as they ought to be: physical well-being, social/relational well-being… all of human existence is working well.

(Becca) In the gospels we are introduced to the Kingdom of God, the rule and reign of God coming through the person of Jesus—we see in Jesus the ordering of human life under the rule/ authority of God.

This re-ordering will eventually result in the renewal of all creation—its as wide as the entire cosmos, and as detailed as each human life.

Becca’s version: In the Gospels in the NT, the writers introduce us to the Kingdom of God, which is the rule and reign of God manifested in Jesus.

Through Jesus, we see the re-orienting of humanity under God’s rule.

And this order change will on day result in making everything new: a new creation, from everything as big as the entire universe and also as intimate as the in and outs of our lives as humans

(Michael) In John’s gospel, the good life is referred to as abundant life, or eternal life—and its all tied together with loving Jesus and keeping his commandments.

And just as the Father and Son are one, we are meant to enter, to abide in that oneness.

John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

Today, we’re looking at a passage that has this verse…

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

To experience life to the full points to experiencing considerably more than one would expect or anticipate; over and above; more than enough; and extraordinary life…

Does this seem too good to be true?

This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes…“Christ did not die to make us Christian, he died to make us human.”

–Hans R. Rookmaaker

(Becca read passage) Let’s read the passage and talk about it a bit!

John 10:1–18 (NIV)

“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.

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.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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.

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

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.

I must bring them also.

They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my Father.”

(Becca) Here’s our problem, we want the good life, but we want it without Jesus!

(Becca) But here’s the issue.

Like the Pharisees, we want the good life but practically speaking, we actually want it without Jesus.

This idea of flourishing that Jesus talks about sounds incredible.

Like the tree planted by streams of water in Psalm 1:3.

We want it all, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we want it all on our own terms.

We want to be in control of what our flourishing looks like and we want to control the journey we take to get there.

(Michael) I think it might be helpful to put the passage we just read in context.

This conversation Jesus is having comes on the heels of a bit of a confrontation.

We have to go back to the beginning of chapter 9 to understand the context…

John 9:1-2 “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?””

The view was that any experience of something less than perfect shalom, someone somewhere must’ve done something wrong!

We often thing similarly today… have you ever thought, when something goes wrong, what did I do to deserve this?

Jesus responds that there’s not a direct correlation in this…and then heals the man.

John 9:13-16 “They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.

Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.

Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.

“He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?”

So they were divided.”

And because this instance of healing seems to have broken one of their God-given rules, Jesus is obviously not of God.

so they continue to challenge the blind man about Jesus’ identity…

John 9:30-34 “The man answered, “Now that is remarkable!

You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God does not listen to sinners.

He listens to the godly person who does his will.

Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!”

And they threw him out.”

(Becca) Dang Pharisees!

As the blind man challenges them, their response is to say he’s steeped in sin and they threw him out.

(Michael) Jesus then finds the man who had been blind, hearing that he’d been thrown out, and he discloses that he’s the Messiah.

Some Pharisees who had been following the man around and heard what Jesus said to him, and Jesus’ response is the passage we read in John 10. Jesus is talking directly to the Pharisees as he using the various metaphors of sheep and shepherd.

(Becca) Like the Pharisees, some of us work really hard to have a flourishing life by following all the rules.