Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Two sides to a coin of human-ness: How we view ourself/others and how God views us

So on one side, some serious thought should be taken when entrusting ourselves to others or those that we love into the care of others.

If you are single: There should be serious thought and consideration when you are meeting someone new.

You are precious.

You are worthy of being cherished and cared for well.

If you are spending time with a someone (friend, acquaintance, someone you met on an app or social media, or even a blind date) you are taking time to consider how to care for yourself and evaluating if you can trust this person to care for you the way you ought to be cared for.

Do they care for you?

If you are in job: Does your job care for you.

What I mean by this is that do they value the work you do for them.

This is not just seen in compensation but it also in the culture, the environment, and the conditions leadership creates in order for you to thrive.

You are not a robot there to do a job, you are a human being that is more than just what you produce.

Do they see that, how do they acknowledge that… does management listen, do they want to see you succeed, do they give you reasonable space to fail, do they look to create an environment where you succeed and thrive?

Do they care for you?

If you have children: Often times it is a gift and privilege to have a babysitter so you can get rest, go out with your spouse or significant other, hang with friends, etc.

But, you don’t just entrust your children to anyone.

There is a lot you think through when screening a babysitter and often times, we’ve found, that there has to be a lot of trust knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that our children will be nurtured and cherished as much as we do, if not more.

So for Crystal and I, that was close family, close friends, as our children got older… our oldest is now the built in babysitter.

But the one that watches over your children, because they are important to you… by caring for your children they care for you.

If anything were to happen, you take it on yourself because you were the one who entrusted them in the first place… so you ask yourself, do they care for them, do they care for you?

Your church: Does your pastor care for you?

Is there manipulation, are there guilt trips, are the messages that you here about trying harder and being better?

Are they short and hot tempered?

Are they inappropriate and make you feel unsafe?

Is there a sense that you are just a means to an end?

Pastor Josh led us through the difference of the Good Shepherd and the hirelings, wolves, thieves, and robbers last week.

He also excellently pointed out that the imagery that Jesus is evoking is from Ezekiel 34.

He tells the leaders of Israel in Ezek 34:30-31 “Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people.

This is the declaration of the Lord God.

You are my flock, the human flock of my pasture, and I am your God.

This is the declaration of the Lord God.’ ””

The minister of the church finds their calling in part in Jer 3:15 “I will give you shepherds who are loyal to me, and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill.”

You should be well cared for, loved, pastored, which means challenged, equipped, and sent out into the harvest field with your shepherds as co-laborers, as advocates, as cheerleaders, as those who speak life into you, those who will tell you the truth (especially when it is uncomfortable)… do your pastors care for you?

As we wrap up John 10 this morning, this is what we find… we who hear His voice are safely in His care.

We who know the Good Shepherd’s voice, can rest in His good and not just sufficient care, but abundant care.

If you have your Bibles or on your devices, would you please go to John 10:22-42.

If you are willing and you are able, would you stand with me as I read God’s word this morning.

This is the word of the Lord.

Let us pray.

You may be seated.

Entrusting Care (vss.

22-30)

John the apostle gives us a little context as to when this next engagement by the Jews takes place.

It’s December, it’s winter time, it’s during the festival of lights, or as we might know as Hanukkah.

The last five chapters of John’s gospel has been centered around the Jewish Festivals.

We’ll see next week, John will be moving away from this motif.

**The early church fathers when teaching scripture, gave themselves to allegory.

Reading into the text was a very common practice.

Today, that is not highly favored amongst Bible teachers, expositors, and scholars.

That being said, on an emotional level, this reaches me.

In the winter of the soul, cold, harsh, times when we think of more bright, warm, and joyful times, the enemy and the accusers come around.

What follows brings comfort.

If you find yourself in this season, take great comfort in our passage this morning.

The Jewish leaders are coming around Jesus and continue to extract evidence of blasphemy.

If you have been with us for any length of time in our journey through John’s gospel, or even read the first nine chapters seeing Jesus engage the people and the religious leaders, Jesus says He is the messiah/God multiple times.

vs.30 is another example.

What is interesting though is that John has let a little time go by between what we looked at last week (the first part of chapter 10) and where we are now towards the end of the chapter but still having Jesus speak on the Good Shepherd.

In vss 25-30 we come to a place where many hear the doctrine of election.

That once saved always saved.

That God will not let anyone snatch the saved out of His hand.

While I don’t completely hold to a doctrinally reformed view of scripture, this passage for us in Jesus is deeply comforting.

Church, this is comforting.

There is no thief, robber, or wolf that can snatch us out of God’s hand.

We should not confuse someone snatching the believer out of God’s hand with someone who chooses to walk away under their own desires or agency.

But what great assurance we have that God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present holds us and protects us.

That His love for us is so great and grand that no matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can find Him, there.

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.

No one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.

No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one.””

Can I tell you whatever you are going through, this continues to be true.

If you hear God’s voice, you follow him, and you are secure.

Nothing can come in between your relationship with Him.

The Spirit of God speaks, reveals God’s will/heart to us through scripture, and is our ever present help in time of need.

(Ps.

46:1)

A role entrusted to us (vss.

31-39)

They pick up stones to kill Jesus.

This was the punishment for blasphemy.

Blasphemy is when someone speaks evil of God and or when they attribute evil to the work of God.

If they perceived Jesus was just a man, it would have been blasphemous from their perspective.

Ironically, they assumed Jesus was just a man which was blasphemous against God.

(Freebie… gracious, kind, and long-suffering character of God is that He didn’t wipe them (us) out)

As Jesus reasons with them as they are gathering their stones, He makes a claim that is bit difficult to understand, but I am going to try and break it down with a little help from our Scottish friend, theologian, and pastor Dr. William Barclay:

(SIMPLIFY)

TO the Jews, Jesus’ statement that he and the Father were one was blasphemy.

It was the invasion by a man of the place which belonged to God alone.

The Jewish law laid down the penalty of stoning for blasphemy.

(Leviticus 24:16).

So they made their preparations to stone Jesus.

So as they went and fetched stones to fling at him, Jesus met their hostility with three arguments.

(1) He told them that he had spent all his days doing life-giving things—healing the sick, feeding the hungry and comforting the sorrowing—deeds so full of help and power and beauty that they obviously came from God.

For which of these deeds did they wish to stone him?

Their answer was that it was not for anything he had done that they wished to stone him, but for the claim he was making.

(2) This claim was that he was the Son of God.

To meet their attack, Jesus used two arguments.

The first is a purely Jewish argument which is difficult for us to understand.

He quoted Psalm 82:6.

That psalm is a warning to unjust judges to cease from unjust ways and to defend the poor and the innocent.

The appeal concludes: ‘I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you.” ’ The judge is commissioned by God to be god to the people.