Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway Chapel!

Psalm 23.

Prayer

Good morning, again.

If we haven’t met before, my name is Chris Lumsden...

This morning we’re progressing in our year-long sermon series “The Year of Biblical Exploration” where we are walking through the entirety of the Bible, seeing how it is a library of texts, both divine and human, with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.

There are 52 Sundays in a year and 66 books in the Bible, so the math doesn’t work out for us to talk about every book, but we’ve touched down in many books of Bible, seeing how each contributes to the beautiful tapestry that is the biblical story.

And the goal of this year is not to get more Bible into your life, like trying to fit in a workout in your schedule, but the goal is to get more of our lives in the Bible.

To see our entire lives through the lens of Scripture.

Why would that be the goal?

Because that’s how Jesus lived.

And we are followers of Jesus, we view him as the main focus of the whole Bible, and so we want to adore the Bible like he did.

I am currently a student at Western Seminary, on track to graduate in the summer of 2024 when gas prices will be higher than my tuition.

And the class I’m taking now involves watching video lectures by Josh Mathews, who is the brother of our own elder of Gateway Chapel, Mike Mathews.

And for me, that means it literally feels like I’m watching videos by Mike because Josh is nearly identical.

Here he is!

And I don’t have a video clip to share his voice with you cuz that might be copyright infringement or something, but his voice sounds just like Mike.

Mike, say something!

He sounds just like that.

But Josh said something this week that made me think about our sermon series that we’re in right now…PAUSE

where we’re asking, “Who is Jesus?”

We’re in our fourth week of this series and we’ve said that, “Who is Jesus” is the most important question anyone will ever answer.

But maybe you’re thinking, “Chris, I’ve been in the church my whole life.

I don’t remember a time before Jesus.

I’ve answered this question.

I know who Jesus is.

Maybe this is for someone else.”

In his video lecture, Josh who looks and sounds like Mike, quoted from scholar George Guthrie, who said this:

“Your perseverance in the Christian faith will be in direct proportion to the clarity with which you see who Jesus is and what he has accomplished on your behalf.

If you and I become fuzzy about our thinking about who Jesus is, it is going to affect our perseverance in the faith.”

- George Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews

Burn out is a hot topic these days, isn’t it.

In nearly every industry, people are talking about it.

And I think it applies to the Christian life, too.

It’s been hard, hasn’t it?

So how do we keep going?

We have to be clear on who Jesus is.

So who is he?

In John’s gospel, Jesus tells us.

Seven times Jesus says, “I am ______________.”

It’s like his name tag.

He says

The bread of life

The light of the world

The gate for the sheep

The good shepherd

The resurrection and the life

The way, the truth, and the life

The true vine

And today we’re looking at John 10:11-21 where Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.”

The most important question in life is, “Who is Jesus?”

And our longevity following Jesus is directly tied to us seeing him clearly.

And he says, “I am the good shepherd.”

What does that mean?

Pray

We’re in the gospel of John, and John is very clear about why he wrote this text about Jesus.

Every word is intentionally chosen to guide us to life through belief in Jesus.

And so the last few weeks we’ve read how Jesus is the bread of life, he’s the light of the world, he’s the gate for the sheep.

And this week in John 10:11-21 we read Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd.”

Even though we’re 7 days removed from last week’s sermon, Jesus is still in this text in the same context from last week’s text when he said, “I am the gate.”

We’ve broken this into two sermons, but it was really one train of thought in response to one situation.

And that situation was that Jesus had just healed a blind man, but he had done it on the Sabbath which greatly upset the religious leaders of the day.

In John 9 we read of Jesus healing a man born blind and how this man came to faith.

But the religious leaders were so upset that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, a day when they believed you could do no work at all, they held this inquisition of the blind man and threatened to kick him out of the community.

So Jesus contrasted his leadership with the Jewish religious leaders by talking about sheep, and gates, pastures, and shepherds.

And that leads us into our text today as Jesus continues his dialogue.

John 10:11 (ESV)

11 I am the good shepherd.

What does Jesus mean by good?

I was taught from an early age that good is not the best word.

If you’re a writer, and you write, “One day the man awoke to a good sunrise and had a good day.”

You probably won’t make it as a writer.

If you leave a review on Yelp for a restaurant and say, “It was good.”

What’s that, 3.5 stars?

Maybe 4?

Why doesn’t Jesus say “GREAT” or “FANTASTIC” or “THE BEST”?

The image of being good or goodness is at the core of God’s identity.

God is good, creates good, and does good.

Like God himself, goodness is a mysteriously vast well from which comes everything pleasant, life-giving, delightful, and lovely in our world.

And yet, God’s goodness is one of the first things we doubt when things go bad.

If God is so good, why is my marriage so bad?

If God is so good, why is our world such a mess?

If God is so good, why do bad things happen to good people?

Those are real concerns.

But Jesus says even though there is darkness in the world, I am good, I am connected to the fountain of all that is right, and pure.

In a sense, Jesus is saying I am the ideal shepherd.

But if Jesus wanted to show his superiority, his divinity and power, why say I’m a good SHEPHERD?

Why not a king or warrior?

For one, shepherding and sheep was a common staple of the economy.

He’s borrowing a common image they were very familiar with to make his point.

It’d be like Jesus saying, “I am the good real estate agent.”

Additionally, shepherding and sheep was an image the Old Testament used for God and his people.

Jesus likely had Ezekiel 34 on his mind.

Are these shepherds good or bad?

So Jesus is contrasting himself with those leaders.

By talking about shepherds Jesus is implicitly identifying as the promised shepherd in this text.

Finally, people expect him to say he’s the king.

People hope he calls himself a general, a warrior, a chief who will use impressive military force to destroy God’s enemies.

But Jesus had his eyes set on a greater enemy, one that couldn’t be killed with a semi-automatic rifle.

And shepherds aren’t weak.