Sermon Tone Analysis

Connection to the Sabbath and to the healing of the blind man.

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Steve Jordan?

Intro

Good morning, Gateway Chapel!

If you’re joining us for the first time, we are currently in a year-long series we’re called “The Year of Biblical Exploration.”

We’re looking at the beautiful mosaic that is the biblical story from a 30,000 foot level, touching down at key points in the story.

And we’ve been asking, “What is the Bible?”

Is it a divine rule book, handed down by God to help us be good people who go to the good place when we die?

No, it’s so much more.

We’ve had a working definition of the Bible, let’s read it out loud together.

The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.

And we’ve walked through Genesis all the way through the prophets, specifically Jonah last month, and now we’ve arrived in the New Testament and instead of asking, “What is the Bible?” we’re asking, “Who is Jesus?”

Who is Jesus?

The most important question anyone will ever ask.

Human beings since the dawn of time have been asking, “Why am I here?

What’s the point of all this?

Is there more than this?

Is there a God?

If so, what’s he like?”

The Bible says that Jesus came to reveal the Father, and so to answer those existential questions that all of us ask, we must answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

But the question of “Who is Jesus?” is enormous!

How do we even start?

Fortunately for us, Jesus tells us who he is.

In John’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am ____________” seven different ways.

It’s like Jesus wearing a name tag.

He says I am

The bread of life

The light of the world

The gate for the sheep

The good shepherd

The way, the truth, and the life

The resurrection and the life

The true vine

We’ve already looked at the bread of life how Jesus satisfies and was broken for us on the cross so we could have eternal life.

Fletcher preached last week on Jesus as the light of the world, he is life itself, he is greater than the darkness, and he comes to save all mankind.

And this week we’re in John 10, where Jesus says I am the door for the sheep, but can also be translated, the gate for the sheep.

Our church name is Gateway Chapel.

This text is where we get our name!

The Chapel part I think our planting pastor chose just to be different or cool.

At the compassion clinic last week they said, “Is anyone here from Gateway Community?”

And we raised our hands like, “Yeah it’s close enough.”

But it’s the Gateway part that’s important.

If this is our name, what does that even mean?

If someone asked you, “Why is your church called Gateway?” What would you say?

We like doors?

We like keeping people out?

What does Jesus mean when he says, “I am the gate.”

That’s what we’re going to look at in John 10:1-10, who is Jesus?

Pray

We’re in the book of John together, it’s the 44th book of the Bible, and the 4th of the New Testament.

John is really clear on his purpose for writing the book.

If you asked me most of the things I do, “Chris, why do you do it that way?”

I often would say, “I have no idea, I brush my teeth very aggressively.”

John is very clear.

Everything we read in John is for this purpose.

That we would respond in belief.

So it’s with that context that we read John 10:1-5.

John wants us to believe that Jesus is the one sent by God to save us from death.

And he shares this teaching from Jesus.

This moment is in the context of a miracle that just happened in John 9.

Jesus really ticks off the religious leaders of the day not by swearing, or smoking on church grounds, or voting for Joe Biden, or failing to pray before a meal....he heals somebody.

Why is that bad?

He did it on the Sabbath.

For the Pharisees, if you do anything on the Sabbath, you are a sinner.

You’re against God.

But this man who was born blind can now see, and they have this horrendous inquisition on the man.

They try to force him to denounce Jesus.

They bring in his parents to testify against Jesus.

And the underlying threat with these questions is that if they side with Jesus (who, again, healed this man!) they could be kicked out of the synagogue which was the social livelihood of the Jewish community.

So this poor guy who for his whole life could never even see a sunrise, or see a woman he loved, or see his own feet, constantly tripping into people…is healed by Jesus.

And the religious leaders POUNCE and corner him and his family.

And Jesus responds with some words about sheep.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know the last time I saw a sheep in the flesh.

I’ve never met a shepherd.

I’ve seen goats in sumner!

I’ve grown up in the church, reading Psalm 23, very familiar with the imagery, but to be honest, it’s very foreign to my way of life.

Jesus is contrasting his leadership with the leadership of the Pharisees who just religiously abused a man who did nothing but get healed on the wrong day of the week.

So why does Jesus talk about sheep?

One reason is sheep farming was a staple of the economy.

The pen Jesus refers to was a large enclosure that would have several flocks of sheep staying in it during the night.

During the night a watchman would guard the entrance to the pen, and in the morning the shepherds would come and call their sheep with unique calls.

Robbers could only get in by scaling the wall because the entrance to the sheep was guarded.

The second reason is shepherding and sheep was a key imagery of God and his people in the Old Testament.

Jesus always had Ezekiel on his mind, and in this case he was pulling right from Ezekiel 34.

Last year we did a sermon series on Ezekiel and it was super fun, if you’re from Gospel Life and you’re like, “They did a series on what?” Yeah we’re that intense.

So God will be the shepherd of Israel, saving them from poor leadership that only wants to take from them.

But God will also set up a leader from the line of David…so God and David will be the shepherd?

And along comes Jesus.

So good.

So Jesus after healing a man born blind, witnessing the religious leaders fail to celebrate with the man and give credit to Jesus, expertly uses the cultural and Biblical imagery of sheep and shepherd to say, “You Pharisees are like thieves and robbers who do not have the best interest of others in mind.

I am a different kind of leader.”

How do the people respond to this?

They don’t get it.

“What about sheep..?” John cleverly shows that the Pharisees are not his true sheep because they don’t hear his voice.

Rather than simply rolling his eyes and leaving, Jesus explains further.

The very next verse Jesus will say, “I am the good shepherd.”

As you might be able to tell, the good shepherd imagery and the gate imagery are intertwined.

But we’re going to look at them individually, and this Sunday focus on what does it mean that Jesus says, “I am the door or the gate.”

Three things that it means that Jesus is the gate for the sheep.