Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.17UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.66LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.07UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.5UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.2UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.56LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.59LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
– I am the Good Shepherd / I am the Door.
John 10:1-21
A really good Black Forest Chateau Cake is a wondrous thing.
Layer upon layer of chocolate cake interspersed with layers of cream and jam and chocolate sauce, topped with layers of dark chocolate.
When you indulge slowly in a really good multilayer chocolate cake you begin to understand the subtleness of layers of taste sensation.
When you begin to understand the parable of the Good Shepherd that Jesus told in John 10 you will see that there is layer after layer of meaning and implication, which is why I want to take two weeks to cover this passage.
Focussing more this week on the image of Jesus as the Gate or Door to the Sheepfold and next week more on the image of Jesus as the Shepherd.
Scene 1 In John 10:1-5 Jesus tells a parable.
He takes a very common picture in his culture of a middle eastern shepherd.
In that culture a shepherd spent most of their time actually with the sheep.
They hand raised the lambs, and as they grew the sheep would only respond to the voice of their shepherd.
There was a very good reason for this close relationship.
There were no fences as we have today.
Sheep were grazed outside of the settlements.
Much of Israel was wilderness and without a shepherd to guide them the sheep would do what sheep do and wander off and would soon be lost and fall victim to predators.
So a Shepherd went to great lengths to make sure that the sheep would respond to their call.
At night time the Shepherd would lead the sheep into a pen.
When they had been grazing their flock a long way from the village they would assemble a pen from bushes and timber in a sheltered place out in the fields.
But when they were near to home they made use of a more permanent structure.
A sheepfold; often it had a stone wall and a gate.
And so that the shepherds could get some rest and have time with family a gate keeper was employed to sit at the gate all night.
Because of the expense of employing a gate keeper a number of shepherds would share the sheepfold.
In the morning the shepherd would simply call out his sheep and because they recognised his voice each flock would quickly get sorted out and would head off for the days grazing.
So the parable Jesus tells is a typical picture of his day, everyone understood the picture.
But why did Jesus start the parable by telling about a thief who climbs into the sheepfold instead of entering through the gate?
Scene 2 In Jewish thought the Lord was often presented as a Shepherd and Israel as his Sheep.
Psalm 23 is the classic example.
Verse 1 to 4 are typical pictures of a shepherd leading his flock.
There is protection, there is comfort, there is provision of food and there is guidance through dangerous places.
Psalm 80 has a similar theme of the Lord as Israel’s shepherd; in this case it calls upon the Sovereign Lord to restore the nation.
In Isaiah 53 we come across the famous suffering servant passage, a passage which the disciples understood to point towards Jesus’ crucifixion.
Verse 6 says; All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
(NLT)
Jesus’ picture deliberately points back to some OT complaints that God had against the leaders of the people.
Zechariah 10 speaks of Israel wandering as lost sheep without a shepherd.
It speaks of the Lord’s anger at the leaders of Israel for being bad shepherds of leaving the people in danger instead of protecting them
Ezekiel 34 is a prolonged complaint of God against the leaders of Israel because they have not cared for the nation as they should.
In effect Jesus is saying to his hearers, the leaders of the nation that they are the bad shepherds, they are the thief.
They are robbing Israel of her opportunity to enter into the promise of the Messiah.
This concern for their own wellbeing at the expense of those they were responsible to care for, is evident in the immediate context of John chapter 9.
In this chapter Jesus heals a man who was born blind.
The leaders don’t like this and in John 9:39 Jesus tells them that he will show them that they who think they can see, are in fact spiritually blind.
This is why Jesus tells this parable.
If they had spiritual sight they would understand.
They knew the Scriptures inside out.
Yet they missed what the Lord really required from them.
And when Jesus tells this parable, they are in fact the thief who climbs in over the wall.
They are a bad shepherd.
Every complaint that God revealed through their own prophets about the leaders being bad shepherds is true of them.
The people are lost and in need of a true shepherd and the leaders have instead looked to their own interests.
Verse 6 tells us that they are so blind to the truth that they don’t even see it.
Spiritual blindness is a terrible thing.
I remember some very powerful examples of this from our time at Woodford.
Some of our people had been sharing their faith, having discussion with people who were genuinely searching.
In two cases that come to mind, the person they were seeking to witness too has looked at Jesus.
One honestly admitted that it all made sense.
And when challenged, as to why he wouldn’t take that final step of faith this man admitted that he knew what he would have to give up.
So his answer was no.
Honest self centeredness at least.
Total surrender to Christ was a step to far for this man.
In the other case, the exclusivity of Jesus being the only way was a stumbling block.
Last I heard this man had still not made a decision; he is still searching for an easier alternative.
You can pray for both these retired men.
It is rare, but happening more often that men of baby boomer retirement age consider faith.
Now is there spiritual blindness in these cases?
Yes, and you may wonder at why these men and everyone else don’t just run to Christ when they hear his message.
But note that both men are genuinely searching, they might ultimately accept or reject the truth of Christ but they are searching.
People who are already religious, like the leaders of Jesus’ day; and so many Christians today make the opposite mistake.
They think they have it all worked out.
Their spiritual blindness is pride, a lack of grace; being so sure that they have everything right.
Anyone who is different, anyone who simply doesn’t fit the box that the spiritually proud person wants to put them in is immediately suspect.
You see we have to be careful with this passage in John 10.
Jesus might be talking about us!
Scene 3 In contrast to the bad shepherds; Jesus points to himself as the door to salvation, the means of salvation; he knows his sheep and they know him.
In verse 7-10 Jesus makes the first I am statement of this passage.
He says, I am the door.
Shepherds or the door keeper would lay down across the entry of the sheepfold at night to sleep.
Wild beasts would be discouraged from entering, and sheep would not exit.
Thus the shepherd was also the door.
The thieves and robbers were the Pharisees and Religious teachers of the day (v.
1).
Jesus, the shepherd, gives spiritual life and access to spiritual food.
Salvation from destruction and safety are found only by entering in through the door, it is a picture of the gift of eternal life in Christ.
But note in verse 10.
There is far more than just eternity, there is this life as well.
The thieves take life; the shepherd gives it.
Abundant life includes salvation, nourishment, healing (v.
9), and much more.
Life here refers to eternal life, God’s life.
It speaks not only of endlessness, but of quality of life.
With Christ, life on earth can reach much higher quality, and then in heaven it will be complete and perfect.[1]
Then we come to the second I am phrase in this passage.
I am the good shepherd in v 11.
Jesus is the good shepherd who gives His life for the sheep (3:16; 1 John 3:16), as opposed to the wicked thief who takes their lives.
While life in v. 10 refers to eternal life, life here refers to physical life.
Jesus laid down His physical life in order to give us eternal life.
The hired hand is literally a hired worker, a mercenary, who tends the flock for his own interest.
When a hired shepherd sees a wolf coming he flees, not caring about the sheep.[2]
Once again Jesus presents a contrast between a true spiritual shepherd and those standing in front of him.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9