Sermon Tone Analysis

(Farmer story)

There were once two old farmers.

They’re neighbors, but they have a feud that’s been running for a few years.

They haven’t even spoken to each other in that time.

The whole thing got started over a cat.

The cat was a stray, but both of these farmers began feeding the cat and claimed it as their own.

From there, everything went downhill.

The neighbors quit talking, and the grudge escalated to the point that one of them dug a ditch to reroute a spring and make sure it divided their properties.

One day, a carpenter came through the area looking for work.

He knocked on the door of one of the farms, and the farmer said, “Well, if he’s going to try to divide us up with that ditch, then I might as well finish the job.

I don’t even want to have to look at him!”

So he asked the carpenter to build a fence all the way across the property, a nice, big, tall fence.

The carpenter said, “OK, I could do that, but it will take a lot more wood.”

So the farmer went into town to buy more wood, and the carpenter started working with the wood in the shed.

That farmer came driving back down the dirt road to his home, but when he looked across the field, he didn’t see any fence going up.

Instead of the barrier he’d wanted, he saw that the carpenter had built a bridge across the creek.

And there across the bridge, his neighbor came walking toward him with his hand outstretched, a big sheepish grin on his face.

“You’re a brave man,” he said.

“I didn’t think you’d want to hear the sound of my voice again.

Can you forgive me?”

The first farmer was surprised, and as he reached out to shake his neighbor’s hand, he found himself saying, “Aww, I knew it was your cat.”

David Wilcox uses this story to introduce his song “Fearless Love”.

The song weaves a story about a church protest… one person caught up in it remembers Jesus’s teaching about loving our enemies through Christ’s teaching on carrying the Roman Soldier’s pack… (explain)

The chorus says: “Fearless love makes you cross the border.”

Fearless Love crosses borders… It overcomes the things that separate us from others… It builds bridges… and tears down walls… Fearless Love doesn’t divide.

Jesus is the embodiment of Fearless Love.

His is a Love that defies and overcomes fear…

Paul tells us how far Jesus’s Love goes:

Jesus’s Love led Him all the way to the Cross!

That’s Fearless Love!!

But more than that… Jesus unites us in Love.

Look at Jesus’s prayer in John:

Jesus’s desire… His work… is to unite us to each other… and to God…

He accomplished this… or at least began that work… in His birth.

I want you to see this…

We have been looking at the people in the Nativity story…

Take a closer look at them.

We start with Zechariah and Elizabeth… and Mary and Joseph…

— In these two couples, the young meets the old… the prophets/priests meet the common folk… The promises of the past meet the hope of the future… Separation and death meet restoration and life…

Then we have the shepherds and angels…

— beings of earth and beings of heaven… the physical and the spiritual meeting in a stable… There are animals and humans, all beings of creation…

Matthew presents us with the Magi…

— Mysterious visitors from the East… These are arguably the most interesting characters God brings into the story…

— They are noble and wealthy men… yet God sets them alongside lowly shepherds… But the most interesting part of all, … they are Gentiles, not Jews!!!!

— Their inclusion in the narrative brings the radical idea of a Messiah… who brings restoration and salvation to ALL PEOPLE!!!!

— The Magi are “Holy Men”…from a foreign, mystical tradition, who come seeking a promised prophet FROM ANOTHER RELIGION…and they proclaim Him King!!!

They stand in contrast to the Jewish leadership of the day…

Notice… There are no Pharisees, Sadducees, or Jewish spiritual VIP’s … invited to Jesus’s birth!

Instead… There are travelers from a different race… a different culture… who are willing to disrupt their lives with a great journey… and to humble themselves to worship the baby of a poor, unassuming couple in the countryside…

There are “dirty old shepherds,” right in from the fields… and beasts of the earth… But no worldly VIPs…

It’s quite the cast God has put together…

It’s far from what would have been expected… or even what we would expect today!

To us it’s a “rag tag” bunch… To them it would be downright blasphemous!

“There’s no way the Messiah would be so lowly… would associate with… and touch… such an unclean group of people and animals.”

But that is just what He did!

Jesus united all of creation — symbolically — just by being born!

How awesome is that?!?!

Now… Here’s the best part… in doing so, God revealed several things about His Love.

I. Christ is Love Embodied.

John tells us: “God is Love.”

1 John 4:8 (NIV)

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

He already told us, “He was with God, and He was God...” Now he tells us…

The Bible is God’s Love story for all humanity… for all creation!

In the beginning, God made people and shared time with them in the Garden…

When sin entered the picture through Eve’s actions… When it brought with it death… brokenness… and separation from God,… God didn’t stop Loving mankind!

He didn’t stop loving Adam and Eve!

He continued to work… and to covenant with people!

Look at what He did immediately after finding them hiding in the Garden…

He killed a lamb and made clothing (coverings) for their nakedness… their shame…

That was the very first blood sacrifice… And it was made for us!!!!

That was one of God’s creatures… His creation… sacrificed for us!!!

What kind of Love is that?!?

Through generations and generations, from that point… right up to the present day… God has worked His plans… and promised a Messiah to make a way to restore the relationship with Himself…

Christians say “Christ is the final sacrifice… that He is the perfect Lamb...” because, He is the WAY!

Jesus, this one who is described as the Groom, and the Church as His bride… is the ONLY Way back into a relationship with God… and the relationship He brings us back into is a Relationship of LOVE!!!!

It is a marriage with Love itself!

Look at verse 15… That word “acknowledges” is the word “homologese — to declare.”

This is not just about saying He exists… or that He is the Son of God… This is about declaring Him.

This is about making a vow — not a pledge or contract, but a wedding vow — to Him, and ACCEPTING the vow He has made to you!

John tells us that God is Love.

He personifies Love.

Love is His very nature… and He has shown it to us by sending Jesus.

When we DECLARE that He is God’s Son… When we DECLARE that He is the Messiah… When we DECLARE that He is our Lord…

When we come to Him and give Him our lives COMPLETELY… not just saying “He is” and “He exists”… But putting our FAITH completely in Him… He restores us to Love!

We are fulfilled in Love.

There is a little hole in each of us… We try to fill it… but we will never find fulfillment until we are united with Christ!!!

We live in Him and He lives in us.

God’s Love won’t let us down.

It fills us… fuels us… calls us… and enables us to Love each other!

II.

Love Defines and Propels Us.

Near the end of His ministry… as He gathered with His twelve disciples for the Passover meal… He tells them:

Jesus taught His disciples… He teaches us… to Love Like He Does.

Let me ask you: “How will people know that we are followers of Jesus?”

How will people know that we are Christians?

BY OUR LOVE!

— Not b y our activism… or our political views… or even by our morals… They will know us… and Him… By our Love!

We shouldn’t have to tell people we are Christians… They should SEE it!!!

Love is what DEFINES us… it MARKS us… it CHARACTERIZES us!