Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Analytical
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Conscientiousness
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Introduction
It’s not often you speak to someone who is an unbeliever who admits the power of God.
You may come a cross a pagan who recognizes God has power even though they do not worship God.
You may run into an agnostic that really doesn’t care one way or another and as long as you do not try to “force your religion” down their throat they are apathetic.
But then there are the atheist.
Those people who activity seek to destroy Christianity.
They may even know a little about Christianity, but they only know just enough to attempt to discredit and destroy it.
They make wild accusation like; “God is vengeful, God is unfair, or God is mean.”
Here is an example
Video
They hold these views and try to destroy Christianity because to them .........
God’s message looks foolish
God’s message is opposite of what we are taught
We were taught to revere strength
We were taught to idolize wisdom
We were taught to avoid suffering
God’s message is hard for unbelievers
Unbelievers rely on the tangible
Things they can touch, taste, see, hear, smell
If you can hold it in your hand it is real
Things have to be real
Unbelievers rely on reason
It must be rational to them for it to be possible
It must make sense
Unbelievers only look for benefits
They will never intentionally suffer
They will never intentionally submit to pain
For unbelievers the cross makes no sense.
How could a weak person save us?
On the cross Jesus was weak.
How would Jesus suffering bring about salvation?
Salvation only comes through conquest, not through suffering.
John Chrysostom, Homily IV “For the things which tend to salvation [the unbeliever] knows not; and those who are careful about them they consider to be troublesome.
Now this ensues not from the nature of the thing, but from their disease.
And [it’s] just what the insane do, hating those who take care of them, and besides reviling them, the same is the case with unbelievers also.
But as in the case of the former, they who are insulted then more than ever compassionate them, and weep, taking this as the worst symptom of the disease in its intense form, when they know not their best friends; so also in the case of the Gentiles let us act; yea more than for our wives let us wail over them, because they know not the common salvation”
So what is it they do not know?
God’s message gives wisdom
Just so with regard to the things of God; should we desire to explain them by the wisdom which is from without, great derision will ensue, not from their infirmity, but from the folly of men.
For the great things of all no language can explain.
All true wisdom comes from God
We cannot have true wisdom without God.
”Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind.
In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking.
It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought.
But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true?
It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London.
But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else.
Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”
—C.S. Lewis
Unbelievers have to do mental gymnastics
In order to disprove God and Christ unbelievers have to come to crazy conclusion
Or they have to ignore basic evidence
Through our faith we are given God’s perfect wisdom
God’s Wisdom grants Salvation
Greeks look for wisdom, Jews look for signs
They both want some tangible means for belief
We are blessed because we believe without seeing
We have wisdom because we have faith
Our salvation comes from God and not from the world’s wisdom
When we believe, we will be saved
when we are saved, we will understand
Conclusion
God’s wisdom may be strange to those who do not believe.
The cross seems counter productive.
To suffer for another seems strange.
To revere weakness seems just wrong.
But to those of us who believe we know that God’s strength is all that matters.
The cross was God’s chosen method for salvation.
To suffer for another is the greatest gift we could give or receive.
And we know that God’s strength is what is most important and his strength is greatest when we are weakest.
So God’s wisdom may seem foolish to those who don’t believe but to us who believe God’s wisdom is everything.
Let us pray.
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