Sermon Tone Analysis

Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Text: a complete thought-unit of Scripture providing the sermon’s basis

Central Idea of the Text (CIT): details of text summarized in a complete, past tense sentence

The Lord Jesus commanded all believers to keep on loving one another (Pres.

tense).

We must never stop.

Proposition: major idea of sermon summarized in a complete sentence using present, active, future indicative or imperative mood; in direct relationship to the CIT

The real reason Jesus wanted them to love one another the way He loved them was that in a matter of hours, they would have need to fight against the forces that would seek to scatter them.

Their love for each other would be the glue to bond them once Jesus went home.

Statement of Purpose:

(1) Major Objective (MO) – only ONE of six possible (doctrinal, devotional ethical, evangelistic, consecrative, or supportive)

Ethical

(2) Specific Objective (SO) – focuses on only one; calls for specific action (“I want my hearer to . . .

“)

Be challenged to take an inventory of whether, why, and how they are seeking daily, actively to walk complicit to Jesus’ New Command.

Dear Lord, put Your love in our hearts so that it may overflow to others.

Protect us from selfishness and unconcern.

For Jesus’ sake.

Title (Topic/Name): 2 to 4 words with a key or arrow word usually common to all major ideas; innovative, interesting, contemporary; indicative of general sermon content; not sensational or cute

Do They Know?

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Introduction:

Get Attention/Raise Need/Orient Theme/State Purpose

- strong, attractive, and interesting opening sentence

As I studied this passage, I was impressed so deeply with the sobriety of these moments just before the Cross, I could not phrase it better than Alexander Maclaren did when he said,

WISHES from dying lips are sacred.

They sink deep into memories and mould faithful lives.

The sense of impending separation had added an unwonted tenderness to our Lord’s address, and He had designated His disciples by the fond name of ‘little children.’

The same sense here gives authority to His words, and moulds them into the shape of a command.

The disciples had held together because He was in their midst.

Will the arch stand when the keystone is struck out?

Will not the spokes fall asunder when the nave of the wheel is taken away?

He would guard them from the disintegrating tendencies that were sure to set in when He was gone; and He would point them to a solace for His absence, and to a kind of substitute for His presence.

For to love the brethren whom they see would be, in some sense, a continuing to love the Christ whom they had ceased to see.

And so, immediately after He said: ‘Whither I go ye cannot come,’ He goes on to say: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’

- personal and social material; personal bridge; social bridge

This drives us to consider also what exactly we are prone to be driven by in our natural tendencies, for example, what would others say the “distinguishing mark” of our church is?

The distinguishing mark of discipleship is not programs or signs, wonders or eloquence or ecclesiastical power, but Christ’s love in us that allows us to love one another.

- textual material (CIT); textual bridge

What the Structure Means: The Upper Room Discourse (Jn 13–17)

The first twelve chapters of the fourth gospel cover a period of time of about two and a half to three years; chapters 11–19 document the last week of Jesus’ earthly life; and chapters 13–17 represent just His last evening with His disciples [before He would die] . . .

John includes instruction on the significance of Christ’s death and the mandates it extends to Jesus’ disciples: the mandate for servant leadership and the command to love one another.

The rejection of Jesus that led to His execution is also extended to the disciples in the warning they, too, will be hated and betrayed when they are sent out in Jesus’ name to be His presence in the world.

The purpose of the Upper Room Discourse is to prepare those who followed Jesus to live in a world where he would no longer be present.

As such, it is a precious last word from Jesus for Christian believers yet today.

John 13 Through Old Testament Eyes

The commemoration of the exodus from Egypt as celebrated in the Passover creates the frame in which John will tell the story of Jesus’ last hours on earth.

Jesus chooses to spend these precious hours with His disciples to inform, comfort, and motivate them as the horrendous event of His crucifixion approaches, and for the lives they must thereafter live as His agency in this world.

The footwashing [though it carries no salvific or sacramental value for the lost soul, but was a sanctifying of those who had believed on Jesus already, as well a further condemnation on the unbelieving, nevertheless its message does point us forward to the coming cross, where] the cleansing for sin previously accomplished by the death of sacrificial animals in the temple would finally and fully be accomplished by the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29, 36).

Passover had established the concept of vicarious sacrifice in the religious life of Israel, as the blood of the lamb was substituted for the death of each family’s firstborn son.

This was followed by the continual and repeated sacrifice of animals through millennia for cleansing from sin, which had likely come to an end with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 by the time John wrote his gospel at the end of the first century.

Following Jesus’ crucifixion, animal sacrifice would no longer be needed, for the truth to which it pointed was once-for-all accomplished by the death of the Lamb of God.

Words of the Old Testament also provided a prophecy (Ps 41:9 in Jn 13:18) that showed Judas’ betrayal would not thwart Jesus’ mission in the world but, to the contrary, that it had been foretold as part of messianic redemption.

Even this evil instigated by Satan was being taken up within God’s great plan for the mission of Jesus.

The disciples are thereby to be assured that nothing is happening that lies outside the purview and purposes of the sovereign God.

Furthermore, Jesus was not blindsided by his disciple’s betrayal for he already knew what role Judas would play in sending him to the cross.

Yet Jesus allowed Judas to do only what the Father had ordained, and loved him nevertheless.

The Old Testament, therefore, provides the context in which the significance of Jesus’ vicarious death as the purpose of the incarnation in God’s redemptive plan could be revealed.

[20 Bauckham, Gospel of Glory, 67.]

[Karen H. Jobes, John through Old Testament Eyes: A Background and Application Commentary, ed.

Andrew T. Le Peau, Through Old Testament Eyes: New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2021), 221–222.]

- focus the sermon’s intent (Proposition)

The real reason Jesus wanted them to love one another the way He loved them was that in a matter of hours, they would have need to fight against the forces that would seek to scatter them.

Their love for each other would be the glue to bond them once Jesus went home.

The Lord Jesus commanded all believers to keep on loving one another (Pres.

tense).

We must never stop.

Prayer: Dear Lord, put Your love in our hearts so that it may overflow to others.

Protect us from selfishness and unconcern.

For Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

[Stewart Custer, The Divine Son of God: A Commentary on John (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2011), 68.]

- relational and transitional material; structural bridge

Having indicated the substance of his future (a new glory) and theirs (a new situation), Jesus addresses the practical question as to what the disciples should do in the new circumstances that were about to come upon them.

He outlines the nature of their future discipleship in terms of three main elements: a new commandment, a new example and a new witness.

[Gordon J. Keddie, A Study Commentary on John: John 13–21, vol.

2, EP Study Commentary (Darlington, England; Auburn, MA: Evangelical Press, 2001), 47.]

Body – Development – Outline:

I. State major idea drawn directly from the text, in a brief, complete sentence using present active, future indicative or imperative mood, strong verbs (avoid “to be” and its forms); (vs ?)

I. His Departure (Jn.

13:31-33)

Explanation (EXP): from only the selected text; 3rd person pronouns; past tense; express the “then-ness” aspect of the text itself in its historical context

A. His Glory (Jn.

13:31-32)

B. His Going (Jn.

13:33)

Transitional Sentence (TS): sentence indicates change and progression to next major idea; use the unifying word

Having considered what Jesus said about His Departure, namely, His glorification, and where He was going, now consider,

II.

Our Discipleship (Jn.

13:34-35)

EXP:

A. Our Love (Jn.

13:34)

The word love is used only twelve times in John 1–12, but in John 13–21 it is used forty-four times!

It is a key word in Christ’s farewell sermon to His disciples, as well as a burden in His High Priestly Prayer (John 17:26).

Jesus reminds His disciples of the necessity of loving one another.

He is speaking of genuine love.

Judas had not exhibited genuine love for Christ, so He gives His disciples an admonition.

J. Carl Laney wrote:

The betrayal by Judas was a sin against love.

Instead of showing love for the one who had extended grace and friendship, Judas responded with deception and hostility.

It is in the context of Judas’s sin against love that Jesus reveals to His disciples the mark of the Christian.

The greatest demonstration of love this world has ever known is the cross of Calvary.

The evidence of God’s unwavering love is the sacrifice of His Son for the sin of a lost world.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.