Sermon Tone Analysis
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You may know that we’ve started a loose preaching series for the summer called ‘The Heart of the Kingdom’
* different expressions of the Kingdom of God
* in local, national and international arenas.
But today I want to ask the important question
* How do you get into the Kingdom of God?
* Is there a passport control and a border guard?
* Do you need a visa?
* What are the entry requirements?
Slide 1 – title page
The passage we had read to us is the song of triumph sung by the people of Israel after the parting of the Red Sea
* a paradigmatic story for God’s people.
* by the time it actually happens in the book of Exodus, the story has already been hinted at several times.
* And it gets many, many mentions throughout the rest of the Old Testament
* and indeed in the New.
It’s a story that has *defined who Israel were* throughout their history, and it’s still a very important story today to help us *understand who we are*.
The story is this – and we heard an account of it read earlier.
* God’s people are slaves in Egypt;
* subject to forced labour,
* forced population control and
* attempted genocide.
* no longer able to fulfil God’s creation mandate ‘be fruitful and multiply.’
* In other words, the oppressive regime, embodied in Pharaoh, has *set itself up against God.*
Slide 2 – chariot~/river
Pharaoh uses a number of tools of oppression
- but there are two in particular that are worth noting.
1.
He uses the river *Nile*.
You may recall that
* in order to try to keep the population down,
* Pharaoh orders the drowning
* of all Israelite baby boys in the river Nile.
In response to their oppression, God sends Moses
* to tell Pharaoh to let his people go.
* Pharaoh refuses
* God sends ten plagues
* nine of them are *warnings*, demonstrations of God’s power
* so Pharaoh understands who he’s messing with.
* Finally God delivers the tenth plague
* the death of all the firstborn,
* Pharaoh agrees to let the people go.
2.
And this is where we see the second instrument of oppression – the *chariot*.
* Because Pharaoh changes his mind
* pursues the Israelites with his 600 crack charioteers
* It’s like sending tanks against a straggly group of unarmed refugees
* the old, the infirm, the children
* There’s going to be a massacre of holocaust proportions.
OK, bear those two things in mind for a minute.
Slide 3 – sunset over Red Sea
Now, the people arrive at the Red Sea
* unable to go any further forward
* the dust cloud of Egypt’s army is coming up from behind.
* They are *utterly beyond hope*.
* They are caught quite literally *between the devil and the deep blue sea.*
Moses rebukes the people –* just stand still and watch how God is going to rescue you*.
Slide 4 – picture of crossing the Red Sea
And God sends a strong east wind, divides the red sea and they walk across on dry land.
So why have I chosen this story to speak on today?
Why does this story help us to answer the question – how do we get into the kingdom of God?
You see, this is more than a great tale of deliverance.
It’s a *model of our own journey of discipleship* – of our own journey into the kingdom of God.
And this is not coincidental.
* The Old Testament story is deliberately set up
* to form a framework to the understanding of the new.
* We are supposed to nod our heads when we come to the stories of Jesus and say
* *‘of course God would do it that way – this is how he’s acted before.’*
So there are some important things that this story teaches us about how to enter the kingdom of God.
!! 1.
The story represents a definitive victory over the enemies of God
Slide 5 - text
This is where we come back to those *symbols of oppression* that I asked you to keep in your minds.
- The chariots and the river.
Slide 6 –chariot wheels
The pursuing enemy tries to follow Israel across the sea bed.
- But God is never going to allow that.
- The wheels of their chariots fall off
- probably getting stuck in the mud
- and the sea rolls back in over their heads.
God has won.
His people are free.
But did you notice?
*The mode of his victory; the thing that trips the enemy up, is the very thing that Pharaoh had hoped to use against God’s people.*
The chariots become a liability rather than a weapon.
The waters drown /them/ rather then the babies of Israel.
And so we come to the cross
– for this story of a mighty God saving his people is above all* a picture of the cross.*
Imagine the scene at Golgotha.
* The man gasping, pinned to the wood.
* The blood.
* The sweat.
* The pain.
But I wonder what else we would see if we could have our eyes open to the supernatural domain at that scene.
* Surely we’d see Satan and his angels triumphing.
* Laughing.
* Dancing on the top of that cross
* in celebration of their victory.
The means that Satan has employed for evil
are the very means that God uses to bring about his downfall.
Satan can’t see it yet – /not until Sunday/ – but* he’s dancing on his own grave.*
God is a mighty God.
He saves his people by the power of his hand.
And he utterly defeats the enemy.
Slide 7 - text
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