Sermon Tone Analysis

The Longing

The Minimalistic approach of Andrew

The Minimalistic approach of Andrew

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?”

And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.”

So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

42 He brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John.

You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

Minimalism and Evangelism

Minimalism is becoming a huge thing lately.

Whether it is you living by a code such as getting things done.

Whether it is life-hacking your life.

Whether it is decluttering your life.

Or using habits.

Minimalism is something that is quite esteemed in our culture today.

This is of course because of the swinging of the pendulum which is “ He/She who dies with the most toys wins”.

We have been to the mountain and felt empty.

Same within the Christian culture.

Like everything that culture pushes the Church sadly sometime follows.

Becoming obsessed about evangelism strategies and chick tracks.

Million dollar fake bills with the Gospel message on them.

We have become inundated by what works and what doesn’t based upon a church size or book deal.

Today, I want to talk about what one of the very first disciple’s approach to evangelism or telling people about Jesus.

If you are here today and you don’t know about church and you think you are going to learn the techniques that Christians use to convert the unbeliever.

I am sorry but you might not learn the tactics that might be used on you.

However, I would indeed invite you in on one of the most interesting interactions with the Son of God.

1.The Longing to Follow

2.The Longing to be Found

3.The Longing for a Future

1.The Longing to Follow

“And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.”

― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

1.Behold the Lamb of God

Behold the Lamb of God

What are you seeking?

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

It is in the mystery of the crucified God that the deeply tragic nature of human existence is revealed to itself: if God has made death his own, paying the price of freedom to the last penny, here on this earth the way of the cross will always remain the way to freedom and beauty.

Precisely because the eternal Son has drained the bitter cup to the lees, this way will always be the way to life, where beauty will be finally made known, never again to be hidden. . . .

What we await at the end of the long Good Friday that is the history of the world is the victory and glory of beauty.

BRUNO FORTE

Thomas Hobbes, the seventeenth-century English political philosopher, presented his solution for a violent and dangerous world ordered around the axis of power—where “the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”—in the creation of an all-powerful state: The Leviathan.

Hobbes’s theory was that people would enter into a social contract with an all-powerful state in order to keep some semblance of security and civility.

But that Thomas Hobbes named his book on social contract theory Leviathan is an obvious admission that he merely hopes to tame the beast of empire—because like Pilate before him and Nietzsche after him, Hobbes believed that the world has no choice but to be ordered around the axis of power.

Yet this is precisely what Jesus Christ and the cross as an axis of love saves the world from!

This is what the kingdom of God provides an alternative to!

The Lamb of God saves us from Hobbes’s leviathan!

There is a better choice than having to choose between different versions of monsters—Revelation’s beast or Hobbes’ leviathan—there is the kingdom of the Lamb built around the axis of love!

Zahnd, Brian (2012-01-03).

Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity (pp.

79-80).

Charisma House.

Kindle Edition.

2. What are you seeking?

What do you want?

Woman at the well

That’s the question.

It is the first, last, and most fundamental question of Christian discipleship.

He doesn’t ask what do you know or What do you believe?

It is what do you want?

This is the most crucial and piercing question Jesus can ask of us because we are what we want.

Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow.

Our wants reverberate from our heart, the epicenter of the human person.

- James K.A. Smith

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”

Rabbi ‘Where do you live”?

― C.S. Lewis

Rabbi ‘Where do you live”?

Where can I go to be around you so that I can go around you.

The questions the disciples ask is an important one.

They ask where can you be found normally.

Where do you do life?

How do you do life?

What does cribs?

Foxes have holes and birds haven nests but the son of man has no where to lay his head.

3.Come and See

Jesus invites the 2 would be followers to come and see for themselves how they do life.

2.The Longing to be Found

Found his brother Simon

1.Andrew Found his own brother Simon

Andrew wants his brother to experience what he has experienced.

To be satisfied the same way he has.

That he knows that he can’t keep this to himself.

He seeks out his brother.

He doesn’t care if he seems stupid.

2.We have found the Messiah “The Christ”

Andrew then says that he has found the Christ.

The Messiah, the one that we have been waiting for.

The Lamb of God.

3.Nathanael and Phillip- Do you believe me because I saw you under the fig tree that you believe.

You will see much more than that.

The moment that you think that you are searching and seeking for God is the direct moment that the creator of the universe is indeed searching for you.

3.The Longing for a Future

What Andrew and Simon Peter thought they were doing was looking for the Messiah.

What they didn’t realize was that the Messiah was looking for them.

and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.