Sermon Tone Analysis

Christ-Types

SERMON TWO

Christ-Types

Christ types are...

Everyone Needs a Friend.

We have seen in this series that we shouldn’t view the friends we are studying as those to be emulated, or as heroes, as there is only one hero in Scripture, and his name is Jesus.

But we CAN see Jesus IN these characters to some extent as they are all Christ types (Christ types are those characters in Scripture who share some characteristics with Jesus) and just as the Apostle Paul said, only follow me as I follow Christ, so we will see how we can become more like Jesus in our friendships by exploring these Christ types.

I have said that we need a dream team of friends, that we don’t need a quantity of friends and acquaintances, but we need quality friends, deep friendships that are rooted and modeled after the Christ types we see in Scripture.

So Everyone Needs a Paul, which is a mentor.

Everyone Needs a Barnabas which is an encourager.

Everyone needs a Jonathan who is a true friend.

Nathan

Nathan

And we saw last week that everyone needs a Nathan who is a confronter.

Nathans are confronters.

They are exhorters.

They are the person who can come to you at any time and speak about anything in your life without you being defensive.

You hear them.

You receive them.

The first week of Nathan, we saw WHY we need a Nathan because our sin runs deeper than we can ever imagine and we have massive blind spots in our lives and we should see these Nathans as bearers of grace.

So we all need a confronter in our lives who has carte blanche to speak into our lives at a moments’ notice.

We saw that instead of resisting Nathans, we are free to receive these Nathans into our lives because these Nathans are Christ-types who are bearers of grace.

Last week, we explored the characteristics of a Nathan seen in the way Nathan confronted David, in other words, and this week we will see how to receive a Nathan into our lives seen by the way David responded to Nathans prophetic words.

And that will be the basic pattern of this series.

We will take three weeks on each friend.

The first week why we need that friend, the second week how to BE that friend, and the third week how to receive that friend into your life.

All the while we will be pointed to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, all the while we will see how we don’t measure up, how we are bad Nathans and bad Pauls and bad Barnabases, but that union with Christ completes us.

That when we have union with Christ that means we have everything Christ has.

Everything he has belongs to us.

So ultimately everyone needs Jesus.

And we can’t lose sight of that in this series.

David and Bathsheba Summary: Adultery, Murder

Why did Nathan confront David in the first place?

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed.

Uriah was one of David’s mighty men.

When David was running from King Saul, a group of loyal men came around David and gave their lives to protect David.

Uriah was one of David’s mighty men.

David owed Uriah his life.

Yet David covets Uriah’s wife, breaking the 7th and 10th commandment, even though David had at least 8 wives at the time and could have had any single woman he wanted in the kingdom, he commits adultery with Bathsheba, Bathsheba becomes pregnant, David summons Uriah home to trick him into sleeping with his wife so that he would think he was the father of this baby, even after getting Uriah drunk, Uriah won’t even go into the house because of his loyalty to David and to the men on the battlefield, and so David has Uriah sent to the front lines in battle to make sure he is killed.

And it isn’t just Uriah who is hurt, it is other men who are with Uriah who are also killed and hurt.

David is the king which means his role is to protect his soldiers but does the opposite.

And Nathan is sent by God to confront David.

How do you hear a Nathan, how do you respond to a Nathan?

I mean, who likes being confronted?

Who enjoys it when a fellow sinner confronts them on some deep sin in their lives that they probably don’t see themselves?

Responding to Nathans

How do you hear a Nathan, how do you respond to a Nathan?

I mean, who likes being confronted?

Who enjoys it when a fellow sinner confronts them on some deep sin in their lives that they probably don’t see themselves?

Let’s see how David responded:

SLIDE

What David Didn’t Do

13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

How did David respond?

Simply.

I have sinned against the Lord.

So today as we explore how we should respond to Nathans, we could have the shortest sermon in history.

How to respond to Nathans…I have sinned against the Lord.

How did David respond?

Simply.

I have sinned against the Lord.

So today as we explore how we should respond to Nathans, we could have the shortest sermon in history.

How to respond to Nathans…I have sinned against the Lord.

His response coupled with Nathan’s pardon of David was verse 3 of It is Well with My soul.

My sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, has been nailed to the cross and I bear it no bear, praise the Lord praise the Lord oh my soul.

Before we go any further, just see the beauty in that simple response.

I was recently speaking to our Head of Schools Tim Dernlan and he told me he had a discipline case where the kids got caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing, he disciplined them, but it was their spirit of brokenness that led him to say that he was almost glad it happened because of the blessing it was to experience the broknness and godliness of these kids.

How many times have you been a Nathan and you just want to scream at the person to simply humble themselves, see what everyone else around them is seeing, and say, I have sinned, now help me.

But that doesn’t happen very often.

We think that by fighting back we are protecting our freedom, when the reality is many times we are sinking deeper into bondage and loss.

It’s sadly ironic.

But we can learn how to respond to Nathans by the things David didn’t say after Nathan confronted him.

We Shun Nathans in the First Place

Preclude Nathan in First Place

The Tragedy of Shunning Nathans

The Tragedy of Shunning Nathans

How tragic is it when you have the gift of a Nathan in your life, and you not only don’t listen to him, but you alienate him.

You alienate him to the point that he stops being a bearer of grace in your life.

What a loss for you.

You can go to fellow fools…but you have lost this precious gift of a Nathan.

Because ultimately Nathans are the bearers of good news.

Because Nathans words to David don’t end with You are the Man, but You are Forgiven.

The reason Nathans words are you are forgiven is because David received the Nathan in the first place.

He didn’t go listen to fools, and Nathan didn’t hold back and try to call it down the middle.

Nathan gave it to him straight, called a spade a spade after spending lots of time with God.

David could have been defensive in the first place, arrogant and Nathan wouldn’t come to him at all.

We don’t have Nathans because your friends have learned you won’t hear a Nathan.

So they don’t bother coming to you, or maybe they try once or twice, but they stop which is the most tragic because they know it is no use.

David Didn’t Demand Proof

Didn’t Demand Proof

Nathan didn’t see David commit adultery.

David could have easily demanded where’s your proof Nathan?

This isn’t like the TV show to catch a cheater.

You didn’t record me on your cell phone, Nathan.

You have no proof, Nathan, you’ve got nothing.

David Doesn’t Deflect

David immediately says I have sinned against the Lord.

Notice what he doesn’t do.

He doesn’t deflect.