Sermon Tone Analysis

Abiding in Christ

What does it mean to abide in Christ?

We are going to look at what it means to be in Christ, walk with Christ, to be a disciple of Christ, follower of Christ.

We give up all we have to Jesus

What does it mean to abide in Christ?

We are going to look at what it means to be in Christ, walk with Christ, to be a disciple of Christ, follower of Christ.

Christianity is not to be lived for self consumption.

The goal is not for us to look at some truths in so that we can walk away and say I am glad that I learned that.

The goal is for us to walk away from our time together this morning and be able to teach the truths of so at the end of this series after walking through eight weeks in this series, the whole faith family will be equipped not just to know what it means to abide in Christ, but to lead others to abide in Christ.

David Platt, “The Disciple’s Identity: You in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 908.

We shouldn’t be simply receivers.

We are to be reproducers.

Matthew 11:25-30

Those last 3 verses, verse 28, 29, 30, I am convinced give one of the clearest, most powerful, most compelling, most beautiful pictures of Christianity the way Jesus designed it to be.

And at the same time those verses give one of the most clearest, most powerful, most forceful rebukes of what we have created Christianity to be today.

We are no longer living Christianity for self consumption.

The goal is not for us to look at some truths in so that we can walk away and say I am glad that I learned that.

The goal is for us to walk away from our time together this morning and be able to teach the truths of so at the end of this series after walking through eight weeks in this series, the whole faith family will be equipped not just to know what it means to abide in Christ, but to lead others to abide in Christ.We give up all we have to Jesus

We give up all we have to Jesus

We give up all we have to Jesus

Those last 3 verses, verse 28, 29, 30, I am convinced give one of the clearest, most powerful, most compelling, most beautiful pictures of Christianity the way Jesus designed it to be.

And at the same time those verses give one of the most clearest, most powerful, most forceful rebukes of what we have created Christianity to be today.

We give up all we have to Jesus

And I want for us to see two simple life changing truths that I am convinced that we have a dangerous tendency to completely miss out on their meaning in the church today.

We give up all we have to Jesus

We give up all we have to Jesus

That is Christianity explained.

We give up all we have to Jesus.

Now the imagery that dominates this passage is the picture of a yoke.

We give Him the full weight of our sin

Then you come into the context here.

And Jesus is speaking in the middle of the first century to a group of Jewish people who had been living under a very strict religious system, rigid religious system.

And so you had a people whose religion was dominated by all the things that they were supposed to do.

And that is what He is talking about with this burden that is heavy that has made them weary.

We give Him the full weight of our sin

Let’s go over to and see how Jesus uses the same word down in verse 4.

And so you had a people whose religion was dominated by all the things that they were supposed to do.

And that is what He is talking about with this burden that is heavy that has made them weary.

Matthew 23:1-4

Now Jesus comes on the scene and offers rest from all these rules and regulations.

He says, “Take my yoke upon you.”

What does that mean?

We give up all we have to Jesus.

What does it mean to come under His yoke?

First of all...

We give Him the full weight of our sin

The first Century Jews were feeling the full weight of their guilt.

They knew they couldn’t measure up to what the religious leaders expected.

I want to remind you that if you have placed your faith, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, you do not bear the weight of your sin any more.

He has borne that for you completely.

He took the full weight of your sin and He nailed it to a cross for all of eternity.

We give Him our complete and utter inability to obey God

Psalm 103:12

I want to remind you that if you have placed your faith, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, you do not bear the weight of your sin any more.

He has bore that for you completely.

He took the full weight of your sin and He nailed it to a cross for all of eternity.

Isaiah

This is what it means to come into the yoke.

We give Him the full weight of our sin.

But this is not where Christianity ends.

It’s where it begins.

We give Him our complete and utter inability to obey God

We can’t please God on our own.

We will never be able to please God with what we do.

Some Christians are trying to keep all the plates in the air at the same time.

It was the curse of first century Judaism, and for many it has become the curse of 21st century Christianity.

Even the best we can bring to Christ is not good enough.

One Puritan preacher said, “Even the tears of our repentance need to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.”

Listen to the words of Ian Thomas:

I am talking about some Sunday School teachers.

I am talking about some pastor in his pulpit.

I am talking about some missionary on the field.

I am talking about many ordinary, earnest Christians.

They are wonderful people.

You would love to meet them.

They talk all the language of salvation and they mean every word they say.

They are not hypocrites, but they are tired.