Sermon Tone Analysis

It is about being like Jesus

I love the last part of that video.

It says, “It is not about being a good person, it is about being like Jesus.”

Well, drop mike.

End of sermon.

Right?

We certainly could.

I can point you to the bible, and say, “here, read this…it contains everything you need to understand the Jesus Memo”…I could say that, and it would be true.

It IS true.

You do not have to be a scholar, or go to seminary to understand the bible.

More today than ever in history, the word of God is available and in our country, the resources to understand the Bible are readily available, free of cost.

We can read, listen, and even watch the Bible, and understand not how to become a good person, but rather…how to be more like Jesus.

It happens with Love

Love.

It’s more than an emotion, it’s more than a physical feeling or urge.

WE are perfected by love, and we become more like God when we show love to other people, and ourselves.

I like to read a lot of scripture, and it’s a habit I’m working to share with others, for reasons which I’m all too happy to share with people who ask.

You see, God talks to us through scripture.

Scripture, is the compilation of accounts of history and accountings of God’s people and the Life of Jesus, and the early Christian church.

The apostle John, knew Jesus.

He was persecuted repeatedly for his life which not only followed Jesus, but helped others to understand the heart of Jesus.

I read this week that John was considered the apostle of love, because he wrote so much about the concept of love.

That’s because Jesus is about love.

Let’s read one of John’s letters where he is speaking about love: You can read along in 1st John, Chapter 4.

1 John

1 John

There is a lot to unpack there.

I strongly encourage each of you to read this chapter and do some research on 1st John as a book.

It isn’t very long, and it is a part of a three letter series in which scholars believe John wrote towards the end of his life, after he was over 100 years old.

Plenty of time to start getting to an understanding of these concepts of Jesus-like love.

An interesting side note about John, he was once tortured by being dipped into a vat of boiling oil.

He lived for decades after that before dying a martyrs death for his faith in Jesus.

He must have been a forefather of Chuck Norris.

Even tough guys can love like Jesus.

Loving people is hard

A lot of people don’t make it easy to love them.

Do you know anyone like this in your life?

I have a few… Jesus lived a life of relationship and discipleship.

That is to say, he had people around him constantly, whom He was pouring Himself into, through life and relationship.

Some of His followers were hard to love.

Jesus showed a perfect love, at all times.

Following His time on earth, after He had risen from the dead and spent time with people whom He loved He spoke of the Holy Spirit, whom He would send to help His followers in learning how to love like He did.

In the fourfold ministry of Jesus Christ, which we’re covering in this sermon series, the second part of Sister McPherson’s revelation, was Jesus Christ’s embodiment of the Holy Spirit, and the power of being baptized in this spirit.

I’m not talking about the utterance of tongues, I’m also not talking about Pentecost specifically today.

But rather the way in which people who are followers of Christ, can live a life which shows and models…and literally IS Christ’s love to others.

The kind of love we’ve been talking about.

The Holy Spirit helps us

The Holy Spirit is fully God.

He is a part of the trinity, which is God expressed through three distinct persons, who are all three, fully a singular God.

I understand that sometimes this concept is difficult for us to understand, I would submit that the difficulty comes not from God, or His word, but through our limited understanding of God in relation to our much better cultural understanding of a world without God at its center.

The Holy Spirit is our advocate and helper.

Let’s read from Romans, and capture more of this concept.

Romans 8:

We are to be the LIGHT of the world

We are to be the LIGHT of the world

As I was studying this week, and doing my usual search for a video to illustrate the message God has inspired me to share, I was struck by sailing movies, and stories, and my own limited experiences on the sea.

In, “The Heart of the Sea”, a movie aimed at being a more realistic telling of the whaling stories that inspired the great novel, “Moby Dick”, there are scenes, and you’ve probably seen these in other movies, but these scenes depict the massive sailing vessels, stuck…out in the middle of the ocean, without any wind.

People get hungry, water starts to get scarce, and the spirit of desperation really comes across in the experience of the characters living this out in front of us.

These boats were, “treading water” in the sea.

We can study sailing all we want, we can build fancy sail boats, but without wind…we’re just not getting anywhere.

We may be sailing, but we’re only existing, we’re not traveling along God’s path.

We aren’t called to sit in stagnated winds and calm seas....we’re called to be the light of the world, amongst the storms.

We need the Holy Spirit to love like Jesus

Just as Jesus calmed the raging waters, so we as Christ followers are called to be a part of the calming of others around us.

We’re called to show God’s love to others, without judgement or persecution, or conditions.

THat’s a tall order, and we need the Holy Spirit speaking into our lives to make it happen.

Just as Jesus modeled to His disciples in His last evening with them, when something significant in our lives happens, we should celebrate with song.

Let’s sing some songs together, and rejoice that Jesus doesn’t ask us to be perfect people, and lead perfect lives, but rather He sent the Holy Spirit to help us be God’s love to others, among other ways and things He helps us do.

Joel, would you come up here and lead us in singing songs to Jesus?

Thanks.