Sermon Tone Analysis

If there was a fire in your house, and all of your family were safe, and you only had time to save one thing from the house--what would you grab?

If you’re stuck in a canoe with no paddle, careening towards a hundred-foot-high waterfall deep in Piranha infested waters in South America, would you jump in the water to try to swim to shore, or would you take your chances going down the waterfall?

A third question to follow these two: why do we as humans have such a fascination with dire hypothetical situations?

It’s because we realize there is a difference between how people present themselves, and who they really are.

And if you ask someone a simple question of preference, if they feel like there is a right answer--a socially expected answer, then they will give that, rather than their own actual preference.

The reason we bring in a life and death situation is that we recognize the reality that the higher the stakes are, the more likely people are to actually show their true colors.

I found out this reality about myself the hard way my last class of my college career.

I had actually already walked in my college graduation, because my school allowed you to participate in graduation as long as you only needed 1 or 2 classes to finish.

All I had to finish was one more online Spanish class.

One of the things we had to do when we took a test was get one of the college’s professors or library employees to proctor our tests for us--you had to have someone watching you while you took the test, to ensure people didn’t just cheat on their tests then mail them in.

So I got my test in the mail, set up an appointment for our school librarian to proctor my test.

On the day of the test I opened up the information packet, only to discover that I was supposed to use a book that I had ordered with the class as a required text, but had not opened a single time in the course of the class.

The book was a collection of short stories in pretty simple Spanish.

Supposedly for the test I would have to answer questions about one of the stories, to test my reading comprehension.

I opened the book only to be overwhelmed by all the words I had never heard of before.

This wasn’t in my vocabulary guide!

I only figured this out about twenty minutes before I was supposed to take the test.

So what I should have done was move my appointment, study the text for the test, and then take the test.

But I didn’t.

See I had already pushed my deadlines for finishing the class up to the last minute, and it had been inconvenient to get a test appointment scheduled.My professors and bosses were bugging me to finish up my degree.

So I typed the spanish into an online translator and read the story in English.

Then I took the test.

And passed.

See I don’t believe it is right to cheat on tests.

Ever.

In any situation.

But here I was, with my back against the wall.

I didn’t want to lose face in front of the Librarian (who knew all of us students).

I didn’t want to reschedule my appointment.

So I cheated.

Why?

Because even though I hypothetically believed it was wrong and beneath me to cheat, the things that were most important to me--my convenience, and especially people’s opinions of me, overruled my belief against cheating.

So I cheated.

See adversity puts us in situations where we reveal who we are, and what we really believe.

As one writer once said, “Adversity introduces a man to himself.”

A difficult or trying situation may reveal something about ourselves that we could never have guessed.

It shows what we value, and ultimately what is the most important to us.

There is probably no better example of this principle than Peter the disciple during the days leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion.

Let’s pick up the story in , starting in verse 36.

36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”

37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.”

38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?

Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.

Peter is the king of big talk.

Throughout the disciples’ time with Jesus, Peter’s always the first to pipe up, and most of the time this results in him needing to be corrected by Jesus.

Jesus has just told his disciples that He is going to be betrayed, and that he’s going to die.

Peter pipes up, “I’ll die for you Jesus!”

And Jesus looks at him and says “Peter, you aren’t going to die for me.

Not yet.

In fact you’re going to deny me before tomorrow morning.”

See if you listen to Peter, he’s a big, bad, Jesus-following machine.

Nothing scares him.

Not even hypothetical pain, hypothetical torture, or hypothetical death.

But later that night, in the face of actual danger, Peter folds.

The cool thing about this whole scene?

Jesus knows Peter and his frailties.

He knows his disciples, and the anguish and testing they are about to walk through.

And He knows where their hearts are at.

What they really believe.

And He takes this opportunity to prepare them for this coming testing.

See at this point, Jesus’s disciples believed Him, but they didn’t believe in Him.

Not yet.

Not fully.

They are convinced that He’s “of God,” but they haven’t fully comprehend the crazy reality of who He is: that He IS God.

And they haven’t figured out yet just how central in God’s plan he is.

But they’re about to.

Let’s keep reading, starting in chapter 14, verse 1:

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Jesus says “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.”

He’s comforting them in advance, knowing that His death will be a devastating blow to them.

His death.

This is something that I’ve been marveling at for the last few weeks.

Jesus is about to experience the height of physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish.

And He’s the one comforting the disciples.

What an amazing heart He has for His disciples, even though He’s going to suffer far more than they will over the next 72 hours.

He tells them “just like you believe in God, I want you to believe in me.

He goes on: “I’m going to make a place for you in God’s house.

And you know how to get there.”

Thomas pipes up, “Um, Jesus?

You keep saying you’re leaving and all this stuff, and that we know how to get there.

But we don’t.

We don’t know where you are going--so of course we don’t know the way there.”

This makes sense.

Jesus, in His death and resurrection, is going to make a place for them with the Father--open the way for all who believe in Him to return to God’s presence in Heaven.

And we don’t know how to find heaven on a map.

Uhhhhh….

Second star on the right, straight on til morning?”

Jesus looks at him, and says “No, you do know the way Thomas.