Sermon Tone Analysis

D = Daily Devotions: The Soul-Secrets of Sacred Reading

A Pocket Paper \\ from \\ The Donelson Fellowship \\ *______________*

*Robert J. Morgan \\ *July 15, 2007

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/Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written:  ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”/—Matthew 4:1-4

 

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Several years ago, there was a popular television show entitled “The Facts of Life,” and one of the stars was a woman named Lisa Whelchel who played the part of Blair.

In “real life,” Lisa is a busy mother, a pastor’s wife, and a popular Christian writer and speaker.

Several months ago, we cooperated in a little project, and I learned something from her.

One of Lisa’s specialties is teaching busy mothers how to take time for spiritual nourishment in the Word of God every day.

On her bookshelf is a copy of /Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament/, and one day she noticed something.

In the Bible, the term “word” is sometimes translated from the Greek word “rhema.”

For example, here in Matthew 4:4, Jesus told the devil that human beings could not exist merely on physical nourishment, they needed spiritual nourishment as well.

We don’t live by bread alone, but by every /rhema /that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The term “word” in this verse is the Greek word /rhema, /which means something that has been definitely stated, a pronouncement, a specific word uttered by a living voice.

This term struck Lisa and she began thinking of specific Bible verses as “Rhema Rays.”

She wrote, “When I sit down in my recliner, snuggle up with a cozy blanket, a hot cup of coffee, and my favorite comfy Bible every morning, there are some days, as I am reading the Word to know God personally, that He reveals Himself in an especially intimate way.

It is as if the Lord shines a ray of light on a verse, even if I have read it a hundred times before but suddenly I understand how it specifically applies to me and my life.

I call these moments ‘Rhema Rays.’”*  *

           

It seems to me that this is what the ancient Christians and the desert fathers called /lectio divina /(pronounced lex’-ee-o ~/ dih-vee-nah), which means, literally, /sacred reading/.

This is one of the ancient disciplines that we need to rediscover in this day of blaring noises and non-stop sound.

/Lectio divina/ means that we find a time to be still and to open the Bible or some great devotional piece of literature, and we read it for our own soul’s nourishment, looking for that word or phrase or verse or chapter that will speak to us as though it had our names on it, as though we could hear the voice of Jesus Himself speaking to us personally and pointedly.

*Sometimes God Speaks to us in a Word*

Sometimes all it takes is a single word of Scripture.

I believe that every word is inspired, and Jesus said that every dot and dash is given with authority.

Look across the page at Matthew 5:17ff.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

Some time ago, I was reading through the book of 2 Chronicles during my morning devotional periods, and one day I came to the story of King Johoram in chapter 21.

This was a very distressing story.

Johoram’s father had been the good King Jehoshaphat who had worked tirelessly to bring about revival in his nation.

Upon his death, Jehoram ascended to the throne and he immediately undid his father’s twenty-five years of work.

To solidify his power, Jehoram massacred all his siblings and married the daughter of Queen Jezebel, the most wicked woman in the Old Testament.

He descended into idol-worship, and the kingdom of Judah began collapsing around him.

But having described these multiple disasters, verse 7 (NIV) says, “Nevertheless, because of the covenant the Lord had made with David, the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David.

He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and his descendants forever.”

That one word—/nevertheless—/jumped out at me, and with my pencil I drew a box around it, and for days and days I was encouraged in my spirit because of that one word.

Everything may be collapsing around us, but /nevertheless /the promises of God are secure.

/Nevertheless /God is in control.

/Nevertheless /He is faithful and His Word is sure.

/Nevertheless /I can trust in Him.

It’s wonderful when a word in the Bible jumps out and assaults you, as it were.

* *

*Sometimes God Speaks to us in a Phrase*

Sometimes God speaks to us in a phrase from the Bible.

I’ve occasionally battled anxiety, but there’s one thing about that for which I can give thanks.

My anxiety has so often driven me to the Bible to find a promise or a word of reassurance from the Lord.

For example, one night a four-word phrase in Mark 11:22 hit me like a load of bricks:  “Have faith in God.”

On another occasion, it was a two-word phrase in Psalm 37:  “Fret not.”

On another occasion, I was reading through the book of Daniel, and it was a time of special concern for me.

There were two words in chapter 4 that struck me like two bullets from a derringer.

In this chapter, Daniel is interpreting the strange dream of Nebuchadnezzar.

I’ll not give you the full context, but let me read this one verse for you—Daniel 4:26:  “The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules.”

I had never noticed those two words before:  /Heaven rules!/

It reminded me of the phrase we come across in the book of Psalms—/the Lord reigns!  /But what a joy to go into the day with those two words written above our heads in the sky, as it were:  Heaven rules.

The Lord reigns.

This was one of the Bible study methods our Lord used.

I’d like to show you a wonderful passage of Scripture.

It’s Psalm 31, a song written by David and consisting of 24 verses.

This is a favorite of mine, and in glancing back over it in my old, underlined Bible, I counted a dozen different circles and underlines and brackets and other marks that I’ve made through the years as I’ve underlined its verses.

Let me show you how Psalm 31 begins:  /In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame.

Deliver me in Your righteousness.

Turn Your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

Since You are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of Your name, lead and guide me.

Free me from the trap that is set for me, for You are my refuge.

Into Your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth./

/            /

Our Lord Jesus evidently loved Psalm 31, and in the dying moments of His life on Calvary’s cross, there was one phrase that meant all the world to Him; and He uttered it in His dying moments.

He didn’t have the physical strength to quote the entire Psalm or even the entire verse, but the whole weight of His dying moments rested on one phrase from verse 5 and He spoke them from the cross:  /Into Your hands I commit My spirit.

/And having quoted that phrase of Old Testament truth, He gave up the ghost.

It was just a phrase from Psalm 31, but how it ministered to His heart in the very last moments of life.

When you have a very rich dessert in your kitchen, maybe a rich chocolate concoction, sometimes all you need is a little bite of it.

And some of the verses in the Bible are so rich that all you need is a little phrase.

When God gives it to you, underline it or circle it, and then write it on your mind and in your heart.

*Sometimes God Speaks to us in a Verse*

This week I read about a woman in Central America who, some years ago, fell prey to amoebas, and the doctor prescribed amoeba medicine and hormones and told her to quit nursing her 11-month-old baby.

She did so, but in the process of taking the treatments she discovered she was pregnant again.

The doctor told her gravely that she should have an abortion because the amoeba medicine and hormones are contraindicated during pregnancy.

They could cause serious birth defects.

The woman went home greatly troubled, but she picked up her devotional book and Romans 15:13 jumped off the page at her:  /Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow through the power of the Holy Spirit./

/ /

Somehow that verse gave her divine reassurance, and she said, in effect, “Lord, you knew all about my illness, my medications, and my pregnancy.

You’ve given me new life, and I’m going to rejoice in it whether there are birth defects or not.”

She was so bolstered by that verse that she carried the baby to term.

And as she wrote her story, she said, “Twenty-four years have passed since that time.

Today our daughter, Rebecca, is a short-term missionary.”

(/Voices of the Faithful, /with Beth Moore, Kim P. David Compiling Editor, Integrity Publishers, 2005), p. 67.)

I want to praise God today for two men—one was a Jewish Rabbi by the name of Nathan who divided the Old Testament into verses in AD 1448.

The other is Robert Estienne, a Parisian printer, who was the first to divide the New Testament into verses in 1555.

We owe them a debt of gratitude because they make these wonderful little segments of Scripture so accessible to us and so easy to find and learn.

How often God speaks to us through a simple verse.

*Sometimes God Speaks to us in a Paragraph*

There are also times when God speaks to us in a paragraph of Scripture, which has the advantage of providing us a truth in its context.

When I talk about preaching, I often advise ministerial students to consider the paragraph the most basic unit for the preaching text.

The reason is that paragraphs are our shortest segments of contextualized truth.

A chapter provides the context, but often it’s too long for a sermon.

A verse presents truth, but not with an adequate context.

But when we study a paragraph, we’re studying bite-sized, manageable, workable units of contextualized truth.

And that makes them ideal for both personal study and biblical preaching.

Years ago, I heard my favorite professor in Bible college preach a sermon from Isaiah 40:27-31, and from that day this has been one of my favorite paragraphs of Scripture.

Let me read it for you:  /Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?  Do you not know?

Have you not heard?