Sermon Tone Analysis

Call To Worship Scripture

John 7:16

Sermon Scripture

John 7

The decision making process that we all go through each day can get wearisome.

Not to mention the walking through the effects, consequences and opinions of our decisions.

This morning it is my aim to share with you a way out of the burden of decision making.

An escape that actually places one on a ground more solid than hours of debated could ever lead to.

A way out of toiling over a decsion and a way into true conviction.

That may sound simple, but as simple as it sounds, most of humanity will reject the laying down of a toilsome burden.

The truth is that most of us reject the end of weariness every day.

Every decision making process begins with one decision (often overlooked) and that breaks us down into one of three castegories that we will opperate from.

These three categories become or are representative of our world view or as is often not recognized our view of God, His Word, and His place in our lives.

There are three view points present in this world.

Three.

Not yours, mine, ours and theres and millions of others, just three.

Scripture often breaks them down and by observing the Word of God you can discern these three view points and then discern which one you are exercising in your life and in your life decisions.

Spoiler Alert.

This mornings message runs the risk of oversimplifying your life, and most of us will to our own peril fight against that with every fiber.

Yet it is my prayer that our live do just that, that they become simplified and direct.

Freed from the worlds entanglements that so easily ensare us and those entanglements of our minds and hearts that decieve us and live as unto God alone.

Of these three view points or world views, only one is worth holding to, only one is worth having, only one is truly for your benefit and only one leads to life.

However, all three are seeking a benefit.

All three are promising benefits and in the course of life, world entanglements, and the deception of our own hearts, decerning which view we are operating from becomes as or if not more complicated than makeing the decision itself.

(However if we are able to discern which view we are operating from then the work of decision making will be done for us).

Of these three views, two opperate from a fixed position and one from a position of constant fluxuation and debate.

Of these three decision making processes I will break it down in a way that it will be easy to follow with this mornings scripture:

The first we will call 1.

The View of Jesus 2. The View of the World 3. The View of The Crowd.

Usually as Christians we seek to make a wise decision by balancing all three of these.

We seek what does Jesus say, mix that with how we feel the world demands that we opporate and balance that with what the crowd thinks…of which we are one.

As we will see this morning this is an impossible way to opporate.

It does not work.

Ultimatley you will fall into one of the three categories and nobody “accidentily” falls into the first.

In other words to think that one can say: “I want to opporate in harmony with what the world requires of me and I know that this will be pleasing to my friends and family and will enable me to reach all of my goals and dreams and in that I will be like Jesus.”

That is absolute nonsense and Christian ignorance at it’s finest to put it mildley.

So to avoid such tragic nonsense that we are all so guilty of partaking in, lets look at the text.

The View of Jesus

John 7:

Jesus was not afraid to die.

His decision was not made upon a fear of dieing or because He said being killed does not benefit me, but rather as we see in vs.6, “his time has not yet come”.

Notice the decision of Christ to go or not to go was not debated by Christ.

Jesus is opporating from a freedom almost as thought the decision has been made for Him and in this there is no burden for what might be levied against Him by others as is attempted in vs 2-5.

This is the first part of the crowd and notice that it is his brothers, his family.

His brothers encourage Jesus to go to Judea so that His disciples might see His works.

In other words it will look good, meet expectations, and be a pathway to success for Jesus.

Notice, this advice though given by his brothers, and given in such a way that it sounds like it is for Jesus’s best interest, is given by those who do not believe that Jesus is who He is.

If Jesus follows the advice of His non-believing brothers, that He might gain their approval, that His works might be seen by all notice that it would lead Him unto death.

John

There is no debate.

Jesus time has not yet come.

Jesus is able to know the right decision.

How? Well Jesus has already given us the answer:

John 5:

or, just read what follows this event in the teaching of Christ:

John 7:

The View of The World

also tells us something about the world.

Not only is Jesus not concerned with the approval of His family but He is intentially in direct contrast to the world (what the world says is proper and must be done for success) and He tells us why when He says speaking of the world: “it’s works are evil”.

Now, some of us, like the brothers of Christ though being close to Jesus exersise a disbelief for we refuse to see the way of the world as evil.

The View of The Crowd

The View of The World

Now in verse 10-13 we have another example of how Jesus responds to the crowd (being His family) as well as some observation of how the crowd opperates.

In regard to His family (his unbleieving family) Jesus did not act or decide things based upon their approval or even their knowledge of it.

As for the world I would have you observe the Jews.

These are those who would set the standard for what was acceptable to even speak about Jesus.

In vs.13, the crowd is so affraid of the Jews (the world) that they would not speak openly of him.

The Jews/World here being that which sets the standard or expectation or social acceptance of the crowd.

Yet we get to observe the murmerings or decision making process of the crowd.

It is all based on he said, she said.

With the Messiah amoungst them, nobody has sought the Word of God…with the Word of God in flesh before them they disreguard the Word of God to debate who the Word of God is.

Notice the ultimate drive in the thinking of the crowd…fear.

For fear of what would be done to them, for fear of acceptance, for fear of what would become or no become they were blinded to the truth.

For fear of the world and fear of the crowd evil prevails in ones life.

And here is what we learn.

The decision of who Jesus was, was already made.

The decision of when Jesus would lay down His life was already made.

All of the attempted decision making that happens in this passage is a spinning of wheels leading only to ones own blindness, deception, and death.

Why?

Because no one sought to seek God over evil (the world)

Because no one sought to seek God over public opinion

Because all revereance or feared the world and each other more than God.

Now Jesus my friends teaches us how true and right decisions are made.

It has nothing to do with what you want, dream about, or lust for.

It has nothing to do with your interest, background or how you were raised.

It has nothing to do with the approval of unbelieving family, murmers of the crowd or standards and demands of the world.

It has nothing to do with what you determine success will be or what life should look like.

It has everything to do with:

Do you reverance God?

Do you trust God?

Do you seek God?

Do you put all else off in order to be fully dependant and obedient to God in everything?

And let me just highlight that this decision making process has to do with everything from what you say, to what feast you attend to when you die.

This decision making process has to do with only one decision by which every other decision is determined,

The View of The World

The View of The Crowd

Do you live for the purpose of God alone, by the grace of God alone, in full submission to God, by faith in His Word alone?

Yes or No

The View of The World

But what is the result?