Sermon Tone Analysis
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and PRAY…
In my first sermon as the Associate Pastor at Heartland, I want to start off telling you a little bit of my story.
My dad was a pastor for 40-some years.
I was raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
When I was in my early teens, I understood that God was also calling me to be a pastor.
And, frankly, having seen what a pastor’s family and children go through, I didn’t want to answer that call.
At age 19, I had a full-time job and my own place.
I no longer lived with mom and dad.
I also was choosing to not live in the ways of the Lord.
I wanted to do my own thing.
I wanted to forge my own path.
And I really didn’t want to be a pastor.
I call that part of my life my “prodigal” years.
How many of you have heard the stories about rebellious preacher’s kids?
Time keeps me from going into detail, but many of those stories would have applied to me.
Through means that can only be described as God’s hand, I came back to my faith and started to serve as a layman in the church.
And then I heard God calling again.
He never removed the call to ministry from my life.
And now, here I am.
But I did go through some times when I doubted my faith.
When I just wasn’t sure about it all.
My life did not conform to what I knew a Christian should be.
And I began to ask if I had ever really been saved at all.
Someone once told me that the way to get through those kind of doubts is to remember the day and the hour when you were saved by Jesus.
Then you would be encouraged that it had been real.
To be honest, I was saved at a young age and I can’t tell you the day nor the hour.
Another person told me to read the book of 1 John.
And it was then that I understood.
We aren’t encouraged in our faith when we remember a date, but when we start to see more and more evidence of Christ’s work in our lives.
Or, as Pastor Gene has been saying, when we see that we are performing favorably in the tests laid out in this book.
You see, John told us why he wrote this little book.
These tests are how we can know we have eternal life.
Pastor Gene has shown us that we need to do well at the Tests of Fellowship, Obedience, Righteousness, Brotherly Love, Truth, and Godly Nature.
Each of those tests help us see the hand of God in our lives.
We are not saved by passing these tests, but, rather, we can know we are saved when we are doing well at all of these tests.
Yet, there remains one test, and, it is not a trivial matter.
This last test could be the most pivotal of them all.
You see, the Test of Assurance is both the reason for the other tests and the very basis for them.
Pray
and PRAY…
and PRAY…
If I were to ask you what is the most important thing about Christianity, what would you say?
I hope you would say Jesus!
He is the author and perfecter of our faith.
He is the one who paid the price for our sins.
He is the one who is seated at the right hand of the Father even now, interceding for us!
Unlike the other tests, the Test of Assurance is not about how others see us, it is about examining our own hearts, our own thoughts.
It is about what we believe.
Being a Christian is not just about acknowledging with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, it also involves knowing in our hearts that Jesus is Lord.
And you may be asking, why is that so important?
John tells us why beginning in verse 6
The Source of Assurance
Why would I do that?
Because I think we have to be very careful about how we describe Jesus.
There are plenty of people that want to talk about his leadership skills.
About how Jesus resisted the religious establishment of his day.
About how He was a dynamic speaker.
About how loyal his followers were.
Yes, there are plenty of people who want to talk about Jesus, right up until you say Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away the sins of the world.
The moment you say that is that moment that a lot of people no longer want to talk to you.
So how should we talk about Jesus?
What is it that makes Jesus different from Jim Jones?
Why is Jesus worthy of our allegiance and faith?
Every Sunday I tell you to confess Jesus as Lord because you believe that God raised Him from the dead.
And you have to believe He is alive or there is no reason to confess Him as Lord.
But does the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead make Him entirely worthy of our servitude?
Once again, I ask, why follow Jesus?
In the passage before us this morning John is going to answer the question why Jesus 3 times.
This letter is for those who believe in Jesus so that they may be encouraged to know they have eternal life.
There are plenty of naysayers out there.
There are plenty of people who would love to steal our confidence as believers.
The same was true back in the 1st Century, so John wrote a sermon intended to encourage the church.
To give believers confidence in Jesus’ ability to save.
1.
Because of the testimonies of the Spirit
John says that Jesus Christ came by water and by blood.
This is most likely not a reference to his birth.
It is more a definition of Jesus’ earthly ministry years.
His earthly ministry began when John the Baptist dunked Him in the Jordan River and it ended when His blood was shed for the sins of the world.
1.1.
vv 6-8
1.3.
John says that Jesus Christ came by water and by blood.
This is most likely not a reference to his birth.
It is more a definition of Jesus’ earthly ministry years.
His earthly ministry began when John the Baptist dunked Him in the Jordan River and it ended when His blood was shed for the sins of the world.
So, let’s go back to the Gospels and look at these 2 events.
1.2.
Before I talk about what John writes here, I need to give you the historical context of this particular passage.
You see, in the 1st Century, there was a heretic named Cerinthus.
He believed and taught that the Son of God would not need to be a baby or a child or a teenager or even a young adult.
And that the son of God could not actually die.
So, his teaching went like this: There was a boy from Nazareth named Jesus.
When He was fully grown, He was baptized by John the Baptist and at that moment, the son of God (or the Christ) came into the human named Jesus.
And the son of God (or the Christ) departed the human named Jesus before His arrest and crucifixion and death.
And, friends, this heresy is not limited to the 1st Century because there are groups in our world today who teach the very same thing.
1.3.
John says that Jesus Christ came by water and by blood.
This is most likely not a reference to his birth.
It is more a definition of Jesus’ earthly ministry years.
His earthly ministry began when John the Baptist dunked Him in the Jordan River and it ended when His blood was shed for the sins of the world.
So, let’s go back to the Gospels and look at these 2 events.
1.4.
First we’ll look at Jesus’ baptism
1.3.
Now, normally I don’t like to stand here and tell you the details about heresy because God’s word is truth and false truth is not something I like to camp on.
But, to understand these verse before us, you need to know what was being said in the historical era these words were written.
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