Sermon Tone Analysis

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Welcome

We’ve been studying Matthew and it’s a fascinating book.

It’s the first book of the New Testament and it’s separating year’s of prophecy and from the fulfillment of that prophecy.

God is constantly communicating to His people and they are constantly messing up! Sound familiar!

I read such a good quote a few weeks ago, I had to social media the crap out of it…

Paul Tripp wrote in his devotional book…

“The appropriateness of my responses to others is directly related to the accuracy of my view of myself, and for that there is grace too.”

What is Tripp saying?

Tripp is making the point that in order for us to respond in a healthy way to others we must have a realistic awareness of our self!

“We’re so quick to snap off at somebody!

We’re so swift to criticize someone else’s life choices… [WE SHOULD LIVE LIKE CHRIST, WE SHOULD PURSUE HOLINESS!]

But what I am talking about is the quick, self-righteous comeback… The harsh tone, the yelling, the ‘I told you so’...”

What Tripp is saying — is that when we do that we’re forgetting how messed up WE ACTUALLY ARE!

When we do that we’re forgetting how patient God has been and is being with us!”

Throughout history God has been speaking to His people.

Are we listening?

Or are we just hearing what we don’t want to hear?

Because here’s what’s real: “We all need to wake up to God’s truth, found in the Word of God (BIBLE), and we must continually submit to God and relent from our own selfish ways.”

“When we ignore God’s Word and, as a result, our relationship with God, we become pharisees and fools.”

We become the people of God in the Old Testament!

Always wondering, always messing up, always freaking out… wondering where God is —> and God has been speaking but we don’t like the message.

When we neglect the Bible and our relationship with God (synonymous) — (you can’t do one without doing the other) —> We become like the Pharisees… following a set of rules without a relationship

Rules without relationship = Pharisee

Cause what does that look like to others?

Does that look attractive?

Does that look attractive?

What does it mean to be a Christian?

“Uh, to follow rules.”

But that’s what it can become, and oh how terrible that is — and how contrary it is to what God desires for us!

So we look to the people in the OT and point our finger… we look at those around us and consider ourselves so much better… Maybe you’ve been doing better than you were before… BUT we’re still in need of God’s grace!

And here, in Matthew Jesus has come… the Messiah is here.

The prophesies in the OT are being fulfilled in His ministry.

And so it makes since that Jesus begins by communicating about a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God!

Sop if you’re able, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word:

:

Matthew

matthew 13:

Today, we will focus our attention on two big ideas from the text: (1) This idea of the lost and the found and (2) we will wrestle with the question, “how do we get found?”

THE LOST AND THE FOUND

there are several ways this idea has been articulated:

the regenerate and the unregenerate

regenerate — made new

unregenerate — not made new

saved and unsaved

born again

Heavenly Kingdom

“Wheat and Weeds and Fishing analogies...”

What is Jesus talking about?

Well in light of everything he’s said… He’s reminding his hearers once again that they live in God’s world!

“All of us will be accountable to God… Why?

Because God is in charge… God is over all things.

God is over your decisions, your life.”

We live in a world created by God, God allowed us to make certain choices, we chose wrongly, it led to breakdown… And the biggest casualty was our broken relationship with God himself.

WE NEED OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED.”

Jesus is saying that in the end, “some will be regenerate and some will be unregenerate — some will be saved, some will not — some will be right with God and some will not — Some will be wheat and some will be weeds — some will be caught in the net, others will be left in the darkness of the ocean.”

A pastor can’t save you, a vague organized religion doesn’t save you, your money doesn’t save you… God saves and God alone.

We see this explicitly here, don’t we?

Does this text give any indication that the fish catch themselves or that the weed can work its way to become wheat?

NO.

“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man...”

God does the work of choosing and saving and restoring!

It is God’s work and he gets to take credit for it.

So there is a heavenly kingdom!

Jesus is telling of it’s coming… Like many other things Jesus has said, it’s both a warning and invitation… It should invite introspection… many of Jesus’ hearers would consider themselves religious… So the question is should elicit in people is, “Am I headed towards the heavenly kingdom or not?”

The Kingdom of Darkness

Matthew 13:

Here.

Jesus acknowledges the idea of hell, a place of eternal separation from God.

We see this explicitly through Jesus’ teaching… Jesus paints this picture of separation from God as being the ultimate penalty of sin, the ultimate death as it were.

So the reality that Jesus is positing here is that there will be those who are friends of God and those who are not and they will be doing life together until the end.

Unfortunately, the fate of the lawless will not be a good one.

HOW DO WE GET FOUND?

Justice will be enacted, fully and completely at this time.

All sin will be accounted for, all wrong-doing divinely punished, every wrong will be made right!

This is what a good judge WOULD do.

This is what a good God does.

So we see here that there are those who are lost and those who are found… amongst us all the time… The question is?

HOW DO WE GET FOUND?

Matthew

matthew 13:

Now, this text is important.

How is is that Jesus talks about the righteous, plural, then refers to God being their father?

a

“How in the world do earthly strugglers (like us) become, not only inhabitants of Heaven, but family, more specifically sons, of God!”

“We already talked about how messed up we are and can be!

We’ve already recognized our imperfections… Jesus refers to “the righteous” — righteousness refers to complete ‘right-ness’ before God, a characterization that I’m fairly confident none of us would completely resemble.”

So, what is Jesus saying?

How do we get into this family?

How do we become one with the righteous?

How is it that we get found?

Well, once again, Jesus says this, knowing that he is the Messiah… Jesus says this, knowing his earthly mission.

Jesus says this, knowing about the cross to which he is headed towards…

Jesus knows that he is the one who is able and willing to take all that justice, all that sin, all that wrongdoing… and bear it on his shoulders

Just like any criminal or one found guilty, we have accumulated a long list of wrongdoing and that has consequences that need accounted for — and Jesus takes all of that record, all of that… and carries it to the cross and dies the death we deserved…

Literally trading places with us as a result — FOR ALL WHO WOULD PUT THEIR FAITH IN HIM… it’s a relational thing.

Later, after Jesus’ resurrects from the dead, Jesus looks to his old friend Peter and asks him, “who do you say I am?”

Later, after Jesus’ resurrects from the dead, Jesus looks to his old friend Peter and asks him, “who do you say I am?”

Ultimately, this is the question we all have to answer one way or another.,

Ultimately, this is the question we all have to answer one way or another… This is the most important question?

“Who do you say I am? Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?”