Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

First time home alone story

I am so glad that my fears weren’t true about that night.

And even in searching for the truth that night, I was afraid and alone, yet the truth, was such a welcome friend, even if it was a silly and somewhat embarrassing truth.

And when I say we take it for granted, its not that our eternities are not secure in Christ, but that we forget all that that truly means.

Of course the answer is Jesus.

Whether we belong to Him or not, He will always have the last word over every life for eternity.

If my fears when I was home alone that night had had the last word, I may not be standing here today.

But thankfully, truth has the last word.

But what about from day to day?

While that is a simple anecdotal example of how the search for truth can lead to peace even when our circumstances dont change (i.e.

I was still home alone, my nose was still whistling, etc), when we are caught in a whirlwind of sin and we try to search for truth, its more difficult, isn’t it?

For Jesus to have the last word over our eternities also means that He can have the last word over our daily lives, and this is something that we forget just about everyday, if we even understand what that means for our lives.

The Apostle Paul writes in the book of Romans that our primary battle through life is not against flesh and blood but it is in the spiritual realm.

It is a battle quite literally of good versus evil, and where we are concerned, to which influence we will surrender ourselves.

Do you submit to Jesus daily so that He can have the last word over your life in the daily sense?

And particularly, its hard to remember the assurance of the cleansing, healing, restoring, and forgiving power of Jesus Christ when we are enveloped by sin.

Or maybe you are stuck in habit of sin and you feel too ashamed or embarrassed to allow Jesus to truly help you, and so you give sin the last word over most of your days.

Whether it is a sin that we are committing ourselves as individuals that has us trapped or addicted, or whether it is sin among us that is happening to us, maybe because a friend or family member is caught in a sin cycle.

Are your fears about who you think you are keeping you from the healing and cleansing truth of Christ?

And it is awfully true that when we are caught in patterns of sin ourselves, or when sin has regular residence in our homes and families, it is easy to resign ourselves to the lie that sin will have the last word in our lives here on earth.

I say “who you think you are” because it is sin that confuses our identities as something other than a creation and child of God.

It seems so easy to forget that Jesus really can rescue us in our day to day lives and daily battles with sin, as well as eternally.

Sin reduces our identities to nothing more than a sinful habit we have, or some other damaging aspect about us.

And then sin convinces us that we cannot reach out for deliverance and restoration through Christ because we are just too far gone.

I know what its like to be surrounded by sin, watching sin have the last word day after day, and slowly losing hope for rescue or redemption.

But, I also know what its like when Jesus does break through, when we finally surrender to Him, and what its like finally experience His rescue and restoration.

Some of us in this room are in that very place right now.

Some of us in this room are in pain because a friend or family member is caught in sin and its getting harder to see how the hope of Christ for forgiveness, healing, and freedom can ever be a reality in your life.

Today, as we continue our Seeking Truth series, we are going to talk about the assurance that is found in Jesus that tells that sin doesn’t have win in our daily lives.

And this is how we can give sin the last word in our daily lives.

And while sin can have the last word in our daily lives, it doesn’t have to.

That we are never beyond His forgiving and redemptive reach, and that Jesus really does see the mess of our days and He wants to clean us.

The ugliness and damage of sin can be overcome in this life, in your life, today, through Christ Jesus.

The choice is whether or not you are willing to come before Christ and allow Him to cleanse you, or if you’ll continue to stay hidden from Him because your sin has convinced you that you should be afraid of Jesus, afraid of your family, afraid of your friends, afraid of fellow believers at church, knowing and seeing the truth of where you are right now.

The truth of where you are right now does not define you, Jesus does.

It is only when we allow sin to have the last word over our daily lives that we believe sin’s testimony about who we are instead of Christ’s.

Jesus Christ really can have the last word in your life both in eternity and on earth, and we’re going to look at how He does that this morning.

We are going to see this through a passage of Scripture that is most often used to describe servanthood, but as we will see, the truth that Jesus wants to cleanse us of our daily battles with sin is on full and demonstrative display.

If you’ve got your Bibles, please turn with me to John chapter 13, and as we are opening our Bibles and coming to God’s Word, let’s pray.

As we come to God’s Word today, let’s pray together for clarity and understanding.

If you’ve got your Bibles or your smartphones, please turn to John chapter 13.

As you do so, let me set up the scene:

The setting has shifted and the Apostle John takes us from Jesus’ Triumphant Entry on Palm Sunday to the Upper Room, which was the setting for the Last Supper, with Jesus and the 12 disciples.

This is just before they all would go into the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus would be arrested.

It is marvelously fascinating how the four Gospels combine and spend just about half of their narratives dealing with events specifically from Palm Sunday on.

John, in his Gospel, does not include information about the days of the week leading up Maundy Thursday (when they had the Last Supper), nor does John include narrative information about the Communion Supper, except to show Jesus predicting Judas’ betrayal.

Instead, John focuses on the words of Jesus throughout this Thursday evening into early Friday morning, and we get such a picture of Jesus’ love for the disciples, and for us.

In fact, as we are about to read, this is Jesus demonstrating the fullest extent of His love.

Now, I know that when this passage is taught or read in a church setting, that often the emphasis is on serving others.

After all, this is one of the most obvious examples of the servant’s heart of Jesus.

However, servanthood is not the only thing that Jesus is demonstrating in this event.

Jesus is also showing the disciples, and us, how He wants to deal with the daily sin with which we constantly battle.

It is indeed a tragedy that so many Christians, who will enter eternity with Christ, will succumb to such a resignation.

Before we unpack this, let’s look really quickly at a couple of key verses in this text that tell us that Jesus is not only demonstrating humble servanthood, but also, how He wants to cleanse us of sin and help us overcome our daily battles with our flesh.

In establishing the direction for this message series, each teacher who is speaking was asked to title the message in a way that might summarize the questions received on that particular topic.

So, in looking at the questions submitted that were specifically on the topic of sin, this was the best summary that God showed me:

John13:8

Jesus is making a bold statement here that is one of exclusivity, which is seen is response to Peter’s protestation.

How Do I Know That Sin Doesn’t Have the Last Word in My Daily Life?

Effectively, Peter’s high regard for Jesus led him to an impetuous response, as he initially refused to let Jesus wash his feet because he did not think that Jesus should degrade himself in that way.

And right now, at the beginning of this message I am going to tell you the answer, and its answer in two parts:

Because Jesus is The Ultimate Truth for now and for eternity.

Truth has the final word, Jesus is The Truth, therefore Jesus has the final word in the ultimate and eternal contexts.

In our daily lives, whatever you surrender to will have the last word.

You see, in these days, it was a custom when you hosted a dinner party to have the lowest servant wash the feet of those who attended the dinner party.

Jesus was assuming this lowest position, and this was, at first, abhorrent to Peter.

To be clear, Jesus’ truth is still true everyday in our earthly, daily lives.

But Jesus wants us to choose to obey Him because we love Him, not out of compulsion, and therefore we have freewill, which God honors, and if we want to choose sin on this day, we can, even though choosing sin over our Savior is always the wrong and damaging choice.

So, we have Jesus Christ who is The Truth in all ways and at all times for now through eternity, and we also have our daily earthly lives wherein Jesus wants us to mature in Him so that we will choose to surrender to Him daily, and not sin.

Nonetheless, we often surrender to our sinful impulses, don’t we?

And the more we do that, the darker our world seems to get, and the less hope we seem to see.

And when we are stuck in a habitual pattern of sin, or a circumstance of sin, its hard not to think that sin wins in this life, even though we are preserved in Christ for the next life.

But sin doesn’t have to have the final word in your daily life, or in your family, or wherever sin’s darkness may be attacking you.

The best way that I can think of to demonstrate that to you is to show you from God’s Word itself.

This is an area where we really need to hear the God’s full Word, so that we can hear the message of hope and assurance from God’s own heart and mind, and not the summaries of man.

So, we are going to read a significant portion of Scripture together and hear how sin does not have to have the last word in our lives.

We will look at some obstacles and deceptions that we face when battling sin, and we will pull out some of God’s powerful and assuring truth that we can apply in our lives right now, and begin to experience God’s final word, not just for our eternities, but for our everydays.

Let’s pray as head into the Word of God.

Will you turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 4 and we will pick up in verse 13.

While you’re turning there, in full disclosure, we are going to read all the way through chapter 5.

The Apostle Paul, in writing the book of Romans, composes at the direction of the Lord, an amazing treatise of theology, doctrine, and application.

Throughout the entire book, the connective tissues of theological context make it very difficult to just look at a small section.

We read words like, “therefore”, “since”, and “because”.

And if we are going to learn to surrender to God daily, we need a full context of truth.

And even this section we are about to read would benefit from greater context, it is hopefully enough for you to hear and read God’s truth concerning His victory over sin, and the battle that Christians wage with it.

If we want to be assured that Christ can have the last word over us every day, and not sin, we need to understand:

Christ has defeated sin eternally

Let’s read starting in Romans 4:13:

Quite honestly, these passages really say all that we need to say here this morning.

Paul is saying that yes, sin came into the world through Adam, but that the Second Adam, that is Christ, brought a death and sin conquering eternal life that is made available exclusively through Him.

Christ has defeated sin eternally

says that “while we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.”

First, let’s look at what sin is so we have a basic definition for us all this morning.

We hadn’t asked for what Jesus did for us, He offered His salvation to us.

The salvation of Christ was first mentioned in the Bible in when God said that the serpent will bite the heel of Eve’s offspring, but that He would crush the serpent’s head.

And there it is.

Before anyone asked for forgiveness, God offers it through Christ, and not only that, God defeats sin and death by His mighty Word, which we then see play in real life through Jesus Himself.

Nonetheless, sin is still a cancer on earth, and we are still in the flesh, and so we must wage battle against it.

Regarding sin, author Cornelius Plantinga Jr notes: