Sermon Tone Analysis

SEND OFF KIDS!

Text

Intro.

Wedding invitation.

Giri would have sent wedding invitations to those he desired to be present.

1 John 1.1-

Before he left he would have sent wedding invitations to those he desired to be present.

Talking about weddings -A lady noticed her friend was wearing her wedding ring on the wrong finger so she asked, "Why are you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?"

Her friend replied, "Because I married the wrong man!"

A lady noticed her friend was wearing her wedding ring on the wrong finger so she asked, "Why are you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?"

Her friend replied, "Because I married the wrong man!"

Today we begin a new series “Walking with God - The Essentials”

I am speaking on an invitation, The divine invitation.

Sometimes you are delighted when you receive an invitation, other times you are not so keen, mixed emotions.

This is one you will need to RSVP.

Failure to do so can result in disastrous long-term consequences.

You can be facing a lot of heat!

This entire Bible is about God’s Invitation to us.

Main thought :

Prop: The God of the Bible invites you to have fellowship with Him.

Four truths about this invitation.

1. THIS INVITATION WAS DELIVERED PERSONALLY.

invitations

Come by email, snail mail, text, telephone call

wedding invitations are beautifully crafted

then there are some invitations that are done personally

so important

you are important

Jesus didn’t merely bring the invitation.

He was and is the invitation.

The invitation was personified.

Took on human form, bones and flesh, eyes, ears, face, hands, feet.

Come by email, snail mail, text, telephone call

wedding invitations are beautifully crafted

then there are some invitations that are done personally

so important

you are important

Jesus was incarnate.

Took on human form, bones and flesh, eyes, ears, face, hands, feet.

John said: we have seen with our eyes, we looked upon Him, we touched Him, we heard Him.

He whom the prophets spoke of has finally come.

There are many today who deny Jesus Christ existed - they believe He did not exist or they don’t want Him to be real.

If He is real and He is who He says He is, everything changes.

Guy I met on visitation - Jesus is not real.

He never existed.

Jesus Christ was manifested on the earth 2000 years ago.

There is no academic historian today who deny the existence of Jesus Christ.

There are many non-Christian sources that confirm the basic historicity of Christ.

Tacitus

He is regarded as one of the finest Roman historians, known for his accuracy.

In the Annals passage (15.44), which has been subjected to much scholarly analysis, we have a description of the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of Rome in July 64 AD.

Many suspected that Emperor Nero had started the fire but to divert attention from himself, he accused the Christians of starting it and persecuted them, making this the first documented confrontation between Christians and the authorities in Rome.

Another historian

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.

Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

Josephus

Flavius Josephus born 37 AD was a Jewish revolutionary who changed allegiance to the Romans in the Jewish revolt to save his life.

He became a historian working under the auspices of Emperor Vespasian.

In his Antiquities of the Jews, he writes:

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.

For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly.

He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks.

He was the Christ.

And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease.

He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.

And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

Also we have Thallus who wrote around AD 52 and gave a description of the crucifixion, Suetonius and Hadrian.

Professor F.F. Bruce writes:

“Some writers may toy with the fancy of a ‘Christ-myth,’ but they do not do so on the ground of historical evidence.

The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic [self-evident or unquestionable] for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar.

It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.”

There’s more evidence to the historicity of Jesus than of Julius Caesar.

There’s more evidence to the historicity of Jesus than of Julius Caesar.

Jesus Christ came personally, in history, manifested in flesh and blood, 2000 years ago.

THIS INVITATION IS FROM GOD HIMSELF.

That which was from the beginning

2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us

This is also a divine invitation.

that which was from the beginning [v1]

word of life [v1]

eternal life [v2]

that which was with the Father and was made manifest to us

The historical Jesus was not just a man, a prophet, revolutionary, teacher, guru as many may try to make him to be.

But He was and is God!

In another book the Apostle John wrote, his gospel account:

John

The Scriptures declare not only was Jesus manifested in history but Jesus is God!

John 1.

The gospels document the extraordio

The gospels document the extraordinary life of Jesus - life, miracles, words, death on a cross for our sins, resurrection from the dead.

It is the incarnation that drives all of these other aspects of the life of Jesus.

He was born of a virgin.

The Immaculate Conception.

Joseph was not His biological father.

Dr. Luke documents the angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary saying “Greetings, O favored one the Lord is with you!”

But she was greatly troubled at the saying.. .

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

...

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” ()