Sermon Tone Analysis

This is gonna be a great day.

A great day.

We have our potluck supper after church and I know that you are all looking forward to that.

Hopefully you will all be joining us as we continue, yes continue our worship into the meal.

The meal is part of our worship, it continues.

The service hasn’t ended when we walk out of here.

That is the way the first church did it.

And that is how we are gonna do it today.

Because worship in the first century church was more than just a service.

It was more than song, song slower song, communion sermon song end.

That wasn’t the format of the first church.

The format of the church was family.

It was caring, it was learning, it was singing, it was celebrating but it was together, and if someone was missing, it hurt.

We get a picture of what it looked like to worship in a Christian, Jesus following church.

We see what they did and maybe we can get some pointers.

Sunday was the day that they met.

This is actually fairly new.

Jews would have worshipped on Saturday.

This changed because of Jesus raised from the dead on a Sunday.

So Christians began to worship on Sunday.

This could be considered a normal worship service except for the fact that Paul (the itinerant preacher) is leaving and really wants to get some things said.

They were meeting at night which would have been usual.

You know that most everybody would have been working during the day.

They were working hard.

Lots of them would have been slaves.

They would have difficult tiring lives.

So the gathering that they had could have been difficult.

It was a sacrifice to get there.

But they wanted to hear these words from this great preacher, Paul, who had been there for the week and was leaving the next day to go to the next place.

They were in someones house which was also the normal thing to do.

The place was probably full.

So all these lamps were lit.

And so here is this stuffy house, full of people, it’s probably hot, its probably smoky, and everyone is probably tired from the day’s work.

Some boy, a lad which would have been between the ages of 8 and 14, named Eutychus is there, and he seems to be one of those kids.

If you have ever worked with teenagers there is usually at least one of those kids.

He is one of those kids that maybe thinks for himself.

Maybe he is trying to be funny.

Maybe he is really resourceful.

So, it is late there were many lamps in the place, and there is this guy, Paul that keeps talking and talking and talking.

Maybe Eutychus wants to get some fresh air, he wants to get some room around him.

He climbs up and sits in a window.

Understand that the window in one of these houses would normally be just an opening with maybe a sheet or a thin lattice.

So here he is sitting in the window, and it’s late and Paul is speaking.

And verse 9 says that Eutychus falls asleep and falls out the window and he dies!

He dies!

During church!

Now I need to tell you that this story gives every pastor just a little bit, a tiny bit of comfort.

Paul is one of the most famous preachers in history.

In history, spoke to thousands, saw thousands converted.

He wrote a third of the New Testament, and someone falls asleep during HIS sermon!

Woo!

That makes me feel a little bit better!

I know that I have put people to sleep speaking but I don’t know of anyone dying because of it.

I mean a nap is one thing.

And we all can agree that we enjoy a good nap right?

I have said many times that my Sunday afternoon nap is hardwired into my schedule.

It would take a lot for me not to have my Sunday afternoon nap.

But For some of us we have a Sunday morning nap hardwired into our schedules don’t we? Yeah, I see some of you all.

I see the mouths open and the heavy breathing.

You think I don’t.

I heard this one pastor talk about naps and he categorizes naps in church into 3 groups.

For some of us we have a Sunday morning nap hardwired into our schedules don’t we? Yeah, I see some of you all.

I heard this one pastor talk about naps and he categorizes naps in church into 3 groups.

He starts with the Hollywood Nap.

The Hollywood nap is where your head is down you catch your self and you act like you have been paying attention the whole time.

Yes, amen, That’s right!

Um HMM! Jesus!

Why act folks?

Why do you have to act?

Devotional dozers.

They try to take religious postures so that no one knows what they are doing.

Looking down at the bible, acting like they are reading along and studying with us.

Head in the bible.

They are very meditative.

I have to admit, I have done that one.

5:8–14

When the incarnate Son of God took the scroll from the Father, everything changed.

The rule of humanity over all creation had been derailed by the fall and wrecked by the curse (Gen.

1:28; 3:17–19).

This rule will be restored, however, through the God-man, Jesus Christ.

As a truly human descendant of Adam, Jesus Christ is qualified to fulfill the original calling of humanity to exercise dominion over the earth and to subdue it, restoring the conditions of Paradise throughout the whole world.

As the truly divine Son of God, Jesus Christ has the power and authority to fulfill this calling where Adam failed.

Don’t miss this!

In 5:8 we see the beginning of the process of God putting everything in its right place by placing everything in the right hands.

What a reason to rejoice!

In fact, as soon as Jesus took hold of the seven-sealed scroll, everything changed from weeping to worshiping.

All creatures in heaven and earth burst forth in praise.

Uncontainable jubilation exploded from the epicenter of God’s throne.

In one wave after another, creation poured forth praise to the Lamb of God.

Why?

Because not only is He the Suffering Servant who took away the sins of the world by His sacrificial death (Isa.

53), but He is also the risen, glorified Judge who will execute judgment on the wicked and bestow blessings on the righteous.

All authority to judge has been given to Him alone (John 5:21, 22, 27).

Don’t miss the order of worship around the throne (5:8).

It began with the heavenly worship directors—the cherubim, the highest of God’s creatures.

They fell flat on their faces before Jesus Christ as if responding to the biblical exhortation, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb.

1:6).

Then the twenty-four elders, the highest of God’s redeemed, joined in with accompaniment and offered the prayers of the saints, symbolized by bowls of incense.

By the way, don’t ever think your prayers are insignificant!

Even if God doesn’t answer your pleas for help now, one day when Christ reverses the curse and rights all wrongs, your desperate cries for His intervention will be counted.

God never tosses your prayers into a trash bin.

He’s storing them up in bowls, and one day He will answer them in ways beyond your imagination.

Be patient!