Sermon Tone Analysis

There was an earthquake on July 11, 1927, which shook Palestine from the Sea of Galilee to the border of Egypt and, after the tremors, geologists discovered a fault in Olivet, running from east to west.

Prof. Bailey Willis, of Stanford University, said that the land could expect to suffer from seismological disturbances and that the area around Jerusalem was a region of potential danger, a fault line, along which slippage might occur, passing directly under the Mount of Olives.

It is evident, therefore, that what Zechariah described is precisely what geologists would expect to occur.

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

[1] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1240.

What does “to have a god” mean, or what is God?

[2] Answer: A “god” is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need.

Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart.

As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol.

[3] If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true one.

Conversely, where your trust is false and wrong, there you do not have the true God.

For these two belong together, faith and God.

Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.

Faith is itself a gift of grace wrought and given by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace.

A gift cannot have merit.

Faith is the eye that sees and the hand that grasps the merit and righteousness of Christ.

How many of us really view our lives as if our actions fulfilled God’s purpose rather than just being a series of events - fortunate or unfortunate as it seems to us at the time.

Jesus saw His entire life as unfolding according to God’s predestined purpose.

John declared concerning Him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” ().

The Bible affirms that Jesus did this by the will of the Father, as it is written:

During this Church Year, Lectionary Year “C” of our three year cycle, we will explore Luke’s Gospel.

In it , we will discover, or rediscover, “who Jesus is” in terms of His humanity and Divinity, and why that matters to us as Christians and to the world.

We know that as “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”” (), but many people in the world have ideas about who Jesus is that do not line up with the truth of Scripture.

The Bible calls this “another Jesus” and “another Gospel,” witnessed by a “different Spirit (), that can lead them astray from the simplicity that is in Christ ().

How many of us really view our lives as if our actions fulfilled God’s purpose rather than just being a series of events - fortunate or unfortunate as it seems to us at the time.

Jesus saw His entire life as unfolding according to God’s predestined purpose.

John declared concerning Him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” ().

The Bible affirms that Jesus did this by the will of the Father, as it is written:

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

How many of us really view our lives as if our actions fulfilled God’s purpose rather than just being a series of events - fortunate or unfortunate as it seems to us at the time.

Jesus saw His entire life as unfolding according to God’s predestined purpose.

John declared concerning Him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” ().

The Bible affirms that Jesus did this by the will of the Father, as it is written:

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

It was the will of the Father that led Jesus to be baptized by John, just as it was the will of the Father that Jesus be tested by the Devil after He spent 40 days of fasting in the wilderness.

It was by the will of the Father that He preached the Good News that “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

It was the will of the Father that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt upon whom a rider had never sat.

This is a curious turn of events.

At no other time in any of the Gospels do we read of Jesus, during His ministry, riding anywhere on a colt.

Now, He directs two disciples to take a colt, upon which no one had ever sat, and bring it to Him.

What does this mean?

13

Jacob’s deathbed prophecy to his son, Judah, included words that referred to the promised Messiah.

He would come royally, but he would also come in blood.

The scene gets even more curious; as Jesus rides along the way to Jerusalem, “the City of the Great King,” His disciples do the strangest thing, at least to us.

Not only have some of them put their cloaks on the colt’s back for Jesus to sit upon, but now, the multitude of them are putting their cloaks on this dusty road, a road upon which others have walked, other animals have walked and left tokens of their presence - what does this mean?

Everything that is taking place at this moment is a fulfillment of the prophetic Word that God sent through Zechariah during the reign of Darius the Mede over Babylon and during the time of the rebuilding of post-captivity Temple in Jerusalem.

Not only that, but these words are part of a prophecy that speaks to the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom over all the world, with the judgment of God upon the kingdoms of this world.

Even the words proclaimed by the crowd point to the Messiah,

“ὁ ἐρχόμενος” - the Coming One - is the same phrase John the Baptist used when asking whether Jesus was the Messiah, or should he look for another ().

Then they go even further: “the King in the name of the LORD; peace in Heaven, and glory in the Highest.”

The only thing left to do was to march either to Herod’s palace or Pilate’s residence and launch the Coup de tat!

Doesn’t it make sense that the Pharisees would try to get Jesus to silence the crowd?

This kind of activity would get the wrong kind of attention - the attention of Herod and Pilate, and they knew that there would be problems then, not only for Jesus, but for the city as a whole!

Doesn’t it make sense that the Pharisees would try to get Jesus to silence the crowd?

This kind of activity would get the wrong kind of attention - the attention of Herod and Pilate, and they knew that there would be problems then, not only for Jesus, but for the city as a whole!

Jesus was so conscious of the Father’s will that even when offered an alternative, He refused to entertain it.

Whether it was the Devil (), Peter (), or the crowd of disciples (), Jesus rejected any path to His enthronement as King that tried to bypass the Cross, but fulfilled every step which would take Him to the Cross.

As He submitted to the fulfillment of the Word by entering Jerusalem on that colt, He also submitted to it by being despised and rejected, by being forsaken, by being pierced, by “the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death,” which then led to His resurrection from the dead.

The same Scriptures that declared these things about Christ declares something concerning us:

You are a new creation, risen with Christ:

You are no longer slaves to sin and unrighteousness, but have been set free so that you might freely serve righteousness in the Kingdom of God:

We have been given power - ability - by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us.

This power enables us to be His witnesses, as it is written

We represent a Kingdom, for we are a Kingdom of priests - the priesthood of the believers - and we have the authority to represent our King:

Keep in Step with the Spirit

Your focus is either upon the things pertaining to God or the things pertaining to the world.

There is a difference between the holy and unholy, betwen clean and unclean, between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God’s dear Son.

The children of Satan walk in his ways, even as the Children of God walk in His.

I know that not every one in church is living as a subject of Christ’s Kingdom - that’s why congregations aren’t able to do all that they would do in the world.

I know that the world sets itself in opposition to the Kingdom of God - that’s why congregations face so much opposition when they try to fulfill their purpose in Christ.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

re represent a Kingdom, for we are a Kingdom of priests - the

Most importantly, I know that we don’t have things completely together, not even we who understand that we are simil iustus et peccator - at the same time saint and sinner.

We are called to operate as one body in Christ, not as independent entrepreneurial enterprises, competing for market shares against other similarly named groups.

That’s why Paul wrote these words:

When we gather together for worship we are pressing towards the goal.

When we come together to study God’s Word and our Confessional teachings, we are pressing towards the goal.

When we come together in service to our neighbor through our vocations, loving them for Christ’s sake, we are pressing towards the goal.

If you aren’t pressing, you’re regressing.

If you don’t rise and shine, you can get left behind.

No, I’m not talking about the rapture, I’m talking about growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But you need to understand that only dead things don’t grow.

If you’re looking back to the past, don’t get mad if you get left back there like Lot’s wife.

God is bringing us up, and we won’t be held down.

“Jesus gettin’ us ready for that great day (3x).

Who shall be able to stand?

(etc.)

We shall, together, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We shall stand together on that great day as Christ raises us to Himself so that we can live in the joy of His Kingdom forever.

It’s time for us to come together, worship together, walk together, and grow together, to the praise of His glorious grace who brought us together in one body, and be thankful.

Who shall be able to stand?”

On that day, your politics won’t help you.

On that day, your buddies and BFFs can’t help you.

On that day,

“Can’t nobody do me like Jesus, … He’s my Friend!”

Can’t nobody do me like Jesus,

He’s my Friend!”