Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Message of Jesus #1*

*January 25th and 26th, 2002*

* *

*God is Becoming King*

* *

-I have begun a series on Wednesday nights called; Jesus, from Christmas to Easter.

That focuses on His actual life, especially His ministry fro approximately 3 years.

-I am doing a series on the weekends on the Message of Jesus.

-I am asking God for a clearer picture for all of us of Jesus.

What was He like?

What did He say?

 

-It is so easy to get focused on this life.

We all have things to do but we have to have wisdom to balance everything properly.

*/-I heard someone say that if you aim at heaven you get earth thrown in.

If you aim at earth you get neither./*

*/ /*

-Let’s look at Jesus message to the first century and reinterpret it for this generation.

-What does Jesus want us to know?

 

*BACKGROUND*

* *

-In the time of Jesus there was quite a movement to establish Jewish rule and kick the Romans out.

-It would be like the French taking over Missouri and controlling everything we did.

After a while we would want them out.

-So it was in Israel.

Judas Macabbee had cleansed the temple and driven them out but it didn’t last.

There were several attempts to establish the Messiah.

-The people were so responsive to John the Baptist because they wondered if he might be the Messiah.

-He made it clear that his role was to point to another-of whom he wasn’t able to untie His sandals.

Everyone is looking for a military Messiah to come and take the throne of His father David.

-Here comes Jesus.

-He wasn’t doing what everyone including John expected.

-He was teaching and healing and talking about God as His Father.

-Even John the Baptist had second thoughts.

He sent his disciples to Jesus to see if he had been right.

Matthew 11

*/2 /**/When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” /*

*/4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy b are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

6 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” /*

[1]

-So Jesus doesn’t fit the crowd’s expectations.

God’s answers to people’s problems rarely do.

-So Jesus begins to preach.

He begins to tell the people what is most important.

Matthew 4

*/12 /**/When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to /**/Galilee/**/.

13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:/*

*/15 “Land of Zebulun and /**/land/**/ of /**/Naphtali/**/,/*

*/the way to the sea, along the /**/Jordan/**/,/*

*/Galilee/**/ of the Gentiles—/*

*/16 the people living in darkness/*

*/have seen a great light;/*

*/on those living in the land of the shadow of death/*

*/a light has dawned.”

a/*

*/17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”/*[2]

*/ /*

 */He picked up where John left off: “Change your life.

God’s kingdom is here.”*[3]*-The

Message/*

*/ /*

-The Kingdom of Heaven~/God is the same thing.

Matthew didn’t use the name of God in writing to Jews.

 

-If the Kingdom is here~/at hand~/coming, what did that mean to Jesus?

-Jesus believed that He would one day rule the earth and be ruler on the Throne of David.

Matthew 26

*/63 /**/But Jesus remained silent.

/*

*/The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, a the Son of God.” /*

*/64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

“But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

/*

*/*[4]*/*

 

 

-Jesus spoke about coming into His glory and sitting on His throne.

-But what about now?

 

 

 

 

Luke 17

*/20 /**/Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the /**/kingdom/**/ of /**/God/**/ would come, Jesus replied, “The /**/kingdom/**/ of /**/God/**/ does not come with your careful observation, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the /**/kingdom/**/ of /**/God/**/ is within a you.”

*[5]*/*

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*/(or among you)/*

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-Jesus said in Luke 11*/: 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the /**/kingdom/**/ of /**/God/**/ has come to you.

*[6]*/*

 

(Doesn’t that sound like He is flicking them off like flies?

Beelzebub is Lord of the Flies.)

-OK.

Where are we?

 

*JESUS IS COMING AS LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS – IT WILL BE VISABLE*

* *

*JESUS IS TELLING US THAT THE KINGDOM CAME WHEN HE CAME –IT IS PRESENTLY INVISABLE*

* *

-So what is the Kingdom of God?

 

-The Kingdom of God is wherever God is King.

-The Kingdom of God is Jesus ruling over all of the enemies of the Kingdom.

-The Kingdom comes anytime the enemy is driven out of a life, a marriage, a circumstance that isn’t being ruled by God.

 

-We are living in the */presence of the future/*.

-Hebrews talks about us experiencing the powers of the coming age.

-The principles that will govern our future are made available to us now.

John 3

*/3/**/     Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.

2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.

For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

/*

*/3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the /**/kingdom/**/ of /**/God/**/ unless he is born again.

a” /*

*/4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked.

“Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” /*

*/5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the /**/kingdom/**/ of /**/God/**/ unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit b gives birth to spirit.

7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You c must be born again.’

8 The wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

/*

*/*[7]*/*

 

-Jesus is saying that the Kingdom is */supernatural and invisible/*.

*-In other words, in some ways it was a secret kingdom.*

* *

-Remember Jesus had said about John the Baptist that there were none born of women that were greater but he that was least in the Kingdom is greater.

*VIDEO CLIP*

*Jesus: The New Way*