Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Several years ago I took a flight to Wyoming.

I flew out of South Bend to Ohare in Chicago.

I hadn’t flown since I was in the Marines.

So I was not very familiar with how to read the flight/gate data at the airport.

I only knew I didn’t have much time to disembark my plane in Chicago and get to the other gate before take off.

O hare is big.

I had to run with my luggage for a long ways.

In fact, I had to go to an entirely other terminal through the underground tunnel.

I dreaded hearing the announcer come over the speaker saying it was the last call to board my flight at the gate.

If you know me you know I would rather be an hour early than on time.

I learned this in the corps.

I cannot relax unless I am there.

So I hustled to the gate thinking I was going to be late, only to find out when I got there, that the flight had been delayed and people still hadn’t boarded yet.

Whew!.

We have not boarded yet, but this is the last call of the Bible.

It will be too late if you are not on board when we take off.

We come to this last message in our study through Revelation.

It has been a long road.

But I trust you have learned much that will firmly ground you in your faith in Jesus.

Despite all the hardships that accompany the Christian faith in the first century Roman Empire, John’s intention is that those believers would hang tough in their belief about Jesus.

There were those false teachers who proclaimed a prosperity gospel just as there are today.

There were those who taught a different gospel than that of John and what is proclaimed in this book.

So it is necessary to give a final warning to all those who either think the Word of God is not enough and they need more in order to have that close relationship with God.

Or they think the Word of God is flat out wrong in some areas so they feel the need to remove some portions that do not fit their paradigm of what God said and intends.

The warning is against willful distortion of the message.

It is not unlike Paul’s stern words in

to those who would distort the gospel fit them rather than conform to the gospel.

This sort of warning was not unknown at the time,

What is interesting in the passages is that it is the same thing happening here.

Moses is directing obedience to the Word of the Lord.

But that is based on their recognition that God is the Lord and not Baal or some other god.

This becomes clear when you read vss.

3,4.

Notice how he directs their attention off what the Lord said to what the Lord did in order to help them see He is the true God and therefore worthy of obedience: “what the Lord did . .

., the Lord your God destroyed . .

..” v.4 “But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.”

Notice he did not say ‘held fast to the word of the Lord.”

It just proves the point being made in Revelation, that it is not what The Lord is doing, but who HE IS that is the point and that is why it is so important not to alter the message off of who HE IS.

Obedience is the indication that you understand and believe who HE IS.

Because if you miss who HE IS you have missed it all and if you have missed it all you are not a believer and hence the plagues, the lack of privilege of tree of life and holy city are your lot.

Warnings of this nature were not uncommon.

In Moses tells the Israelites, “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it.”

When the translation of the Septuagint was completed, it was ordered that they “pronounce a curse in accordance with their custom upon anyone who should make any alteration either by adding or changing in any way whatever any of the words which had been written or making any omission.

The warning is a “stereotyped and vehement form of claiming a canonicity equal to that of the O.T.”35 The solemnity of the injunction suggests that the speaker is Christ himself.

Mounce, R. H. (1997).

The Book of Revelation (pp.

409–410).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

So let me make this statement at the outset: He is not hinting or stating that it is possible for a believer to lose his/her salvation.

I think you will understand why by the time we are done.

What is interesting in the passages is that it is the same thing happening here.

Moses is directing obedience to the Word of the Lord.

But that is based on their recognition that God is the Lord and not Baal or some other god.

This becomes clear when you read vss.

3,4.

Notice how he directs their attention off what the Lord said to what the Lord did in order to help them see He is the true God and therefore worthy of obedience: “what the Lord did . .

., the Lord your God destroyed . .

..” v.4 “But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.”

Notice he did not say ‘held fast to the word of the Lord.”

It just proves the point being made in Revelation, that it is not what The Lord is doing, but who HE IS that is the point and that is why it is so important not to alter the message off of who HE IS.

Obedience is the indication that you understand and believe who HE IS.

Because if you miss who HE IS you have missed it all and if you have missed it all you are not a believer and hence the plagues, the lack of privilege of tree of life and holy city are your lot.

So then let us look at the text and see what it has for us.

Jesus is clearly reminding us of the serious nature of Heeding His Word.

What we do with it has eternal consequences.

Mounce, R. H. (1997).

The Book of Revelation (p.

410).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

To help us sort this out I am just going to take this in the order it is given:

I.

The One who testifies

II.

To Whom He testifies

III.

The Message of His testimony

IV.

The urgency to make your choice

V.

The Benediction

This is a very serious warning to those who hear the words of this book to be obedient to it.

There are two provisos here: 1. Don’t add anything to what was said, with a consequence of plagues.

2. don’t take away anything from what you heard lest your privileges be taken away.

I think this is akin to sole scriptura .

that the authority of this book is being laid out plainly.

Because of the address to those ‘who hear’ I don’t think this is speaking to future copyists but rather to those who upon hearing these words would either add further so-called revelation to it.

Or who would cut and paste things out of it as unimportant, irrelevant, not true etc.

The emphasis is clearly on the authority it holds to command our attention and expect our obedience.

I.

The One who testifies,

μαρτυρω εγω I testify is none other than Jesus.

the same who said “I Jesus” in v.16.

The word marturo-witness, testify.

I want you to consider how John uses this word in and Because this is super important if we are to catch what He means in the part of His message.

In Jesus healed the crippled man and the leaders wanted to kill him not because He healed the man on the Sabbath but because He made Himself equal with God .

Jesus response to them is to appeal not to His own testimony about this truth, but to John the Baptist’s testimony and to state His own testimony is greater than John’s because of His own works.

Those works prove or testify that His statement about Himself is true.

Then in after declaring He is the light of the World thus the giver of life, v.12 The Pharisees reject His testimony about Himself.

Jesus answer is v.14

“Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, . .

..”

Thus, Jesus testimony in those texts is about who He is, so our text is that which is about Him.