Sermon Tone Analysis

Text :

Sermon Title : How about that other guy?

190908 luke 19:1-10

Occasion : Youth Service

31 May 2019

Location : Agape Hall - PLMGS

MPP : God desires all to come to him, even people we don’t like, so go forth and love even the unlovable

17:22

Good morning,

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Can I have a show of hands how many of you have seen the Avengers Endgames or the Infinity Wars?

Ok, maybe it’s easier to ask who hasn’t seen the Avengers Endgames or the Infinity wars?

If you are planning to watch it, and haven’t watched it?

Sorry guys, but I’m going to give a few spoilers in my sermon...

But you know what?

Actually it’s been five months since the show came out and according to the movie etiquette as promulgated by the very authoritative website called www.thespectrum.com,[1]

you are allowed to talk about the plots of a movie 2 weeks after the movie had been released, so even if I’m sharing the whole plot here, officially, I’m not considered spoiling the show anymore, it is just sharing something that is already supposed to be open knowledge..

In fact, someone among us already wrote an article about the movie and how you can draw Christian values out of it... So, I’m not the first person to reveal the story line in our community...

So I am legally absolved from any hurts you mean feel, but if you need any counselling, you can always come to me...

Also, with regard to the author of the article, I wouldn’t mention Caitlin’s name so as not to embarrass her...

Anyway, in case you are not familiar with the storyline,

there is this grow of super heroes that are protecting the world as we know it, earth,

under what is called the “Avengers” initiative and in the two movies, Avengers: Infinity War and End games,

there is this purple guy that unlike the purple dinosaur, Barney, is not quite as friendly and he has this idea that the world is over populated, and his solution was to try to remove half the population of the world...

And how did he intend to do this?

<take gauntlet>

He went round the universe to gather six gems called the infinity stones and with the stones,

And in the last scene of the infinity wars, he managed to do just that and with a snap of his fingers, half the universe disappeared, turned to dust and simply blown away...

I’m sure many of you were angry with Thanos after watching the infinity wars, and if you were angry,

You were not the only ones,

Pinterest had a page to gather all the hate mails,

Facebook went alive with all the comments,

There is even a quiz to test how you can write a hate mail to him

And Thanos even came on this website to try to defend his actions... (https://mashable.com/2018/05/03/thanos-guest-post/)

There is a chance that he was probably one of the most hated fictional character at least during that period of time...

Because of the way he killed so many people...

Is there a Thanos in real life?

Well, I say, there are many Thanoses in real life...

Perhaps not in the exact form and looks, but there are many people in the world that we love to hate…

There are people like Thanos who destroy many lives,

They are the terrorists in our world who like Thanos,

Have very strong way of thinking and want to create a world that is aligned to what they think the world should be like and are using terror to get it their way…

Another group of people that people love to hate are people who are governing their countries in very oppressive ways…

And such countries include North Korea where Kim Jong Un is always threatening of using his nuclear bombs,

Are persecuting Christians and starving his own people

Iran where Hassan Rouhani is likewise terrorising the region and making many people in his country suffer…

These are all people who are causing lots of pain in many people’s lives,

and are people that many of us love to hate…

let me make this perfectly clear…

I don’t think what they do is correct…

I don’t condone their actions,

They shouldn’t continue in their actions,

And if possible, their actions and behaviour should be stopped…

But can you imagine with me,

What if these people come to know God and change their lives?

Instead of snapping his fingers to destroy life,

Can you imagine what good can be done if Thanos were to use the gauntlet to save and create, instead of destroying?

Can you imagine what good can be done if the instead of using their political powers to cause pain, suffering and fear in the region and in the world,

Kim Jong Un and Hassan Rouhani use their powers to do good…

Can you imagine how different the Middle East and the Korean peninsula would be?

This, dear friends, is what God’s message to us is…

This is not a message of God’s kingdom coming down to earth as if it’s something from outer space…

It’s a message of as God came to earth through the person of Jesus Christ,

As the rightful king of the world,

The world is transformed one person at a time…

And this is how we are to bring in the kingdom of God…

You see, I think all of us are aware of our mandate by God to spread the good news,

To let people hear the Gospel…

To let people hear the fact that Jesus Christ came to earth 2,000 years ago to die on the cross for our sins…

To let people hear the fact that God loves us and desires to have a relationship with everyone of us…

We all know the Gospel and know that we need to share it…

But you know what’s the problem?

Many of us have this idea that this good news is only for our good friends…

It’s like we are now a member of a very special and exclusive club, of which, only a few people can join…

Only people who are good enough to join this club…

Pass some sort of entry criteria can join…

Only our friends can join, but not people who we have difficulty with…

So, only the good people can go heaven…

We are giving them what is rightly theirs and we helping them find their ways, while those who are horrible deserve to go to hell…

Friends, this is not the complete Gospel!

The gospel is for everyone...

We all need to come back to God and we all need to repent of our sins

And everyone are just as deserving of the Gospel and the chance to turn from their past and come back to God!

says that “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”[2]

And when the bible says “all”, because there is no qualifier, the bible means “all”

Not “all the good guys only” or not “all the people with good grades” or not “all those who are from PLMGS”

But everyone…

Even those people who treat us so badly and we love to hate…

and this is the message behind this story that we read about in this few verses that we are meditating on this morning…

which is taken from …

let us now read the word of God together….

19:1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.

4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately.

I must stay at your house today.”

6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord!

Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”