Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ Scripture: Luke 14:1-14

 

Titus 3:8This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.

These things are good and profitable to men.

\\ \\

It’s wonderful to have Neighborlink here and represented among us today.

I love this organization and believe it is of great value to our churches for a number of reasons.

It provides an opportunity for service that constantly reminds us of our blessings and those less fortunate than ourselves.

It directly attacks the growth of pride in our hearts that subtly convinces us in one way or another that we are better than this person or that person.

It causes me to remember that I live in a world that is very different from the world that many people in this world live and many people in our own city as well.

| !! Servanthood

 We will serve our community according to the example of Christ, in order that people may understand the value of the church and be drawn closer to God. |

Today the sermon is really about the necessity of and the witness of good works.

Jesus said, 

 

Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may *see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

*[1]**

 

We may have a wonderful church and I believe that we do.

I believe that we are growing as a people in relationship to God, one another and our community.

But we must serve our community in the name of Christ in order to have the most powerful witness.

If people believe that the church is here to serve it’s own interests then it will largely be ignored and one of the things that we must remember today is that in large that is just what is happening.

While there are churches that are growing, there is much more room and the majority of folks in this city are not in church today.

You can tell me that this is the effect of sin and the common way of life today.

Personally I believe that regardless of how good we may be at certain things that we do, we fall short in this “servanthood” style of witness.

If you want to change your society today, you’ll take up the servant’s towel and serve in the likeness of Christ.

Nothing else is quite so powerful.

1.

He could not ignore a person’s need.

/(vs.

1,2, 4b)/

 

/One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was *being carefully watched* //(*paratayroomenoi* – phonetic pronunciation - means to observe or watch with a sinister intent – they were just waiting for him to slip up.

They had their minds made up and they had the trap baited with a man who otherwise might not have been among them.)//.  2 There in front of him was a man suffering from *dropsy*.(//

Dropsy is a condition of excess fluid in the tissues of the body, caused perhaps by a type of cancer or possibly liver or kidney problems.

The man was probably invited to the Pharisee’s house in order to see what Jesus would do//.)   3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  4 But they remained silent.

So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.

/

 

ð     He never stopped being Jesus regardless of the company that he kept.

He was always looking for the one who was left out, one that he wanted to include.

God help us to be forever inclusive in our relationships in our church.

If there are a group of people who go out together after church then please look for someone else to include.

ð     He never stopped being Jesus regardless of the schedule that he kept.

ð     He never stopped being Jesus regardless of the theology that he represented.

He never stopped being Jesus – never.

They criticized him for the grace and mercy shown to the woman caught in adultery, even though the law was clear on what should be done.

They didn’t like the fact that he ate with Gentiles and sinners.

To study the life of Jesus is theology itself, “theology being the study of God.

For one to be an astute theologian one might become a student of Christ or a disciple of Christ.

Simply by emulating his life we would be safe theologically.

I was running along on Saturday AM by myself on a wooded trail and I was praying and thanking God.

I thanked Him that I knew His heart in spiritual intimacy.

Often I struggle to understand the Bible in different places.

There are many question marks for me that will most likely have to wait for the next life.

I wonder why Marcia Murphy died in her sleep as a 46 year old mother, leaving one son, a grieving husband and father, Bob Black whom we all know.

I remember this wonderful passage in the Word written by Paul the Apostle.

*Ephesians 3:14* For this reason I kneel before the Father,  15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  19 and *to know this love that surpasses knowledge*—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Amen.

[2]

 

One would have to believe that he was what He did.

He was not a hireling carrying out someone else’s business in a perfunctory manner with no regard for the mission itself.

He was the mission incarnate and those who have the heart and mind of Christ are likely to see this world in the same way that he saw it.

2.

He could not endure the Pharisees’ creed.

/(vs.

3-6)/

 

/3 //Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  4 But they remained silent.

So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.

//5 //Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?”  6 And they had nothing to say.

/

 

The pharisaical legalism pictured in the parable of the good Samaritan is alive and well.

As a result, a 15-year-old African-American boy in Chicago is not.

One a warm spring evening in may 1998, Christopher Sercy was playing basketball with a few friends half a block from Ravenswood Hospital.

Three teenage Latino gang members looking for a black target approached and shot young Sercy in the abdomen.

His frantic friends carried him to within 30 feet of the hospital and ran inside for help.

The emergency room personnel refused to go outside to assist the dying boy citing a policy that only allows them to help those who are inside the hospital.

The boys called for nearby police to attend their wounded friend.

When the officers arrived on the scene they proceeded to call for an ambulance, but refused to carry the boy inside.

While passersby pled with the officers to get the boy into the hospital, he lay in a pool of blood unconscious.

When, after several minutes, the ambulance had not yet arrived, the police gave in and carried Sercy into the emergency room.

By then, nothing could be done to save his life.

As is often true, when we legalistically insist on the letter of the law, the needs of others are overlooked.

By holding to standard operating procedures, the "royal law of love" was pinned to the mat.

Initially, hospital administration vehemently defended their ER's lack of involvement.

Only after a barrage of community outrage did Ravenswood Hospital reverse its policy of treating only those inside its doors.

It was Jesus who observed "Woe to you teachers of the law, you hypocrites.

You give a tenth ... but you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy, and faithfulness."

(Matt.

23:23)

 

Greg Asimakoupoulos.

From the files of Leadership.

I liked C.K. Chitty’s philosophical observance of ministry in a former church in which we worked together.

“We have a rigid commitment to total flexibility.”

On person said of trustee boards in a church.

“They are a group of people who make lists of rules designed to prohibit use of the facilities.”

Policy is the keyword of those who cannot see the bigger picture.

While policy is necessary it is never to be elevated above an overarching concern and love for those we have to minister to.

There are times when exceptions need to be made – ask Jesus, he’ll tell you the same thing in his living.

Orthodoxy and adherence to the law above all else at all times was their despised creed.

Somehow here they found license to abuse people and to ignore their responsibility to care for the needy.

It frightens me to see people today turn away from ministry to the downtrodden because we see ourselves to be above them.

And when we turn away we pick up rocks.

It is far too easy to face the world today, labeling it as hopelessly sinful and become rock throwers.

That’s about all that we’ll show up for en masse is a stoning.

You know I’d like to see First Wesleyan show up in some places at some times when there was little else to gain except to remind people that the love of Christ nailed him to the cross for their sin and he loves them desperately and in His name we love them desperately as well.

George MacLeod wrote a poem that helps put a lot of things in perspective, helping to emphasize content rather than cosmetics, Christ rather than self, the gospel going beyond the church walls rather than simply being contained within them.