Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Church can be a very welcoming but weird place, can’t it?

I mean, if you were to visit me at Watsons Bay Anglican on a regular Sunday, these are some of regulars you’d probably get to meet.

You’ll probably meet Scott, our Senior minister, who is a very kind-hearted and loving man—a bit of a geek and ridiculously smart.

And then you’ll probably meet Caitlin, one of our Assistants, who is very bubble and very loud and very friendly.

And then, depending on who you are, I might introduce you to one of our older gentlemen, who loves talking about history, politics, and philosophy, but once he gets started he gets very passionate and serious—and because he’s very tall, he can be a bit intimidating.

And then, you might also meet one of our ladies who a bit superstitous, very blunt about her opinions, and she makes people uncomfortable sometimes.

And as I say all of this, I wonder whether you can relate to this picture of church yourself?

If your experience is like mine, then there are some people you find easier to get along with, and then there are people in church who seem to belong to different plantets.

So within CABC, I’m sure that there are introverts and extroverts.

Some who are more culturally Asian—and you love certain things, you eat certain things, and you value certain things that are very different to some of you who are more culturally Western.

And then there will be the stronger personalities and more timid personalities.

And not to mention that churches are communities where its members range across the entire human lifespan.

And so, when you think about it—if you have never been to a church before, churches are these weird communities with too much diversity.

On the outside looking in, it just doesn’t make any sense!

What on earth is bringing these people together?

Why are they so weirdly friendly?

And are they not out of their minds to ask you—if it’s your first time at church—to keep coming back?

And so the question I want us to think about today is: why do we want to be part of this community

Today, we are going to think about one of the values of CABC that Rob told me about—embracing all people.

And—really—I just want us to think about, “Why?”

Why “all people”?

And so, as we think about one of the values of CABC today—embracing all people—I want us to be very clear on what we embracing people into.

Why would anyone want to join such a community?

Why not limit the kind of people you welcome?

Why would we want to embrace all people?

And what is it that we are embracing people into?

And what is it that we are embracing people into?

And the question I want us to think about today is: why do we want to welcome anyone into this kind of a community?

Isn’t it just too diverse?

why would we want welcome “all people” into this kind of community?

Isn’t there too much diversity already?

Why don’t we limit the kind of people we welcome?

Wouldn’t that make church easier?

And I want to convince you that it is only and exclusively the good news—or “the gospel”—of the person and work of Jesus Christ that gives a sufficient answer for these questions.

Repeat: Only Jesus gives a sufficient answer.

But more importantly, I want us to see that there is something really exciting about embracing all people through the gospel.

And if I can move us to being just a bit more excited about the gospel than when you first walked in—that’ll be great.

What we’ll see from God’s word this morning in are three key ideas of the gospel:

No one can live God’s way (v1–8)

Truth has come down from above (v9–13)

Genuine and personal acceptance (v14–15)

Pause.

So the first thing to notice is Jesus’ insistence that we are all born dead.

And it would be a really great help if you were to have that passage open in front of you, because I’ll keep referring back to it.

So the first thing to notice is Jesus’ insistence that no one has life in themselves.

And especially his insistence in the face of a Pharisee (or a teacher of Israel), whose whole enterprise is to teach people how to have life in the world to come.

No one can live God’s way (v1–8)

So the first thing to notice is Jesus’ insistence that no one can live God’s way.

And—in particular—his insistence in the face of a Pharisee (or a teacher of Israel).

So, verse 1:

So the first thing to notice is Jesus’ insistence that no one has life in themselves.

But anyhow, Jesus here insists that no one can live God’s way.

And—in particular—I want us to notice that he insists this in the face of a Pharisee (or a teacher of Israel).

So, if we read from verse 1:

And—in particular— in the face of a Pharisee (or a teacher of Israel).

So, from verse 1:

And—in particular—his insistence of this in the face of a Pharisee (or a teacher of Israel).

From verse 1.

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

And if we had been reading the

The fact that Jesus is talking to a Pharisee is significant because their whole enterprise was to teach people not only how to live, but also how to have life in the world to come.

Life according to the Pharisees

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