Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: The Glorious, Life-Transforming Jesus

Title: The Glorious, Life-Transforming Jesus

Text:

Series: Book of Mark

Ill: Life-changing moments that all, including unmarried and non-parents can relate to...

Groundwork:

Because Jesus is the powerful, majestic, coming of the Kingdom of God, he is worthy of our life.

, ,

(1) Power - strength, ability

(2) Coming - a presence, arrival

(3) Majesty - magnificence, splendor

"Worthy of Life" means ():

There is nothing that I want that I am unwilling to part with to follow Jesus

There is no personal comfort that I am unwilling to give up to follow Jesus

Take Up Your Cross

When Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,” it was the same as saying, “Come and bring your electric chair with you.

Take up the gas chamber and follow me.”

He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind - the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible.

Jesus had in mind a place of execution.

Billy Graham in “The Offense of the Cross” (from Great Sermons on Christ, Wilbur M. Smith, ed.)

There is an intentional going “in the same way” (following) as Jesus

Thus, the cost of going in the same way of Jesus is nothing compared the value of the Person of Jesus Christ.

Summary:

Because Jesus is the strong, magnificent, arrival of the rule of God, He is worthy of unreservedly going in his self-denying, cross-bearing way.

What from this passage proves that Jesus is the strong, magnificent, arrival of the rule of God to be true?

(1) Jesus' Radical Transformation ()

(2) Jesus' Regal Testimony ()

Newness of Life

“Newness of life supposes newness of heart.

Walking in Scripture stands for the course and character of one’s life, which must be new.

Walk by new rules, towards new ends, from new principles.

Make new choices of direction.

Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with.

“Old things should pass away, and all things become new.

Such a person is something he formerly was not, does things he did not.

And this newness is to be alive to God through Christ.

To converse with God, to have a regard for Him, a delight in Him, a concern for Him: This is to be alive to God.

“The love of God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul towards God.

Christ is our spiritual life; there is no living to God but through Him—through Christ as the Author and Maintainer of this life; through Christ as the Head from whom we receive vital influence; through Christ as the Root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and so live.

In living to God, Christ is all in all.”

Matthew Henry, Source unknown

(3) Jesus' Resurrection Truth ()

Question:

If Jesus is the strong, magnificent, arrival of the rule of God, how do I become an unreservedly, self-denying, cross-bearing follower of Jesus?

Answer:

Be increasingly consumed with the glory of who Jesus is!

Buddy the Elf hears that Santa is coming, “Santa is coming!

I know him”...”

(1) The glory of God is received through the gospel - ,

Neighbor who ran out of gas in the lawnmower tank

Some don’t value the glory of God because, they have never really been saved.

Have you received Jesus Christ?

(2) The glory of God (in Christ) is increasingly clarified by "the Point" of the Father's Word -

Do you realize that the point of Moses & Elijah is Jesus?

Are you just someone who knows the stories of the Bible, but you don’t see how they point to Jesus?

Missed the Point

In the heyday of the New York Yankees, manager Joe McCarthy once interviewed a coach being brought up to the majors from a Yankee farm team.

“How much do you know about psychology?” McCarthy asked.

The coach said he had studied it in college.

“So you think you’re good,” said McCarthy.

The coach replied: “I don’t know how good I am, but it’s a subject I’ve studied.”

“All right,” McCarthy said, “I’ll give you a test.”

McCarthy said that a few years before he’d had a problem and had gone to Frankie Crosetti, his shortstop.

“Frank,” McCarthy said, “I’m not satisfied with the way Lou Gehrig is playing first base.

He’s too lackadaisical.

I want you to help me.

From now on, charge every ground ball.

When you get it, fire it as quickly and as hard as you can to first base.

Knock Gehrig off the bag if you can.

I don’t care if you throw wild or not, but throw it fast and make it tough for him.”

Crosetti demurred and said: “Maybe Lou won’t like the idea.”

“Who cares what Gehrig likes!” McCarthy snapped.

“Just do as I tell you.”

McCarthy then said to the coach: “Now that’s the story.

What conclusions do you draw from it?”

The coach considered the matter for a minute, then answered: “I guess you were trying to wake up Gehrig.”

“See?” McCarthy shrugged his shoulders in resignation.

“You missed the point entirely.

There wasn’t a damned thing wrong with Gehrig.

Crosetti was the one who was sleeping.

I wanted to wake up Crosetti.”

Bits & Pieces, April 30, 1992

(3) The glory of God (in Christ) beheld leads to our radical transformation -

Applications:

(*) Make daily decisions that reflect the worth of Jesus Christ

Mountaintop Experience

A man once testified in one of D. L. Moody’s meetings that he had lived “on the Mount of Transfiguration” for five years.

“How many souls did you lead to Christ last year?”

Moody bluntly asked him.

“Well,” the man hesitated, “I don’t know.”

“Have you saved any?” Moody persisted.

“I don’t know that I have,” the man admitted.

“Well,” said Moody, “we don’t want that kind of mountaintop experience.

When a man gets up so high that he cannot reach down and save poor sinners, there is something wrong.”

The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 202

(i) The work place is the place of self-denying, cross-bearing following of Christ -- as opposed to a place that is greater in worth than Jesus.

Is your work place what you live for or is Jesus the One you live for at your work place?

(ii) Husbands, in all of your providing, be sure to provide a self-denying, cross-bearing love.

(iii) Retirees, your time, your words, and your resources should reflect the worth of Jesus.

Are the sins of gossip & life-wasting more acceptable with age?

(iv) Young parents, you don't need to give your kids the world.