Sermon Tone Analysis

Today is the first Sunday of a brand-new year in the Christian calendar.

We begin today in the season of Advent.

Growing up, we did not celebrate the season of Advent in our church.

After Thanksgiving, it was all about Christmas.

We had Christmas plays at church.

The church choir would present a cantata.

There would be Christmas parties.

My mom would bake lots of Christmas cookies and fruit cakes.

My family didn’t drink alcohol, but my mom always managed to have a bottle of rum to add some to the fruit cakes!

I never did ask her where she got it from.

Advent is a time of perpetual watchfulness for children.

Each day is looked at with much scrutiny: “How many more days until Christmas?

What if I miss it?”

Everyone and everything is monitored closely to see what comes in and out of the house.

Each night is met with increasing restlessness, not wanting to sleep or even close your eyes because—what if you miss it?

What if you miss the magic?

What if you miss the wonder?

What if you miss Santa Claus on the rooftop or sneaking presents under your tree?

My brother and I would take advantage of every moment that both of our parents were out of the house to go hunting for where they hid the presents.

Sometimes they were in the attic.

Sometimes they were in our parent’s closet.

Sometimes they were in the basement.

We always managed to find where they hid them.

If they did manage to get them wrapped before we found them we were not above carefully unwrapping them to see what was there and even play with what we found if we knew we wouldn’t get caught.

By the time we were teenagers my mother gave up and just put the stuff under their bed knowing we were going to find it anyways.

It did take much of the challenge out of that sneaking around every year.

Kids watch closely each and every day with wonder, counting down the days until that magical day finally arrives.

While this story isn’t relatable for everyone.

Some did not grow up with that sense of wonder that Advent and Christmas brings.

I think though that most of us can relate to a time we were anticipating something.

A wedding day, the birth of a baby, retirement, a long-worked-for raise—whatever it might be, we know what it is like to watch in extreme anticipation, waiting.

Our text today is about this type of waiting and watching, never losing focus on what we should have our eyes on: the return of Jesus.

While Jesus was certain of His return, He didn’t know the exact time.

Consequently, His primary emphasis was on watchfulness

Many of us read this text with the baggage of fear, and there’s some validity to that because the preceding verses are a bit gloomy—to say the least.

The disciples were wanting to know what the signs of Jesus coming at the end of the ages.

Jesus paints a somewhat distressing picture.

It might leave some with a sense of fear.

There is definitely a sign of caution here to not be distracted, to stay the course, but the message is not one of fear.

It’s ultimately one of hope: that God keeps his promises, that Christ will return, and that if we stay the course, if we are watchful and ready, we will see this hope fulfilled.

Hope is a very powerful feeling.

When someone is diagnosed with a dread disease, they will hold out hope that a cure will be found.

It is when a person loses hope and gives up that there is nothing else that can be done to help.

As Christians we are called to live in hope.

That hope is that one day that Jesus is going to return.

We are to focus on what we are called to.

This text reveals a distractedness that can consume all of us.

Instead of staying focused on Christ, sharing Christ, and living the life Christ has called us to, other things rush in to distract us.

There is so much in our culture today that can distract us and get our eyes off the main thing.

The challenge for us is to keep focused on what we are called to.

What is it that we are called to?

The Gospel of Matthew has an overarching theme of sharing the gospel with others.

This theme is revealed in the Great Commission at the end of the book,

We also see this theme illustrated in the parable of the sheep and goats in 25:31–46, where we learn that the call of those following Christ is to a life lived in love and compassion for those around us.

Jesus said there in that passage:

One thing that always stood out to me in that story is that neither the righteous nor the unrighteous realized that they were serving or not serving Jesus by what they did or didn’t do.

The righteous were living a life of faithfulness and treating everyone by the words of the second great commandment of loving others as themselves.

The unrighteous had forgotten all about that second great commandment and were just looking out for themselves.

We need to remain focused on Christ and sharing Christ, and living the life Christ has called us to.

It is way to easy to get distracted.

This section of scripture calls us to faithfulness as we live out the hope of Jesus coming again.

Jesus calls us to be disciples in the world, to serve in the world, to evangelize the world—not to stand apart waiting for His coming.

We have a call to join the mission of God in the world.

What is God’s mission?

It is a rescue mission to redeem creation that was damaged by sin.

The coming of the baby Jesus in a manager was the culmination of that mission.

God became man and as the Message paraphrase puts, he moved into the neighborhood.

The problem that we all face is this, it is:

Losing Focus

The context for this passage reveals several parables that illustrate the distracted nature of humanity.

The first is the parable of the ten bridesmaids.

Five of the bridesmaids took extra oil with them.

They were prepared, they were focused on what was going to happen.

The Groom was on his way and they needed to be ready.

Five of the bridesmaids did not bring any extra oil and they were left out in the cold.

Why did those five not bring oil?

Did they think that perhaps they had more time?

Did they as many do today think that someone else was going to do it for them?

What happened with them?

They got distracted.

They did not keep their focus on the coming of the bridegroom.

The point of that parable was to keep focused on the end.

Jesus said

The second parable that Jesus told which helps us is the parable of the talents.

The man entrusted his wealth too three of his servants.

The first two invested the money and made a profit for their master.

The third did nothing but bury or hid the money.

All three of them gave back to the master the money he had entrusted them with.

The first two also gave him the profit they made.

It was that third servant that was only able to return to the master what he had been given.

He didn’t put it to work, he didn’t do anything with it other than to hide it.

Are we ever like that third one?

Do we hide what God has entrusted us with?

We do that when we do not get involved in making disciples.

We are all called to make disciples, to share the treasure that God has entrusted us with.

This guy got distracted and worried that he might lose what his master entrusted him with so he did not do anything.

Fear can cause us to become distracted, it can cause us to focus on the what if’s and not on the what does Jesus want me to do.

We become so distracted that we don’t do anything.

The third parable that Jesus told is the parable of the sheep and the goats.

44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ 45 Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’