Sermon Tone Analysis

(239 Words, 1.30 Seconds)

Beth El Shalom my wife and I want you to know that we never, ever cease to feel and know your love.

This is one of the warmest and friendliest congregations.

I have never received more encouragement then I do at this congregation.

This Shabbat, it is my turn to give you some good news that I pray can be of some benefit to you from our text today before us.

For full disclosure I will preach a short sermon on a very long section of Scripture.

If it is not enough when I am done, please email Gary Zimmerman at garyzim7@att.net

and he will give you teacher’s version of what I will be giving you today as a preacher.

John Piper once said the difference between preaching and teaching can be likened to the Herald of the Emperor declaring, “Amnesty has been given to all the Emperors slaves.”

That is good news that people can celebrate and act upon.

Then people have questions.

What does amnesty mean, when can I go, will I find work, etc.

At that point, you need the Emperors court advisor who can explain all the details of the heralds proclamation.

In other words, the difference between preaching and teaching is not shouting versus whispering, or illuminating versus bamboozling, or revealing versus informing.

In a nutshell, it’s the difference between heralding and explaining.

And today, I want to herald some good news to you.

(524 Words, 3 minutes, 30 seconds)

Most of you are aware that Revelation is full of wrath, plagues, and great evil.

Some of you are aware that the series of Trumpet or Shofar judgments contain three of the worst Woe judgments in the Book of Revelation.

There is the Woe judgment of the demonic locust that torment, the woe judgment of the 200 million demonic army released from the Euhprates, the third woe is the full judgment of God on human rebellion and comes in the form of 7 bowls of wrath being poured on planet earth.

And these three woes, come after four Shofar blasts that usher in a global, ecological destruction on land, sea, and fresh water.

Most of us have been taught that in light of these soon to be horrors, we are to assist God in the proclamation of the Gospel right here, warn the world around us that it is stuck in a ditch, tell our closest neighbor to repent and believe the good news.

And I believe that it is easy to arrive at this application because these dark chapters of Revelation are often taught as a kind of self-congratulatory tale of my right beliefs keeping me from these horrible evils.

And trust me, that is true if you believe in a rapture or don’t believe in one.

Everyone tells the tale of these chapters with a celebratory song like cadence.

“All hail the power of Jesus Name!”

What if I were to tell you, this passage is supposed to wipe the smug look off of the faces of people you and I? “Christians, Messianics, whatever you call yourself.”

People who know the answer to the question, “How now shall I be saved from the wrath to come?”

Before it is even asked.

We have gotten so good at it we have a book series about it called Left Behind, we created mass hysteria around at and called that event Y2K, and we must own the fact that we created and entire industry around it called “prepping” which includes not only sheltered bunkers and foods, but digitial recordings of yourself stored in a cloud service that will let your loved ones know you were raptured.

This whole time completing forgetting the fact that the entire revelation of John was written to “the seven churches in Asia Minor.”

To those group of religious men and women, with their religious dress, religious books, religious answers and at least 5 out of 7 steeped, chest deep in the pleasing waters of lukewarm sin.

People who had lots of answers, lots of data but somehow failed to understand that right belief, on its own, has never filled up a cup of cold water for someone; right belief, on its own, has never extended a hand to a person with a flat tire on the side of the road; right belief, on its own, has never stopped a controlling spouse; right belief, on its own, has never stayed the hand of sexual misconduct.

Right belief, on its own, makes you as heartless and spineless as you imagine a demon to be.

“You believe that God is one; well and good.

Demons believe the same—and tremble with fear.

You bottomless pit of a person, do you really need evidence that faith without works is useless?” ()

(201 Words, 2 Minutes) I suppose if I have done my job well, then I will have to convince you that today’s passage really is good news and that if given the choice between a head full of right beliefs or hand-full of good works, you would hold out two hands and say “fill them up, please.”

Grab your copy of the Scriptures and say it with me like you mean it.

Ha-Foke-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

De-Cola-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

Mashiach Bah

Turn-it and turn-it, everything you need is in it.

Turn-it and turn-it, the Messiah is in it.

Let’s read together:

“By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came out of their mouths.

For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads by which they inflict injuries.

But the rest of mankind, those not killed by these plagues, did not repent and turn away from the works of their hands—they would not stop worshiping demons and the idols of gold and silver and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

And they did not repent and turn away from their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their stealing.”

(, TLV)

Enough faith to process mass suffering but not enough for life change (873 Words, 6 minutes)

As a reader of the text of Revelation, John really has us where he wants us.

What I mean, to start, the world as we understand it and use it fundamentally changes.

When I say really bad, I mean like Stephen King Horror movie bad.

The first three trumpets sound and there is an ecological and economic disaster that comes from the Cosmos throwing every increasing matter and poison matter called wormwood on the earth.

It kills one third of vegetation, 1/3 the life of the sea waters and ships, 1/3 of life in the fresh waters.

The fourth trumpet decreases sunlight by 1/3 from 12 hours to only 8 hours, 1/3 of the moon light (impacts ocean tides), 1/3 of stars (that is our navigation).

As a reader of the text of Revelation, John really has us where he wants us.

What I mean, to start, the world as we understand it and use it fundamentally changes.

When I say really bad, I mean like Stephen King Horror movie bad.

The first three trumpets sound and there is an ecological and economic disaster that comes from the Cosmos throwing every increasing matter and poison matter called wormwood on the earth.

It kills one third of vegetation, 1/3 the life of the sea waters and ships, 1/3 of life in the fresh waters.

The fourth trumpet decreases sunlight by 1/3 from 12 hours to only 8 hours, 1/3 of the moon light (impacts ocean tides), 1/3 of stars (that is our navigation).

Secondly, people are not acting the way they are supposed to act.

Or, maybe, things are just the way they have always been.

In the film Grand Canyon, an immigration attorney breaks out of a traffic jam and attempts to bypass it.

His route takes him along streets that seem progressively darker and more deserted.

Then the predictable Bonfire of the Vanities nightmare: his expensive car stalls on one of those alarming streets whose teenage guardians favor expensive guns and sneakers.

The attorney does manage to phone for a tow truck, but before it arrives, five young street toughs surround his disabled car and threaten him with considerable bodily harm.

Then, just in time, the tow truck shows up and its driver — an earnest, genial man — begins to hook up to the disabled car.

The toughs protest: the truck driver is interrupting their meal.

So the driver takes the leader of the group aside and attempts a five-sentence introduction to metaphysics: “Man,” he says, “the world ain’t supposed to work like this.

Maybe you don’t know that, but this ain’t the way it’s supposed to be.

I’m supposed to be able to do my job without askin’ you if I can.

And that dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you rippin’ him off.

Everything’s supposed to be different than what it is here.”

The tow truck driver is an heir of Rabbi Paul and Yeshua, and his summary of the human predicament belongs in every book of theology.

For central to our faith is a concept of the way things are supposed to be.

I see a car on the side of the road, I should stop to help the person.

I see someone agonizing in pain, I should try to comfort them.

I see a blind person trying to make their way down a crack edged sidewalk, I should run over to guide them.

They ought to be as designed and intended by God, both in creation and in graceful restoration of creation.

They are supposed to include peace that adorns and completes justice, mutual respect, and deliberate and widespread attention to the public good.

We humans have a rather special talent for notoriously suppressing the truth we dislike.

Listen, John has us where he wants us, we should think these people are vile and reprehensible.

They see death and suffering all around them but will not repent and turn away.

Rev 9:

The TLV is spot on when they translate the one word metanoao with “repent and turn away” it is a living life in a new direction.

These people refuse to live in a new direction.

The TLV is spot on when they translate the one word metanoao with “repent and turn away” it is a living life in a new direction.

These people refuse to live in a new direction.

John has got us doesn’t he?

We point our finger at them and say “We know how you must be saved?”

Yet, five out of the seven churches in revelation are nothing more than the religious equivalent of “the rest of mankind” not killed by these plagues.

Yeshua, told some he would snuff out their lamp, throw others on a sick bed, strike others with the sword of his mouth, come like a thief at night, and spew others out.

Why?

Because they will not metanoao “repent and turn away” even though they can see the judgment of God all around them.