Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture

John

Introduction

I know there are a number of you who were really looking forward to the series on the will of God.

I will preach that series starting on Feb. 16 so stay tuned.

So why have I delayed this?

Your Leadership Team met last weekend.

We used a new process to plan for the year which involved a lot more prayer and contemplation to discern God’s will for McEver Church this year.

So why

Part of our preperation was to read a book by Michael Slaughter called: “Unlearning Church.”

It is a book about how churches need to change in the 21st century to remain relevant.

In the book Mike writes that people today are not so interested in leaning about God, but wanting to experience God.

This is why so many young folks today do not attend worship but will participate in any activity in which God can be experienced, especially in service.

Mike says the goal of the church is still the great commission:

But, he say we need to do this by connecting people to an authentic experience of God in this world.

We are literally the body of Christ on earth, where people come and experience love, acceptance, forgiveness, freedom from fear, release from guilt and discouragement, delivery from loneliness, and empowerment for living.

God led us to discover that from of our vision of making disciples:

Loving Christ.

Loving People.Helping People Love Christ

That the last phrase, Helping People Love Christ is where we need to do the most work.

In doing more research on this I have discovered that faith development in the ancient church was experientially based not information based.

One example of this is that people were baptized and then were taught what baptism meant.

You will learn more about this as we go on.

Also you will be seeing videos over the next several weeks of how people experience God in service.

The you will see videos throughout the year on how people are experiencing God in their lives.

Finally let me say this, we are a missional church.

That is our church is focused on serving and creating community.

The ancient churches were too.

“The model for the missional church differs from mass evangelism and from seeker evangelism because missional evangelism locates the focal point of evangelism in a community of people who embody in their lives the message and reality of the Christian faith.

Let me explain.

In modern forms of evangelism, the faith is primarily verbalized and communicated directly.

For example, an evangelist will proclaim the Good News in a rally, or one-on-one evangelism will have as its goal explaining the gospel in a simple format such as the Four Spiritual Laws.

The seeker church provides time and anonymity to consider the message.

The missional church, on the other hand, evangelizes primarily by immersing the unchurched in the experience of community.

In this community they see, hear, and feel the reality of the faith or “catch” the faith.

The social context of the neighborhood community is that of extended family and friends.

According to recent statistics, 79 percent of people who convert and enter into the church do so because of personal contact with a relative or friend.”…

Robert Webber

For us the focus is not quantity as the old seeker model strived for, it’s quality.

So if experience of Christ in our lives and in community is needed

“How do we provide opportunities to connect all God’s children to experience God?”

Answering this question and providing those opportunities is our focus for 2020.

This will effect everything we do from our building design to Wednesday night dinners.

Exegesis

Today we are looking at experiencing the risen Christ.

Webster defines this kind of experience as a direct observation of or participation in events as a knowledge or the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation.

In other words experience precedes reflection.

Let’s unpack this story we know oh so well and see what we can learn.

Mary comes to the garden tomb early Sunday morning after the sabbath.

Doesn't say anything about spices in John’s story for Nicodemus bought over 100lbs of spices and ointment to prepare Jesus body for burial.

She is going because it was customary for families to visit the graves of the deceased for up to three days after entombment.

They believed the soul or the spirit of a person hung around for three days after death but then left because the body became unrecognizable because of decay.

Mary is going there to grieve the loss of the master.

But when she arrives not only is she grieving death, but she is grieving the fact that she believes someone (s) had stolen Jesus body.

She makes this assumption because the stone is rolled back, but at this point, she never enters the tomb.

She runs to tell Peter and the other disciple (that I will refer to as John, even though he’s never referred to as that in the gospel).

They run to the tomb.

John get’s there first but Peter enters.

Where it says they saw the linen wrappings.

This Greek word for saw is really closer to behold or observe.

It is more than just saw, they are really thinking on this in an adrenaline fueled state.

The description of the linens make it obvious that no one stole the body.

They would have never taken the time to fold the linens so.

They would have gone with the body.

Peter leaves perplexed, but John believes.

We have no idea really what he believes.

John Wesley and some of the ancient Fathers such as Augustine think that belief is like Mary’s belief that the body has been stolen!

Because the verse right after that says

They go back home walking right by Mary as she is distraught and crying outside the entrance.

Ain’t that just like a guy, we can only focus on one thing at a time!

They were focused on that empty tomb!

Now Mary decided to look in.

Behold! 2 Angels!

They ask her why she is crying.

As she tells them Jesus comes up behind her.

The angels most likely see Jesus, that is why they say no more.

She must have noticed from the angels that there was someone behind her.

She turns and doesn’t realize its Jesus.

I mean people do not come back from the dead, right?

Easy to see how she could think Jesus is the gardener.

But when Jesus says her name wow!

What an experience that must have been!

She has gone from total despair to total hope in nano seconds.

What an emotional ride!

and doesn;t realize its Jesus.

She must have hugged him or his feet as reported in the other 3 gospels because he says not to hold on he hasn’t ascended yet.Nobody knows what is meant by this.

For in a few verses Thomas will touch Jesus.

The the best line of this whole story, Mary goes back to the disciples and says “I have seen the Lord.”

Application

We have the prime example of experience preceeding reflection.

Mary has experienced the risen Christ.

She has seen the Lord, but “as yet they did not understand the scripture, the he must rise from the dead.”

Soon, that evening, Jesus will be among the disciples.

But they still did not understand the scriptures.

The experience of the risen Christ came first.

“I have seen the Lord.”

We do it the other way around now, and shouldn’t.

The experience of the risen Christ is what a disbelieving world wants.

William Barclay makes a great observation of this:

We can neither understand Jesus nor help others to understand him, unless we take our hearts to him as well as our minds.