Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /His wisdom is profound, his power is vast.

Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?

//*[1]*// Job 9:4 \\ \\ /

*/18 /*/ When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley.

On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it.

2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.

3 So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees.

They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” 5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said.

(And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.)

6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”

And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

8 “I told you that I am he,” Jesus answered.

“If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”a 10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear.

(The servant’s name was Malchus.) 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away!

Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” *[2]* /

 

Did you ever cross a line with a person and immediately realize that you had made a mistake?

You should have backed off just a bit earlier.

You said one phrase too many.

You persisted in asking just beyond the point of tolerance where persistence is no longer a virtue?

I found this list of things that you’d like to say at work but probably shouldn’t.

·         I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.

·         I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.

·         I like you.

You remind me of when I was young and stupid.

·         And your crybaby whiny-butt opinion would be...?

·         If I throw a stick, will you leave?

·         I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.

·         How do I set a laser printer to stun?

 

Everyone has their tolerance levels.

Even the most patient people can be pushed too far.

1.

Even God can be pushed beyond his willingness to tolerate and there are consequences from that – sometimes these consequences are obvious and other times perhaps not quite so obvious.

As I read, I tell myself that God is more patient than any human being that I know.

Even though he is the archetype of all Christian virtue, Jesus has those brief moments when we would see the more “human” side of the “god-man”.

He threw tables over in the temple, in a righteous rage, if you will, at the money changers who took advantage of those who came to the temple to offer sacrifice to God.  Honest people, many who had traveled far at great effort and expense, simply to try to obey what they understood of God’s will for them.

It struck something deep within the heart of Christ, the very heart of God and he unleashed himself at the abusers.

They knew that he was not pleased.

He verbally castigated, the Pharisees in their self-righteous skull-duggery and they hated him for they knew that they could not hide, could not pretend in front of him.

Their faithless facade could not stand his scrutiny.

You can fool all of the people some of the time and you can fool some of the people all the time but you cannot fool a God who sees the heart of a man before he sees the color of his skin or the size of his bank account or the record of his achievements.

And then, dear Peter, the big (most of the time) blustery fisherman.

When others vacillated, perhaps confused, perhaps unwilling to vocalize what they suspected, Peter made his confession.

/“You are the Christ,////a//// the Son of the living God.”*[3]* /

 

It was quite a statement.

To be willing to say that this man was the fulfillment of centuries of prophecy, - the endorsement of a fisherman.

No scripturally knowledgeable people were willing to say the same thing.

But what would the endorsement of an uneducated fisherman mean.

/“. . . on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hadesc will not overcome it.d”

*[4]* /

 

To Jesus this confession was the bedrock of the church.

The church is still built upon this confession.

Jesus Christ was the son of the Living God.

No less.

God clothed in flesh.

You can be a cult and believe something else.

You can be a social club and believe something else.

There are churches and quasi-religious organizations in our society that have abandoned this confession.

While they may be well intentioned and socially involved and concerned, they are no more than this.

They may assist in day to day living but they cannot be relied upon to guide a soul safely from this life to eternity.

And even Peter crossed that line with Jesus.

As commendable as his confession was, his concern for Christ was caustic and received a crushing response.

/22 //Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

“Never, Lord!” he said.

“This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!

You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” *[5]*// /

 

Now Christ was no schoolyard bully, knocking people down for no apparent reason but as we read this morning, it was evident that those who came to the garden to arrest Christ, had crossed some line.

You don’t poke a lion and hope to live and for a moment as the Lion of Judah was approached, he roared and they fell back powerless, overcome and they knew it.

/4 //Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” 5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said.

(And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.)

6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” *they drew back and fell to the ground.*

/

 

I wonder if we cross lines with God today?

Your life can be a source of great joy for God or you can live in conflict with Him.

Are there times when figuratively speaking our wills are in conflict with His and we find ourselves knocked back to the ground?

We believe that He is a God of love and He is, but in His love does he deal with us in sharper ways at times in order to get our attention or to bring us to a place of surrender?

Does the discipline mean that we are not loved or does it indicate that he loves us too much to let us go on our own without consequence?

2.

One area that we try the patience of God is relative to His Lordship.

Men who are possessed by a powerful God can never themselves be impotent.

But have we not robbed the Almighty of much of His awful glory, and to that extent are we not ourselves despoiled?

We have contemplated the beauties of the rainbow, but we have overlooked the dim severities of the throne.

We have toyed with the light, but we have forgotten the lightning.

We have rejoiced in the fatherhood of our God, but too frequently the fatherhood we have proclaimed has been throneless and effeminate.

We have picked and chosen according to the weakness of our own tastes, and not according to the full-orbed revelation of the truth, and we have selected the picturesque and rejected the appalling.

-- John Henry Jowett in Listening to the Giants.

Christianity Today, Vol.

40, no.

9.

And what was the problem here in John 18?  Why knock the people down who are coming to do what they are intended to do?

 

/“So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees.

They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

4 *Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him,* went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” /

 

It was no surprise that they came.

Their actions did not catch him unaware.

Do you remember in John 17, the High Priestly Prayer of Christ for the disciples?

Let’s look at it again.

/" After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, *the time has come*.

Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

For *you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him*.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.