Sermon Tone Analysis

*/Introduction to Sermon Series/*

We have just spent considerable time in the gospel of John.

I preached somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25 sermons based on John’s account of the good news of Jesus Christ.

The story of Jesus Christ is the central story of all the bible.

In the witness of the scriptures everything points to Jesus, the Old Testament pointing forward to the coming Messiah, the gospels pointing to the life and ministry of Jesus as He walked this earth, and the remainder of the New Testament pointing both backwards to the life of Jesus and forward to His future coming in glory.

If you’re reading the New Testament in chronological order the next thing you will want to read after the gospels is the book of Acts.

In a nutshell the book of Acts chronicles the story of what the apostles and the early Christians did with their knowledge of the risen Christ.

It details the coming of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus some 50 days after His crucifixion, and it describes how the apostles of Jesus, now full of the Holy Spirit, are empowered to continue to carry out the mission of Jesus in their world.

By implication then, we in studying and reading the book of Acts find an indispensable tool to understanding what living for Jesus really means.

We will over the next months spend considerable time in the book of Acts but this series will not be a chapter by chapter study through the book.

The gospel of John concludes with Jesus’ call for Peter to follow Him.

He calls us all to follow Him.

There is no more important question to ask than what it means to follow Jesus.

In John’s account of this good news story we have witnessed the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

The questions that we ought to be asking today are, “How does this affect my life?

How should it affect my life?

Given the fact that I have heard about Jesus, now what?

What does He want from me?”

Over this next series of sermons I want to answer the question, “What does it mean in my life to truly follow Jesus?

What does it mean in our lives as a church to truly follow Jesus?”

I think the book of Acts serves as a stepping stone in answering such questions.

In the larger context of asking and answering these questions we will explore some related questions such as, “What exactly is involved in becoming a Christian?

What is the church?

Who is the church?

What is worship?”

We’ll deal with some questions related to the origin and structure of those churches like us who refer to ourselves as Churches of Christ.

We’ll discuss what the essentials of the Christian faith are and ask serious questions about how we balance the search for doctrinal truth with actually living out the truth in our lives.

We’ll talk about some of those things that are peculiar to us such as why we sing a capella, and why we take communion every week.

In all of these questions though I will seek to answer them in terms of the priority that scripture gives these questions.

In other words if the scripture gives a high priority to a particular issue I intend to give it the same priority.

On the other hand if scripture only answers these questions indirectly or by implication or fails to address them at all, I will give them a lesser priority.

In the  scriptures, the bible, we are given the revelation from God through His prophets.

Some of the teachings or commandments of God contained in the bible are greater than others.

I intend to honor the fact that all of God’s teachings are to be obeyed and yet not all of God’s teachings are of equal importance.

Jesus Himself said so.

 

Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV) \\ \\

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I intend to major on the majors and minor on the minors.

*/ /*

*/Sin and the Good News/*

 

We have four books in our New Testaments called gospels.

The gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark, the gospel according to Luke and the gospel according to John.

The Greek word that is translated into the word gospel in our bibles means ‘good news’.

*The good news, biblically speaking, is that good news that pertains to Jesus Christ.

If the story of Jesus Christ claims to be good news it’s fair for us to ask why it’s good news?

Why is the story of Jesus good news?

What makes it good news?

*

There is a tendency in our world to say, “I like Jesus.

He said some really cool things.

He sure knew how to put those Pharisees in their place.

If everyone just lived like Jesus what a peaceful world we would live in.”

Although those are good things to recognize about Jesus, is that really an accurate summation of the good news of Jesus?

“There was a really neat guy named Jesus who lived a long time ago and said some profound things and encouraged us to all get along.”

Is that an accurate summary of the biblical good news?

When Matthew, Mark, Luke or John sat down to write their account of Jesus is that what they intended to say?

Well no, not at all.

Jesus Himself said according to them that, “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

Who are the lost and what was Jesus going to save them from?

The angels declared at the birth of Christ that the Savior had been born.

Savior of what?

Medicare?

The Canadian way of life?

The economy?

The Afghan people?

Broken marriages?

Savior of what?

An angel spoke to Joseph before Jesus was born and said,

 

Matthew 1:21 (NIV) \\ \\

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus said,

 

John 8:34-36 (NIV) \\ \\

34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus,

 

John 1:29 (NIV) \\ \\

29 “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

In order for us to have an appreciation for the good news message of Jesus Christ we must first understand what sin is and how it affects our relationship with God.

Jesus has come, after all, to save us from our sins.

Only when we realize the full implications of sin in our lives and how our sins separate us from God does the story of Jesus Christ really become good news.

Sin is a word in our society that has very heavy spiritual overtones.

Non religious folk almost never use the word.

It’s not part of our popular vocabulary.

And yet when we read the New Testament and the words of Jesus it is assumed that we know what sin is.

Jesus’ Jewish community understood what sin was.

I’m not sure that our society does.

One modern English dictionary (Encarta) defines sin as

 

“a transgression of theological principles.

An act, thought, or way of behaving that goes against the law or teachings of a religion…”

 

I think that’s a fairly accurate definition that would fit most non religious people’s concept of sin.

It’s a religious thing.

If you don’t do what your religion says then you sin against that religion or against that god.

From a biblical perspective however sin takes on a broader meaning.

You can sin against your neighbour by doing some evil against him.

You can sin against your wife or your children.

Your children can sin against you.

And of course any act or desire to act that is contrary to God’s will is a sin against God.