Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ */Scriptures:/*/ Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23/

 

 

1.

He was driven to establish his righteousness

 

q       The approach – a typical for a man of his position and resource.

Jesus did not have the respect of the religious elite.

The people who were his peers would have been somewhat ashamed of his conduct.

In a manner of speaking he was driven by something strong enough that he was willing to disregard the social consequence of this display.

q       The address – He referred to Jesus as “Good Teacher”.

He was addressing Jesus from his own frame of reference.

When we as human beings label something as good, we speak from a personal context.

That title confers nothing on the person to which it applies.

All that it does is to tell others a little bit about the value system of the person who uses the address.

! Synœceiosis; or, Cohabitation

!! The Repetition of the same Word in the same Sentence with an Extended Meaning

/Syn´-œ-cei-o´-sis/ from σύν (/sun/), /together with/, and οἰκείωσις (/oikeiōsis/), /dwelling in the same house/.

This figure is so called because two words are used, and in the general sense, but with a different and more extended signification.

They /dwell together/ as it were /in the same house;/ and yet, while one speaker takes up the word and uses it in the same sense, he yet means a different thing.

The Latins called it COHABITATIO, cohabitation, /a dwelling together/.

*Matt.

19:16, 17.*—“And behold one came and said unto him, *Good* Master, what *good* thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

And He said unto him, Why callest thou me *good*?

There is none *good* but one, /that is/ *God.*”

In the former case, the young man uses the word “good” of mere creature goodness, such as he supposed Christ to have; while in the latter case, the Lord alludes to the first, using the word in the same sense, but not in the same way; thus teaching that there is no real “good” apart from God—no “good” except that which comes from God and returns to Him.

 

q       The account – He had been involved in the spiritual accounting process ever since he was a boy.

I can envision that type of worrying – I did it a fair amount in my early days of faith.

Wanting so badly to avoid hell and feeling that God was almost double minded – I would never have articulated it.

The idea that when we come to Christ, we get to start over, we become new.

I wanted the past to disappear but I felt that I was starting over only to have new offenses recorded against me.

Like God invited me to become a part of his family and his kingdom and then began to try to disqualify me by watching for me to sin again.

Most all of us are driven by something.

Good or bad, there is a driving force.

Ø      There are those who are driven by hurt or abuse in our past.

They are intent on guaranteeing that they will never be hurt again and refuse to allow themselves to be vulnerable.

There is always a trade off when you try to protect yourself from the elements.

Gary F. and I were in Banff a couple years ago and poor Gary didn’t have a good rain jacket.

I helped him to shop for one and felt that his wife would want him to buy a good jacket.

No doubt about that.

We looked at some less expensive ones but there were some real nice Far West jackets on sale.

Now the trade off in rain jackets is waterproof to breathable.

If it’s waterproof, you don’t get wet from the outside in.

The more waterproof any piece of clothing is, the less breathable it is.

If it’s breathable you don’t get wet from the inside out.

So it’s your choice in the trade off – whether you prefer wet from the inside out or wet from the outside in.

You know what, .

.  the bottom line is that you will be wet at the end of the day.

The same is true with past hurts that cause you to be the way you are today.

Matthew 5:45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.

For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too.[1]

– you’re not going to escape the showers, the fogs, the mists, the torrential storms and rains of life.

You will be hurt by other people – and you will hurt other people.

What’s the result of over protecting yourself?

ð     Become a watcher rather than a participant in life and spiritual life

 

ð     You communicate to people that you do not want or need relationships and then wonder why you are left alone – why you never seem to be included

 

ð     Others find you a very difficult person to be around.

Because of your guardedness they fear that they will say something that will provoke conflict, open or underlying.

ð     You’ll never know intimacy.

You cannot possibly find someone who will love you deeply unless you are willing to give them the knowledge that can both hurt and heal.

Ø      Others are driven by desire.

They exercise absolutely no control over their lives.

One of the hardest people for us to say “No” to is ourselves.

There’s always a rationale, a justification that propels us forward.

*James 4*/:/*1*/ /What causes fights and quarrels among you?

Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  2 You want something but don’t get it.

You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.

You quarrel and fight.

You do not have, because you do not ask God.  3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?

a  6 But he gives us more grace.

That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.”

b

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn and wail.

Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.[2]

For those driven by desire, they cut a swath of division among people, hurt and brokenness.

It can find it’s way into the church as well.

Wanting an office, being critical of those who have what you want.

This young man wanted eternal life.

He wanted to get something that to him was elusive but he was not wanting to find Jesus.

There are so many who do not want to find Jesus on the road to eternal  life.

You can’t find your way to heaven without a relationship with Christ.

Can a man who wants only eternal life, really find it?

I remember wanting to avoid hell.

I asked Christ’s forgiveness feeling that this was what I needed to go to heaven.

I was definitely averse to eternal damnation but I was unprepared to live as a disciple here and now as well.

Do we have eternal life because we find Jesus?

A person doesn’t have to repent to find eternal life.

It’s just something else to gain.

A person must repent if they are to find Christ.

Because of who he is we are convicted of who we are.

You see eternal life is not an upgrade to your system, or a patch.

It is a turning away from something that you no longer want or desire.

It really is “wanting” nothing else but Jesus.

Eternal life is a part of the package.

Jesus is the package.

Some here today are driven by force of habit.

You have always gone to church – even as a young person and you perpetuate the habit.