Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in the home of our series titled The Next Awakening.

We’ve been going verse by verse through the book of 1 John and looking at the letter written to the early church as a warning.

At the time John wrote this letter, the church was being split.

There were those who were trying to take over control of the movement started by the disciples when Jesus rose again, ascended and the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples.

There were several who were trying to divide people from the teaching of the disciples and John’s warning to them was to be careful and test the spirits, recall what they had been taught, heed the warnings of those who spent time with Jesus.

This was not the last time people would try to use the church for their own benefit - to get control for the sake of control or for whatever reason.

In the mid 1700s, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and few others were preaching to increasing crowds in New England as revival broke out.

Hundreds of churches were started and 10’s of thousands of people came to Jesus.

Like in the early days of the church, there were those who mimicked the works that were happening in the church.

Edwards heard the grumblings and even questioned some that looked real, but were not.

He wrote several essays about this, the most concise of them called Signs of True Revival.

He reasoned from God’s Word that there are 5 things that accompany a genuine, real deal move of the Spirit in the church:

When esteem for the true Jesus is raised

When Satan’s kingdom is attacked (sin and worldly lusts)

When people come to love Scripture more

When men are led away from falsehood to truth (sound doctrine)

When there is an increase of love to God and man

Starting today and over the next 5 weeks, we’ll look at each one of them as we go through 1 John 4.

As we go through each of these 5 signs, we are going to take some time each week and pray for Crossroads, we’ll pray for the other area Churches and our community as we expect revival in our churches and then awakening in our communities.

Turn with me now to 1 John 4. We’ll read the first 3 verses to start.

Jesus, how he came, what he taught, what he did, how he died, how he rose again and how he ascended is central to all we believe and are about.

If we get sidetracked from that in any way, we are headed in the wrong direction.

If we try to change anything about who Jesus is, we have it wrong.

We may as well be lumped in with the antichrists that John talked about in chapter 2.

The word acknowledge is used in Matthew 10 when Jesus said this:

The Greek word here is to admit, confess or declare.

In one of dictionaries I have, the word is translated to make an emphatic assertion.

I hope you get the sense that to acknowledge Christ is more than to just tip our head up and say yup that’s him.

It’s a much more active word that we might at first read.

Let’s read another few verses from 1 John 4…starting in verse 13:

Here is one of the great mysteries of our faith…that the God of the universe would live in us, that we might live in Him.

This is possible by acknowledging who Jesus is.

Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is the Savior of the world.

When we put these two statements together and meditate on what that means, we can’t help but esteem Jesus more.

To worship and thank him for who he is to us.

Savior and Lord.

I was listening to a pastor and author John Mark Comer talk about his book Live no Lies.

As he was talking about our greatest spiritual battle is against deception.

Deception is the devil’s primary tool against us.

And the deceptions start small and usually with things that we already have a tendency to believe.

If we don’t do what John said at the beginning of chapter 4, we are susceptible to being lied to.

That is the goal of the enemy - to deceive us.

To keep us from the truth.

To keep us from recognizing all that Jesus said and did for us.

To get us to accept less that all that God has for us.

Hold your place in 1 John and turn with me to Genesis 3. The original deception of man.

If you are a under-liner, underline the word like.

He didn’t say you will be God, he said you will be like God.

Imitation, the greatest form of flattery right?

In this case wrong.

We were never meant to be like God.

We were meant to be in right relationship with God as his creation, but there is only one God.

Ever since that day, humans have been trying to fill the God sized hole in their heart with lots of imitations at the deception of the enemy.

We take our eyes off God, we take our eyes off Jesus and so many things around us begin to look good to us.

Then we justify our desires and impulses and do what we want because as Adam and Eve observed: this things fill a need and they are pleasing to our eyes or desires, so why not.

When we as believers get to this point, we have taken our esteem for the one true Jesus and given it to something else.

When we honor, esteem, worship, desire, chase after something of great value to us, nothing gets in our way.

Is there something getting in the way of you raising your esteem for the true Jesus?

Jesus who showed grace, but then said go and sin no more.

Jesus who pushed away the adult in order that he might get to the children.

Jesus who forgave a man’s sin and then healed his body.

Jesus who spoke against self righteousness, but then offered righteousness by faith.

Jesus who died one day and rose to life three days later.

Jesus who gave us his Holy Spirit that we might be witnesses for Him to the ends of the earth.

What Jesus are you following?

What Jesus are you believing in?

Turn back to 1 John 5, and we’ll close shortly...

Do you have life?

I hope you can say yes to that question.

If not, we want to walk you through what it takes to have the Son, to have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, To have eternal life.

***Do invitation***

***Put title slide up***

Pray for Crossroads and other area churches to raise esteem for the true Jesus.

Closing:

Edwards says this in his writing about the esteem for the true Jesus raised:

When we look at anything that is happening in the religious world, and need to pass judgment, the first question we must ask is 'Are these people coming to love, honor, and esteem the real Lord Jesus more than ever?'...

If people are being convinced of their need of Christ and led to Him;

If their belief that Christ appeared in history is strengthened;

If they are more convinced than ever that He is the Son of God sent to save sinners;...

If they acknowledge that He is the only Savior and they need Him desperately;

If they appreciate Him more than they did, and love Him too,

Then we may be quite sure that it is the Holy Spirit who is at work!

-Jonathan Edwards ‘Signs of True Revival’