Sermon Tone Analysis

Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Text (focused on a complete thought-unit of Scripture providing the sermon’s authoritative basis & biblical affirmation): Mt. 24:36-42

Central Idea of the Text (CIT; details of text summarized in a complete, past tense sentence): Only the Father knows when the Son of Man will come: live & labor for God, but remain vigilant and watchful; Do not dismiss the warning signs of His return.

Proposition (major idea of sermon summarized in a complete sentence using present active, future indicative or imperative mood; the message): Live comfortably through uncertainty: Trust the Father, believe the Son (v.

36); Live unto the Lord, labor in faith & witness in love (vv.

37-41); Look for the Blessed Hope (v.

42)!

Statement of Purpose:

(1) Major Objective (MO; focuses on only one of six possible [doctrinal, devotional, ethical, evangelistic, consecrative, or supportive]) – Ethical

(2) Specific Objective (SO; focuses on only one; calls for specific action [“I want my hearer to . .

.”]) – Find comfort in faith to live, work and witness in hope looking for Jesus to come again.

Title (Topic/Name) (2 to 4 words with key, arrow, or unifying word usually common to all major ideas; innovative, interesting, contemporary; indicative of general sermon content; not sensational or cute): The Father Knows

Structural Pattern (1 of 8 possible [enumeration, exploration, biographical, narrative, analogical, causal, problem-solution/question-answer, elimination]): Exploration

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Initiation — Life Interest — Beginning Movement/Episode/Issue:

Life Material (LM) = “LIFE MATERIAL”: The telling/re-presenting of supportive life-material; compelling, fresh, interesting, believable; clearly related to the general conflict, mystery, question, problem, etc. being dealt with; use various sources or types; connect with listener’s experiences; strong, interesting opening sentence(s):

Illustrate evidence (from different angles) ways that people might live life without God:

Success

Temporary success may often crown the efforts of the godless, but even their greatest achievements cannot bring complete satisfaction.

That was Solomon’s theme when he said, “… the expectation of the wicked shall perish.”

If unrepentant sinners should view their most brilliant accomplishments in the light of eternity, they would find them to be as lasting and as valuable as bursting bubbles.

The 119th-century Bible scholar G. S. Bowes pointed out the ultimate futility of ambition that isn’t accompanied by dedication to God.

Citing four powerful world rulers of the past, he wrote: “Alexander the Great was not satisfied, even when he had completely subdued the nations.

He wept because there were no more worlds to conquer, and he died at an early age in a state of debauchery.

Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the knights he had slaughtered, committed suicide by swallowing poison.

Few noted his passing, and he left this earth completely unmourned.

Julius Caesar, ‘staining his garments in the blood of one million of his foes,’ conquered 800 cities, only to be stabbed by his best friends at the scene of his greatest triumph.

Napoleon, the feared conqueror, after being the scourge of Europe, spent his last years, in banishment.”

No wonder Solomon warned of the poor prospects for anyone who strives to succeed without relying on God. - H.G.B.

Our Daily Bread, January 31

[Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002).]

Life Issue (LI) = “LIFE ISSUE”: Posits question; creates problem; establishes mystery; arouses curiosity, anticipation; imposes conflict; establishes suspense, ambiguity, or bind:

What’s the point, why should I live for God anyway?

Am I not better off without having to live by all His rules?

The Epicureans were somewhat like modern agnostic secularists.

These followers of Epicurus (341–270 BC) viewed the gods as so distant and detached from the world that humans need not acknowledge them.

Although meditation on the gods might have some positive benefits, praying to them was meaningless since the gods did not involve themselves in the affairs of men.

The Epicureans primarily sought a life of pleasure, which they defined as the absence of physical pain or emotional upheaval.

The Epicureans worked to diminish the fear of death, of the gods, and of punishment in the afterlife because they saw these fears as the major barriers to freedom from worry.

Epicurus taught that “death is nothing to us since, while we exist, death is not present, and when death arrives, we do not exist.”24

24 Diogenes Laertius, Vitae 10.125.

[Charles L. Quarles, The Illustrated Life of Paul (Holman Reference, 2014).]

Background: A Shift in World Views

On Mars Hill the Apostle Paul faced the Epicureans and the Stoics (Acts 17:18).

The Epicureans were the atheists of the day and the Stoics were the pantheists.

Today Christianity again stands between the materialist and the mystic.

Present-day ‘Epicureans’ are secular humanists, and contemporary ‘Stoics’ are proponents of what has come to be known as the New Age movement.

Western society is experiencing an ideological shift from an atheistic to a pantheistic orientation.

The basic difference between these two views is that atheists claim there is no God at all, but pantheists say God is all and all is God.

Atheistic materialists believe all is matter, but mystics hold that all is mind.

The shift from secular humanism to New Age pantheism has occurred gradually over the past few decades.

It has been a relatively smooth transition because of the commonalities of these two world views.

Both atheism and pantheism hold in common a basic naturalistic approach to the world.

(1) Both deny an absolute distinction between Creator and creation.

Both deny there is any God beyond the universe.

(2) Both deny that a God supernaturally intervenes in the universe (by miracles).

(3) And in the final analysis both believe that man is God (or Ultimate), though not all atheists admit this.

Western atheism and Eastern pantheism also have a common enemy.

They are both diametrically opposed to Judeo-Christian theism.

As Alice Bailey clearly declared, New Agers are committed to ‘The Gradual Dissolution of Orthodox Judaism.’

Benjamin Creme is just as emphatically anti-Christian.

‘To my way of thinking,’ he says, ‘the Christian Churches have released into the world a view of the Christ which is impossible for modern people to accept: as the one and only Son of God, sacrificed by a loving Father to save us from the results of our sins—a blood sacrifice, straight out of the old Jewish dispensation.’

Other New Age sources are equally emphatic in their rejection of biblical theism.

Pantheism does not reject a God in nature.

‘It only refuses to accept any of the gods of the so-called monotheistic religions [such as Judaism and Christianity], gods created by man in his own image and likeness, a blasphemous and sorry caricature of the ever unknowable.’

The shift from the Old Age humanism to the New Age pantheism is manifest in numerous ways in today’s culture.

First, there is the growth in pantheistic religions and cults.

Along with Christian Science, Unity, Bahai, and Scientology, the growth in ‘guruism’ in the West has been phenomenal.

Transcendental meditation, yoga, Hare Krishna, the Church Universal and Triumphant, and the Unification Church are only a few of the more popular cultic manifestations of New Age thought.

Along with these are dozens of space cults and the more popular religion of the Force.

Second, New Age thought permeates the media.

Many of the most popular movies of the past decade are pantheistic, including ‘Star Wars,’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ ‘Return of the Jedi,’ ‘Poltergeist,’ ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’’‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ ‘ET,’ ‘Close Encounters,’ and ‘The Dark Crystal’ (by Jim Henson, a fairy tale of pantheism).

Television too has experienced more than its share of occult, magic, and other Eastern influences, from ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ to ‘Bewitched’.

Even children’s cartoons feature ‘He Man,’ ‘Masters of the Universe,’ and numerous magical manifestations of Eastern mysticism.

And children’s comics are literally filled with occult manifestations of New Age thought.

Third, much of pop pantheism was generated by the Beatles when they embraced the Maharishi.

George Harrison expressed this in ‘My Sweet Lord,’ a song of praise to Krishna.

This same trend continues unabated to date and has even manifested itself in outright satanic lyrics in some hard rock songs.

Fourth, pantheistic influence surfaced in the public schools through the teaching of transcendental meditation (popularly known as TM).

Despite the fact that they were found by the court to be religious in nature, other forms of yoga, meditation, imaginary guides, and exploration of ‘inner space’ and ‘confluent education’ continue in public schools.

Likewise the human potential movement and pantheistic forms of positive thinking methods are frequently taught in schools.

Fifth, the broader culture evidences numerous influences of pantheistic thought from EST (now FORUM) business seminars to holistic health fads (usually vegetarian), relaxation techniques, biofeedback, and biorhythms.

The popularity of horoscopes and the supranormal are also indications of New Age thought.

The increased belief in reincarnation is an amazing evidence of the turn to the East.

A Gallup poll in 1982 showed that nearly one-fourth of all Americans believe in reincarnation, with 30 percent of college students believing it.

And the most important fiction writer of the New Age is the bestselling author Carlos Castaneda, who wrote The Teachings of Don Juan, Tales of Power, The Ring of Power, and others.

[Evangelical review of theology, no.

11 (1987): 302–304.]

Continuation — Progress — Middle Movement/Episode/Option:

LM:

The World’s “Ship Is Sunk” - Just a Matter of Time

Illustrate from Titanic how “the world’s ship is sunk” so to speak.

Focus on Captain Edward J. Smith’s actions in his best judgment which yet ended in catastrophe.

Note the deceptive nature of the water, the breakdown in communications, the lack of preparation that failed to prevent the death of the large percentage of life.

Point out investigative conclusions that apply to carelessness in soulwinning (e.g. the Californian vs. the Carpathian).

Final hours

Throughout much of the voyage, the wireless radio operators on the Titanic, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, had been receiving iceberg warnings, most of which were passed along to the bridge.

The two men worked for the Marconi Company, and much of their job was relaying passengers’ messages.

On the evening of April 14 the Titanic began to approach an area known to have icebergs.

Smith slightly altered the ship’s course to head farther south.

However, he maintained the ship’s speed of some 22 knots.

At approximately 9:40 pm the Mesaba sent a warning of an ice field.