Sermon Tone Analysis

Title

|OPENING SLIDE|

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, verse 16.

In this passage the world is perfect and new.

Everything is good at this point, nothing is bad and a simple command is given from God to man - don’t eat from a particular tree.

Genesis 2:16-17 “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

A simple command with a simple negative - if you eat from this tree you will die… PAUSE

We sometimes forget that up until this point, death didn’t exist.

Adam didn’t know what we know… PAUSE

Adam hadn’t seen his parents die or even a favorite pet.

Adam had not survived the death of a spouse, none of that, these words only had the meaning that God gave them.

Don’t eat or you will experience something bad in a place where nothing was “bad”.

God had given him sufficient information for him to avoid indescribable pain in these 11 simple words, “in the day you eat of it you will surely die.”

Please turn to chapter 3.

Genesis 3:1-6 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

The woman (WHO APPARENTLY WAS NOT THERE IN CHAPTER 2:16-17) said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’

” (SATAN KNEW THAT WAS NOT WHAT GOD SAID AND POUNCED)

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

We know the rest of the story, at that moment Creation began to degrade, spiritually Adam and Eve died... physically, they began to die.

|INTRODUCTION SLIDE| They died just like God said they would.

They died because they accepted the lies of satan and disobeyed God’s command.

God had commanded them to do one thing, one thing, in an environment where everything was perfect, where the only two people on the planet were “basically good,” and they sinned.

Everything bad in your life and mine can ultimately be traced back to our sin nature which we inherited from them and the fact that Eve was deceived and Adam rebelled against God.

They didn’t obey God’s command...

God’s commands are pretty important, are they not?

The command given by God was not mean, it wasn’t unkind, it wasn’t malevolent… it was given by a good God who loves those He made.

It was given so that they could stay in relationship with Him.

PAUSE

Failing to take God's commands at face value has disastrous consequences, not just for us but for people we know and love as well.

We need to believe Him, we need to trust Him and He has proven over and over that He is completely worthy of our trust.

MAY NEED A BETTER TRANSITION PAUSE

|CONTEXT|

Today, we are going to be reading through the letter of 2nd John.

2nd John was written by an old man, the apostle John, the last surviving apostle and the best friend of Jesus.

He wrote the letter to communicate a principle truth to another group of believers in another church.

His tone in this letter is warm, it is encouraging and the love in this letter tells the believers that this old man is interested in their spiritual health - he is interested in protecting them from the danger of deceivers.

He is going to write to them to remind them of some fundamental truths based upon God’s commands, commandments that they knew, commandments that they had heard previously, commandments that would protect them from harm if they were obeyed.

PAUSE

The main point of this message is this

|MAIN POINT|

and I take it from 1st John 3:23 “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.”

PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

God has commanded us to do something just like He commanded Adam.

Believe in His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.

Simple and profound.

He has commanded this to protect us, to keep us safe from harm, both individually and corporately and we will see why in today in our text of 2nd John.

|BLANK|

Please stand with me and I will read this short little letter

2 John | 1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.

5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.

This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God

Lets ask the Lord to bless this time together.

PRAYER

PAUSE

Father, we gladly glorify You for Your grace and mercy.

We have received abundantly more than we deserve.

We deserve death and yet, because of Jesus we who believe have received what we didn’t deserve and have not received the wrath that we do deserve.

We have peace because of Jesus.

Father, on top of this blessing we have a copy of Your Holy Word, written in our own language, we can learn of what You desire for us, we can learn of Your character and Your indescribable love and we cannot thank You enough for the privilege.

Holy Spirit, we depend upon You to give us an accurate understanding of what Your Word says.

Help us to understand the necessity of going to Your Scripture for truth.

Bury it deep in our heart and protect us from the lies of the evil one - he is a liar and has been from the beginning, he does not stand in the truth and is a murderer.

Protect us from his assault for Jesus’s name sake.

We desire that our precious Savior, who cleansed us from all sin, never have His name blasphemed and I pray that the reality of Your work in us would be a testimony to the world, that we have believed in Him and love each other.

It is in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

PAUSE

SERMON

As we have already seen 2nd John is an incredibly short letter, but it is so encouraging - you can feel the warmth in the letter.

Starting in verse 1 we will see that the foundation of their love is truth.

PAUSE

|SLIDE|

I. Greetings!

(v1-3)

A. The foundation of their love is truth (v1)

2 John | 1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

The bond here between John and those who are the ἐκλεκτῇ - or called out or chosen, is love in truth.

Truth is represented here as objective, solid, inflexible - foundational.

The word for truth has the sense of being real, actual, dependable.

It is not a concept that is flimsy or insubstantial.

The truth is something that has staying capacity, it is not transitory, it remains.

I want us to understand something here.

Truth is the reason why these believers are bonded together in ἀγαπῶ or sacrificial love - without truth, there is no relationship, there is no bond or fellowship.

John is writing to remind them that this reality that will outlast even this world.

Verse 2 |SLIDE|

B. The abiding endurance of truth (v2)

2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:

The reason why John is writing to them is to remind them of this objective reality and he says it abides in us.

To abide is to remain, to stay, to reside.