Sermon Tone Analysis

Service Notes:

Ask Josh Miller to come pray / Last service with us before leaving for Peru

Josh I am going to ask you to pray something here in a moment before I read.

Quick Reminder: About the Church Drama tonight at 5 pm.

Also we need volunteers for Tuesday night.

Before Reading the Passage

Excited and very nervous about preaching my first Christmas message.

Many Pastors can’t decide because they have preached every passage and theme.

I have too many options.

Love teaching God’s Word, especially to the people that I know and love.

Today I want you live with your heart to be full of hope!

“A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices.

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Like the person hitting the bell at the Carnival.

I want your heart overflowing with hope.

Josh after I read please pray that hearts will be filled with hope and that this weary world would rejoice starting with us today!

Luke 9:18–20 (KJV 1900)

18 And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

19 They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.

20 He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

Peter answering said, The Christ of God.

Sermon Introduction

Maybe you do not think the passage we read today is much of a Christmas text.

I believe we will see that it is.

We are going to looking at this story in 3 parts; like the Christmas Carol.

You pretend to be Scrooge and we will go on a journey from Christmas Past, Christmas Present (for the disciples) and Christmas Future.

Before we get to our current text in Luke 9 lets go back some 500 years.

Let’s visit a very weary world.

Isaiah 8:17–22 (KJV 1900)

17 And I will wait upon the Lord, That hideth his face from the house of Jacob, And I will look for him.

18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me Are for signs and for wonders in Israel From the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

- Isaiah names means “Yahweh is salvation,” was a reminder that God will ultimately deliver His people.

Here comes the weariness

19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, And unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: Should not a people seek unto their God?

For the living to the dead?

20 To the law and to the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, It is because there is no light in them.

21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, And curse their king and their God, and look upward.

22 And they shall look unto the earth; And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; And they shall be driven to darkness.

World strongly desires hope for the future

Isaiah 8:19 (KJV 1900)

19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, And unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: Should not a people seek unto their God?

For the living to the dead?

Please, tell me something good about my future.

People ask my Zodiac sign.

I tell them unicorn.

They say that is not real.

I tell them none of them are real.

Recognize there must be more to this world

Desire to be connected to the supernatural.

Want to communicate with those of another world.

Want to self medicate so they can forget as much as possible about the world they are in.

World knows it is empty but doesn’t know how to be filled

Isaiah 8:21 (KJV 1900)

21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, And curse their king and their God, and look upward.

The place to look was to God and His Word

Isaiah 8:16 (KJV 1900)

16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

A person’s failure to heed God’s Word means he has no spiritual light

Isaiah 8:20 (KJV 1900)

20 To the law and to the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, It is because there is no light in them.

We live in a dark and wear world because we live in a world with so few people who have light.

Minds are hostile to God

Isaiah 8:21 (KJV 1900)

21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, And curse their king and their God, and look upward.

Romans 8:7 (KJV 1900)

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

These were fearful and weary people.

They sought for hope in all the wrong places.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying time with family but more than pleasant holidays we need profound hope.

We need to be reminded of the weary world so our hearts will be fully emptied and ready to be filled with hope.

Some are having first Christmas without someone.

Some of you wonder how your marriage might make it another years.

Some of you might simply be miserable because you know there is more to life but just don’t know what it is.

“We need hope.

God loved us to much to provide anything or anyone in this world that would meet our need for hope outside of Him!

We are meant to feel hopeless without God”

Nevertheless

Now we start to head back to the time of the disciples.

There is space of 500 years between what is spoken about in 8:22 and 9:1

Isaiah 9:1–6 (KJV 1900)

1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, When at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, Beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, And garments rolled in blood; But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

People had been to the world and getting only what the world can give.

Isaiah 8:22 (KJV 1900)

22 And they shall look unto the earth; And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; And they shall be driven to darkness.

The promise of hope.

Is the promise that a child will be born.

They needed to be looking for the God with us.

The Emmanuel.

Isaiah 8:10 (KJV 1900)

10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; Speak the word, and it shall not stand: For God is with us.

Isaiah was looking for someone

Isaiah 8:17 (KJV 1900)

17 And I will wait upon the Lord, That hideth his face from the house of Jacob, And I will look for him.

The promise of hope will be found in a manager.

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV 1900)