Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

There will be a business meeting following to church to approve the budget for this year.

Evening of Worship Thursday February 24 at 6:30pm.

Introduction

Good morning!

We are glad that you have joined us to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at at time, one book at a time.

We have come as far as Matthew 3, so lets pick up there:

Read Matthew 3:1-6

Prayer

Lord Heavenly Father, thank you for this day!

A day that we set aside to gather corporately to worship you together.

A day that we come to hear from your sacred Word.

Your Word says over and over let him who has ears, hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

So please turn our hearts to you so that we can hear and do what you desire for us all.

Lord continue ministering to Janice Young and her family with the loss of her younger brother David and please God do the same for his wife and kids.

Come now Holy Spirit and speak to our hearts, fill us to overflowing.

~IJN we love you amen!~

Review

Church, this is an absolutely amazing text!

John is greater that Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

He is greater than Noah and King David.

He is greater than Paul and Peter.

He is greater that Isaiah and Jeremiah and Elijah and Elisha.

There is none greater than John but Jesus, But God himself church!

And you know what is interesting is that John that Baptist was only in the ministry aa very short time, but Jesus said he is the greatest born among women.

His life was short lived as he was beheaded by Herod, at the request Herodias’ daughter in Matthew 14.

What makes a person great?

I think this is simple:

What makes a person great is that they find what is the most important thing in life and they focus on that.

What is most important to you?

Where is your focus?

John found what was most important church and his name is Jesus.

John focused on Jesus, he removed the obstacles in his life that impeded his ability to focus, John did not act like everyone else, he was an odd duck, but his focus was so keen that he pointed everyone he came into contact with to Jesus.

John was odd, he did not dress like everyone else, nor did he eat they same diet as everyone for he ate insects church.

He reminds me of a groovy hippie, a man that was not typical in anyway.

He was a PK kid, not a pastors kid, but a priest’s kid.

And he decided to not follow the way of the priesthood, but rather be educated in the wilderness of Judea I am sure by the Lord himself.

Great men have but a few minutes to be great!

And the truth be told is that John’s greatness was short lived.

Last week we also took time out to look at John the Baptist in detail and we learned that he is a type of Elijah.

In fact, later today we we learned that he actually dressed like Elijah.

It is crucial for us to understand that Matthew is presenting Jesus as King to his readers.

And is so doing, everything in Matthew focuses on this reality, so as we make our way through this Gospel, keep this in the forefront of your mind.

Let’s not forget that between chapter 2 and 3 that 30 years have elapsed.

During those years we know that Jesus lived in Nazareth and became a skilled carpenter we do not have much on these years about Jesus, but we can speculate that he was an amazing child that grew to be the greatest man that ever walked on the face of the earth.

Have you ever thought of the things that Jesus built and how beautiful they must have been?

for the very wood he worked with he created!

If Jesus created beautiful things with wood, just think how much beauty he has created in you, and longs to create even more beauty.

in your character and life.

After all church, you are fearfully and wonderfully made and created in His image!

What days is Matthew talking about.

Well after further study I discovered this text that helps us to know the days:

So the days we are talking about here are during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pilate is the governor of Judea.

And we know that Pontius Pilate was who had Jesus crucified

  Here we see John presented as the forerunner of Jesus.

He prepared the way for Jesus' arrival.

The whole passage emphasizes this.

In ancient times, it was common when a king was coming to a city to send ahead of him certain servants, certain heralds, and they had two functions.

One of the functions was to announce the king was coming.

The other function was to prepare the road so that the travel would be easy.

So usually the herald would go ahead with the idea of verbalizing the arrival of the king, and also with a coterie of servants who could fix the road.

And since roads in those days were subject to all kinds of pitfalls and hazards and, and broken places, and so forth and so on, this was very important that the king not be delayed, that the king not be injured as he traveled because something was not foreseen.

And so a herald went to proclaim and to prepare, to announce the king is coming, and to get the road ready for when the king came by.

Now, you'll notice that this was what John did.

It says in verse 1, "He came preaching,"

Preaching-kerusso- this word means to herald, to announce, and to proclaim.

The word came here ( John Came Preaching) is literally used in the Greek to speak of the arriving of an official.

So John is heralding, he is announcing that the King is coming, the King is coming church.

And note, this is his first coming, but there is a second coming.

Are we heralding the gospel and his soon return.

So what was the message that John was announcing?

In Matthew 3, the word repent is mentioned 3xs, here is verse 2 and in verses 8 and 11.

The focus is on repentance.

Why?

Because the King is Coming , the King is Coming!

The call for repentance is essential to the message of the gospel.

Someone has even called it "the first word of the gospel".

Someone else has said that there is no Good News without repentance.

After Jesus was baptized by John, he was led into the same wilderness that John was baptizing in and then afterwards he was tempted and at the end of this temptation look at how his ministry starts:

How about Peter’s message?

How about Paul’s message?

So what is repentance?

Repent- metanoia- v. — to have a change of self (heart and mind) that abandons former dispositions and results in a new self, new behavior, and regret over former behavior and dispositions.

Our English word came from the Latin word "paenitere", which means 'to regret' or 'to feel sorrow'; and so, to "re-pent" meant to think again upon a sin or a past action, and to feel sorrow for it.

It means “to turn around.”

It means “to be converted.”

It means a change of opinion.

A change of purpose.

A change of direction.

A change of mind.

A change of will.

John Broadus says, "Wherever this Greek word is used in the New Testament, the reference is to changing the mind and the purpose from sin to holiness.

It implies sorrow for sin, but that's not what it means.

It means to turn around.”

It implies sorrow for sin, but that's not what it means.

It means to turn around."

It is 2 Corinthians 7 that talks about godly repentance, godly sorrow, that turns you around, and that's what John was saying.

He wasn't just saying, "I want you to feel sorry for your sin."

He was saying, "I want you to change from sin to holiness.