Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway!

Scripture: Psalm 31.

Prayer

Intro

Good morning, again!

August 5, 2001 was a beautiful night in Cleveland, Ohio at Jacobs Field, especially if you were a Seattle Mariners fan.

The Mariners coming into the game were 80-30, they had won the first two games of the series, and seemed virtually unstoppable with guys like Ichiro, Edgar Martinez, Bret Boone, Mike Cameron many of whom were probably on steroids but that’s besides the point.

Seattle jumped out to a 14-2 lead by the 5th inning, and if you were an Indians fan watching at home, surely you turned off your television.

All hope is lost!

I know how this will end.

But that’s when the improbable, the unthinkable happened, the Indians put up 13 unanswered runs and won in extra innings 15-14.

You’re probably wondering, is Chris that upset about the MLB lockout and missing opening day that he’s telling us baseball stories?

Partly.

Think about how two Cleveland Indians fans might watch that game.

One watches without knowing the ending.

When it’s 14-2, unless you’re a crazy fan with nothing better to do, you turn that game off.

It’s OVER.

The other is the cool kid and has one of those fancy DVR’s and they’ve recorded the game and KNOW the ending.

When the Mariners go crazy and lead 14-2, that fan with the DVR can sit back, relax, and enjoy the final 5 innings because they know who WINS.

Life gives us moments when we’re like the fan without DVR, we’re down 14-2 and we ask, “Am I going to make it through this?”

What gets us through is hope.

Humans need hope as much as if not more than water, food, shelter, oxygen.

We need it to survive.

So as Christians, what is our hope?

How does the story end?

Is the end of the story just that we float off into heaven and sing Spirit 105.3 songs for all eternity?

That actually doesn’t sound very compelling to me.

Christian or not, how you think your life ends matters for how you live it now.

There’s the famous Tim McGraw song, live like you were dying.

But if he still just dies then why does it matter what you do?

Is that how the story ends?

We just…die and in the meantime try to be nice to each other?

Is there a story that actually matters and can give us hope to not merely hang on and survive but truly live?

I’m so glad you asked.

We’re wrapping up our sermon series, “The Story of God” where we’re walking through the overarching story of the Bible as if it were a 6-act play.

Fletcher put it well last week in his sermon, saying the Bible is like a Mosaic with many smaller stories, but is there an over arching story which allows us to find our place in it and thereby find out what we’re supposed to do now?

This morning is Act 6, The Return of the King.

Well to find out, we are going to do a brief touch down at the end of your Bible in Revelation 21:1-5.

Revelation 21:1-5 is this vision of the life to come.

The purpose of reading this is not to predict the future, but to know how to live today.

What does the Bible say about the end of the story?

And how does that move us to live today?

Pray

Before we dive in, let’s briefly recap where we’ve been.

Act 1 - The King and His Kingdom

Act 1 is The King and His Kingdom.

Genesis 1 and 2. Creation!

This is a story about the King...God, the one who spoke and brought light from darkness, beauty from chaos.

He made all realities, including time, what’s up there, and what’s down here.

And he filled those realities with inhabitants.

Bald eagles, sea creatures, lady bugs...and humans.

His crowning achievement.

And humans are to rule on God’s behalf to take his beautiful kingdom onward.

It’s an amazing start.

What could possibly go wrong?

Act 2 - Rebellion in the Kingdom

Act 2- It all goes wrong.

Rebellion in the Kingdom.

We read in Genesis 3 how humans listen to the voice of the serpent rather than to the voice of God.

The serpent deceives them and the humans redefine good and evil for themselves, taking what wasn’t there’s rather than receiving life as a gift from God. Genesis 3-11 showed us the horrible downward spiral caused by the consequences of sin, Cain & Abel, The Flood, The Tower of Babel.

And yet even still, we see God’s remarkable patience to not give up on his creation.

And in Genesis 3, right after the fall of Adam and Eve, God promises to one day send someone who will crush the serpent and defeat evil...even while being wounded in the process.

Who would this person be?

Act 3 - A People for the King

Act 3 - A People for the King.

Genesis 12 - Revelation 22 is essentially asking the question, “What is God going to do about the cosmic chaos of sin?” God responds by choosing a family.

God chooses Israel to restore blessing to the whole universe.

Not just restoring human hearts, but the whole creation which has been tarnished because of sin.

What are they supposed to do? They’re supposed to be a kingdom of priests, representing God in love to the world.

How does that go?

Not well.

Why doesn’t God give up on this toxic sinful people?

And how does this connect with the cross?

We read in Genesis 15 the amazing story of God promising Abram that he, God, alone would bear the consequences of Abram and his family’s inability to keep the covenant.

And he would one day DIE on his behalf to keep his promise to restore blessing to the world.

This in just the early stages of the Biblical story.

I don’t know a better story.

Act 4 - The Coming King

Jesus comes on the scene as the King to bring the Kingdom.

And we read in Mark 1:14-15 that Jesus’ came preaching the gospel.

His central message was three parts: proclaiming who he was, the Messiah.

The promised king from the line of David.

The kingdom is at hand and the renewal of all things back to how it was in the garden has begun.

And so…repent and believe in the gospel.

Turn from your way of thinking about the world, and believe that God is doing a new thing in me.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection prove he was who he said he was, and his ascension to heaven then leads to his sending of the Holy Spirit which leads to Act 5.

Act 5 - Spreading the News of the King

Fletcher preached from Acts 2 last Sunday and showed how the church is not a new thing on the scene, but actually a continuation of the story.

Now that the king has come, the good news of his reign must be preached to all nations.

I love how Fletcher reminded us that the church has Holy Spirit power to do normal things (share meals, be hospitable, give money) but with tremendous power.

That leads us to Act 6 - the Return of the King.

We’re jumping headfirst into one of the most misunderstood books in the entire Bible.

Before prepping this sermon, it’d been a long time since I’d read this book.

Which is a bummer!

It’s awesome and given the events of the last two weeks, we as the church need the encouragement and hope found in this book.

It is a beautiful work of literature and this sermon might be like me trying to draw Mt.

Rainier on a sunny day with sidewalk chalk.

But obviously there are issues reading this book.

What popular Christian fiction book pops into your mind (not the Bible) when we talk about the book of Revelation?

Left Behind sold close to 80 million copies, filling our minds with images of one take on interpreting Revelation.