Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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During World War 2 about 500 American soldiers attended a performance of "Rigoletto" in a great Italian opera house.
In the middle of a scene an air raid caused a power failure, leaving the opera house in darkness.
One soldier pulled out his flashlight and pointed it toward the conductor.
That wasn’t much light, but it helped.
Within seconds 500 soldiers had their flashlights out and pointed toward the conductor.
The whole stage was illumined.
The conductor turned, bowed to the audience, and the opera began right where it has stopped.
John the Baptists role was simple and clear: to point others to the Jesus, the true light.
Like that first soldier, he let his light pierce the darkness and point to the conductor.
Like John's purpose, ours as a church is to point people to Jesus.
What are the reasons we attend church?
As we pick up in verse 24 we find that John’s messengers had gone.
They were returning to give John the message Jesus has told them, and to answer the question which Jesus had asked.
Jesus attention now turns to the crowd that is with him.
Remember, Jesus had just been performing some amazing miracles.
Now he asks the crowd a question.
What did you go into the wilderness to see?
He then uses a couple of examples that are the complete opposite of what we know to be true about John.
A reed shaken by the wind?
A man dressed in soft clothing?
There are two options with the Jesus referencing a reed.
The first is in reference to comparing John to that of spineless individual.
Someone easily tossed to and fro.
The second is with reference to the beauty of the area.
Both are possible.
Think back with me, what was it that John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized back in chapter 3.
You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.
And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’
For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Does that sound like a reed shaking in the wind?
Pastor and commentator Philip Ryken says of John that
He was hardly a reed, blown about by the latest winds of public opinion.
No, John was more like a mighty oak tree, standing firm against the rough and stormy gales of opposition.
But the area was also quite beautiful.
Lush and green.
The reeds would grow up to 12 feet tall.
The next statement is very literal though.
What do we also know about John’s clothing, it was made of camels hair.
Charles Spurgeon spoke of John’s attire saying
Spurgeon on a man dressed in soft clothing, etc - They do not preach repentance.
As is their clothing, so is their doctrine.
They try to show a royal road to heaven — a smooth and easy path.
But was John the Baptist a preacher of that kind?
No, that he was not.
John had been preaching in the desert, with all his might warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come.
He was no court preacher, but a minister to the multitude, who delivered his heaven-inspired message in his own straightforward earnest style.
The way these phrases are written in the Greek come across more as an affirmative.
Jesus and the people both know their reason for going out to see John.
Have you ever asked a question that you already know the answer to in order to make a point?
Jesus was saying John was John was not just the next cool popular preacher in the out in the wilderness for everyone to latch on to.
In verse 26 Jesus again says - What then did you go out to see.
And now he begins to make his point.
A prophet?
Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
Although God had been silent for many years up until this point.
The people of Israel were no strangers to prophets.
It was a recognized formal role.
A person directed and inspired by God to proclaim His will.
In reality, Jesus was less asking the people what it was that they went to see, and more telling them.
What he was questioning was their motives.
What were their intentions.
Why did they go?
This is a question I think we must ask ourselves as Christians.
Why is it that we go to church?
A pastor is not a prophet in the sense that Jesus, or even John was for that matter.
Jesus work is often referred to as prophetic, priestly, and kingly.
He is the king of all kings, the great high priest, and spoke of his role prophet unlike any seen before because he came from the very presence of God.
We know the qualifications to an apostle were to have been with Jesus for his whole earthly ministry, this comes from when they replaced Judas.
No person alive today meets that criteria.
So that sense as changed in that people are sent ones - the meaning of the word, sent with the gospel.
As far as prophets -
First and foremost a prophetic ministry is not primarily about prediction.
It is most often about proclamation.
Simply put a prophet is one who declares the word of the Lord.
Revelation speaks of the two prophets in chapter 11 who will testify against the Lord.
We don’t go to church to see a prophet.
A churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.
"I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons.
But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them.
So I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor.
It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
I've been married for 30 years now.
In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals.
But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.
But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength needed to do my work.
If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today.
Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!
The church is not a building.
Jonathan Leeman
A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.
Just as a pastor’s pronouncement transforms a man and a woman into a married couple through the covenant of marriage,
so an ordinary group of Christians spending time together with the purpose of declaring the work of the Lord are a local church.
The gathering is important for a number of reasons.
One is that it’s where we Christians “go public” to declare our highest allegiance.
As a place, it’s the outpost or embassy, giving a public face to our future nation.
And it’s where we bow before our king, only we call it worship.
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