Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction:

*When you go through hard times whether that is financial difficulty, sickness & health issues, children who have gone astray, or even the death of a loved one... in those times, /“Is Jesus Christ enough for you?”/  Or, when things are great, you’re blessed, but for whatever reason Christ is not enough for you… you seem to be on a */“Quest for something more”/* and my question is why?

Why is God not enough for you? 

*We have a verse recorded in Jeremiah 2500 years ago that says *"Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls.

But they said, ‘We will not walk in it."

(Jeremiah 6:16, NASB95)

Israel had left the old path and the old ways and had taken a shortcut for themselves that was rapidly taking them into quicksand and death, and Jeremiah offered to come to their rescue.

He said, “If you want to escape what is ahead for you, ask for the old paths and turn onto the old paved highway that God has made for you, and you will come out all right.”

But Israel did not listen.

*/The reason Israel was in trouble was that she had gotten tired of God/*.

* This had not been the first time.

Once, on the mount, Moses, their leader—whom they rallied to because he was trustworthy, visible and exercised leadership—went out of their sight for a while.

Because they could not get their eyes on anything and could not touch anything, they didn’t have the inward stability and stamina enough to wait for God’s time.

God was not enough for them, so they made themselves a golden calf.

* It happened again in the wilderness later, after they had eaten manna from heaven for some time, they got tired of that diet.

Although manna had everything they needed, they demanded to have something a bit more spicy.

This, though sinful, is the tendency in humanity.

It is a bad streak in human nature which finds goodness boring.

We get tired of it after a while, and the only way we can endure it is to mix it with something highly spiced.

There are some serious difficulties that I see in Christianity today and I believe the root and bottom of it all is that */many of us have become bored with God/*.

* We want the safety of the Cross, and yet we are not satisfied with the Cross.

* We want the protecting wing of God, provided God will allow us a certain number of childish toys that we may be able to play with to satisfy our minds.

* We have a multitude of things to make up for the fact that God is not enough for us.

Here in our current passage, we have a man who has been with Jesus for 31~/2 years, seen miracles, sicked healed, lame could walk the blind could see… and even though he had seen these things he still says /“Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us”./

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

!! A.                 Philip’s Request (v.8).

!!! 1.                  “Lord, Show us the Father…”  (v.8a).

!!!! a)                  Philip’s request shows how the disciples interpreted His words.

!!!!! (1)                 Jesus had been discussing the fact that He was returning to the Father and that the disciples could not go with Him, not now (John 13:33-14:7).

!!!!! (2)                 They thought Jesus meant that He was going to some mountaintop or some other quiet place to meet God face to face just as great men of God had done in the past, men such as...

!!!!!! (a)                 Jacob (Genesis 28:12f; Genesis 32:24f) – /Jacob wrestled with God/

!!!!!! (b)                Moses (Exodus 3:1f; Exodus 24:9-11; Exodus 33:14-23; Exodus 34:5-9)–Burning /bush/

!!!!!! (c)                 Joshua (Joshua 5:13f) – /Commander of the army of the Lord/

!!!!!! (d)                Gideon (Judges 6:21f) – /The Angel of the Lord, face to face /

!!!!!! (e)                 Elijah (1 Kings 19:4f).

!!!!!! (f)                  Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1f).

!!!!!! (g)                Ezekiah (Ezekiel 1:1f; Ezekiel 10:1f).

!!! 2.                  “And it is sufficient for us…”  (v.8b).

!!!! a)                  Philip felt that seeing God would calm their hearts.

!!!!! (1)                 Moses similarly said the same thing (Exodus 33:8-23): /God’s presence would go with Moses & give him rest /(v.14), /Moses request to see God’s glory /(v.18); /God said no man can see my face and live /(v.20).

!!!!! (2)                 Our satisfaction should come in being in his likeness:

*Listen to what the Psalmist says,* "As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake."

(Psalm 17:15, NASB95)

*Listen to the NLT *"But because I have done what is right, I will see you.

When I awake, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face to face."  (Psalm 17:15, NLT)

!!!!! (3)                 *(Matthew 5:8): *Our hearts being pure would show us God: a more literal translation of (Matthew 5:8) is, /“//They shall be continuously seeing God for themselves.”/

Intimate knowledge of and fellowship with God is reserved for the pure.

!!!!!! (a)                 When our hearts are purified at salvation we begin to live in the presence of God.

We begin to see and to comprehend Him with our new spiritual eyes.

Like Moses, who saw God’s glory and asked to see more (Ex.33:18),

the one who is purified by Jesus Christ sees again and again the glory of God.

!!!!!! (b)                To see God was the greatest hope of Old Testament saints.

*David wanted to see more of God* “As the deer pants for the water brooks,” he said, “so my soul pants for Thee, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps.42:1).

*Job rejoiced when he was able to say,* "“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5, NASB95)

!!!!!! (c)                 Having a pure heart cleanses the eyes of the soul so that God becomes visible.

(i)                   One sign of an impure heart is sin, because sin obscures the truth.

*Jesus said that* "light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

(John 3:19-20, NKJV)

(ii)                 Other signs of an impure heart are…

(a)                 self-centeredness (Rev.

3:17)

(b)                pleasure in sin (2 Tim.

3:4)

(c)                 unbelief (Heb.

3:12), and hatred of purity (Mic.

3:2).

(d)                However, those who belong to God exchange all of those things for integrity and purity.

!!!!! (4)                 In heaven we will see God face to face *(Revelation 22:3-5)*.

\\ !!!! b)                  Walking by faith was not enough.

!!!!! (1)                 The phrase, /“Show us the Father & it is sufficient”/ shows that Philip was not satisfied with what he saw in Jesus, nor with what He had received in Jesus.

Walking by faith was not enough.

!!!!! (2)                 *Think About this:* often times a lack of faith has been cleverly disguised as a lack of facts.

Philip acted as though Christ had not shown the disciples enough about the truth of Christ's Deity.

But Philip did not lack facts, his lack was faith.

*This is the same cry of the mockers at the cross who said *“Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe (Mark 15:32).

!!!!! (3)                 *Seeing Is Believing, Is Not The Christian Approach:* 

!!!!!! (a)                 /Lazarus /(John 11:4, 23, 40); /Thomas /(John 20:29).

!!!!!! (b)                Even though we have never seen Jesus we love Him (1 Pet.1:8) 

!!!!!! (c)                 When Jesus Was on the Cross, people still wanted a sign (Matt.27:35-44

/esp.v.42/)

!!!!!! (d)                The Nobleman Believed Jesus’ Word Before He Seen the Miracle *(John 4:46-53)*.

!! B.                Jesus’ Response (v.9).

!!! 1.                  “Have I been with you */so long/*, and yet you have not known Me…”  (v.9a)?

!!!! a)                  Inexcusable ignorance.

!!!!! (1)                 The words /"so long"/ says that Philip had sat long enough under Christ's teaching to have no reason for asking such a question.

/"So long"/ says much evidence abounds, therefore, there is no excuse for unbelief.

!!!!! (2)                 /"So long"/ is a rebuke many Christians need who have been saved /"so long"/ but have not grown much in the Lord.

!!!!! (3)                 Many are the "Philip" saints who have been saved many years and sat under good teaching and preaching at church but have not grown much at all spiritually.

They are still in the nursery in diapers and on the bottle spiritually.

*You need to have a desire for the Word, if you don’t, what is choking it out?

Peter says* "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

(1 Peter 2:1-3, NKJV)

*The Lord Himself says about Jerusalem in Jeremiah 6 *"To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear?

Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed.

Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it."

(Jeremiah 6:10, NKJV)

*However, listen to the words of Jeremiah *"Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."

(Jeremiah 15:16, NKJV)

 

!!!! b)                  Knowing Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:7-14).

!!!!! (1)                 Paul had been in church or synagogue learning of God but he never had a relationship with God… it was all legalistic.

!!! 2.                  “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…”  (v.9b).

!!!! a)                  Jesus was the full embodiment of God.

!!!!! (1)                 When a man sees Jesus, he sees a Person...