Sermon Tone Analysis

What comes into our minds when we think about Jesus is the most important thing about us.

A.W. Tozer

Jesus moved into our neighborhood so that we can KNOW him.

It’s God'swill for us to know him.

The works of Jesus enable us to know him.

He is worth knowing.

A little knowledge of Christ is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him.

J.I. Packer

Knowing Jesus is your single greatest privilege as a Christian.

Sinclair Ferguson

There’s a difference between knowing Jesus and knowing about Jesus.

When you truly know Christ, you have the energy to serve Him, boldness to share him, and contentment in Him.

Are you suspicious of your knowledge of Jesus?

Are you satisfied with your knowledge of Jesus?

Jesus moved into our neighborhood so that we can know that he KNOWS and LOVES us.

Jesus experienced real temptation to sin so that we can really overcome sin’s temptation.

Jesus knows what it is like to experience our experiences.

He is not a cold, emotionless judge, or a flawed, fickle spirit.He is the only One who has both experienced and overcame the power of sin and temptation.

As the next verse shows,this not only takes away our excuses for failure;it reassures us that, when we fail, He will offer us mercy and compassion.

Jesus became sin so that we could become sons and daughters.

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.

But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.

It is what we need more than anything.

It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness,and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”Tim Keller

When Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn't think,"I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me." No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us-denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him-and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED.

He said,"Father, forgive them;they don't know what they are doing."

He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely.

Jesus moved into our neighborhood so that we can BECOME like him to our neighbor(hood).

Jesus incarnated so that we can imitate.

Ephesians 5:1

Notice the last word in the lawyer’s answer, mercy.

Why did he not use the word grace?

The lawyer felt as though the man deserved his fate.

Grace gives us the gift we do not deserve while mercy does not give us the punishment we deserve.

We must treat those we meet on the Jericho Road with mercy for Christ found us on that road.

We were beaten and battered when we had no strength to care for ourselves or call out for help.

The gods whom we trusted left us.

Those whom we worshipped those gods with passed by on the other side.

We deserved our fate for we had put our faith in other god’s but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us healed our hurts, rubbed balm into our brokenness, and paid in full my debt.

Christ became my neighbor so that I can be a neighbor to others.

Jesus said greater works than these shall you do, which is greater one Jesus incarnate or millions of Christians imitating Christ.

The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.

This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time.

It undermines both swaggering and sniveling.

I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone.

I do not think more of myself nor less of myself.

Instead, I think of myself less