Sermon Tone Analysis

Recap of Last Week

Subtitle: The Reality of Repentance

Big Idea: Sincere repenters seek ways to live anew

When repentance is preached,

There are spontaneous responses

Egotistic people become benevolent

Malcontents find fulfillment

This Morning we focus on 15-17

Big Idea: Preachers of the Gospel must point to Christ

Only Jesus is the Christ

Christ must increase while the preacher decreases

Jesus’ baptism is of fire

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the consequences that can come with bold preaching.

Big Idea: Preachers of the Gospel must point to Christ

Only Jesus is the Christ

Christ must increase while the preacher decreases

Jesus’ baptism is of fire

The people of Israel had been waiting a long time for the Messiah.

Even today, devout Jews who do not believe Jesus is Messiah continue to be in expectation of the Christ.

The Jewish people had a long history already by this time of wars, and oppression, slavery, and exile.

So they most certainly had been hoping and in expectation of the arrival of the Christ, the Messiah, who would bring them into a new era of peace and prosperity.

These people, then, watched each time a dynamic person arrived on the scene, and would wonder if this was the Christ.

In fact, some had claimed to be prophets and some had claimed to be the Christ, but so far, there had only been disappointment.

Now comes onto the scene one who Jesus later would say was the greatest prophet: Matt11.11

Jesus would go on to say that John was the Elijah who was to come.

John was an interesting character.

In many ways he resembled the Old Testament prophets.

He was in the wilderness, he was dressed in camel’s hair, he had a strange diet.

His preaching was getting attention.

It got the attention of the sincere as well as the insincere.

It isn’t surprising, then, as John the Baptist’s fame became greater, and as we understood from last week’s sermon, that something real was happening, so it was not surprising that people began to wonder about this question, whether John was the Christ.

So they were questioning in their hearts, and then most certainly asked out loud, and discussed with their families and friends, and the question on everybody’s mind was, “Is this the Christ?”

And in John’s gospel, (and let us not confuse John the writer of the gospel of John and Disciple of Jesus with John the Baptist), in John’s gospel we see more details about this:

Big Idea: Preachers of the Gospel must point to Christ

Only Jesus is the Christ

Christ must increase while the preacher decreases

Jesus’ baptism is of fire

John had a very important role.

To be one that had been prophesied in scripture, a forerunner, a way-maker for the Christ, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

But as much as John the Baptist must have sensed the importance of his role, he himself remained a humble servant, one who simply was proclaiming the truth that comes from another.

One who simply points and says, “Here he is!”.

And in this role, John did an exemplary job.

He wanted people to know that only Jesus is the Christ.

Well, certainly it may have tempted many modern preachers, if the crowd around began to ask whether this is our savior, many preachers in our time and throughout history may be tempted to say, well, yes, I am a sort of savior, or they may even say they are the savior.

But John shows as an example to every preacher who would come after him, the type of humility that should be found among those who preach.

Again in John 3.28-30

John says not only that he is not the Christ, and apparently he answered this question many times.

And he was adamant.

I am not the Christ.

he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

To fully appreciate how self-deprecating John is being in this moment, we must understand what it meant in that society to bend and untie someone else’s sandal.

I have heard folks over the years who say we should study nothing but the bible.

However, when we use other information, such as other historical facts, and learning about the geography of the areas described in scripture, when we learn more about the culture and customs of the time, we can have a more full understanding of what a text means.

In Bible study, which we call hermeneutics, we include this as one of the major understandings of how we are to understand scripture.

Some of you came to my class on Sundays evenings some time ago on the Bible, and I taught this, that our first goal in scripture is not to immediately jump to the point of application, in other words, we do not want to read a passage and right away talk about what it means to me personally.

Rather, we must try to understand what the passage meant to the original people who would have heard or read the passage.

And after doing that, then we see what it means to us.

And this is because one major rule in bible interpretation is that the passage can not be read to mean anything other than what the author intended it to mean to his original audience.

That is not to say we cannot attempt to apply it in our own situation, but we must always do what we can to consider the time and customs and traditions of the time in which it was written.

So we look at other writings and histories of that time to learn more about what certain things mean.

In this case, we are helped by Jewish writings, particularly concerning the duties of slaves.

And in a home at that time with servants or slaves, it was demeaning to be asked to untie someone’s sandals.

In fact, a Jewish person may even have a Jewish servant, but he would never be asked to do this.

What John is saying, then, is that in comparison to Jesus, he is the very lowest, the most humble servant, the most wretched slave.

In comparison to Christ, whatever power the people perceive John to have, whatever anointing, whatever commissioning from God, he is next to nothing.

Was he really nothing, of no value? of no repute?

No, certainly this is not the case.

Remember what Jesus himself said of John.

No one greater has been born among women.

Jesus certainly did not think very little of John.

Jesus knew John had a very significant role in the redemption plan.

God highly favored John the Baptist.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.

He was set aside for what we could for certain say is one of the top five jobs in all of scripture.

Because John understood all this, because he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and had this empowerment and the wisdom that comes with one who is filled by God’ Spirit, he understood, though, that he is still a mere creature, he is not God, He is not godlike, he is not a little god, or a demi god, or any such thing.

He is merely a servant, and compared to his master, he is not even worthy to do the most humiliating task, that of untying the sandals of his Master.

Big Idea: Preachers of the Gospel must point to Christ

Only Jesus is the Christ

Christ must increase while the preacher decreases

Jesus’ baptism is of fire

So John sets the example for preachers today to point to Christ.

And how does the preacher point to Christ?

How does the preacher lift Christ up?

How does the preacher magnify Christ?

By preaching the Word of Christ.

All of scripture speaks of Christ.

So the preacher must make his life’s work a study of God’s Word.

He must be in the Word so deeply that his every thought must return to the Word and it’s influence.

He must do the hard work of researching the scripture, finding out what those words mean.

He must become a master of the doctrines of the church, not doctrines of men, but those doctrines set forth in the Word of God.

Every Word of Scripture preached should ultimately point to Jesus.

The sermon is not to entertain, it is not to give you warm tingles, it is not to make you love the preacher.

The sermon is to set forth the Word of God in such a way as it brings glory to Christ, and lifts him up, so that men will be drawn to Him.

Yet this is not done by the cleverness of the preacher, it is not done by his charisma, it is not done by shouting, it isn’t done by getting a piano player to play nice chords as the sermon wraps up.

It isn’t found in the fanciness of the stage, or the lighting, or the ambiance we create in the room.

The impact of the preaching will have most to do with the work behind the scenes.

The prayer for the church, the concern for souls, the personal evaluation and repentance of sins, all of that to prepare for what scripture calls the labor of the word.

Yet many in pulpits do not do this hard work.

You should know that there are resources by which preachers can buy subscriptions online for sermons.

Sermoncentral.com.