Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Prince of Passion, Part I*

*Topical                December 5, 2004*

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Author Jim W. Goll states, “It is my personal strong conviction that we in the Body of Christ are living in the midst of a major battle in these last days.

The spirit of this world is continually raging against the Church of Jesus Christ to wear down the saints.

It is a clash of passions that we are involved in! --- Consider the word for a moment --- /passion/.

What comes to your mind?

Surely images of romance and intimacy are some of the first thoughts that circulate.

The word /passion/ can mean, ‘the emotions as distinguished from reason; intense, driving, or overmastering feeling; ardent affection; a strong liking for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.’

But it is interesting to note that Webster’s Dictionary, when defining the term /passion/, first describes it in the following manner: ‘the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death; an oratorio based on a gospel narrative of the Passion.’

Isn’t that amazing?! Passion relates to our relationship with God and to His relationship with us!”

 

Goll continues, “Yes, we are in a battle for the restoration of our first love for our great and glorious Messiah – Jesus Christ the Lord!

We must call forth passionate Christianity across (our nation and) the earth once again.

After all, is He worth anything less?

--- Indeed, embracing the passions of the Son of God is the medicine that the Church of this age needs!”

 

Author Donald L. Milam, Jr., states, “Passion is the fire of life and the energy of the soul!

It is the wind that gives loft to the eagle, lifting it above the masses locked in the drudgery of apathetic inactivity.

It is the fire that warms the heart in the midst of the coldness of a culture set adrift.

--- Without the fire of passion a person will slip back into the slough of mediocrity and be tempted to return to the shelter of anonymity.

The absence of passion will leave one isolated in his own fantasy world, always dreaming of the great possibilities of life but never committing himself to their fulfillment.”

The point we must realize is that in today’s world, and at this Christmas season above all others, we must return to a passion for Christ.

Let us celebrate his birth with a passion for him!

I dare say we all need a greater measure of this passion.

It is the message he came to bring us all throughout the ages until his return.

We must not lose our passion!

We might remember here the best and possibly most popular film of the year, /The Passion of the Christ/, that overwhelmingly envisioned this passion of Christ for us and his call for our passionate response to his Person and his message.

But how did Jesus begin his message to the world, calling for a renewed passion for the things of God? His brief life on earth allowed only a window – a three year ministry, in fact – in which to pour out in the briefest terms what we needed to hear.

A number of years ago a couple traveled to the offices of an Adoption Society in England to receive a baby.

They had been on the waiting list a long time.

They had been interviewed and carefully scrutinized.

Now at last their dreams were to be fulfilled.

But their day of happiness was another's pain.

Arriving at the offices of the Society they were led up a flight of stairs to a waiting room.

After a few minutes they heard someone else climbing the stairs.

It was the young student mother whose baby was to be adopted.

She was met by the lady responsible for the adoption arrangements and taken into another room.

Our friends heard a muffled conversation and a few minutes later footsteps on the stairs as the young mother left.

They heard her convulsive sobbing until the front door of the office was closed.

Then, there was silence.

The lady in charge then conducted them next door.

In a little crib was a six week old baby boy.

On a chair beside it was a brown paper bag containing a change of clothes and two letters.

One of these, addressed to the new parents, thanked them for providing a home for her baby and acknowledged that under the terms of the adoption each would never know the other's identity.

Then the young mother added one request.

Would they allow her little son to read the other letter on his eighteenth birthday?

She assured them that she had not included any information about her identity.

The couple entrusted that letter to a lawyer, and one day the young man would read the message which his mother wrote on that day when, with a breaking heart, she parted with him.

Do you wonder what she wrote?

If you had to quickly condense all you feel about life and love into a few precious words, what would you say?

You would have no time for trivia.

You would not be concerned about economics, politics, the weather, the size of house or the type of car.

At such a time you would want to dwell on the important things, on what life was all about, on what things were absolutely essential – an explanation of the passion upon which real life is nourished and sustained.

You can be certain that the words this young mother wrote to her son were filled with passion.

She would want him to understand the passion with which he was conceived, the passion with which she loved him, and the passion for his welfare with which she had to let him go.

She would pour out her passion of joy for his life and hope for his future.

Of course, as a human, she would probably also have passionately repented for the confusion she brought to his young life.

Of what sustainable value is life without passion?

You can be sure that Jesus would wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

Of course, he would direct us toward a deep and abiding passion for God and the things of God as the only sustainable core of a life of passion.

It is the passion for God upon which all other passions of real life must rest.

He himself came to raise us from the dead and compared the passion for following God to the alternative of actually being dead – spiritually dead.

“Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."”

(Mt 8:21-22 NivUS)

 

“"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.”

(Mt 23:27 NivUS)

 

He went so far as to say that there was more passionate life for God among the tax collectors and prostitutes than among those of respectable religious stature.

“"What do you think?

There was a man who had two sons.

He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

"‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

"Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing.

He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

"Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered.

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.

And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”

(Mt 21:28-32 NivUS)

 

But if you think the struggle of such sinners belies their potential passion for God then take a lesson from the “Daily Bread” for December 1st – /Dead Ducks Don’t Flutter/ (illustrate).

But it is clear from the passage we just recited from Matthew that the key to a life of passion for God is repentance.

Repentance is necessary because the circumstances of this sinful life and world sucks passion for the things of God right out of us to progressively leave us cold and dead to the things of spiritual life.

So like the young woman who gave up her son for adoption and had to distill the passion of her heart into one message he would one day read, what do you suppose God would say to us if he were to distill the passion of his heart into a one-shot message for each of us to hear in the desperately short time span of our own lives?

Yes – he would tell us to repent.

He would tell us with a passion to repent so that our own passion might be either found or resurrected.

This is exactly the message that John, the one who was the herald for the Christ, brought to the Jews, the people of God.

John in the desert (Mt.

3:1-12) was in the great tradition of the Hebrew prophets.

He was aware that time was running out.

In his burning message he had no time for peripheral matters.

He was not playing Trivial Pursuit nor was he prepared to splash about in the shallows.

Soon the sword of Herod's guard would flash and his tongue would lie silent in the grave.

Superficial people came out from Jerusalem to see him.

They were intrigued by this strange phenomenon of a wild man preaching repentance.

They were fascinated by frivolous things such as his dress, his diet and his fierce declamatory oratory.

They wanted to interview him and then tell all their friends about their remarkable experience.

"Who are you?" they asked.

His answer was curt: "I am not the Christ."

"Are you Elijah?" "No!" "Then who are you?" they persisted.

They had their doubts about who he was but his message to their ears was clear: Repent!

There comes a moment when the preacher longs for his hearers to lose sight of everything except his message.