Sermon Tone Analysis

March 20, 2012

By: John Barnett

Read, print, and listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

*OUR WORLD IS DESPERATE FOR ANSWERS.

DID YOU KNOW THE BOOK YOU HOLD

IS OUT OF THIS WORLD?*

A while back Congress “pulled the plug on NASA’s elaborate search for radio signals from alien life”.

SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence project) has been an American scientific community priority for many years.

Because of the evolutionary belief system so prominent in our culture there is also a desire to find even higher evolved life forms.

And now with the increasing situations where there is an uncontrollable rampage like the murderous acts of 15 year old Kip Kinkel in Oregon this week.

People are looking for some insight or explanation to give them help.

The newspapers at that time reported: “Some speculate that alien intelligence might beam vast streams of coded information, a virtual encyclopedia galactica, with insights into THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE AND IMMORTALITY.”

SUCH AN ABSOLUTE DISREGARD FOR THE INDISPUTABLE FACT THAT SUCH A STREAM OF INFINITE KNOWLEDGE HAS ARRIVED IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE!

The Intelligence of the Universe HAS beamed us about our origin and offered immortality freely to all.

Thus we have here this morning not only crystal clear details on the opening day of the Cosmos but also:

• THE SECRET OF HOW TO LIVE FOREVER

• THE SECRET OF HOW TO HAVE A JOYFILLED MARRIAGE (PROVERBS 5)

• THE SECRET OF HOW TO EXPERIENCE REAL LOVE (I CORINTHIANS 13)

• THE SECRET OF HOW TO BE PROSPEROUS AND SUCCESSFUL (JOSH 1)

• THE SECRET OF HOW TO NEVER FEAR THE FUTURE (JOHN 14)

• THE SECRET OF HOW TO RESIST SATAN (I PETER 5)

*THE ANSWER IS HERE.

DID YOU KNOW JESUS WROTE SOME LETTERS TO YOU ?*

Two thousand years ago Jesus wrote letters to His beloved church.

He sent it by way of the last living Apostle, John.

These letters were a group message, customized for seven churches representing all of the churches then and now.

Ask any Bible student how many epistles (letters) are in the New Testament.

He will probably answer 21 : 13 authored by Paul, plus Hebrews, which appears anonymous; and the seven "general epistles" by Peter, James, John, and Jude.

We usually overlook the seven most important letters: the seven authored by Jesus personally.

For many reasons, these seven letters, comprising Chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation, are probably the most important part of this book for you and me.

*DID YOU KNOW THE BIBLE IS SUPERNATURALLY ENGINEERED?*

The Bible is like many textbooks in school, all the answers are found at the end of the book.

The end of the Bible is of course the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.

The Bible is made up of 66 books, written by 40 authors over 15 centuries yet possessing a supernaturally engineered message.

Every word, every letter, every name, every place and every number was placed there by the guiding hand of God through the Holy Spirit inspiring each human author.

Thus every detail of God's Word was planned by God for revealing Himself and His plan.

And nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Each of its 404 verses which hold allusions to over 800 Old Testament verses and passages tie the entire Bible together in a grand finale.

*JESUS WROTE TO SEVEN SO WE ALL WOULD HEAR!*

There were many other churches at that time that would seem to be more historically significant than the seven that Jesus addressed: the churches at Jerusalem, Rome, Galatia, Corinth, Antioch, Colossae, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Miletus, to name a few.

Why did Jesus select just these seven Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea?

Simply because these seven represent four levels of His message.

⇨ 1st : JESUS GIVES A SPECIFIC MESSAGE: First, “to the church at . .

.”

He spoke to the local churches that were in those geographic places then.

Jesus still is interested in His local, geographic churches.

He speaks to individuals by name, He knows what they are doing at church, at work and at home.

⇨ 2nd : JESUS GIVES A UNIVERSAL MESSAGE: Second, “Hear what the Spirit says to the churches . . .

“ This is plural and speaks of an admonition to all churches throughout all the history of the church.

Here Jesus addresses His divine expectations of all churches for all of history!

⇨ 3rd : JESUS GIVES A PROPHETIC MESSAGE: Thirdly, Jesus was describing the seven types of Christians that would make up the visible church throughout all the church age.

This is perhaps the most fascinating part of the book as Jesus describes with divine precision the seven successive eras the church would pass through from Pentecost to the last days of Apostasy.

⇨ 4th : JESUS GIVES A SPIRITUAL MESSAGE: Finally, “He that hath an ear, let him hear . .

.”

Note the singular “ear” this is the practical and personal message from Jesus to each of us, this may be the most valuable part of the entire book.

These letters describe the unfolding of all subsequent church history.

In any other order, this prophetic panorama would not be true!

These letters seem to be the explanation for the interval between the 69th and 70th "weeks" of Daniel 9. Just as the Book of Acts covers about 30 years of the growth and ministry of the church; the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the Book of Revelation cover the next 1,900 years.

*1ST HIS SPECIFIC MESSAGE:LOCAL CHURCHES WITH LOCAL PROBLEMS

I ALWAYS KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU!*

CHRIST SPEAKING TO HIS CHURCH: The letters to the Churches.

Finally, each letter has all or part of these seven components:

⇨ Jesus addresses each Assembly 2:1a

⇨ Jesus addresses each with Authority 2:1b

⇨ Jesus addresses each with an Approval 2:2-3, 6

⇨ Jesus addresses each with an Admonition 2:4

⇨ Jesus addresses each with an Appeal 2:5

⇨ Jesus addresses each with an Assurance 2:7

* 2ND THE UNIVERSAL MESSAGE: ALL CHURCHES THROUGHOUT ALL OF HISTORY

I ALWAYS EXPECT YOUR DEVOTION !*

CHRIST WAITING FOR HIS CHURCH: The Church in every Age: SEVEN KINDS OF CHRISTIANS.

In the next place, the seven churches represent seven varieties of Christians, true and false.

Every professor of Christianity is like one of these seven.

This morning more than likely G has classified and found here:

⇨ Some Ephesian Christians, with a great start but a lack of that initial consuming love.

⇨ Some Smyrnaote Christians, purified by persecution, faithful at all costs to the Lord.

⇨ Some Pergamite Christians, wed to the world, a country club Christian with no standards, with a focus and grip on money, car and job, Only doing what is socially acceptible, compromising Scriptures absolutes, more concerned with fashion than with Holines.

⇨ Some Thyatiran Christains believing and following false doctrine, with a social gospel not a divine call to the new birth.

⇨ Some Sardian Christians, dead as last weeks cut flowers, cold and lifeless, in a spiritual stupor.

⇨ Some Philadelphian Christians, sound in doctrine, zealous in ministry, outreaching the world and deeply in love with the Lord Jesus Christ!

⇨ Some Laodicean, apostate, counterfeit and sickening to Christ.

A member of the Christless church that will thrive in the tribulation under Satan’s leadership.

1. Ephesus had left first love: Overcomers discover Jesus is all I need.

And return to Him.

2. Smyrna was in great persecution and stood fast through it.

Overcomers discover Jesus is all I Have and remain faithful to Him.

3. Pergamum was drowning in worldliness; Overcomers discover Jesus is all I need and resist worldliness and looked above.

4. Thyatira was being seduced by the false teacher Jezebel; Overcomers resisted all such evil teaching and lifestyles.

5. Sardis had a big name but no life; Overcomers did not defile themselves with the corpse.

6.

But no condemnation for:Philadelphia, no blame just a warming to overcome and hold on!!

It is of these seven sorts that the whole church is made up.

So in a most emphatic way, if you are a born again Christian, this letter is addressed to you---REMEMBER - REPENT - REPEAT

*3RD THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE: THERE WILL BE SEVEN STAGES OF CHURCH HISTORY

I ALWAYS WILL BE WITH YOU !*

CHRIST FADING FROM HIS CHURCH: The Church throughout the Ages: SEVEN SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN CHURCH HISTORY.

For just a moment, let me give you a perspective- there are seven letters in Revelation 2 - 3 that give us the church in prophetic perspective - the church from Christians ascension until He comes to take His church - from century one to the rapture.

In the first place, the seven Churches represent seven phases or periods in the Church’s history, stetching from the time of the apostles to the coming again of Christ, the characteristics of which are set forth partly in the names of these churches, but more fully in the epistles addressed to them.

• There was the Ephesian period--30-60 AD a period of warmth and love and labor for Christ, dating directly from the apostles, in which defection began by the gradual cooling of the love of some, the false professions of others and the incoming of undue exaltations of the clergy and church offices.

• Then came the Smyrna period--60 -300 AD the era of martyrdom, and of the sweet savor unto God of faithfulness unto death, but marked with further developments of defection in the establishment of castes and orders, the license of Judaizing propensities, and consequent departures from the true simplicities of the Gospel.

• Then followed the Pergamite period, 300-500 AD in which true faith more and more disappeared from view, and clericalism gradually formed itself into system,and the church united with the world, and Babylon began to rear itself aloft.

• Then came the Thyatiran period-- 500-1500 AD the age of purple and glory for the corrupt priesthood, and of darkness of truth; the age of effeminacy and clerical domination, when the church usurped the place of Christ, and the witness of Jesus were give t dungeons, stakes and inquisitions; the age of the enthronement of false prophetess, reaching to the days of Luther and the Reformation.

• Then came the Sardian period--1500-1800 AD the age of separation and return of the rule of Christ; an age of many worthy names, but marked with deadness withal, and having much of which to repent; an age covering the spiritual lethargy of the Protestant centuries before the great evangelical movements of the last hundred years.