Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Even if we do not have a head for numbers there are certain numbers that have become a part of our culture and we recognize them.

The number 57 by itself is meaningless, but in 1896 Henry Heinz saw an add in New York for 21 varieties of shoes, and he decided to choose a number for the products of his company.

He decided 57 was good, and Heinz 57 varieties became a part of our language.

He had more than 57 products even in 1896, and has a ton more now, but that number is his trademark.

If I said catch-18 you would sense a mistake but that was the original title of Joseph Hellers first novel.

But Leon Uris was coming out with a novel with the same number in the title, and he was better known.

Heller, with the help of his editors, scrambled for another number, and the result is catch-22.

It has become a part of our culture.

In our text Jesus says where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst.

This too has become a numerical phrase that is part of our culture.

We have all used this text to comfort and encourage ourselves when only a few people show up for an event.

But most, like myself, have never studied the context of these words of our Lord, and thus we have missed the full significance of the focus of Jesus on small numbers.

The smallest possible number of people that can be called a group is two.

One is never a group.

The absolute minimum is two.

But Jesus says this smallest possible number of people relating is packed with potential power for a accomplishing the purpose of God.

Jesus says in verses 15 to 17, the best possible way to solve a relationship problem is for two people to work it out between themselves.

If you are offended, the Christian way to deal with it is to go to the offender and settle the matter between the two of you.

The next best is to expand the group to three, or possibly four.

Take one or two others and try to resolve the issue, but keep it a very small group.

The least number of people involved in a conflict the better says Jesus.

Only failure on this best level should lead to the issue becoming a large group matter.

The larger the group the more likely that it will end in a negative outcome.

If the church of 20, or 30, or 100 people get involved the end is likely judgment.

The smaller the number of people involved in a dispute the more likely it will be solved in a positive manner.

In verse 19 Jesus says, "If two of you shall agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

What is the best size for a prayer meeting?

In our day of big is better thinking we strive for concerts of prayer that reach thousands of people, but for Jesus the best number was two.

Just two people in agreement have the power to move all of heaven toward an objective.

How many is enough for great power and prayer?

Jesus says two is enough.

We say two in a prayer meeting is pathetic, but Jesus says it is a powerful number.

Then in verse 20 Jesus says the small group of two or three may not draw the press, but it will draw me.

I'll be there he says, where only two or three gather in my name.

What is the minimum number of people to call a group a church?

Jesus says two is the rock bottom number.

One is not a church, but two can be a church, and one that is big enough and powerful enough to move the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to attend.

You can't get any smaller than two and be a church, but on the other hand, you can't get a more important guest no matter how much bigger you get.

If Jesus is there with two, and they have the potential to get God to put his stamp of approval on their goals, then these two have just as much potential for fulfilling the will of God as any gathering of hundreds or thousands.

In fact, they have a better chance because of two characteristics of a small group that are hard to achieve in a larger group.

They are, unity and intimacy.

Before we look at these two let me give you a brief survey of one of God's favorite numbers-the number two.

He is not anti-millions, billions, or trillions, but he is partial to two.

No computer can match God's love of the infinite as he names the stars and counts the hairs of our heads, and the number of grains of sand on the shores of the world.

God is the great mathematician, and he is into numbers that are beyond our comprehension.

But if you want to get close to God and know him more intimately you need to focus on numbers like two and three.

This is a subject to vast to study, so let me just give you highlights of God's love for the number two.

It all started at creation where God made all of reality fall into two categories.

There was light and darkness, day and night, with two great lights to rule the day and night-the sun and the moon.

He had other planets with more moons, but for us it was one to rule the day and one to rule the night.

Two was enough for this special project.

All was divided into the heavenly and earthly.

The earthly was divided into dry land and water, and man was made in his image into male and female.

The creation and man began as the history of two.

That set the pattern, for when God began again and saved the world after the flood he had all the animals go into the ark two by two.

His plan for man was in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Just two covenants make up the whole of God's will for man.

In the New Testament there are just two ordinances that Jesus left with the church-baptism and the Lord's Supper.

They focus on the two key events by which Jesus saved us, which are the cross and the resurrection.

We have just two elements in communion, which are the bread and the cup.

There could have been more; a third or fourth item, but these two cover it all.

Jesus summed up the ten commandments which were given on two tablets, and he reduced them to the two of loving God with all your being, and your neighbor as yourself.

There are dozens of other twos running through the Bible, but we want to look at why two is such a precious number.

The first characteristic of this small number is-

I. UNITY.

v. 19.

Agree is a fascinating word in the Greek.

It is sumphoneo, which is where we get the word symphony.

In other words, these two are in perfect harmony, and they are making music together that pleases God.

When the elder brother of the Prodigal came home he heard music.

The Greek word is sumphonia.

When Paul in I Cor.

7:5 tells Christian mates they are not to abstain from sex very long, and then only by mutual consent or agreement, the word he uses is sumphonos.

When Paul in II Cor.

6:15 says, "What harmony is there between Christ and belial," the word for harmony is sumphonesis.

There are still other words in this same family, and they all refer to being of one accord, or in full agreement and harmony with each other.

The word Jesus uses here is the one most often used in the New Testament for agreement.

In Matt.

20 it is used twice to refer to an agreement as a contract between a land owner and the men he hired.

Jesus uses it again when he says in Luke 5:36 that no one tears a patch out of a new garment to sew it into an old garment, for the new will not match the old.

That is, sumphoneo-they will not agree with each other.

They will clash and not be in harmony.

Jesus had a sense of the fitting and what went together, and clashing new cloth and old cloth was not acceptable.

In the realm of the material and the social there has to be harmony and agreement.

In Acts 15:15 James spoke up at the first Christian conference and said that the Gentiles coming into the church was in agreement with the prophets of the Old Testament, and he used the same word.

The Old Testament and the New Testament are in harmony was his point.

They do not clash by one saying that God loves the Gentiles and the other saying he doesn't.

The Bible is a symphony because all parts harmonize and are in agreement.

I have labored this point to make it clear that just as the two testaments are the two witnesses that agree and confirm the message of God, so all it takes is two believers to agree and be in harmony to satisfy God, and move him to cooperative action on the part of this smallest of all possible small groups.

It is not as soon as you get a hundred people to agree, or fifty in harmony, nor even ten, but just two will do.

A two instrument symphony will be heard in the court of heaven, and God will listen with favor, for this is all it takes to please his ear.

What an encouragement in a world which demands an orchestra and a choir to be considered a major event.

Just two can get on stage by heavenly standards, and God will be an attentive audience.

Why is God so easily pleased by such a small group?

For one thing, two is not a small group to God.

He sees from a radical different perspective than we do.

Keep in mind that God has existed from all eternity, and before he created anything he was an eternal small group within himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

That small group of 3 Persons in the Godhead was the totality of all reality.

God does not look down on two or three, for these were the numbers of infinity long before any other numbers even existed.