Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Scene #1  Man ignores advice and pays for it  (CV09077)

Nora tells her husband she needs a couple of items from the store.

Dutifully, he parks the car in front, but grimaces when he realizes he didn't bring the umbrella (it is pouring rain).

Nora insists her need for the items is great and so Luther reluctantly offers to brave the rain and get them for her.

As he climbs out of the car, she tells him the name of the two specific brands she desires.

Luther, rain already dripping down his face, races toward the curb.

He carefully avoids a deep pothole filled with water, but is drenched anyway when a car speeds into it beside him.

A man in a Santa suit outside the store holds out an umbrella: "You could use an umbrella!"

Waving him away, Luther runs into the store to make his purchases.

Soon, he is back out again with a bag.

He climbs back into the car, dripping, and Nora reaches for the bag: "You didn't get the white chocolate!"

Luther: "They didn't have any."

Nora asks him why he didn't just ask the butcher for it.

Irked, Luther again goes out into the elements.

Again, the same Santa offers him an umbrella: "You sure you don't need a - -"   Luther puts up an angry hand, signing for him to be quiet.

He enters, makes his purchase, and reappears back on the sidewalk.

A careless customer brushes by, knocking him into the awning pole.

Santa repeats his offer, this time insistently: "I really think you need an umbrella!"

Luther, angrily: "No!

You know why I don't want one of your stupid umbrellas?"

The rest of his words are drowned out in the deluge that pours over him when the awning collapses.

Scripture Reading

What, On Earth, Are We Waiting For?

It is the last thing any of us like to do… wait.

The old Heinz Ketchup commercial used to say, “Anticipation… it’s making me wait.”

We don’t like to wait, do we?

And it is easy to look with our eyes towards a specific matter, such as the Lord’s Return, and miss what it really means for us.

Do I believe the Lord will return?

Yes, I do.

Do I believe it is a physical reality?

Yes, I do?

Do I look forward to it, with deep anticipation?

Yes I do.

But when we set our sights on what seems to be a wonderful event that our Lord promised, we need to be careful that we do not miss all of the matters that will make it “wonder”-ful.

The songwriter said, “What a Day, that will be, when my Jesus I will see, when I look upon His face, the one that saved me by His grace, when He takes me by the hand, and leads me to the Promised Land, what a Day, ,Glorious day,, that will be.

“ Yes, it is an important piece of the Bible story that all Christians should be looking forward to.

In this passage this morning, Paul speaks and uses the word “waiting” three times.

This word, “waiting”, means to look forward to .

It is translated as “expect” in other places in the Bible.

It means to not only look forward to.... but to have your eyes wide open as you look.

It would be easy for them to see with that kind of expectancy.

They were so much closer and familiar with the Old Testament Prophet’s words concerning Christ’s Second Coming.

Add to that the promises of Jesus himself and the constant reminders of the apostles, and you would have a much deeper expectancy and urgency about the wait.

But we’ve been waiting collectively, as the body of Christ, for over 2000 years now.

And it is easy to ask the question, “Is this notion just a fairy tale or a wishful thinking on our part?”

What is the delay?

Peter quotes Psalm 90:4 in reminding his liteners that God counts time defferently than we do.

We see time in a 60 second minute, a 60 minute hour, a 24 hour day, and a 7 day week.

God sees time in terms of eternity.

There is neither a beginning or an ending… we don’t see time the same way.

So we are waiting for something pretty specific.

And God is waiting for something else.

Perhaps what God is looking for, anticipating, is what really matters.

God sees both His intention for us in creation, the circumstances we are in because of sin, and God also sees what will ultimately take place because of Christ.

We tend to see only the circumstancial, the here and now, that which is.

We tend to look at the return of Jesus Christ as this static moment when all of the circumstances will cease and all will be made right… and to some extent that is so.

But what really is it that “all being made right” entails?

What difference does Christ make now?

What effect is Christ having on this moment in time?

It’s what we’re really waiting for.

Look at 2 Peter 3.13

We are waiting for both God’s original intention- a place where righteousness dwells; as well as God’s ultimate purpose- a place where where righteousness dwells.

A small book that has had some impact on my walk with Christ and my ministry is a little book by Leslie Weatherhead called “The Will of God”.

Weatherhead outlines God’s will as His intentional will, his circumstantial will, and his ultimate will.

unpack intentional will, circumstantial will, and ultimate will.

Throughout Matthew’s gospel, Matthew talks about the ushering in of the Kingdom of God.

Than’s what we are waiting for- God’s Kingdom.

Think about these verses:

The kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus’ preaching, according to the Synoptic Gospels.

While Matthew, who addresses himself to the Jews, speaks for the most part of the ‘kingdom of heaven’, Mark and Luke speak of the ‘kingdom of God’, which has the same meaning as the ‘kingdom of heaven’, but was more intelligible to non-Jews.

Jesus took that message and ran with it.

Yes, Jesus built on John the Baptist’s message… the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

But he also stated something very different, distinct and worthy of deep consideration.

Not only is the kingdom of heaven at hand- it’s already here.

That kingdom is manifested in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ.

Look at matthew 12.28

The Kingdom of God is already upon you.

The Kingdom of God is here already.

Jesus’ Kingdom was palpably available in the person of Christ.

Demons were cast out, the power of Satan is gone… Jesus sees Satan fall from heaven like lightning and he distributes his authority to the disciples to destroy the power of the enemy.

Jesus told his disciples that they already had seen the kingdom… Blessed are you for the things you see, and the things you hear.

John the Baptist is sitting in a jail cell, discouraged, downtrodden, ,uncertain… and he sends messengers to Jesus to see if he had been wrong.

and Look at Jesus reply.

Please note all of this, but in particular note the preaching of the gospel.

God’s forgiveness is the beginning of the Kingdom, and integral part of the kingdom .

The Kingdom can come, but we need to change our trajectory.

When our focus is to dominate people instead of empowering people the kingdom is not our destination.

When our desire is selfish instead of selfless the kingdom is not our destination.

When the color of our skin or our cultural heritage affects our opportunity and our place in life the kingdom is not our destination.

When nuclear war is seen as the road to peace- we are not on a trajectory for the kingdom.

So, the Kingdom of God which God intended in the creation as well as the Kingdom of God which ultimately will be- it’s arrived in the person of Jesus Christ.

It’s already here.

And since Jesus is not here now, he’s left us with that trajectory.

It is the church, the body of Christ followers, the people of God who are called to change the trajectory of our own lives and the life of the world.

Waiting With Purpose

What sort of people ought we to be?

The word “lives” in 2 Peter 3:11 means “behavior”.

How should we behave?

God is looking for a way we ought to be, a life we should be living.