Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Verse 30 tells us, just as the end of chapter 2 did, there were hearers placing faith in Jesus.

But Jesus challenges the validity of their faith.

They professed faith with their mouth but did not genuinely believe and trust in their heart.

So Jesus begins to talk about the place where the “rubber meets the road.”

Where the Rubber Meets the Road — the point at which a theory or idea is put to a practical test.

It was easy to conclude that Jesus was someone special.

That He was extraordinary could be seen through the miracles He had done.

But to accept Him as Messiah was no easy exercise for a Jewish audience in first century Jerusalem.

And that is where the rubber met the road…Do you believe, have faith that He is the Messiah???

Not a good teacher or miracle worker…not simply an extraordinary man…but the Messiah!

Jesus simply did not “fit the bill” — He was not exactly the right person according to His audience.

They expected the Messiah to be someone quite different than Jesus appeared to be.

In order to become an actual follower of Jesus a person must know and believe the truth of who He is and then follow Him…obey His teaching

The proof is in the pudding — You can only say something is a success after it has been tried out or used.

The proof is in the pudding — You can only say something is a success after it has been tried out or used.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.

It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

— GK Chesterton

“Christianity is not being weighed in the balance and found wanting.

It’s being tried, found difficult and rejected!”

— Leonard Ravenhill

You can only say you are a Christian when you have genuinely believed the truth of who Jesus is and committed your life to Him.

Once you have done so your life is changed.

You are set free from slavery to sin.

You don’t want to sin anymore.

It is not in your nature to do so.

You desire holiness and righteousness…God’s nature and way of doing things.

Each and every person is born into the bondage of sin.

We are born with a sin nature and this nature leaves us helpless in the face of temptation to sin.

It keeps us in a constant state of rebellion against God.

But once we give our life to Jesus we are given a new nature in Him.

We now desire God and His way of doing things.

We hate sin, die to it and detest its presence.

We are empowered by the Holy Spirit so that we might reject temptation, take the way out when it comes and pursue God’s way of doing things.

The Jews were offended by Jesus’ implication that they were slaves at all.

That’s the way of the natural man isn’t it.

We take offense that idea that there is anything wrong with us; that we might be in any need that we cannot provide for in ourselves.

The Roman empire was one of the “greatest” to rule the world.

For hundreds of years the Romans dominated the Mediterranean, building magnificent cities, roads that remain today and imposing their “peace” upon those they conquered.

At the time of Jesus and in the centuries after the power of Rome seemed unassailable.

By the fifth century after Christ the citizens of Rome had enjoyed eight centuries as a superpower.

Regaled with tales of victory by their armies in far off places and convinced of their superiority to the barbarian hordes they were convinced their city could never fall.

Then in the first decade of the fifth century they awoke to find Alaric, king of the Visigoths, standing at their gates with his army.

What a preposterous man he was thinking Rome would fall to his power!

Envoys were sent out to conduct negotiations to have him move away.

They began with threats: an attack on Rome would be met by the almighty strength of her innumerable warriors.

Alaric’s reply was simple: “The thicker the grass the more easily scythed.”

The envoys realised Alaric could not be fooled by their empty threats.

What then would be the price of his departure.

Alaric explained that his soldiers would move through the city taking all the gold, silver and anything else of value that could be moved.

They would also take with them every barbarian who had been enslaved.

The envoys became hysterical.

“But what would that leave us?” the demanded.

“Your lives” Alaric replied.

And with that Rome’s centuries as an apparently unbeatable superpower came to an end.

By the fifth century after Christ the citizens of Rome had enjoyed eight centuries as a superpower.

Regaled with tales of victory by their armies in far off places and convinced of their superiority to the barbarian hordes they were convinced their city could never fall.

Then in the first decade of the fifth century they awoke to find Alaric, king of the Visigoths, standing at their gates with his army.

What a preposterous man he was thinking Rome would fall to his power!

Envoys were sent out to conduct negotiations to have him move away.

They began with threats: an attack on Rome would be met by the almighty strength of her innumerable warriors.

Alaric’s reply was simple: “The thicker the grass the more easily scythed.”

The envoys realised Alaric could not be fooled by their empty threats.

What then would be the price of his departure.

Alaric explained that his soldiers would move through the city taking all the gold, silver and anything else of value that could be moved.

They would also take with them every barbarian who had been enslaved.

The envoys became hysterical.

“But what would that leave us?” the demanded.

“Your lives” Alaric replied.

And with that Rome’s centuries as an apparently unbeatable superpower came to an end.

The Gospel says we are sinners, rebels, filthy scum in need of the cleansing blood of our Messiah and the salvation from death and hell that only He can bring.

These folks couldn’t see it — After all they were children of Abraham and this along with their circumcision made them think they were in right relationship with God and free from any kind of spiritual or moral bondage.

They were totally incapable or seeing the reality of their situation because their pride and self-sufficiency had blinded them to who they really were.

Have you ever run into someone like that?

Full of pride and self-sufficiency.

They walked an aisle and were baptized at some point in their life so they believe their relationship with God is settled.

They believe themselves free from sin, hell and spiritual death because they acquiesced to some religious ritual in their past?

But their heart was no more given to God than the people to whom Jesus is speaking in our passage today.

It wasn’t real…They were only giving lip service to the deep realities of faith in Christ.

They have never known Him.

Jesus wants them to understand…and wants us to understand today as well… Right relationship with God isn’t the result of one’s lineage, religious activity.

It is a matter of genuine faith in His Son…belief in His identity and trust in His work on our behalf.

Your Life Tells The Story

Sometimes people come into my office and profess to be a Christian but their life tells another story.

They profess to believe but their life doesn’t back up their testimony.

Someone once said the greatest sermon you will ever preach is a life of faithfulness to Christ.

And that is true!

Your life preaches.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was Professor of theology at the University of Berlin in Germany in 1930’s.

At this time German Christians were divided over Hitler.

One group allied themselves with Hitler, they wanted a “pure” German nation.

They formed an official German church which supported Hitler and banned Jews from holding official positions in the Church.

Bonhoeffer was among those who could not go along with Hitler’s anti-Jewish, radically German vision.

With others he set up an underground church which explicitly refused to ally itself to Hitler’s Third Reich vision.

It was dangerous.

In 1937 Bonhoeffer was sacked.

He flees to London.

Two years later Bonhoeffer’s faced with a choice.

He’s been offered one of the most prestigious theology appointments in the world – lecturing at Union Seminary in New York or returning to Germany to head up an illegal, underground seminary for the churches who refuse to go along with Hitler.