Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Some years ago a head coach divorced his wife of 26 years when he left coaching a college team to become head coach in the National Football League.

He said he needed a wife while coaching on the college level for social functions and to show families that he would be looking out for their sons.

In pro football, however, she was an unnecessary accouterment and a distraction to winning.

He said winning football was his number one priority and his two sons second.

How tragic!

In contrast to this, Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas cowboys said, "The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me ... I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do ... whether coaching football or talking to the press, I'm always a Christian ... Christ is first, family second and football third."

Today we are going to talk about what your life can become if you would choose to live the way Tom Landry lived his life.

Limitless…the possibilities are limitless.

God intends that our life be of such purpose and greatness that Jesus even describes what we will do as greater than anything He Himself did prior to His Cross.

First things first...

The Way To A Life of Limitless Value

Thomas — “We don’t know the way you are going.

How can we know the way?”

Thomas is one of my favorite apostles.

It is said that he ended up a martyr for sharing the Gospel in India.

He was a champion of the faith, strong in his love for Jesus, passionate in his desire to share the Gospel and see others come to faith in Christ.

Thomas is one of my favorite apostles.

He was a champion of the faith, strong in his love for Jesus, passionate in his desire to share the Gospel and see others come to faith in Christ.

It is said that he ended up a martyr for sharing the Gospel in India.

But perhaps the thing which most endears him to me is that he was always the one guy in the room who would always say what everyone else was thinking.

But perhaps the thing which most endears him to me is that he was always the one guy in the room who would always say what everyone else was thinking.

Thomas — where is the way?

How can we go where you are going if we don’t know where it is you are going???

Jesus responds with the often memorized and quoted verse 6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Verse 7 expands upon verse 6.

The “way” is not a process of spiritual disciplines which might earn our introduction and warrant a relationship with the Father…The way to the Father is simply to know Him…and we can know Him because He has chosen to reveal Himself to us…and this revelation , as Carl F.H. Henry taught, is perfectly and completely made in Jesus.

Know Jesus know God…no Jesus, no God

But they did not completely understand who Jesus was or the reason He had come to earth.

They did not completely understand His mission.

They did not understand the full significance of who He was…thus the question.

Jesus is the way to know the Father…to eternal life…to the place where Jesus was going...To know Jesus is to know the Father’s heart, personality, purposes and plans.

From now on — Things were changing.

Soon Jesus would die on the cross and rise from the dead...From that point on they would completely understand Jesus, His mission and the purpose of His sacrifice.

They would finally fully understand who Jesus is and why He had come to earth…

John sees this whole situation as changed in Christ.

As a result of what he has done (“From now on”) his followers really know God.

It is a revolution both in religious experience and in theological understanding.

Morris, L. (1995).

The Gospel according to John (p.

571).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

To save us through His death on the Cross!

To give us hope through His resurrection from the dead.

The “you” of verse 7 is in the plural…Jesus was not simply addressing Thomas but all of the disciples as well as all disciples who would ever come to faith.

To know Jesus is to know the Father.

John sees this whole situation as changed in Christ.

As a result of what he has done (“From now on”) his followers really know God.

It is a revolution both in religious experience and in theological understanding.

Phillip — He is another one of the disciples I love.

Forever the pragmatist he is trying to make sense out of what Jesus just said.

Enough of the ethereal talk…He wants Jesus to simply allow them to see the Father with their eyes!

Morris, L. (1995).

The Gospel according to John (p.

571).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

“Jesus, allow us to actually lay our eyes on God the Father and that will be enough for us!” How many people have said similar words in the form of a prayer to God, “Just let me see with my eyes and I will believe.”

Phillip thinks he can help Jesus out…just let us actually see God and we will believe…that will do the trick.

Sometimes we think we can help God out don’t we?

Illustration: A man once looked out on a field of watermelons while sitting under a large oak tree.

Looking at the watermelons on the vines before him and up at the acorns growing on that great tree, he thought to himself…”If I were God I would have put those watermelons on this huge oak tree and the acorns on the spreading vines in the field.”

About that time an acorn fell on his head.

But they did not completely understand who Jesus was or the reason He had come to earth.

They did not completely understand His mission.

They did not understand the full significance of who He was…thus the question.

God knows what He is doing…and He was saddened that Phillip and the rest of the disciples were doing such a poor job of understanding the process.

Jesus response to Phillip is tinged with sadness that Phillip doesn’t know better.

It is a gentle rebuke of the disciple.

Jesus emphatically states seeing Him is the equivalent of seeing the Father.

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

The words of Jesus are from the Father…the works or miracles of Jesus are signposts pointing to God in action.

Both the words and actions reveal the Father in the person of Jesus the Son.

“Believe me” — Jesus says for us to not only believe in Him but to believe Him.

He is saying that He and the Father are one!

“We might well ask where faith in Christ would be without the idea that Jesus is worthy of faith.

Faith that there is a mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son is part of the faith whereby one commits oneself to Christ.

If there is no such indwelling there can scarcely be full commitment.”

Morris, L. (1995).

The Gospel according to John (p.

573).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Christianity all boils down to a simple question…do you believe in Jesus?

Do you believe Him to be who He said that He was?

We might well ask where faith in Christ would be without the idea that Jesus is worthy of faith.

Faith that there is a mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son is part of the faith whereby one commits oneself to Christ.

If there is no such indwelling there can scarcely be full commitment.

The passage is clear — Jesus and the Father are One but they are not the same.

The Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father.

No one can ever deny that Jesus claimed to be God or that we know the one true God in the revelation of Jesus the Christ.

The way to a life of limitless value is to believe in who Jesus said He was and place faith in Him for relationship with God.

The rest of your life will be about the thing which matters most…God and what matters to Him!

Morris, L. (1995).

The Gospel according to John (p.

573).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

The Life of Those Who Do Believe

The next few verses are some of the most incredible in all of the Bible.

Jesus begins the section with the words, “verily, verily” or “truly, truly” or “truly I tell you.”

When you see these statements in the Gospels it means something very important is to follow.