Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction (context)

Welcome, my name is Adam,

I’m the pastor of Abide Church

I’m also a professor here at Columbia Basin College.

I teach accounting and economics courses.

If you’re new this morning, thank you for visiting us today.

We are so glad you’re here.

I want to start this morning by telling you 3 things about our church.

You might jot these down as our “distinctives.”

We are all about Jesus (at Abide Church)

We sing for Jesus

We talk about Jesus

We put our trust and hope in Jesus

We find our identity in our relationship with Jesus

We tell people about Jesus

The Bible teaches us that no one has ever seen God and that God is so awesome and so powerful that it’s impossible to know him unless he chooses to reveal himself to us.

The Bible teaches us that God did exactly that when he sent his son into the world.

Jesus is the revelation of God to man; and for that we worship him.

We are an imperfect people (worshiping a perfect God)

a.

I see a lot of new faces out there and I don’t know what sorts of backgrounds you are bringing to church this morning.

b.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about churches is that they are filled with a bunch of hypocrites.

Let me put your mind at rest right now.

The more you get to know us, the more you will see we are a church filled with normal people just like you.

Broken, hurting, and often times confused.

c.

We are not a church filled with people who have their life together.

d.

The way we see it is that every person falls desperately short of God’s standard for righteousness.

Because we fall short, we do our best to be open and honest with our struggles and give each other grace when we fail.

e.

Because we all fall short of God’s standard for righteousness, we all find common ground and unite under the banner of Jesus’ grace.

Jesus is the one who has made a way for us back to God.

And this leads me to our 3rd distinctive...

We will never stop telling the world the good news about Jesus

This world is broken.

Humanity is separated from God.

Jesus came into the world to make a way back to God.

Jesus came into the world to heal our brokenness.

Jesus came to set us free from our own rebellion against God.

This is the greatest, most life-transforming, eternal, good news the world has ever known.

Jesus said,

Jesus said,

Jesus said,

The world is broken, everyone can see it.

Jesus is the answer.

We know Jesus and Jesus has commanded us to tell the world about his offer of peace and redemption.

Today I am beginning a new preaching series.

We are going to take a full year to look at the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher to ever walk among men.

Namely, Jesus himself.

For the next 9 months, we will closely examine Jesus word out the Matthew 5-7.

This discourse is commonly referred to as the “Sermon on the Mount”

If you have never looked closely at these word from Jesus, you are in for a real treat.

Let me start with a little context for this “Sermon on the Mount”

Before Jesus formally started his ministry, he spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.

Then he was temped by Satan but remained without sin.

Jesus’ time of testing ended and his formal ministry began.

We read in Matthew 4:

This idea of the “kingdom of heaven” or what other gospels call the “kingdom of God” is key to understanding Jesus teaching.

The jews in that day had an expectation of a coming messiah,

For the jews of that day, this messiah was largely a political figure, someone who would save the jewish people from Roman rule and establish an early kingdom.

Jesus flipped that on its head.

Jesus wasn’t worried about the Roman’s rule over the people but sin’s rule over the people

Jesus wasn’t worried about establishing an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly kingdom.

And what we learn from the Sermon on the Mount is that this heavenly kingdom flies directly in the face of almost everything the religious leaders of the day stood for.

The religious leaders of the day are referred to in the Bible as “Scribes and Pharisees”

Note about sitting… sitting in this time and culture denoted authority.

A Rabbi would often sit when delivering more formal teaching and would be standing or pacing when giving less formal instruction.

Chair in a college department

So, when Jesus began to preach:

2 natural questions would have been asked:

From what must I repent?

How can I gain access to this kingdom?

Remember, most anything the Jews would have known about religion or spirituality at this time would have come from the Scribes and Pharisees (the religious leaders of the day).

Most everything Jesus taught went against the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees

Jesus did not think highly of these guys.

In Matthew 12 Jesus calls the Pharisees a “Brood of vipers”

In Matthew 23.27 Jesus calls the Pharisees whitewashed tombs:

The Pharisees wanted people to believe they were righteous, but in reality they were dying inside.

Jesus was patient and loving towards sinners, even when calling them to stop living sinful lives, but he had very little tolerance for religious people who thought they were better than everyone else for following certain rules.

This is central to the message of the gospel.

You will never reach God by getting your act together.

No amount of good we do can restore our standing with God.

So, when we act like our good deeds have somehow merited God’s favor, we insult God and Jesus both.

God because our most righteous deeds are evil compared to God, and Jesus because Jesus paid a way with his own blood for us to have God’s favor.

Let’s head to the end of Jesus’ sermon to read his final words:

The meaning of these words are simple.

To build your house on the rock is to accept Jesus’ words as true.

To accept his offer of salvation through faith.

To have your foundation firmly in Jesus.

To built your house on the sand is to try and find steadiness on the ever shifting wisdom and law of man.

When the rain, floods, and wind come, which is symbolic of the judgement of God, only those who have put built their house on Jesus words will remain.

I want to end with this:

Jesus words stand on their own authority.

You cannot follow the instructions of Jesus without following Jesus.