Sermon Tone Analysis

When we think about “might” what do we think about?

The first one that comes to mind is mighty mouse

If this didn’t come to mind, we need to talk about your inner childhood spirit!

Some of us probably thought about our guy, Rambo

Or other things such as the atom bomb and the damage that that caused!

Regardless, we all probably had thoughts of great magnitude pop into our minds.

When I think about Christ as the “Mighty God,” I am not going to lie in that I struggle understanding the might of God.

I will share more of this a little later.

Let’s start with looking at the Hebrew word...

So, the phrase “mighty God” is

“el gibbor” - mighty or strong in reference to a strong military leader

This name in an of it itself doesn’t point to the divinity of Christ as many names include the names of God in them.

However, the fact that it is also used to describe God Himself in Isaiah 10:21 later does mean that He is closely associated with God.

We know from John 10:30 that Jesus and the Father are “one,” and

We will take Hebrews 1:3-4 literally....

Therefore, we can take this name for Jesus literally.

Jesus is literally “The Mighty God”

And, since we believe this, there are 4 things that we want to go over today:

He has all power and authority

He will judge according to His power and Authority

He will save according to His power and authority

He gives us power and authority

1.

He Has All Power And Authority

In Deuteronomy 10 we read about the Israelites who have been saved from captivity in Egypt.

Moses is their leader and has gone atop mount Sinai to meet with God.

He spends 40 days and nights there and has nothing to eat or drink.

God gives him the 10 commandments and then tells him that the people have really messed up, they have made a idol and turned their bakcs on HIm.

He tells Moses to “go” that He will destroy them and “blot out their name from heaven.”

Moses goes down the mountain and sure enough, they had made a huge golden calf.

Moses gets mad and breaks the tablets.

He lectures the people and then falls prostrate before God for 40 days begging Him not to destroy His people …He says

The Lord listens to Moses and says

Deuteronomy 10:1–22 (NIV)

1 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain.

Also make a wooden ark. 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

Then you are to put them in the ark.” 3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

4 The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.

6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah.

There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.

9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as the Lord your God told them.) 10 Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also.

It was not his will to destroy you.

11 “Go,” the Lord said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him.

Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

God has the power and authority to breath the breath of life into Adam.

And He has the power and Authority to wipe out entire nations of people and the entire world.

When I submitted my life to Christ, and for a long time after, I didn’t really understand the power of God.

And, to be fair, I still don’t, it’s a growing thing.

When I came to Christ, it really wasn’t in awe of how awesome He is in power, it was because of the hurt that He went through for me.

I was super focused on His love.

In fact, it was the lyrics of the song “Above All” by Michael W. Smith

Above all powers, above all kings

Above all nature and all created things

Above all wisdom and all the ways of man

You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones

Above all wonders the world has ever known

Above all wealth and treasures of the earth

There's no way to measure what You're worth

Crucified, laid behind a stone

You lived to die, rejected and alone

Like a rose, trampled on the ground

You took the fall and thought of me

Above all

Those lyrics broke me.

It was the imagery of Christ being a trampled rose that got to me.

I came to Him because of the love that He has for me.

And for a long time, that is how I built my relationship with Christ.

That part is true!

He does love us that much!

Also, it’s true that He is a God of power and authority.

And when Jesus came to earth, He embodied this same power and authority...

He had all authority and power when He walked with us.

And He still has all power and authority while He walks with us!

Paul doesn’t say that almost every knee will bow....or that only the Christian knees will bow....

No! Paul says that every knee will bow....and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Jesus came with the same power and authority as the Father.

This leads us into point number 2....

2.

He Will Judge According to His Power and Authority

The truth is, we will all face the judgement of God!

What we do and what we say matters!

Who likes to watch all those crime and law shows?

In those shows they are always trying to get as much evidence a suspect before they go to court.

In court, they will be judged based on the evidence that they find.

As they are building a case, they will get a detective, they will interview the suspect, the will interview witnesses, they will look at patterns of behaviors....

They will do whatever they can to come up with as much evidence as they can to determine if a person is guilty or not.

And, the person will be judged.

They will be determined guilty if they can prove “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that the person committed the crime.