Sermon Tone Analysis
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Love and Obedience
Leonard Sweet wrote:
The Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) is the only non Italian sculptor commissioned to have one of his statues erected in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
He was not allowed to sign his “Monument to Pope Pius VII” because he was a Protestant; not Catholic.
What Thorvaldsen is most known for, however, is his Christus carving known popularly as “The Resurrected Christ.”
You can see it today in the cathedral of Denmark's magical city Copenhagen.
Thorvaldsen wanted to create the greatest statue of Jesus ever made.
Out of clay he molded a monumental, majestic figure with regal gestures: his face tilted upward in triumph, his hands raised in power and authority.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the unveiling.
A partially opened window in his ocean side studio let night fog and sea spray work their way with the clay.
When Thorvaldsen returned to his studio after a brief absence, the upraised hands had drooped.
They no longer commanded, but welcomed.
The confidently upturned face had lowered itself onto the Savior’s chest.
The face was no longer that of a King wearing a crown, but a compassionate shepherd worrying about his sheep.
At first Thorvaldsen agonized over the time wasted and the need to begin again.
But the more he looked at the statue shaped by the mist, the more he realized that this was a more accurate Jesus than the one he had originally conceived.
So instead of the inscription "FOLLOW MY COMMANDS" on the base of the statue, he chiseled another message: "COME UNTO ME." (1)
Do you like to be loved?
Do you like to hear people say that they love you?
Whether it is our spouse or a child or a grandchild we really do like to hear someone tell us that they love us.
As great as it is to hear someone tell us that they love us, it’s even greater when someone does something that proves their love for us.
I don’t think nothing proves someone’s love for you than when they do something totally unexpected and only because they love you.
Love and Obedience
In our Scripture this morning Jesus ties together love with obedience.
In this passage there are some nuggets of gold that we need to pull apart as we seek to apply them to our lives.
We live in a unique time.
It’s a time where we can look back and celebrate what God has done.
It’s a time when we celebrate what God is doing right now.
It’s also a time where we look forward to what God is going to do.
In our culture today there is a lot of upheaval going on.
Things that the culture as a whole once considered as sinful and wrong are now accepted and celebrated.
Bedrock things like marriage has been redefined.
States are legalizing drugs that at one time sent countless thousands to jail.
In the church there is a popular opinion that ultimately everyone will make it to heaven.
It comes from the idea that since God is love then he would never condemn anyone to an eternity in hell.
There are those who promote the idea that Christianity is just one of many ways to get to God.
If you are a good Christian, or Buddhist or Muslim, that it really doesn’t matter ultimately you’ll find God in whatever faith you’re in.
The Disciples that Jesus was speaking to where entering a period of uncertainty.
Jesus has been talking about his death.
In John chapter 14 talks about leaving.
It’s here in this great chapter that John records Jesus promise that the Holy Spirit will be coming.
It’s in those periods of uncertainty that we often want to get back to the basics of life.
I don’t know about you, but when I’ve gone through times of uncertainty and upheaval, I look for the basics of life and faith.
I look for those bedrock things to hang onto.
I think Jesus understands what the Disciples are feeling.
Back in verses 1 -4 Jesus addresses that fear and uncertainty when He told them:
There is great comfort in those words.
We often hear them read at a funeral for a believer.
Do you realize that isn’t just some future promise, but that it is a present reality?
Jesus is there now preparing a place for you and I, for those of us who are Christians.
Thomas in verse 5 I think speaks for all the Disciples when he says “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
They weren’t getting it; they weren’t understanding what Jesus was talking about.
They’re not to unlike people today.
We get so caught up in the present, in the here and now that we can’t see where God is working and calling us to.
Jesus said there in verse 6 one of the foundational truths about Christianity.
Christianity doesn’t make an exclusive claim on being the only way to God just because we think that is the truth.
We make the claim that Jesus is the only way to God because that is what Jesus said.
Jesus says there in verse 6:
I don’t think it could be any planner than what Jesus said there.
Jesus is the only way to God.
I think that one of the questions that we need to answer is what does it mean to be a Christian.
What does it mean for us who have received the promise to claim the title of Christian?
It’s easy in our culture just to state your opinion and claim that to be a fact.
People do that all the time to justify what they believe and do.
The thing about opinions is that everyone has one.
If we operated just on our opinions then we’d have a royal mess when it came to the church.
We can see what happens in our country when everyone operates based on their own opinions.
What a mess we have.
It’s important that we base our opinions on the facts that are found here in God’s written word.
Jesus said in verse 23
It seems like a very plain statement but I think there is a whole lot more there.
It’s easy to say that you are a Christian.
It’s actually pretty popular to say that.
The title or tag that you add to yourself describes you.
If you claim in the political world that you are democrat then that would tell others what positions you support, your philosophy about government and its involvement in our lives.
If you say that you are a republican that it would tell others about the positions you support and your philosophy about government and its involvement in our lives.
There is a huge argument going on in our society today about which public restroom that a person should use based on who they feel that they are.
To be honest I don’t understand the confusion that someone who was born a boy can feel that they are really a girl or vice-versa.
I believe it reminds me of the brokenness found in our world today because of result of sin.
I believe what Genesis tells us:
When sin came into the world back there in the Garden of Eden it broke that perfect image that God created mankind with.
There has been a lot of vile and hateful things said against people who struggle with who they are.
You might know someone or even have someone in your family who is struggling with this.
Rather than hating them and speaking ill of them we should love them because they are loved by God.
Love them and pray for them.
And it goes deeper than the “love the sinner, hate the sin” idea.
If we believe that God can forgive sin, if God can save the gossip, the liar, the arrogant, the adulterer, the alcoholic then he can save the one caught up in sexual sin, not matter what that sexual sin is.
We believe in a God who can transform people’s lives by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit working in their lives.
Love them and pray for them.
Don’t stop praying for them.
Jesus said
John 14:23 (CEB)
23 Whoever loves me will keep my word.
If a person is calling themselves a Christian and yet they are not obeying Jesus teachings they are simply fooling themselves.
Being a Christian means more than calling yourself a Christian, it means loving Jesus and that love is evidenced by obedience to Jesus teaching.
I read a news story this week about the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in San Francisco.
San Francisco is not a place that we think of being conservative by any stretch of the imagination.
The news article stated that the Archbishop wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He told her to not present herself to receive communion because of her stance on abortion.
He had given her a chance to repudiate her stance on abortion but she did not so she is no longer able to receive the Lord’s Supper.
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