Sermon Tone Analysis

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

By U2 (released in 1987)

I have climbed highest mountains

I have run through the fields

Only to be with you

Only to be with you

I have run

I have crawled

I have scaled these city walls

These city walls

Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

In a 2014 piece called "The Church of U2," Rothman outlined the case for this song as a potent contemporary hymn, partly because of the uncertainty expressed in Bono's lyrics.

"It's a song about searching for meaning or transcendence," he says.

"And to me, the most interesting thing about it is that you don't find it.

It's about the search."

Meanwhile, Jon Pareles, chief pop critic for The New York Times, believes much of the song's power comes from the way Bono lingers on one word: "still."

"The genius of the chorus is in its first two words," Pareles says.

"There's the leap from 'I still' and 'haven't found.'

That 'still' emphasized in the melody tells you he's been looking for a long time.

It's a simple thing.

But it's a profound thing."

This sentiment can certainly be attributed to the Nation of Israel.

En Masse, they, the Jews that failed to recognize Jesus as their King/Messiah is still looking for the Messiah but will not until they find their King in Jesus.

Main Idea - They Still Haven’t Found What They’re Looking For!

There were some Jews that did recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but the vast majority in Jesus’ day and after refused God’s Messiah and are still looking for another.

This is true to this day.

So is God finished with them?

No, not at all.

Do you see what Paul said? “Isreal failed to obtain what it was seeking.”

What were they seeking?

They were seeking righteousness and they were trying to obtain it through religious zeal.

But religious zeal was insufficient to obtain a righteousness that would make them right with God.

Paul has made this point throughout chapters 9-11...

According to verse 7, who did find it?

The elect.

The remnant of believing Jews who like their father Abraham, believed it was an issue of faith in God’s promises not works of righteousness.

They are the Israel within Israel (9:6), the “remnant chosen by grace” (11:5).

These Jews, “the elect” (11:7), have obtained the right standing with God that Israel as a whole was seeking.

The first church, filled with Jews, understood this well.

They understood that it was Christ, who was the end of the law.

In other words, Christ fulfilled the Law perfectly in a way sinful humans, Jew or gentile could never hope to.

There were those that believed this because of God’s gracious electing work.

God graciously drew them to Himself...

God is intimately involved in salvific work.

At the same time, the text tells us that God did something in them that we might find a little unsettling, but true nonetheless.

God has performed a partial judicial hardening on them.

A what?

A Judicial Hardening...

We talked about Judicial hardening when I preached through the Gospel of John.

If you remember, God hardened the Jewish leadership in particular so that Jesus would be killed by them.

Later in the book of Acts we see a lifting of this hardening when the church, comprised of Jews, was born.

It’s the same hardening we see in Exodus with Moses and Pharoah

Please note regarding Pharoah, that he hardened his heart before God ever stepped in with the judicial hardening.

Humans are always responsible for their hard hearts first and foremost.

God confirms the spiritual insensitivity that people are locked up under by virtue of their sin in Adam.

We are the rebels and God is under no obligation to save anyone.

it is only by His grace and mercy that he saves any!

πωρόω pōróō - Harden

πωρόω pōróō; a small piece of stone broken off from a larger one.

The verb means to harden, make hard like a stone, or callous and insensible to the touch.

In the NT applied only in a spiritual sense to the hearts or minds of men. - The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (4456.

πωρόω pōróō)

“Hardened” (11:7–10).

The Gk. porosis is a strong term.

God stiffened the already existing attitude and character of His rebellious people and brought about the growth of a calcified layer of thinking about religion that cemented Israel into a permanent insensibility.

Never suppose that rejecting God’s grace carries no consequences.

It does.

This hardening is a divine judgment.

- The Bible Reader’s Companion (Romans 11)

In Romans 11:710, like before, Paul appeals back to the Old Testament to demonstrate from the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (the whole of the Jewish scriptures) demonstrating this Judgement was not a new idea from God but something He has planned for a very long time - before the foundations of the earth in fact.

And it is fascinating to me that Paul proves from their own scriptures what they should have understood.

“The majority group (11:7–10): Three Old Testament men predicted that God would harden the hearts of unbelieving Israel.”

The Outline Bible

Okay, let’s take a look at the first two witness that Paul uses.

The Law and the Prophets Warned the Hardening Would Happen - (vs. 8)

Explain - What is interesting about verse 8 is that Paul blends two verse from two different genres together.

What does this mean?

It means that Paul uses the genre of Law, written by Moses and the genre of the prophets, written by Isaiah, mashes them together to prove a powerful point.

The quotation in verse 8 is a composite.

Most of it comes from Deuteronomy 29:4, but the phrase “spirit of stupor” is from Isaiah 29:10

The point is God confirmed in his already hardened people, a people who were given every advantage to know better, a judicial hardness that they would not recover from for quite some time.

This may be hard for you to hear, but God can do with His creation whatever he wishes.

He is the creator of all that is and the all-powerful sovereign.

Angie and I were just discussing the point of the British Monarchy.

It seem, and no disrespect to the King of England, he serves with no political power.

What is the point of the British Monarchy?

From their website

“The Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service.

In all these roles The Sovereign is supported by members of their immediate family.”

- https://www.royal.uk/role-monarchy

The King of England can influence, but holds no significant power as one would think a king should wield.

It is the Prime Minister and Parliament that hold the real power.

How about King Jesus?

The Jews hardened themselves agains the idea that Jesus was their King and now they are confirmed by God in that hardness.

In fact, what does Paul emphasize from Moses and Isaiah?

God gave them three things....

“a spirit of stupor” - an attitude of deadness towards spiritual things.

They make no response to the things of God (any more than a stupefied body does to physical stimuli).