Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Whatcha Doin’?
Have you ever thought about how blessed the disciples were?
They got to literally walk with Jesus!
They learned from him, ate with him, lived with him, prayed with him!
Have you thought about that?
When they got a little bit off the track, Jesus was right there
(slide)
to guide and correct.
And he did that not just for them, but tried so hard to get others to understand the importance of his presence on earth.
From the people on the margins - like those who needed physical healing and freedom from demons,
all the way to the center of society - people who thought they were living their best lives, but still failing to follow God’s call to be a “priestly people” to the rest of the world.
That was God’s intention, right?
Israel was to be the way God was revealed to the world.
But they screwed up… a lot.
So, enter Jesus - God revealed in humanity.
God present with us, on our level, speaking our language, trying to make it plain what we are called to do to be a holy people.
And to bring it back to the disciples for a minute, in the passage we’re going to spend most of our time in today, they were maybe, possibly, perhaps… starting to get it.
We’re in John chapter 14, It’s been a week for this group…
they’ve retreated from ministry,
watched Jesus raise his friend Lazarus from the dead,
heard Jesus predict his own death,
returned to Jerusalem with shouts of hosanna from the crowd,
They’ve seen him literally anointed for burial by the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume,
and now,
they’re reclining at table, having just been loved on and served by their teacher, feeling troubled about what Jesus is telling them is about to happen…
Picture sitting there with Jesus and he’s telling you things like:
“My soul is troubled”
“A seed must die to bear fruit”
“I’m going to be betrayed.”
“Peter you’re going to deny me.”
Would you be troubled?
Yeah, me too.
(Slide)
(Slide) If you…
So, there’s a little bit of a back and forth going on here… There’s an expectation being set, and promise being made.
And as we consider this passage today, I want you to keep in mind that we’ve been building up to this journey and that each of the articles of faith we’ve considered so far show up in here as well…
Jesus starts with an “if”
(Slide - If you love me)
(Slide)
If you love me, you will keep my commandments…
What were Jesus commandments?
Simply stated, Love God, and love each other.
And for John, Love is almost always equated with obedience.
This takes us back to the Shema -
Deut 6:4-5 the LORD your God is one.
You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength… OR
(slide)
I like the CEB version of this because it doesn’t compartmentalize our personhood...
All of our being… Since we are made in the image of God, our capacity to love, as God loves, is built into our very being.
WE love because God IS LOVE.
(Slide)
We can look right back to our first article of faith for that… Our triune God is an example of love and relationship.
The three persons of the trinity live together in perfect oneness.
But, in our humanness, we know there’s also a shadow side - We’ve also inherited our propensity to sin from our first parents.
This creates a tension in us…
It isn’t easy to just live out a life of love and obedience.
After all - We are generally a stubborn and stiff-necked people.
God said this about the Israelites and he was present with them in the wilderness!
And the whole arc of the story of God and God’s people contains this tension between sin and holiness… From creation, to the wilderness, to judges, to kings, to prophets…
(Slide)
Israel was to be a priestly people.
They were responsible for showing God’s holiness to the world.
But they failed in that mission.
Scripture reveals that history to us.
(Article 4)
Jesus came because things didn’t get any better!
Jesus, the Son of God (article 2) The Word of God, made flesh - lowered himself to become like us.
The very breath of God - the ruach - the Holy Spirit descended into him at his baptism (article 3)
So that he who knew no sin, would take the place of all of our sin and bring atonement so that we could once again be reconciled to God. (Article 6)
So that by God’s prevenient grace (Article 7) we could be drawn toward a life in him,
repent from our sinful ways (Article 8)
and be made new through Jesus atoning sacrifice by faith and be adopted into the family of God (Article 9)
which brings us right back to where we are today…
How was that for whirlwind recap?
So what Jesus is talking about in this passage is growth in grace.
And Pastor Des did a wonderful job of laying this out for us last week.
(Slide)
For my part in this conversation, we’re going come down out of the theology for few minutes.
To really make this resonate, I feel like we need to have some real skin in the game.
So I’m going to pick on myself - are you ok with that?
A little confession time?
I have not always been the biggest fan of the word holiness.
I know that may be shocking to some of you, but it’s true.
I grew up in an environment where a lot of comparison and judgement happened.
It wasn’t malicious, I don’t want to give you the wrong idea.
But, you know the phrase keeping up with the Joneses?
For us growing up, it more like just staying ahead of the O’Flannigans (or insert some other Irish, or polish, or Italian name here…)
We judged our own behavior not on God’s standard, but on the lowest common denominator around us.
You know, the whole “God has bigger fish to fry” mentality.
Unfortunately, I carried that into adulthood.
And holiness to me, as a concept, seemed impossible.
Not only did it seem impossible, I felt like anyone who was claiming to live a holy life must’ve just been really good at hiding their secrets.
This idea of sanctification, when you come at it from this perspective feels like a never ending journey.
It is a terrible mindset to have.
It sets you up for failure before you even start.
It set me up for failure.
(Slide)
But you see, Proverbs 16:9 says…
This is prevenient grace in action.
We absolutely have free will - and our actions have consequences.
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