Sermon Tone Analysis

Revised Common Lectionary: Seventh Sunday of Easter

Year A

* The Holy Spirit will come upon you.

We read, in John 7:39, that ‘the Spirit’ would not be ‘given’ until Jesus was ‘glorified’.

Now, as Jesus was about to be ‘taken up… into heaven’, He tells His apostles, ‘the Holy Spirit’ will ‘come upon you’ (Acts 1:11,8).

He gives them His Word of promise: ‘I send the promise of My Father upon you’.

He gives them His Word of command: ‘stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high’ (Luke 24:49).

They wait upon the coming of the Holy Spirit.

They cannot fill themselves with the Spirit.

They can only ‘be filled with the Spirit’ (Ephesians 5:18).

Waiting for the Spirit, the apostles ‘devote themselves to prayer’ (Acts 1:14).

They do not earn the Holy Spirit as a reward for spending much time in prayer.

Waiting on God, their strength is renewed as they receive God’s gift (Isaiah 40:31; Luke 11:13).

* You Have Been Saved; You Are Being Saved; You Will Be Saved.

God is ‘our salvation’.

He is the ‘God of salvation’(Psalm 68:19-20).

God’s salvation covers our past, present and future.

(a) You have been saved.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we have received the forgiveness of our sins (Romans 5:1).

(b) You are being saved.

God is at work in our lives, making us the kind of people He wants us to be (Romans 5:3-5).

(c) You will be saved.

We look forward to ‘sharing the glory of God’, being with the Lord forever (Romans 5:2,9-10).

From beginning to end, salvation is the work of God - He has forgiven our sins.

He is making us like Christ.

He will lead us on to heaven.

Our God is great.

His salvation is great.

Let us ‘be joyful’.

Let us worship the Lord ‘with joy’(Psalm 68:3).

Let us give all the glory to God - ‘Blessed be God!’(Psalm 68:35).

* The Lord Strengthens Us With His Salvation.

‘I am the Lord… I will strengthen you’ (Isaiah 45:5).

How does the Lord strengthen us?

He strengthens us with salvation.

He comes to us as our ‘God and Saviour.’

He calls us to come to Him and receive salvation: ‘Turn to Me and be saved…’ Through faith in Christ, we are ‘saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation’ (Isaiah 45:15, 17, 21-22).

We are strengthened with ‘everlasting salvation’.

We look ahead to Christ’s Return ‘in power and great glory’ (Matthew 24:30).

On that Day, the glory of our Saviour will be fully revealed: ‘At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’

Jesus is our Saviour.

His ‘Name is above every name’.

Our ‘strength’ comes from Him (Isaiah 45:23-24; Philippians 2:10-11).

* Salvation and Victory

‘We boast of the Name of the Lord our God...Through the steadfast love of the Most High’ we ‘shall not be moved’(Psalm 20:7; Psalm 21:7).

We do not trust in things that ‘collapse and fall’.

We build on ‘the Rock’(Psalm 20:8; Matthew 7:24-27; Psalms 18:1-3; 62:5-7).

We ‘rejoice’ in our God.

He has made us ‘most blessed for ever’(Psalm 21:1,6; Ephesians 1:3).

Think of Jesus Christ your Saviour.

He is absolutely trustworthy.

He is completely dependable.

His love is an ‘unfailing love’(Psalm 21:7).

In Him, there is salvation.

In Him, there is joy.

With His strong and powerful love, He has saved us.

He has given us ‘a new song’ to sing, ‘a song of praise to our God’(Psalm 40:1-3).

Let us lift our hearts and voices to Him in praise and worship: ‘Be exalted, O Lord, in Thy strength,!

We will sing and praise Thy power’(Psalm 21:13).

* Thanksgiving for past victories (Psalm 21:1-7), assurance of future victories (Psalm 21:8-13): Where does victory come from?

- It comes from the Lord who has saved us.

"By grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8).

The work of God in us does not end with a past salvation, a memory of what the Lord has done for us in the past.

His work in us goes on from there - "By grace you have been saved through faith ... for good works ... " (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Let us look back, giving thanks to God for our salvation.

Let us press on, trusting in God to lead us in the pathway of victory.

In all the service we offer to God, there is to be the offering of worship: ‘To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever’(1 Peter 4:11; 1 Peter 5:11).

We will not learn to serve God unless we are learning to worship Him.

There is a ‘form of religion’ which ‘denies the power’ of God – ‘These people honour Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me’(2 Timothy 3:5; Matthew 15:8).

They go through the motions – but their hearts are not in it!

We must pray that God will deliver us from this kind of thing: ‘O for a heart to praise my God!

A heart from sin set free; A heart that always feels Thy blood, so freely shed for me’(Church Hymnary, 85).

‘Religion’ is about respectability.

Salvation is about renewal: ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me’(Psalm 51:10).

* If we want to serve God, we must learn to worship Him.

Jesus prays for you.

Jesus prays for me.

We have come to faith in Him through the written Word of His apostles (John 17:20).

The story of the Cross (John 17:1-5), the story of the first disciples (John 17:6-19) is an ongoing story.

It continues in us.

The saving effects of Christ’s death are still being felt today.

The written Word of His apostles is still exerting its powerful influence on today’s world.

Jesus is still praying for us (Hebrews 7:25).

He prayed for His first disciples – ‘that they may be one’ (John 17:11).

He prays the same prayer for us (John 17:20-23).

Among His first disciples, there was Judas Iscariot, ‘the one who chose to be lost’ (John 17:12).

If we are to ‘maintain the unity of the Spirit’, we must take account of ‘the Judas factor’ – ‘take notice of those who create dissensions… avoid them’ (Ephesians 4:3; Jude 4; 1 John 2:18-19; Romans 16:17-18).

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Year B

* We need the Holy Spirit.

We read, in John 7:39, that ‘the Spirit’would not be ‘given’ until Jesus was ‘glorified’.

Now, as Jesus was about to be ‘taken up... into heaven’, He tells His apostles, ‘the Holy Spirit’ will ‘come upon you’ (Acts 1:11, 8).

He gives them His Word of promise: ‘I send the promise of my Father upon you’.

He gives them His Word of command: ‘stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high’ (Luke 24:49).

They wait upon the coming of the Holy Spirit.

They cannot fill themselves with the Spirit.

They can only ‘be filled with the Spirit’ (Ephesians 5:18).

Waiting for the Spirit, the apostles ‘devote themselves to prayer’ (Acts 1:14).

They do not earn the Holy Spirit as a reward for spending much time in prayer.

Waiting on God, their strength is renewed as they receive God’s gift (Isaiah 40:31; Luke 11:13).

* We need the Holy Scriptures.