Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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“I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.
His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
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Evangelical churches today should be classified by-and-large as dysfunctional.
I am not giving a pass to the statist churches—they largely departed from the Faith long ago.
Liberal churches are irrelevant in influencing society for righteousness; they don’t truly count in the tally of Kingdom work.
However, I am concerned that evangelical churches, seeking acceptance from the culture in which they exist, are quite prepared to compromise the Faith.
For far too many of us who identify ourselves as Evangelicals, compromise with the world is acceptable—nay, even mandatory.
In making statements such as these, I don’t wish to appear harsh; however, professing Christians generally appear to be ignorant of the Word—they either are incapable of or unwilling either to define or to articulate what they profess to believe.
It appears to be a general rule that professing Christians seek personal comfort; they long for something that will make them feel good about themselves.
Tragically, too many professing Christians give little evidence that they understand why they were saved.
I fault those of us who preach in great measure for this condition; we who occupy the sacred desk have often done an abysmal job of declaring the mind of God.
Threatened by the unrighteous demands of spiritually dyspeptic parishioners, we who bear the name of Pastor are hesitant to declare the revealed will of God.
Rushing from one committee meeting to the next and endeavouring to fulfil the expectations of personnel committees, we have little time for study of the Word and even less time for prayer.
It is a mark of God’s grace and power that anyone is actually saved.
Too often, if we are honest, we preachers must confess that God works among His people in spite of us, and not because of us.
Among modern churches, self-centred church members appear to be the rule.
However, this is not what is presented in the Word of God.
There, whenever we witness Christ and His churches, the will of the Master is always central.
Jesus is in the midst of His people, observing their actions and grieving over their exaltation of the self.
For far too many of our churches, the name could be changed to Ichabod Church, for the glory departed long ago [see 1 SAMUEL 4:21].
Though the people on the platform labour mightily to generate excitement, they always discover that there is a great difference between excitement and worship.
I am convinced that we who preach, to say nothing of those who listen each week, are in desperate need of recapturing a vision of the Master.
In order to address this need, I invite you to consider the vision the Revelator presents when he was commissioned by the Ascended Master.
JOHN FIRST SAW SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPSTANDS — I am struck by the fact that when he turned, John’s eye was drawn to the seven golden lampstands.
It was only after he had described the lampstands that he witnessed the Master standing in the midst of the lampstands.
Shortly, the Revelator will inform readers that the seven golden lampstands represent the seven churches [REVELATION 1:20b].
The significance of this observation must not be overlooked.
Underscore in your mind that before he sees the Risen Christ, John sees the churches.
The world always sees the churches, identifying Christ with the body through which He is revealed.
Christ is identified with His people!
There is a reason that a church is identified as the Body of Christ.
When the world hears the voice of the Master, they will hear His voice emanating from the midst of the churches.
The voice of the Master does not come from some spiritual section of a bookstore.
Neither does the voice of the Saviour arise from some noisy March for Jesus or even from a rambunctious convocation of men shouting spiritual slogans in unison.
The voice of the Master will be heard from the midst of His churches, for that is where He stands!
Before pursuing this thought farther, pause to consider one momentous truth—the message we proclaim, either with our voice or through the manner in which we live, is identified with the voice of Christ.
If our lives speak of casual faith, or if our voice gives an uncertain sound, the world will not be drawn to the Person of the Master.
If our lives reveal commitment to live to glorify the Master and if our message boldly proclaims His grace, the world will hear His voice.
In this way, the people of God can be said to “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour” [see TITUS 2:10].
Believers united in assemblies form the critical interface between Christ and the world.
The tendency among North American Christians is to emphasise individual pursuit of the Master.
To be certain, each believer is responsible to study the Word for himself or for herself, and each believer is responsible to be knowledgeable of all that has been delivered to us through the Word.
Because we are charged with knowing the Word, each believer is charged to be a witness to the grace of Christ the Lord and to His power to save.
Assuredly, the Great Commission is a Christian charge incumbent upon each individual who names the Name of Christ the Lord.
Nevertheless, those who are redeemed are responsible to unite with that assembly where the Spirit of God places him or her, participating there in advancing of the Kingdom of God.
The purpose for uniting is outlined in the words Doctor Luke used to describe the activity of the first congregation.
The believers having openly confessed the Christ through baptism “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” [ACTS 2:42-47].
Those who are redeemed are commanded to be baptised, identifying in the death, burial and resurrection of the Master.
They are to unite in assembly for the purpose of instruction in doctrine, for fellowship, for worship and for prayer.
The people of God are gathered into churches where they may be instructed in the truths of God’s Word.
As they are taught they will be building one another through sharing their lives and as they employ the gifts that God has entrusted to each believer for serving one another.
Those gathered into churches will seek opportunity to worship and to unite to seek answers to their requests presented before the Master.
Above all else, those gathered in assemblies are to echo the voice of Master.
Through His churches, the voice of the Living God is to be heard.
What is the voice that is heard from your church?
Much of what is heard from modern evangelicalism echoes society.
However, a brief consideration of the history of God’s voice will be instructive for each of us as believers.
The voice of the Lord through His prophets—and through those who today preach prophetically, the voice of the Lord through His churches—has a major impact on mankind.
Going back in your mind to the words of Isaiah, you will recall that the prophet heard a voice asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Hearing the voice, Isaiah cried out, “Here I am! Send me” [ISAIAH 6:8].
Because he heard the voice of the Lord and responded with alacrity, the power of God would be revealed throughout all history in the words he spoke and especially in the things he wrote.
Someone hears the voice of the Lord through the life of His churches today, and that someone responds to change his world.
What Isaiah heard and his response anticipated the experience of Augustine.
You may recall that Augustine in the garden at Milan heard a voice commanding him, “Tolle lege”—“Take and read.”
That voice changed his life as he understood it to mean that he was to take up the Bible and read.
That voice changed his life, and ensured the faith of millions in the centuries since that time.
The words of Augustine reverberate across the centuries, and if you will, the voice that he heard likewise resonates to this day.
The preacher who will honour the Master will accept the implicit command in the statement given that anticipated the ministry of John the Baptiser:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
[MATTHEW 3:3]
And the church that will honour the Master will not only insist that the voice of the pulpit echo the voice of the Master, but will themselves ensure that, as is true of the heavens, so for them,
“Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.”
[PSALM 19:4]
What voice will we heed?
Our world is filled with a multitude of babbling voices; each clamours for a hearing, each promises emancipation from evil and the dawn of a new era.
The voice of politics promises deliverance and peace; but the voice errs.
Others listen for the voice of economics, promising that if only we will invest in this commodity or purchase that bond, we will enjoy peace and plenty.
Tragically, those listening to these voices are misled and doomed to disappointment.
Jesus challenged, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul” [MATTHEW 16:26]?
Others place their hope in the voice of education.
Unfortunately, those voices muffle, trivialise, stifle and defy the voice of the Living God.
How tragic should one heed the voice of education and lose her life.
Education may tell of thousands of wonders, but it falters at the truth of abundant life in Christ the Lord.
The voice of science promises much, and delivers little.
Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, “Science can sharpen the fangs of ferocity as much as it can alleviate human pain.”
Paul warns, “Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’” [1 TIMOTHY 6:20].
What is needed is the voice of God speaking to the heart of each individual; and that voice is heard through the Word of God declared from the pulpits of His churches and magnified through the lives of His people as they conduct their daily lives to the praise of His glory.
Without that voice, the world must continue drunkenly teetering toward ruin and desolation.
When a child is racing toward injury and calamity, a voice of authority halts him in his tracks.
The world desperately needs the authoritative voice of God ringing out to halt it from plunging into destruction.
This is the admonition of the Word of God: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
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