Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

[Slide 1]

Hey Calvary, welcome, we’re continuing a series that we started last week called Face to Face with Jesus.

The series focuses on encounters and conversations that people have with Jesus.

It seeks to shed light on how encounters with Jesus are transformational, both in the encounters that we’re going to see and in our lives today.

[…]

We’re doing this by looking at each encounter with the following questions in mind:

1.

What does this encounter tell us of who Jesus is? […]

2. What does this encounter reveal about humanity?

[…]

3. What is transformed in this encounter with Jesus?

[…]

Last week we looked at the woman with prolonged bleeding who reached out and touched Jesus while he was on his way to heal someone else.

We looked at how after she was healed Jesus stopped and listened to her, that Jesus wanted to heal more than just her bleeding but he wanted to give her back everything she lost, to restore her dignity and to celebrate her.

[…]

Today we’re going to look at a very different encounter that Jesus has but one that is equally transformational.

We’re going to look at –

(Kevin looks in awe and silence at the figure he realizes is waiting for him to speak.

It is Jesus)

Kevin: Hey...wait, oh my gosh, wow, this is incredible, He’s here.

Jesus!

No! Like it is ACTUALLY Jesus.

It's Jesus.

This is the guy that I'm supposed to be telling you about.

Wow I am so underqualified here.

I mean, who am I to tell you about any of this stuff when...I mean, it’s You.

(Kevin gets a great idea and slowly looks back toward Jesus)

Jesus, you have to come preach the sermon.

Neil: No, no, it's ok.

Kevin: WHAT?! Haha, come on!

You are kidding me, there is no WAY I can preach in front of you.

You are the SON! Right Calvary?

Don't you guys want to see Jesus preach the sermon?

(crowd reaction)

Do you want to see Jesus preach the sermon?

(crowd reaction)

I said, DO YOU WANT TO SEE JESUS PREACH THE SERMON?!

(Bigger crowd reaction)

Neil: Kevin.

I would love to hear you share the story.

I want to be able to be with everyone else and receive what you want to share today.

Kevin: No! No way, I won't just let you NOT.

You're here and I can't, how could I, now?!

I mean, I'm talking to people about you.

I'm pretty sure we all know you're more qualified.

Neil: Kevin, I’m here today like everyone else, I’m not here to preach today.

It’s not about who’s more qualified.

I’m here to be with my brothers and sisters and to turn my heart to my Father just like them.

I want to hear what He’s shared with you about this story.

Kevin: Ok, Jesus…

So, I’m not sure if you were able to guess it or not yet but what we’re talking about today is Jesus’ interaction with John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism.

[Slide 2]

This encounter is featured in each of the four gospels although it’s framed a little differently in each but each time it kicks off Jesus’ adult ministry.

It serves as Jesus’ official anointing and commissioning for ministry by God the Father and the Holy Spirit with God the Father affirming him as his dearly loved son.

This was one of those passages that preparing for this sermon was so tough because there is so much crammed in here.

This passage is so rich that I feel like I could preach the whole day on it and still just skim the surface of how good it is.

But I know there’s a young adults lunch after this so I’ll get cut off by the sound of stomachs grumbling at some point.

[…]

I want to look at our questions for this series a little out of order today, because I think it lines up with how the passage flows a little better.

I want to start by looking at what the encounter says about humanity, then what it says about Jesus and land on what it transforms.

Let’s start by reading God’s word.

3 In those days John started to preach in the wilderness of Judea, “Turn back to God, for the kingdom of heaven is coming now.”

John is the one who Isaiah talked about when he said,

“The one who calls out in the wilderness:

‘Get ready for God’s arrival;

Prepare for him to come quickly.’”

John wore clothes made out of camel’s hair with a leather belt, he ate locusts and honey.

The people of Jerusalem and Judea and everywhere around the Jordan went to see him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when John saw Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptised too, he told them, “You snakes!

Who told you to run away from the judgement that’s coming?

Bear fruit that comes from repentance.

Don’t tell yourselves, ‘We’re ok because we descended from Abraham.’

I’m telling you, God could make these rocks Abraham’s children if he wanted to.

Right now, the axe is ready to cut the tree down.

If the tree doesn’t start bearing that fruit coming from repentance then it will be chopped up and tossed in the fire.

“I’m baptizing you with water to show repentance, but the One who comes next is greater than me.

I’m not even worthy to pick up his shoes.

He’s going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

He will sift you like wheat, he’ll collect the good seeds and get rid of the useless husks.”

Then Jesus came to John, to be baptized too.

John wanted to stop him, he said, “You should be baptizing me, why are you coming to be baptized by me?”

But Jesus responded, “This is how it has to be, it is necessary for me to fulfill all righteousness.”

Then John accepted it.

And when he’d baptized Jesus, as Jesus came out of the water, heaven opened up to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove and resting on him; and then, God spoke and said, “This is my beloved Son, with Him I am very pleased.”

Humanity

What does the encounter say about Humanity?

What I’ve learned about this passage in my preparation for this sermon is that this passage says a LOT about humanity.

Too much.

If I were to open this question up to all of you I’m sure we could all give an answer that would be different … and transformational … and right.

So, I want to be able to share with you guys what I kept seeing about humanity when I read this passage.

I kept seeing a theme that humanity is waiting for Jesus to show up and intersect with our lives.

But not only do I think we’re waiting for Jesus to intersect our lives I think this passage points out that there are two expectations that we place on Jesus for how he should intersect our lives.

One, we want him to change our circumstances, […] and two, we want him to change us.

[…]

We want Jesus to change our circumstances.

Well, how was Israel waiting for Jesus to change their circumstances?

Well, John the Baptist and Jesus are coming at exactly the right time in history where Israel is not only waiting for a Messiah, they’re expecting it.

Israel has been through a period of seeming silence from God for 480 years since Malachi, the last book of the old testament, was written.

They’ve been conquered by the Romans for almost 100 years, and by the Greeks before that for another 270 years.

Preparing for this week’s sermon this point was probably one of the easiest points for me to draw out of this passage.

There is so much going on here in this passage in terms of what Israel was waiting for, and what they were expecting to change and why, that I could spend the whole message talking about it.

And while I was doing prep I’d pretty much written a whole sermon on this one point before I realized that wasn’t really the main point of the passage.

But looking into some of this I’m sure how you can see how I got carried away.

I mean, the passage is chalk full of symbolism.

Right out of the gate, the very first three words “In those days…” that was a flashback to what the prophets would say about coming times.

“In those days there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”