Sermon Tone Analysis

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A common thing to hear people say nowadays is:
I am spiritual but not religious.
And I understand (and as you all know wholeheartedly agree with) the general idea that says we should not just blindly follow a religion for ritualistic or societal or or traditional or familial reasons.
True.
True.
Yes.
Blind religion…especially in our culture the blind religion of “going to church” or being a “good person” or calling yourself Christian to check a box…takes at least as many people to hell than blatant outspoken unbelief in our little micro culture.
So I agree…in that way…I am also not religious.
CS Lewis says it this way in Screwtape Letters...
“Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
So if what is generally meant by the statement “I am not religious” is to say “we don't just follow a set of rules or rituals and think that that saves us.”
Then Yes.
However, there is great danger in saying I am not religious as someone who claims to follow Jesus…in two ways.
There is actually great potential danger to say about being a follower of Jesus...I follow the a person named Jesus but I am not religious.
We need to be careful before we say this.
Reason number 1.
And this is what most people seem to mean when saying this...
If what is meant saying I am not religious...is that Christianity is different…it is simply about a personal relationship with a personal God through the person of Jesus Christ…there is obvious, beautiful, powerful truth to that.
However....the danger comes in the form of a misunderstanding about what it means to have a personal relationship with a personal God through the person of Jesus Christ…because…Jesus Christ is the Lord.
He is the King.
He is alive and reigning on the throne.
When you have a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ…you have a relationship with the King…the Ruler…the judge…the Lord of the universe…the Lord of all creation…the creator of all things...
Therefore in that loving and saving personal relationship…Jesus the person becomes everything to you…and because He is the Lord…if you truly have a personal relationship with Him...He is your Lord.
It is not a relationship of equal ground…we are nothing without He who is everything.
He is the King of kings…and when we see Him on the throne we will like the Elders fall at His feet before Him saying,
NO SLIDE
Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
And in that relationship He is our savior…the one who has given His very life to us while we were yet sinners and had nothing to offer…therefore everything we have is His…including our very lives.
That kind of relationship calls all those whom are saved to submit in a faithful, loving, joyful, sacrificial, radically obedient relationship with King of kings…the only one who saves.
And when most people hear the words submit or radical or bold or obedient they have been fooled into thinking that means blind religion.
That could not be further from the truth.
Ritualistic religion would say do these acts so that you will be saved.
Biblical Christianity says look at Jesus…see His beauty and glory and power and love…remember the cross...you who have repented and put your faith in Jesus Christ have been saved by this awesome Savior and Lord.
Therefore…we love Him because He first loved us...
You were following the prince of the power of the air…and Jesus has set you free...
You are no longer a slave to sin…you are free to live for the one who saved you…you are now free follow and obey and live for Him.
And when we experience that...
Obedience to Him because He is the way and the truth and the life…His way is like a path through the forest leading us to exactly where we now and want and desire to be…in his presence...where we will experience true love and full joy forevermore.
We don't obey simply out of duty.
We flee from that type of religion...
And run into His arms…
We love him and follow him and trust him and submit to Him and obey him because...he first loved us and chose us and freed us from the slavery we were in.
There is another danger however with saying “I am not religious”…because of how the Bible defines religion.
To keep oneself unstained from the world…is what I just talked about.
But what about the first half?
And how does that relate to the text from today in Matthew?
How does that relate to the church and the way we serve, spend, give, act, do?
Before we jump into today’s text let me read this verse from Isaiah 66.
The one who will say…God I trust your way and not mine...
And will tremble at his Word.
What does it mean to tremble at His word?
Jesus says something very similar at the very end of the Sermon on the mount when He says...
Or James in James 1 22
So there is a reader of the Word that does not humble himself or tremble at the Word or do the Word...
And then there is a reader and hearer of the Word that trembles at God’s Word…God has given us His very Word…and then is not deceived but hears the Word and then does the Word.
So as God’s people we are to hear and read His Word and tremble…and then do.
So what does trembling at His Word and being a doer of the Word have to do with true religion…and being a Church that...Sacrificially Serves.
If pure religion in the eyes of our God is for us to not be stained by the world…but to overcome the world and...
No SLIDE
And If pure religion in the eyes of our God is for us to care for the least of these…what does that mean for the church?
Let’s open to today’s text…I'm going to read the verses and I know you've heard them…probably some of you many times.
This time as I read and you listen...ask yourself...do we tremble at his word?
How in our hearts do we become doers of this Word to us this morning?
Jesus talking about final judgement says this.
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We need to dig in…do we tremble at these words of Jesus?
He will return and verse 31 says He is coming in glory...
He is coming in his victorious glory.
This is not the calm, soft-spoken, meandering, hippie-ish Jesus often portrayed to us.
He's coming in His glory.
In Revelation 1 John sees Jesus in His glory…remember John is described in the Word in a way that makes it seem like He is Jesus's right-hand man.
The beloved one....the one whom Jesus loves.
John basically describes himself in the book of John as Jesus’s BFF.
John lived and walked and ate and talked with him for years.
John knew Jesus and what Jesus looked like.
John is given a glimpse of the Jesus that will will be returning in His glory.
John sees that Jesus.
Revelation 1:17.
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When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Basically John see Jesus in His glory and faints.
His face was shining like the sun...
Jesus coming in all of his glory is like nothing we’ve ever seen.
Verse 31...with all of his angels with him.
Revelation 5 numbers the angels at 10,000×10,000.
This maybe figurative...but we can all agree that it's a lot of angels.
Possibly one hundred million angles with Jesus in all of His glory.
Are you imagining this with me?
Verse 31…then He will sit on his glorious throne.
So picture the scene…this is going to happen…and no matter what side anyone is on…the right or left…we will all be there.
Picture Jesus in all his glory so stunning like the sun is shining from him.
A hundred million angels surrounding him.
He sits on his glorious throne.
All the nations…every human being is put before him.
All of the billions of people seeing him in his glory...trembling...about to pass out.
He surrounded by 100 million angels.
We tremble…waiting for Him…waiting to hear His word...
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