Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

In our postmodern, post-Christian culture not everybody is celebrating Jesus.

In fact, nothing makes Jesus and his followers more offensive, more hated to our secular pluralistic society then Christ's claims the exclusivity: “I am the way, the truth and the life, nobody comes to the Father but by me” Jesus says - John 14:6.

“There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” Acts 4:12.

“For there is one God, and one mediator (or bridge) between God and men.

It is the man Christ, Jesus.”

Nothing makes Jesus and His followers more odious, and contemptible, in our secular, pluralistic society then Christ claims the exclusivity-- Jesus is massively unpopular in this part of the 21 century-- and so are his followers.

In this world as it is, we all know that Christians will find themselves demonized as intolerant.

In a book entitled: The Trouble with Jesus the author addresses this issue of exclusivity and the unpopularity of Jesus.

I want to quote from that a section the author does.

In that book, the chapter entitled the day that everything changed addresses society’s response to 9/11 when the twin towers fell in New York: “With 9/11 proved nothing else (he said), but proved we're desperately in need of something bigger than ourselves-- something above and beyond ourselves.

On 9/11 he says “We realized that in and of ourselves we couldn't cope.

In spite of what we had said for many years we really did need God.

Peter Berger notes that catalytic experiences like (9/11) catalytic experiences are signals of transcendence-- reminders that God is there and we need Him.

Catalytic experiences are signals of transcendence and is an experience in our everyday world that appears to point to a higher reality beyond us.

It punctures the adequacy of what we once believed while also arousing in us a longing for something deeper, and surer, and richer.

Despite the grip of postmodern secularism on our nation, America was now gasping for breath (he said) after 9/11 with the sudden need for God.

We need a transcendent reality to help us in a secular society.

It was unable to comfort or heal--secularism comforts nor heals anybody.

We were free following 9/11 to speak God's name again.

He was now welcome in the hearts of Americans and in the halls of power.

We heard a lot of “God talk” in those early days following 9/11 the author says, “I was thrilled that our president called the nation to prayer on the Friday after the terrorist attack-- it was a remarkable moment.

He says the previously cynical press embraced the event like eager alter boys.

Dignitaries and beltway politicians line the front rows like approving deacons and elders.

The world watched as America paused to join the president for prayer.

‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’ was sung with power’”

He says, “I can hardly contain my ecstasy at the thought that just like that we've gotten it all back--God was back in the picture again.

At least he says that is what I thought...

Under the silver lining in the demise of secularism, the signs of a new and troubling cloud began to emerge.

He says, “As I basked in the glow of the momentous cathedral service on that Friday following 9/11, a friend said to me, ‘Did you notice that when a mighty fortress was sung, they omitted the second stanza?’

I hadn’t noticed” He said.

And he quickly recall the words.

This is the stanza they omitted: VERSE 2

Did we in our own strength confide

Our striving would be losing

Were not the right Man on our side

The Man of God’s own choosing

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He

Lord Sabaoth (Sovereign Lord), His name

From age to age the same

And He must win the battle

The right man, Christ Jesus, He must win the battle.

The author says, “My bubble of enthusiasm began to deflate with the thought that they omitted the reference to the supremacy of Christ in the battle against evil.

Jesus and his victorious role in history against the adversary apparently been deliberately excluded.

The thought of Jesus as “the Man of God’s own choosing” as the supreme and exclusive Victor over evil is too disruptive and too divisive in a pluralistic postmodern post-Christian society.

“It was becoming clear,” he says, “in post 9/11 America, God was back, but Jesus was not...”

There was no room for Him in the first century, and little more room for Him in the 21 century... God was back, but Jesus was not-- which means that when we say that God is back, it's important to ask, he says, “which god? the god of Islam?

that's not the God of the Bible.

Gods of Hinduism? the gods of the new age? the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, AND their SEED?” that is the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the promised Messiah called Jesus--who came to us to befriend and redeem a fallen race.

Saying that God is back in the mainstream of our national life really means that it is now respectable to celebrate many gods in America.

But the generic god, a “brand X god,” or multiple gods will not do-- they are no god at all!

What is needed is the God made incarnate in Jesus, the Christ.

He is “the Man of God own choosing.

Christ Jesus, it is HE” and He alone will win the battle.

And this is where we find ourselves 17 years after that moment that changed America, a society okay with a one size fits all god that does not offend anyone no matter their beliefs

Transition:

I want you to turn to John chapter 1.

The ground of His victory and our redemption is what John is introducing in John 1:1-18.

A Celebration of Jesus, the Christ - An Extraordinary Person

My subject this morning, is a celebration of Jesus, the Christ.

Because there is nobody I'd rather talk about than my Lord, Jesus—especially at a time such as now: the Christmas season.

John 1- A small portion of John’s glorious prologue to that gospel-- the introductory words introducing our Lord, Jesus, the Anointed One.

I want to celebrate for this Sunday and next Sunday our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

As I had said from the start, in our post-Christian culture, even this year not every American is celebrating Jesus.

We live in the kind of world that is shaped by the elimination of God and of truth.

And the worship of man and the justification of sin.

And even the obsession of death.

You'll find all of those topics in Romans 1:18-32 - which perhaps we will look at further on another occasion.

Christians, however, are not into the elimination of God, they're into the exaltation of God.

They're not into the abolition of truth, they're into the exposition of what is true.

They're not into the justification of sin, they're into the justification, and sanctification, and transformation of sinners.

Certainly not into the worship of man, we’re into the submission of every man and woman.

And, of course, we are not into the proliferation of death; rather, we are in the business of the proclamation of life.

This then, leads us to a celebration of Jesus, the Christ— and if we don't celebrate Jesus, the Messiah, nobody else will.

The Christ, the Messiah is an extraordinary being--you see it in vv. 1 to 5

What do I see in verses 1 to 5? I think we see...

I.

The Uniqueness of His Person (vv.1-2)

In the first verse, this “disciple whom Jesus loved,” who authored the Book of Revelation, chose a peculiar way to refer to Christ.

John uses the term “Word” as a title for Jesus throughout this prologue.

He doesn’t specify that “Word” refers to Jesus until John 1:17.

Theologians and philosophers, both Jews and Greeks, used the term “word” in several ways.

As a philosophical term, logos conveyed the rational principle that governed the universe, even the creative energy that generated the universe—a pantheistic god from the ancient world.

In this understanding, John is taking this term “Word” much like Paul on Mars Hill with the “statue to the unknown god” and adapting the pop culture philosophical understandings to the true God

But we see this term also used in the O.T.

The “word of Yahweh” has associations with creation, divine revelation, personified wisdom, and even the law of Moses.

By choosing this language, John makes Jesus the very essence of a very unique God.

John’s description shows clearly that he spoke of Jesus as a human being he knew and loved (especially in 1:14), who was at the same time the Creator of the universe, the ultimate revelation of God, and also the living picture of God’s holiness.

Jesus as the logos reveals God to us.

Three great evidences of the Word’s uniqueness:

• His Remarkable Eternality – “In the beginning was the Word.”

He is the Eternal One!

• His Incomparable Company – “and the Word was with God.”

He is the Other One!

• His Categorical Deity – “and the Word was God.”

He is the Divine One!

I like what Andrew Paterson says about Jesus’ uniqueness beyond any human being:

Forget your ideas about Jesus the philosopher, or Jesus the example, or Jesus the moralist.