Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Analytical
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Conscientiousness
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Introduction
I want us all to imagine that we are a group of scientists working on a cure for cancer.
If we haven’t met before, my name is Osmond.
I’m a student minister at this church.
If today is your first time in church or it’s been a while since you’ve visited, I hope you’ll welcomed.
I’m a student minister at this church.
and it’s a great privilege for me to be sharing with you from God’s word, the Bible, this morning.
We think that the most important thing we do in church is to know God better and to let this shape everything we do.
But this only happens by understanding his word to us in the Bible.
So let us pray that God would help us do that.
Dear God, we thank you for your word to us.
Please us to know you better this morning and to let that shape all that we say and do.
We pray this so that Jesus might be glorified.
Amen.
And after many years of late nights, gallons of coffee.
You finally do it.
You find the cure for cancer.
Christmas is great, isn’t it?
I love Christmas.
And after all the hugs, the high fives, the champagne and toasting ourselves silly, we sit down and we start to dream:
We dream about a day when cancer would be no more.
Christmas is a time of celebration, of gifts, of family and enjoying a feast with the people who are precious to you.
We dream about the joy of cancer patients no longer having cancer.
We dream about a day when cancer would be no more.
Can you imagine what this hope would feel like?
An as we trace it back to its roots, Christmas a time where we remember the coming of the Christ; the Son of God taking on flesh and being born as a man, and receiving the name Jesus because he will save us from our sins.
And “Hope” would be a good word to describe this, wouldn’t it?
Because, on the one hand, it wouldn’t have happened yet.
But on the other hand, the cure has already been found, and there is absolute certainty about it reaching hospitals and patients.
The only thing left to do is to wait.
But there is excitement.
And strength.
And joy.
Now, is this the feeling that you get when you think about Christmas?
When you think about the coming of Jesus, God in the flesh, “God with us”—is this the thrill of hope that you get?
Well, whether you do or you don’t, I hope you would walk away from church this morning with this hope in Jesus.
If you’re new or visiting, we’ve been going through a sermon series on the book of Isaiah.
And as we continue in it today, we come to these 3 chapters (chapters 7 to 9) which speak about the coming of a special king in the midst a mess.
But it isn’t a mess that we would recognise from our point of view.
These chapters show God teaching his people—the kingdom of Judah—that our deepest problem is not what our eyes see, but our broken relationship with God.
And it is in the midst of that deepest problem and mess, that we find humanity’s greatest hope.
A hope in the coming of a king.
And these chapters and
So here’s the deal:
So, I’m going to try and draw out the story behind these chapters as well as I can.
I’m going to try and draw out the story behind these chapters as well as I can.
And I would like you to have a Bible in hand so you could skim over the parts we’re not going to read directly.
And if you don’t have a Bible, just put your hand up.
And a Bible will magically find its way to you.
It’s like magic.
But one of the things I particularly love about Christmas is carols.
I love this line from O Holy Night:
My favourite line is from O Holy Night:
“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
The weary world rejoices.”
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”
And
Every time it makes me think, “Do we really live in a ‘weary world’?”
And I think we do.
Is our world weary?
If we are to keep having a realistic picture of the world, we have to say ‘yes’, don’t we?
And just so I could empathise with the weariness,
Check out these news headlines from the past two months.
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I wonder whether you felt what I felt?
Accidents, murder, political issues that end up hurting people, sadness.
I think the news is hard to read sometimes because there is a sadness about death—whether it is through murder or accidents or injustice or neglect.
How do you trust in God when you see the weariness of the world?
When you face eleven year olds who murder their grandmothers?
When you see sea animals die because of the plastic that is in their stomach?
When the weather damages our world?
Is God really ruling?
How do you, at the end of the day, give that sigh of relief that there is hope in a world of weariness?
Well, as we continue on in our journey through the book of Isaiah, the message of Isaiah is that God promises a future when his people would be saved forever.
sleep
I have 3 headings:
Is there hope in the face of the enemy?
Is there hope in the face of judgment?
The year is 730BC and Isaiah is a prophet in the kingdom of Judah.
And around Judah, the other countries are threatening to take over Judah to rule over all that area.
There is the super power (Assyria) in the far North East, and just North of Judah there is a team up between the kingdoms of Israel and Syria.
The gift of hope found in the king
Why is it so bad?
It’s because Israel and Syria have already formed an alliance against Assyria, and
A gloom of darkness
The first thing to point out the passage, is the gloom of darkness that sits over the people of God.
Have a look at verse 2.
What is the biggest problem with darkness?
It’s that you can’t see!
And it’s scary when you can’t see what’s in front of you!
You can trip.
You can fall.
And it hurts.
But what is the darkness God’s people are facing?
I think the passage has 2 things which make up this darkness.
The first and most obvious problem for the people of God is war.
The year is 730BC and there is a dangerous super-power in the North East that is looking to extend their power and rule as far as possible.
And that super-power is Assyria.
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