Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

A small boy sat in church with his mother and listened to a sermon entitled “What is a Christian?”

Every time the minister asked the question, he banged his fist on the pulpit for emphasis.

The tension produced by the sermon built up in the boy and he finally whispered to his mother, “Mama, do you know?

Do you know what a Christian is?”

“Yes, dear,” she replied.

“Now sit still and be quiet.”

Finally, as the minister was winding up the sermon, he again thundered, “What is a Christian?” and banged especially hard on the pulpit.

This time it was too much for the little boy, so he jumped up and cried out, “Tell him, Mama, tell him!”

There are 12 or so major religions in the world that are fundamentally different from one another.

As part of my Bible teaching ministry I’ve seen a few different world religions up close.

On my first trip to India in 2005 I saw many things that I thought were strange.

Hindus believe in reincarnation, after you die you come back in another form.

They worship many things as god.

Here is a photo of one of the strangest things I saw.

My friend took me to a bridge and we looked over the side and saw this.

I don’t know the story behind it, but the people in this area worshipped these fish as gods!

Photo of fish in Kerala India.

SLIDE: Different religions Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, Sikhism, Judaism, Shinto, Baha’i, Jainism, Native Spirituality

The worlds approach to all of these religions is to accept them all as being right and there are many ways to heaven and God.

This is called pluralsim.

Pluralism

1.

No religion is more right than any other.

Religious pluralism generally refers to the belief in two or more religious worldviews as being equally valid or acceptable.

More than mere tolerance, religious pluralism accepts multiple paths to God or gods as a possibility and is usually contrasted with “exclusivism,” the idea that there is only one true religion or way to know God.

https://www.gotquestions.org/religious-pluralism.html

2. All world religions claim exclusivity.

The truth is that every major religion in the world claims exclusivity, and every major religion in the world has a point of exclusion.

Hinduism, for example, is often represented as being the most tolerant and accepting of other faiths.

That is just not true.

All Hindus believe in two fundamental, uncompromising doctrines—the Law of Karma, and the belief in reincarnation.

These will not be surrendered.

In fact, Buddhism was born out of the rejection of two other very dogmatic claims of Hinduism.

Buddha rejected the authority of the vedas [the Hindu scriptures] and the caste system of Hinduism.

The issue here is not who was right or wrong.

The truth is that they were systemically different—both claiming rightness.

Ravi Zacharias https://www.rzim.org/read/a-slice-of-infinity/point-of-exclusion

3.

Those who promote pluralism don’t know what their faith teaches or don’t follow any faith.

Churchianity

Churchianity Any practices of Christianity that are viewed as placing a larger emphasis on the habits of church life or the institutional traditions of the church than on theology and spiritual teachings of Jesus; the quality of being too church-focused.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Churchianity

What are some odd aspects of going to church that people who don’t go to our church or churches like ours would think strange?

Prayer, saying God talked to us.

Would we think it strange if someone said, “Buddha talked to me this morning.”

Writing in our Bibles.

Muslims worship the actual Koran.

???

Churches have their own way of doing things.

We do we stand?

Sit?

How to take communion?

Passing a common cup, breaking bread off one loaf?

Raising hands and clapping during worship.

Kneeling at certain times.

1. It’s a problem when people equate the forms of a church with being a Christian

This gets even more complicated when we think of how people do church in other parts of the world.

In India you don’t wear shoes into church!

2. Churchianity includes legalism, judgments and hypocrisy.

Even if doing some of those things are enjoyable to you and even important to you, they aren’t Christianity.

If a church requires compliance with those external norms, it’s exclusive.

But that isn’t what Jesus taught.

Christianity

Christianity is what we believe Jesus taught.

1. Christianity is inclusive.

It is an open invitation.

Everyone is invited to follow Christ.

2. Christianity is exclusive.

The Bible says there is one God.

The Bible says there is one way to God.

It’s exclusive because few follow the path that leads to God.

The uniqueness of Christianity supports Jesus’s claim to exclusivity.

The detailed prophecies about Jesus from hundreds of years before His life validate His claim to uniqueness.

Those prophecies predicted how he would be born, of a virgin, where he would be born, in Bethlehem, how he would live, as a sinless man, what he would do, heal the sick, cast out demons, how He would die, on the cross, and that he would rise again from the dead.

What makes those prophecies even more unique is they come from different people, multiple authors, spread out over time.

When one looks at the overall picture of Jesus painted long before He lived once can see that Jesus is unique among all world religions.

The connected series of events show that shows Jesus is who He says He is.

All religions are fundamentally different and at best superficially similar.

The fundamental difference you see in Jesus Christ is in His uniqueness of the exclusivity of His claim and the inclusiveness of His sacrifice for all who will accept it.

Christianity isn’t unique in being narrow.

It’s unique in it’s message.