Sermon Tone Analysis

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The greatest person in history

I asked this question on social media this week…many of you saw it, but few tried to answer it because I took away the easy answer, Jesus.

But who would you say today is the greatest person in history?

There’s been a bunch of people to choose from.

George Washington, Isaac Newton, Mozart...

Well let’s start by describing what are the qualities that makes a person great?

They are not worried about comfort, knowing that hard things have value.

They don’t read…they do.

They accomplish things.

They are highly committed to what makes them great

They continually push themselves and those around to new standards

Great people: Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman, Johanne Gutenberg, Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Aristotle, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Beethoven, MLK Jr, Martin Luther, Joan of Arc

All sorts of great people have been born.

It would be hard for us to pick the greatest…But not for Jesus.

Last week we began our study of the Gospel of John in the introduction…we saw that Jesus is the start for our understanding of God.

Jesus reveals God.

Today we are going to look at the reality that Jesus reveals who we truly are.

Jesus proclaimed JTB the greatest man born...

What made him so great?

Let’s get in our time machine…start up our flux capacitor and go back to the year oh it was around 3 BC I guess…out in the hill country outside Jerusalem....to the house of one of the priests…Zechariah.

Z. was an old man at this point…his wife was old as well.

One day he was at work in the temple…lighting the incense…and an angel came to him and he did what any good priest would do…he fell on his face.

But the angel raised him up and told him that they were going to have a son.

No way?…yes way!

He was filled with the Holy Spirit

JTB was given the spirit of God in order to accomplish a specific purpose for God...From before his birth,

God had a plan for his life

JTB would need the HS to accomplish what God had called him to.

This was a big task, to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord…to turn hearts and minds.

How do you do that?

How can you get people to change?

You can’t, not spiritually anyway.

Sure, you might convince people of something, but we can’t change hearts.

But God can; and God would use JTB to reach the people’s hearts.

We see the Spirit work through JTBs life in the Gospel of John.

To have a significant life is one of

Attitude: humility

Humility...John 1:19-21

Priests and Levites....these were the temple leaders and their police force....They were always looking for the Messiah

He knew who he wasn't...he didn't confuse invitation or opportunity with his calling

Never confuse an invitation or an opportunity with a calling

That is a good lesson for us…just because someone invites you....just because there’s an opportunity…that doesn’t mean God is calling you to it.

Maybe he wants someone else to step up.

Do you know what you were made for?

Followers Made we spend a lot of time talking about that very thing.

Some of us may think…well I could have used this earlier in my life, but he can’t be calling me to much now....Remember Zechariah…remember Abraham....well advanced in years when they were given a calling from God.

We are never too ANYTHING for God to use us.

John was humble…he knew who he was…and who he wasn’t; and he acted on it.

Humility

HE knows who is isn’t....but JTB also knows his calling…to be the voice of Isaiah.

In the OT, Isaiah was the prophet who announced the good news of the end of the the exile…Isaiah announced a new heaven and a new earth.

JTB said I’m not the way…i’m just a director.

Authority: obedience

Pharisees were concerned with order....authority…obedience.

If you aren’t the Christ, you aren’t Elijah, you aren’t a prophet....all who we accept we should listen to; then by what authority do you baptize?

This was a challenge to John's authority.

They most likely knew John as his father was one of them…therefore by birth, he shared the status of a priest, but here he was living as a Nazarene.

John responds…you are right, I baptize with water.

Obedience... John 1:23-27

The were most likely upset because he was claiming some authority…baptizing people for repentance.

And I guess you could say he was, but even bigger he was obeying a greater authority.

You may remember from back before he was born, when the angel said he will turn the hearts of fathers, he will bring people back to God’s wisdom

That authority was in his life and here he was being obedient to it.

In vs 24; “I am the voice....that's what I'm doing...I'm not the one with the authority, I’m just being faithful to what I have been called to.

Obedience reveals authority

In fact this authority that I’m obedient to John says…i’m not worthy to untie his sandals.

Shoes and feet in their world were very offensive things.

Pupils of Rabbis had to be willing to do everything that a slave would do…except touch the feet.

That was beneath a pupil…only a slave could do that.

What John is saying is I’m less than a slave to the one who is coming...

God had real authority over John…but it was his obedience that completed it.

Think of your life…God has authority for sure…but think of the things we give authority…the things we surrender to.

Success...

Love...

Family...

Reputation...

Comfort...

Age...

I think ultimately our surrender to these things are a substitute to surrendering to God.

When we walk in the spirit, we are living in obedience to God as our authority…not the law…but to his call on our life.

Humility and Obedience

Knowing your job....and doing your job are certainly steps you can take to be successful in life…in fact you can be very successful if you just focus on these two things…not looking for the next opportunity all the time, but paying attention to where you are right now....

Certainly lead to significance....

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But what makes a life eternally significant is

Right relationship

Lamb of God

…Abraham and Isaac…Passover

While he baptized for repentance....for parents to turn to their children…disobedient to wisdom…Israel back to God.

Turning back is a wonderful thing.

If you think about it, if you are moving away from Jesus…you have to turn around in order to go to him…but turning your will toward God is only part of our issue.

The other part is what about the past?

How can we atone for our past mistakes?

How can we make up for that?

If I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring God, living to please myself…seeking my own happiness.

How do I make up for the sins of my past.

If I owe you a debt, I can pay you back.

I can return the lawnmower.

But how can I pay back God?

I can’t.

That’s what the Lamb of God is all about.