Sermon Tone Analysis

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The king is coming; he offers peace to rebels
Hi - I’m Matt and I’m one of the leaders here.
It’s my privilege to speak to you this morning.
Sometimes don’t you wish someone was in charge?
Man, this brexit thing really is a mess, isn’t it?
I don’t think there’s anyone who can be pleased with how it’s gone.
Who’s in charge?
Clearly not the prime minister.
Not clear parliament is, either.
Are the people?
Many would question that!
Are the EU in charge, perhaps?
Don’t you wish there was someone sensible, someone principled in charge at a moment like this?
And although it’s hard to do given just how much brexit seems to have dominated everything forever here, if we were to think a bit larger, and consider something other than this one issue, on a global scale it’s really not clear anyone’s in charge in the wider world.
While nation vies against nation, jostling for position, our world is ever more full of wrongs - wrongs which just aren’t being put right.
Don’t you wish sometimes there was someone in charge, someone who could sort things out?
About two thousand years ago, Christians believe something happened which fundamentally changed the world: the king came.
The God who rules the universe, the one to whom everyone must bow, the one with all power, walked among us.
Jesus, God himself come in the flesh.
But if that’s true, how come our world is still such a mess?
God’s plan to change the world wasn’t what everyone was expecting: they were expecting him to walk in and show who’s boss, to clean things up and take charge by force.
Instead, to change the world, he planned to change us - and he would do that through an ever-expanding movement built around a life-transforming message of peace.
Perhaps you’ve heard lots about Jesus, his message and his movement.
Perhaps you’ve hardly ever heard of the guy at all.
Today we’re going to take just a few minutes to dig into a section of the book of Luke which is a biography of Jesus, a telling of his life story.
As a church, we’ve been working through this biography bit by bit over the last months - and today we come to a part which shows us more of how Jesus plans on carrying out this world-changing mission.
We’re going to hear a section of the bible read now by Dace - and if you’d like to follow along, the words will be up on the screen but also you can find them in your own bible or use one of our blue ones like this.
Find page ____ and we’ll pick up the story at Luke chapter 10.
Page _______ and then look for the big 10, chapter 10.
Jesus, called the Lord in this section, is just about to take another big step forward in his mission:
Luke 10:1-24
There’s a huge amount going on in here - more than I’m going to be able to cover in much detail this morning.
If you want to dig in some more, why not plan on joining us back here at 5pm tonight when we’ll be looking at this passage again, this time in small groups.
You’d all be really welcome.
What’s the big picture here?
A while back, Jesus sent out 12 of his followers to spread his message; here he scales up the operation, sending out 72.
He explains their mission is huge and urgent, announcing the kingdom of God has come near - but it won’t be welcomed by everyone.
Then in v17, that’s the little 17, it seems this mission has been completed and the 72 come back to report, excited about the powers they got to wield - but Jesus wants them to be excited about who they have come to know instead.
Here’s what we’re going to focus in on for our time together: the message these followers of Jesus are sent with: “the kingdom of God has come near”.
What does that mean?
Why does it produce these two different responses, welcome and rejection?
And then we’ll think just a little about what it means for us, here and today.
The Kingdom of God
So let’s start with this “Kingdom of God” which shows up in this passage a bunch of times.
What exactly is that?
Well, a kingdom, simply put, is the place where someone’s king.
Like the United Kingdom - well, ok, fair enough, we have a queen instead.
But the point is this is United Kingdom the domain that the Queen rules.
So the Kingdom of God?
Well, that’s the domain where God rules.
Now I don’t know if you believe in God, but imagine for a minute you did: if there was an all-powerful God, wouldn’t it make sense - logically - that everywhere would be under his rule, so everywhere would be his kingdom?
Wouldn’t he be just as much in charge in the UK as in France? and absolutely everywhere else? Isn’t that what all-powerful means?
So how can we be talking about a Kingdom of God that’s coming near to people, that’s pictured here as sort of breaking into the world?
Well, the Bible tells us the story of our world has been a story of rebellion from the very beginning.
And back when this was written, just like today, much of the world really is living in rebellion against God, rejecting him as king.
Now he could come and take his kingdom back by force - but that’s not God’s way.
Not yet, at least.
So what’s being described when we read about this “kingdom of God” breaking in, coming near to people - like these messengers of Jesus are told to announce in verse 9 - is like a re-invasion of a country by it’s true king; a liberation mission.
When these followers of Jesus are sent out, they’re like the paratroopers dropped in ahead of the army, announcing the true king called - and he wants his world back.
That’s why Jesus pictures their mission as him “sending [them] out like lambs among wolves” - v3 - outnumbered, outgunned and on hostile territory.
Rejecting the king
And when this message arrives in these different towns there are two responses described for us here.
Some people welcome Jesus’ messengers - but others reject them flat out.
Why?
Why do you think people reject this message that the Kingdom of God has drawn near?
Perhaps some of the people hearing it don’t really think there is such a king.
So this is just a false alarm with no significance for real life.
It can seem like a lot of people think this way today: no such thing as God - just physics and chemistry, a lot of time, and freak chance.
Nothing was created, it just always was and then evolved.
There’s no point, no purpose, no sense, no rules, no king.
It just is what it is.
But I think a lot of us have a sense there’s more going on - more to this world, more to life - and I think a lot of people did back then too.
A recent survey showed over 70% of people in the UK would pray if their back was really up against the wall.
So perhaps it’s not so much rejection because we’re confident there’s no king.
Perhaps it’d be more honest to say we reject this idea of a king coming back because we want to be king.
We want to be the ones calling the shots, making the rules.
We want to be free to do what we want any old time.
And you know what someone else coming in, claiming to be king means for that?
Trouble.
I think that’s probably more of what drove these towns back then to reject Jesus’ messengers.
I think that’s probably more of what drives us today when we turn away.
“I’ll have no king but me.”
But need to take an honest look at the world that this has made for us.
When we say we can do what we like, when we declare ourselves king, no-one to rule over us, we leave the evil in our own hearts unchecked.
We leave the evil in our world unchecked.
And there is a lot of evil in this world.
Perhaps you’re fortunate enough not to have met it face to face yet.
But I suspect many of us have seen the darkness in this world - some of us have felt it directly.
This is what comes from us rejecting our king: a broken world.
But it’s worse than that - you see, like Jesus says here, when these towns are rejecting his messengers, they’re not just rejecting the messengers - they’re rejecting the one who sent them.
In Luke 10:16 Jesus says this: “whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
And they’re not just rejecting the king, they’re rejecting the king who is coming.
These messengers Jesus sends out, when they’re rejected they’re told to give a warning: verse 11 “the kingdom of God has come near.”
Make no mistake, people: the king is approaching.
Jesus talks about a coming day of judgement here - when those who reject this king will face the consequences.
He talks about how they’ve been given an amazing chance to choose peace instead of war, to bow the knee - but now, by choosing to continue in rebellion, they’re lining themselves up for the coming face-off, setting themselves in opposition to God when he comes in all his power.
Welcoming the king
But there’s not just rejection here - Jesus makes it clear some are going to welcome this coming king too.
What does it mean to welcome him?
It’s got to mean bowing to the king and his authority, right?
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