Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Who do People Say Jesus is?

In the bible story today, some people had Jesus very wrong.

John the Baptist

Elijah or One of the Prophets

Some people thought he was Elijah or one of the other prophets.

Now the prophets were special people who God spoke through.

But just like John the Baptist, they only pointed forward to Jesus, so Jesus was more exciting than an prophet!

Jesus is the Messiah

The Conquering King

The Conquered King?

What a downer!

They want a King who will rule and reign and defeat the Romans, and Jesus says he’s going to die?

But you see, Jesus dying was the most exciting thing of all.

Because Jesus knew, that the biggest problem that God’s people faced wasn’t the Romans.

It wasn’t that they were being opressed and treated badly.

They were actually slaves to sin.

We’ve talked about sin yesterday, it’s when we decide that we know better than god, and live our own way, as if he didn’t exist.

And there are very real consequences.

It’s very clear, that the consequence for sin is death.

But that’s why Jesus’ death is so exciting.

Because when he died he took the punishment we deserve.

He died, so that we could live forever in heaven with him.

And if that’s our future, who cares about the Romans?

And that makes us slaves!

As we sin more and more

And he didn’t just say he would die, he also said he would rise again.

And I, and all the leaders here believe that he did just that.

He died, taking the punishment we deserve and rose again, just like he promised that we will one day.

So then, who do you think Jesus is?

Because that’s really the only question that matters.

If Jesus is the Messiah, God’s promised king, then that changes everything.

We’re going into small groups later on to talk about that a bit more, but if for the first time you’ve decided that Jesus is your king, and you want to live for him forever, please talk to a leader during snack or your small group, we’d love to help you do just that.

I’m going to pray and then we’ll sing another song