Sermon Tone Analysis

- Where I'm from – the Gold Coast – we have an attraction called “Ripley's Believe it or not”

Speak it Straight, Speak it True

Date: 21-04-19 830 Echuca

- Where I'm from – the Gold Coast – we have an attraction called “Ripley's Believe it or not”

- They tell & show all sorts of things that seem so unreal that they are unbelievable

- Recently, I have seen a spate of magicians on the TV pulling off all sorts of tricks which causes the audience, in awe, to question how they did it

------------------

Q. Do you find some things hard to believe?

- In the OT, the Philistines send out their giant to face some brave Israelite with which he will do battle & this battle decides who wins & loses the war

- When the Philistine champion comes out, he faces someone that is barely much more than a boy whose name is David

- David is a young man who has a big heart for God & is deeply offended by the arrogant Philistine & his boasts

Q. Could a young man of smallish statue actually win against a giant?

- Surely, this would be worthy of Ripley's believe it or not!

--------------------

- David knows he is twice his size; he knows he has never fought any battle before with a man, let alone a giant of a man

- As a shepherd, he was pretty handy with a sling – hardly the instrument, though, of warfare

- But David knew something unique – this was not his battle – it was the Lord's battle

--------------------

- He trusts in the Lord for victory, because of the word of God spoken through Samuel the prophet & Samuel anointing him as king

- As king, he knew that he was representing Israel & relying on the promises of God to Israel

- This giant of a man was doomed

- David's boldness came hot on the heels of the anointing he received from Samuel

------------------

- Goliath may come out to him with spear, sword & javelin - the mighty weapons of human warfare – but David comes out to him with nothing but a sling & a stone BUT in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel

- While David was far weaker, far smaller, & far under equipped for the battle, he defeats Goliath with a sling & a stone

- In the weakness of this lad, the victory was seen to be totally of God

—47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”

- and David said this to Goliath before he killed him

1.

The Ordinary Messenger

- When we think of the weapons of Goliath – weapons that are judged by the world as the instruments that bring victory – they don't stack up against the work of the Lord through a sling & a stone

- In a similar way, we see the apostle Paul insisting that the unacceptable message of the cross is more than sufficient to bring men & women to God

----------------------

- In their love of orators – those with rich, polished rhetoric & speech – the Corinthian church has sought the weapons of the world to win battles for Christ

- But the weapons of the world have brought the world into the church & those weapons are being used to bring one another down

- There is quarrelling in the church; factions have developed

- The apostle has found that they were leaving the cross behind because they think it is unacceptable to the public

- Public opinion has become their standard for what will be acceptable in the Christian church

---------------------

- Interestingly, on the Bolt Report, on Thursday night, Andrew Bolt himself an self-confessed agnostic (agnostic is someone who doesn't know if God is true or not) said that the problem with the church is that it's leaders don't want to look to be out of step with public opinion

- He praised Israel Folau for his courage to stand, by what he believes

- He recognises that the church, instead of standing firm on what they believe, are actually changing what they believe to suit the public

- He called out the pope for the way he is adopting worldly premises – the populist views & not holding to Christian truth

--------------------

- Last week, we looked at the previous passage in 1 Cor.

& saw how the apostle Paul said that God chose them, even though, they were not the choice of the world

- The world judges in very different ways from the Lord

- Paul now puts his own head on the chopping block & says that He, like them, is one of the outcasts

---------------

- What a resumé: weak, fearful, trembling, a self-confessed lousy speaker with no articulation of the worldly wisdom the Corinthians so cherished

—9 for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.

10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”

- He is a model of the work of the cross, just like them

- He is also an illustration of how God is able to use the weak to confound the strong

- We see that in truth because the Corinthians believed his message, in spite of his inadequacies & in spite of his avoidance of their cherished worldly-wise talk

---------------------

- So we see that his speech was not worldly wise nor lofty

Q.

What does this say about the modern message in evangelism?

- So & so is a really good speaker, we need to listen to him!

Why?

- Because he is funny, entertaining or because he has good stories to tell us, or he is inspiring – there's a big one for you – he's inspiring!

- But the apostle did not make emotional pleas, he did not seek to entertain; there were no gimmicks, no smooth or flattering speech – frankly, he was unimpressive

- Paul wants converts, not compliments

- What he proves is that the power of the gospel did not come from its messenger

--------------------

- The first “great awakening” - the name given to an incredible evangelical revival that happened in 1730's - 1740's in Britain & it's colonies in America – happened all of a sudden

- There was no showmanship, antics, or populist appeals

- In fact, the prominent minister at the time, Jonathan Edwards, was a monotone preacher and he read his messages to the crowds

- His messages were about 2-3 hours long

---------------------

- A wave of repentance swept over the people & he describes what happened in his memoirs

- People were dropping to their knees all over the place & calling out to God for forgiveness

- An incredible change swept the place & it changed the culture for years & years to come – the fruit of that revival continued

- This is what happens when God acts in spite of the monotone reading of a script that went on for 2-3 hrs

- Oh, & his most famous sermon is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

2. The Content of the Message

- A director of evangelism for a denomination in America spoke of his disappointment when a young, bright, but ambitious preacher came forward to be involved in the work

- This young man had a desire for a certain kind of success

- He asked the director, “What do people like today”?

- He went on to say that people no longer like to hear about hellfire & brimstone & that the psychological fad is also fading

- The director said that he felt a “deep sadness” come over him when the young man wanted him to predict the next listeners fad & that he intended to adopt it

----------------------

- Politics is said to be the art of compromise

- Perhaps, more true today than ever before

- Rarely do we see politicians, with who would say they believe in God, be faithful to those beliefs, when it comes to enacting legislation

- We tend to see, however, more courage & conviction from those on the godless side of politics

- Thankfully, though, the godly are beginning to stand up for the truth

—37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king.

For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

- “Everyone on the side of truth hears My voice”, says Jesus

Q.

What did Jesus mean by that?

-----------------

- Truth is not some intellectual exercise which delineates whether a person is right or wrong

- What Jesus has in mind is faithfulness to the reality of what God has done & what God is doing

- I like the word, loyalty – loyalty & faithfulness go together - & this is what Jesus is like

- He is not the thief who comes to steal, kill & destroy, He is the good shepherd who faithfully represents God in His Person & in God's will

- He is faithful, in speaking that, which faithfully represents the truth of God

--------------------------

- We come to this passage & Paul says that he determined to know nothing except Jesus & Him crucified

- There was nothing fashionable about this message

- On the contrary, it was an offence to the Jew & madness to the Gentile

- This was not the way to gain adherents, as far as the world was concerned

-------------------

- Many Christians still think, however, that you need to imitate your culture, for the culture to hear your message

- Now I do think it is important to communicate well & I certainly try to do that

- But WHAT you communicate is another matter altogether

- The apostle is speaking against the downplaying of Christ-crucified in order to win people over to your faith

--------------------

- There is a saying that I like & it goes like this – note it carefully

“What you win them with, you win them to”

- In other words, if you win people over with a Jesus other than the Jesus the apostles preached, you win them to that Jesus

- That Jesus may not be the Jesus of the Bible

------------------

- The message of Christ-crucified to Paul's society was like someone at a very fashionable dinner-party, loudly, telling the story about how he'd seen rats eating the body of a dead dog in the street

- There would be an expression of shock, disgust & “how inappropriate” from those at the table