Sermon Tone Analysis

*Pleasing God through Obedience (Luke 3:21-22)*

*Intro: *“I'm quitting,” my friend said.

He had held that job two whole days and now was walking away.

“They want me to work in an office with unbelievers and I just can't function in that kind of atmosphere.”

I suspect it's not that at all.

Jack's problem is he cannot take a job and stay with it.

You and I live in a culture of quitting.

People try marriage, find it hard, and quit.

They try jobs, find them difficult, and walk away.

They take up diet and fitness programs for a few weeks, then quit.

They start going to church and they quit.

Half the members on many church rolls rarely darken the doors of the church.

What happened to them?

They quit.

We, as a culture seem so shortsighted.

I love the phrase coined by one of the most infamous philosophers of the 20th century.

“A long obedience in the same direction.”

Fredrich Nietzsche, who is famous for having announced the death of God and is now long dead himself, is the German philosopher who wrote these words.

Nietzsche recognized a culture that desired to live an easy life and an easy faith.

These are his exact words: “The essential thing in heaven and earth is… that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.”

(A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p.17).

A church member told his pastor that he was going to the Holy Land.

He said that it was his intention to visit Mount Sinai.

“In fact,” he told the minister, “I plan to climb to the top of that mountain, and read the Ten Commandments aloud when I get there.”

Thinking this would please the pastor, he was surprised to hear, “You know, I can think of something even better than that.”

The man responded, “You can, Pastor?

And what might that be?”

He replied rather bluntly, “Instead of traveling thousands of miles to read the Ten            Commandments on Mount Sinai, why not stay right here at home and keep them?”

*    **Give Background.

The Jewish people of Jesus’ day had the word of God and the promise of God’s messiah, but there hearts were far from God.

Some came to be baptized, yet many did not.

*Time: Jesus was approximately 30 *(vv.

23).*.

Setting: This marks the peak of John the Baptist’s ministry and we see John the Baptist and Jesus together.

John the Baptist’s ministry will now fade to make way for the Messiah, Jesus.

We have in the baptism of Jesus one of two incidents where Jesus as a man is confirmed as being the Son of God and God’s Messiah or anointed in a supernatural way by God the Father.*

Read Luke 3:21-22 (with v. 23 and 38) *

*EXPOSITION:*

*1.

**Jesus Was God (vv.

21-22 - Triune Manifestation)*

a.        Baptism – Of the Son

              i.

Why was He Baptized?

He did not need to repent.

ii.

John’s baptism was of repentance and symbolized the needs of ones who were out of relationship with God and unacceptable to Him in spite of their Jewish ancestry.

iii.

Jesus was baptized in obedience to the Father to fulfill all righteousness, and to be identified with the sinners He came to save, and to be identified as the Promised Messiah.

b.       Confirmation – From the Holy Spirit – Anointed, Christ, Messiah

c.        Revelation – From the Father

*2.

**Jesus Obeyed the Father (v.

21)*

a.

No competing wills- He said,“I and the Father are one.”-

in divinity and purpose

b.       Surrender and Submission to God.

*3.

**Jesus Pleased the Father (v.

22)*

a.        Jesus was unique.

– Only Begotten; One and only.

(Genealogy)

b.       Jesus was perfect.

– Sinless; completely obedient.

*Application:*

*1.       **Pleasing God through our obedience has nothing to do with our worth~/ value or salvation *

a.        NOT, Perfectionism.

Perfectionism – is trying to prove my worth by following certain rules or doing certain activities.

*b.        *Pleasing God is responding to God’s love for us, by surrendering our will to Him, obeying His commands, and trusting God completely with the results.

*APP: Don’t be a perfectionist.

Don’t try to twist the hand of God with obedience.

Find joy in God and obey God out of love for Him.

*We obey to please God not to make ourselves right with God.

We obey God in response to what He has done for us and in us, not so we will be saved.

Our value is to be found in that we were created in the image of God and if we have been saved.

Our value is not based on our sinfulness or our good performance, but on Jesus righteousness and the cross.

* *

*2.       **We exist to please God and enjoy God  *

*APP: Enjoy God and you will please Him.

We get enjoyment out many earthly things.

We take too little joy in God and what He has done for us in Christ.

*

*ILL:* Trust and Obey – Read lyrics verse 1 &4

*Verse 1:*                When we walk with the Lord

In the light of His word*                                    Chorus:*                 Trust and obey

What a glory He sheds on our way                               For there's no other way

While we do His good will                                               To be happy in Jesus

He abides with us still                                      But to trust and obey         

And with all who will trust and obey

*Verse 4:*                But we never can prove

The delights of His love

Until all on the altar we lay

For the favor He shows

And the joy He bestows

Are for them who will trust and obey

 

*3.

**We cannot please or enjoy God without obeying God *

a.        Obeying the Gospel-You cannot please or enjoy God if you don’t know Him.

              i.

Obeying the gospel is not obeying a set of rules -- Do you know why so many people who profess to be Christians are disobedient to God?

They often do not really know God.

They never had a life-changing experience with God.

They are not obeying God because they know and love God, but they are trying to obey certain rules taught in the Bible to try to get to heaven.

Obedience to a set of rules never got anyone to heaven.

ii.

Obeying the gospel is personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord -- WE can only be saved when we turn from our sin and trust in Jesus Christ alone.

We trust in his sacrificial death on the cross.