Sermon Tone Analysis

What are we willing to trade for the Riches of the Kingdom of God?

What is the goal of life?

To accumulate the most money.

This is what one can learn from reading the obituary of Reuben Klamer, the creator of the board game, “The game of Life,” who died September 14, 2021, at the age of 99.

When the game was introduced in 1960, the purpose was to earn the most wealth.

The way you got there was simple enough—by going to college, getting a job, buying insurance, saving for retirement.

That was “indicative of what sold in that era,” a former Hasbro VP said.

Over time, designers realized that the game didn’t reflect consumers’ changing views of #lifegoals.

So they gave it a big update in 2007, allowing players to score points for virtuous deeds like saving an endangered species, opening a health-food chain, and recycling.

And instead of starting the game at point A and finishing at point Z, there is no fixed path: You decide how you want to spend your time.

One question that popped up is: If the popular view of what matters in life changed so much in less than 50 years, who’s to say it won’t shift again in the next 50?

How will you win life in 2057?

But as Jill Lepore wrote in The New Yorker, the redesign teams always had a hard time addressing the fundamental criticism of the game — that the only way to reward a player for virtuous acts was with money: “Save an Endangered Species: Collect $200,000.

Solution to Pollution: $250,000.

Open Health-Food Chain: $100,000.”

And so, the company’s 2007 overhaul, the Game of Life: Twists & Turns, was almost existential.

Instead of putting players on a fixed path, it provided multiple ways to start out in life — but nowhere to finish.

“This is actually the game’s selling point; it has no goal,” Ms. Lepore wrote.

“Life is … aimless.”

What is the meaning of life?

This is the question that many people still struggle with today.

Many find all the answers they try are truly does not satisfy the deepest longing for significance.

Every good James bond movie starts with a self destructing message that gives the scope of the mission and the final words if you should choose to accept it.

This is Jesus laying out the requirements for life as a disciple of Christ if you should so choose to accept it.

Note: All three of the synoptic gospel writers almost wrote verbatim word for word the same thing that Jesus instructed them concerning following Him.

There are three things that take place back to back with the call to take up their cross and follow Jesus.

(1).

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

Jesus asks the question who do people say that I am? followed by the more important question; Who do you say that I am?

Peter you are the Christ the son of the living God.

(following this Jesus declared that Peter would be the rock on which He would build his Church and which the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

(2).

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

Jesus foretells his death and resurrection at which time Peter took him aside and rebuked Him for saying such a thing.

(Jesus responds by calling him Satan and accusing him of not setting his mind on things above.

A few moments early Jesus had called Peter a rock.

Now he calls him a different kind of “rock,” a skandalon (“a stumbling block”).

(3).

The Transfiguration

Following the call to take up their cross Jesus took Peter James and John with him to the mountains where he was transfigured and Moses and Elijah appeared talking to him.

(Peter so overwhelmed by the sight that he suggested that he make a tent for each of them to commemorate this experience, about that time God spoke and commanded them to listen to what Jesus was telling them to do.

Jesus uses three occasions to remind His disciples of who He is and the mission that is ahead for them to complete if they should choose to accept it.

1st you have the Kingdom of the Church revealed.

The Church that Jesus is going to build is through us, and this Church will not be destroyed, illusions to the temple in Jerusalem that would eventually fall.

Jesus is also declaring to his disciples that He is handing over the keys to the Kingdom which will come through His death.

2nd you have the price of the kingdom revealed.

Jesus chose this time to clearly point to the cost for securing the kingdom of heaven.

The Cross like for Judas will always appear foolish to those who are perishing.

Peters rebuke of Jesus shows how little he truly understood about the kind of Messiahship Jesus had in mind.

3rd you have the glory of the kingdom revealed.

six days after Jesus had given the qualifications for discipleship He chose to reveal His glory by allowing three of His closest followers to have a look into His glory.

Peter again, is still trying to establish His Kingdom here on earth, failing to see the eternal Kingdom principle.

Note: It is interesting that twice in these three events Jesus commands the disciples to remain silent about who He really was until after the resurrection.

Why would Jesus ask for their silence.

Now in between all of this Kingdom revelation you have the requirements of the Kingdom.

The Comfort zone is the place that many of us find ourselves living on a regular basis.

The comfort zone is the place where self-denial rarely finds its footing; doing the will of God seems unreasonable; and the daily reality of counting the cost to follow Jesus rarely if ever crosses our mind.

What is Discipleship?

Everyone is a disciple of something or someone.

Discipleship is the process of training people incrementally in some discipline or way of life.

True discipleship is a long term investment.

It takes allot of time, energy, and commitment and is not for the faint of heart.

The call for all believers is to go and make disciples of all nations.

If I asked you this morning how many of you have made one disciple in your spiritual lifetime I wonder how many hands would go up.

The reality is that very few Christians ever follow the command to go and make disciples.

We love coming and being taught and discipled but, the idea of making disciples scares us.

Why?

I believe that for many of us it is because we have never truly taken up our cross to follow Jesus in the first place.

We have never truly accepted the mission of the Cross.

BIG IDEA: We must learn to embrace the UNCOMFORTABLE if we are going to live to experience the INCORRUPTIBLE

1. Are you living for the comfort of self or are you willing to be uncomfortable at the foot of the cross?

The cost of discipleship involves daily denial of self-interests and desires.

“And they crucified him… And sitting down they watched him there” (Matthew 27:35-36).

Like those Roman soldiers, many of us merely lapse into inaction.

We sit back around Easter and watch the crucifixion played out over, and over again.

But the cross was never meant to be a spectacle for us to sit and view, it is infinitely more than a showcase, an exhibit to arouse our curiosity.

It is a clear and present call to action, commitment, and discipleship.

Following Jesus meant conflict with ease and comfort which places us at conflict with ourselves.

Self:

The concept of self is one of the most puzzling of all concepts.

The self is in one respect the most familiar of all entities; I am constantly aware of my self.

Yet the self is also in some way the most deeply mysterious and profound of all entities with which humans deal with on a daily basis.

If we are going to open up selfhood we must first reflect on the way that humans use the word “I”.

When I say I, normally I am referring to a certain human person, Pastor Mark.

However, the word I cannot be replaced by the name or other identifying label.

Even if I were to get amnesia and forget my name, and not longer knew who I was, I would still in one sense know what I would be referring to by I.

I would still be referring to myself.

I am a self, a being who can say I but also can do so in this special way.

I can refer to myself as the self that I am conscious of being and that I cannot be mistaken in thinking myself to be, however mistaken my other beliefs about the self may be.

Many philosophers have argued that the concept of self also seems essential to understanding human mental abilities, particularly our cognitive functions of knowing and being known.

*The enemy of discipleship is OURSELVES

“How can a man say that he believes in Christ, who does not do what Christ commands him to do.”

- Cyprian of Carthage

Note: I think this text is a great marker to show the difference between whether someone is a mature Christian or still in infancy as a believer.

INDICATIONS OF INFANCY

More concerned with self than service (most Christians are spectators rather than participants)

More concerned with argument than action.

(we would rather complain about what the Church is not doing)

Looking to man rather than to God. (We find ourselves naval gazing instead of upward gazing)

The Mature Christian is a Believer with a mission

INDICATIONS OF MATURITY

More concerned with service than self (looks for way’s to serve the Church and other people without regard for what is it going to cost me.)

More concerned with action not argument (does not get tied up in the petty needless arguments but takes action to make disciples of all nations.