Mr. T’s Twitter account is great (@MrT). He tweets Bible verses and great words of encouragement. On Easter Sunday, Mr. T tweeted a video of his two-minute sermon.
A transcript of Mr. T’s Easter sermon
I listened to his sermon a couple of times, and then the third time I played it at 0.5x speed and typed as he spoke. I hope I captured all the words correctly.
Jesus is alive. Jesus has risen. My heart is overflowing with love and joy. I am so excited, happy, and honored to be here with you this morning. What a blessing it is to share with you and break bread with you. Thank you for inviting me. Now as we celebrate Easter, let us always remember and never forget what this day is all about. Because Easter is more than the Easter bunny, Easter eggs. Easter is all about the passion, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Who died on the cross at Calvary.
In the Bible, in Romans the fifth chapter, eighth verse says, “but God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus’ death was vicarious. That is, Jesus did not die merely for our benefit. But Jesus died in our place. Jesus was the substitute sacrifice. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. In other words, Jesus who was innocent, with no criminal record, with no sin, but he took our sin, and guilty plea, so we can go home free.
My brothers and my sisters, that’s what Easter is all about. John 3:16 says it best, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Thank you Jesus Good God Almighty.
I’m fairly certain that Mr. wrote this himself. In 2018, he gave a longer sermon to Cosmopolitan Community Church in Chicago. He talked about how he mulled over for months about what he was going to say.
I’ve beeen working on this here message, and so honored that the pastor asked me to speak. I told him, “I’m preparing. I’m preparing.”
About a month ago, he asked me. I said, “Pastor I’m not ready yet”
But I’m ready today and I worked on here this message. And I’ll like to say is “blood, sweat, and tears.” But there’s no blood unless I pricked my finger turning pages. But there was some sweat, and there was some tears.
Couple weeks I working on my message. And I just start crying, I thought about my mother. (pause) Let me just get on. I tell you what if you have your Bibles, I would like to invite you to the gospel of St. Luke…
Thus, he gives thought to his sermons. This 2022 Easter sermon is another example of that.
But let’s double-check to make sure these words didn’t appear elsewhere online. Let’s google some of the phrases from his 2022 Easter sermon.
Jesus’ death was vicarious
The phrase “Jesus’ death was vicarious.” That exact phrase occurs 57 times in Google’s results. None of the 57 examples have the other text from his sermon. So we can be fairly certain these words were not pulled from elsewhere.
How wonderful that Mr. uses the word “vicarious” to describe Jesus’s death. I don’t know what that word specifically means, so I had to look up “vicarious”.
Merriam-Webster defines vicarious as
1: experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another
—a vicarious thrill2a: serving instead of someone or something else
2b: that has been delegated
—vicarious authority3: performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another : SUBSTITUTIONARY
—a vicarious sacrifice4: occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one
—vicarious menstruation manifested by bleeding from the nose
Interesting how Merriam-Webster says that vicarious is done for the benefit for another. Yet, Mr. T clarifies the vicarious death of Jesus as “That is, Jesus did not die merely for our benefit. But Jesus died in our place.”
Thus, Mr. T is actually correcting the common knowledge of what vicarious is. But I’m still trying to make the distinction Mr. T is making about vicrious—that Christ didn’t die merely for our benefit, but to take our place. Aren’t those two things the same here?
Anyhow, let’s look at another phrase from his sermon to see if it exists anywhere else online.
“Easter is all about the passion, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
This phrase doesn’t exist anywhere online. Original words to Mr. T.
Let’s look at one more phrase.
“Jesus who was innocent, with no criminal record”
Again, no results here on Google. Pure Mr. T thoughts.
What version of the Bible does Mr. T use?
Does Mr. T use the ESV translation? Or maybe the NIV? Looking up the two verses he references in his sermon, we’ll see what translation he uses:
- Romans 5:8: “but God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
- John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Those are the King James Bible. Yeah, the “commendeth” and “believeth” gives it away.
Mr. T quotes a ton of Scripture on his Twitter. Looking at some of his recent tweets, he continues to use the King James version.
Yes, indeed these are verses from the KJV (King James Version).
Here’s hoping that Mr. T will give more sermons in the future. May God bless him.