Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION:

This morning we’re going to continue our series on the local church entitled “Family Matters.”

Doing a series on the church may sound irrelevant but I think it’s one of the most relevant topics we can address in 2022.

There is a growing apathy in the heart of people - even Christian people - towards involvement in the local church.

COVID accelerated this apathy but it has existed for a long time and it’s doing damage to local church and Christians throughout the culture.

A Christian without a Church is a Christian in trouble.

You may not feel like you’re in trouble but it’s just a matter of time until it begins to surface in your life.

We were made for community.

It’s part of our original design: introvert, extrovert, doesn’t matter.

If that’s true, then it’s also relevant for us to understand why the church matters and what matters in the church.

Review

Because these messages I’ve been preaching build upon each other I want to do a quick review of where we’ve been.

In week 1 we saw that the church should matter to us because it matters to GOD.

The Church was purchased with Christ’s blood.

(Acts 20:28)

The Church continues Christ’s presence/ministry on the earth.

(Acts 9:4-5)

The Church stewards Christ’s authority on the earth.

(Matthew 16:18-19)

Notice how all of these reasons are wrapped up in the person of Christ.

The Church matters be Christ matters.

The church matters to God because Christ matters to God and the Church is inextricably linked with the person and work of Christ.

If that’s true it’s also true that certain things really matter IN the church.

Members of a church need to be truly saved.

Members of a church need to be progressively sanctified.

Members of the church need to be joyfully submitted to Jesus.

Thankfully, Christ didn’t give us those expectations without also giving us the needed tools and resources to achieve those ends.

Those four things are...

Church ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper)

Church offices (pastors and deacons)

The Spirit (the Holy Spirit)

The Word (the Gospel/Scriptures)

We’ve already gone over the ordinances and the offices.

This morning we’re going to shift our attention the God’s Word.

The Word Does the Work

If we’re going to be a church submitted to the Lordship of Christ, we must also be a church that is commited to God’s Word.

A church that prioritizes the Word of God is a church that prioritizes the person of Christ.

You can’t have one without the other.

They always go together.

One of the things that brings me great comfort as a pastor is the conviction that God’s Word does the work.

All I am responsible to do is unleash it and reveal it.

The Power of God’s Word

God’s Word is POWERFUL.

Through His Word He...

Created Everything (Gen 1:1)

Cursed the Serpent (Gen 3:14)

Comforted Adam & Eve in their brokenness (Gen 3:15)

Called Abraham out of Ur into the Land of Promise (Gen 12)

Commissioned Moses to lead the Exodus (Exo 3:4)

Consecrated His people through the 10 Commandments (Exo 20:)

Confronted Them in their sin through the Prophets.

(1 Kings 18:1)

Ezekiel’s dream of dead bones living again came about because of the Word of God being preached to them.

(Ezk 37)

Before Jesus died on the cross for our sins he preached the Gospel to every city.

Before God acted to bring about our salvation he spoke so we could understand his acts.

In Romans 10:17 Paul makes clear that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD of Christ.

Rom 10:9 if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead YOU WILL BE SAVED.

God’s Word is power.

God’s Word is Life.

That’s why Broadview will forever be a church in which the Word of God dwells and lives.

Paul’s Theology of the Word

This morning we’re going to look at a passage of Scripture that gives us insight on the nature of God’s Word and why God has chosen to use His word to create his people and construct them into Christ’s image.

It’s in 2nd Timothy 3:14-17.

To give you some context, 2 Timothy was Paul’s final letter to a young pastor named Timothy.

He was responsible to pastor the church in Ephesus.

This letter is one of the “pastoral epistles” because they outline how local churches are to be structured and how pastors are to lead within those churches.

Near the end of the book he offers Timothy some encouragement.

He warns Timothy that the world is probably going to go from bad to worse.

People are going to become more wicked, deceived, deceptive and violent towards those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus.

Timothy’s hope and power for moving forward was grounded in the Word of God.

2 Timothy 3:14–17 (CSB)

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.

You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I want us to examine two things from this text.

God’s Word creates and God’s Word constructs.

God’s Word Creates

First, God creates his people through His Word.

You can see this theme throughout all of Scripture but you see it explicitly right here in 2 Timothy.

Paul tells Timothy “Keep abiding in God’s Word (and preaching God’s Word) because that Word “is able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”

That sentence is profound because it creates a connection between the Words of Scripture and the person and work of Christ.

One of the reasons I’m so committed to expository preaching where the main point of the sermon is the main point of my text is because God has uniquely inspired His Word to point people to Jesus.

The written Word and the living Word always go together.

The OT and Jesus

Now the “Scriptures” that Paul is referencing here are not the completed 66 books of the Bible we have today.

The Scriptures as Timothy would’ve understood them would’ve been the Old Testament.

But even the Old Testament, Paul says, is able to make someone wise for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We also saw this in Luke 24 after Jesus had risen from the dead and he was walking on the Emmaus road with his disciples.

"Starting with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.”

(Luke 24:27)

In the Gospels Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and other religious leaders.

He says, John 5:39 “You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.”

The Scriptures are inspired by God and worthy of our trust and submission because they lead us into an awareness of our need for Christ and the Gospel.

God’s Word makes us wise for salvation by showing us Jesus.

Paul’s Theology of Revelation

There’s another place where Paul makes idea even more explicit.

It’s in his letter to the local church in Corinth. 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

2 Corinthians 4:1–6 (CSB)

1 Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up. 2 Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.