Sermon Tone Analysis
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Who am I?
Have you ever asked yourself that question over your lifetime?
I have on several occasions.
On Friday I had the opportunity to speak at the First Friday meeting at the Somerset library.
I was asked to introduce myself.
I started of course with my name.
I said I worked for UPMC as a drug and alcohol therapist.
I said I was married.
I said I had 7 kids and 4 grand kids.
I said that I was a pastor.
I said that I had served in the Air Force for 20 years.
I said a lot about what I was and the many hats that I wear or have worn.
I really didn’t state who I was.
This thought of Who am I has been running through my mind for a month or more.
That thought has expanded to include the church, this church to be Who are we.
It is really easy to say that I am a Christian.
We say that we attend the Church of the Nazarene.
I still hear people say that they are protestant which implies they are not Roman Catholic.
Paul answers the question of Who am I in verse 20 of our text this morning.
He wrote
That is the King James translation of what Paul wrote.
From the little that I remember from the one class I took on the Greek language, the perfect tense is being used there when Paul writes “I am crucified.”
The perfect tense “is used to describe a completed action which produced results which are still in effect all the way up to the present.”
[1]
When Paul was confronted by Jesus as he was on the road headed to Damascus and he fell down before Jesus, He was crucified with Christ.
We’re going to look at what that meant to Paul and what it means for us today.
In the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, there is a section that is titled Covenant of Christian Conduct.
This section describes how we as a church and as individuals should live out our Christian faith.
In the introduction to that section there is a paragraph with these words:
The church joyfully proclaims the good news that we may be delivered from all sin to a new life in Christ.
By the grace of God we Christians are “to put off the old self ”—the old patterns of conduct as well as the old carnal mind—and are “to put on the new self ”—a new and holy way of life as well as the mind of Christ.
[2]
I have said many times that some Christians seem like they were baptized in dill pickle juice.
There is no joy in their lives.
If you have truly received the good news and accepted it then you should be one of the most joyful people that lives.
As I’ve thought about Who am I and Who are we, I’ve wondered what kind of impression we give to the world around us.
The Manual says that the “church joyfully proclaims the good news that we may be delivered from all sin to a new life in Christ.”
One of the words that comes to my mind when I think about why the church is not being effective in reaching people for the Kingdom of God is the word “Relevance.”
We have to use caution when we talk about the church being relevant in our culture.
I does not mean that we change the message.
The meaning of that word is “relation to the matter at hand.”
What is the matter at hand?
The matter at hand is sin and God through Jesus came died for all of our sin so that we could have new life in Jesus.
The joyful news that we as a church and individuals should be proclaiming is this:
Lets take a look at the meaning of this Crucifixion that Paul writes about.
One of my favorite commentators identified three words that captures the meaning of that word.
The first word is Pardon.
Being crucified with Christ brings pardon.
Pardon is forgiveness from sin.
It also implies a restoration of relationship.
When sin entered the world, the relationship that Adam and Eve had with God was broken and damaged.
Pardon restores that relationship.
Pardon also implies a passionate urge to never sin again.
That is a vital fact about pardon.
Is pardon or forgiveness real if we just continue living the way that we lived before being encountered by Christ?
Paul wrote in verse 18:
Gal 2:18 “18 If I rebuild the very things that I tore down, I show that I myself am breaking the Law.”
If I rebuild the very things that I tore down.
Those sins that we sought forgiveness for, if I start doing them again then I am a sinner.
2 Cor 5:14-15 “14 The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died.
15 He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.”
When we come to faith in Jesus and receive pardon and forgiveness we died to sin.
We should not be living for ourselves.
Take for example a gossip who says that they have gotten saved.
If they have, then that sin of gossip is forgiven.
But, if they continue to gossip, they are still living a sinful life and they will not make it to heaven unless they truly find forgiveness for that sin.
If you’ve come to faith in Jesus but are still doing the things that God has identified as being sinful in this Book then you are in danger of eternal separation from God.
The Bible has a lot to say about sin.
Paul wrote later in this letter:
Wow, preacher, you are being pretty negative.
No, we need to be reminded that Who I am depends on how I live my life.
I am Crucified with Christ!
The second word about this crucifixion is this.
2 - Being crucified with Christ brings Power.
This power comes from Christ living within us.
Paul said “I no long live, but Christ lives in me.
I don’t know about you, but when left to my own devices, I do a pretty good job of screwing things up.
Think about this.
When a person dies, the body begins to decay.
That is why they embalm a person, it slows down that decaying process so that we can have those visits at the funeral home.
That is why when Jesus showed up after Lazarus died and commanded that the stone be rolled away that Martha said “Lord, the smell will be awful!
He’s been dead four days.”
Think of the power of God at work there.
Lazarus didn’t come out of the grave with skin falling off and a gross appearance.
Jesus raised him to life.
When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb he called him by name.
I speculate that if he had just gave a generic command to come out of the grave that everyone in that cemetery would have walked out of their tombs!
When Jesus was raised from the dead it was through the power of God.
2 Peter 1:3 “3 By his divine power the Lord has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by his own honor and glory.”
If God can raise Jesus from the dead, can He not give us everything that we need for today?
That power comes only when we give ourselves over to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
It is when we begin to live that “I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live.”
It is then we understand who we are.
As we walk each day in faith we grow and we begin to use the weapons that God has provided us will.
Going back to that quote from our Manual it said
“By the grace of God we Christians are “to put off the old self ”—the old patterns of conduct as well as the old carnal mind—and are “to put on the new self ”—a new and holy way of life as well as the mind of Christ.”
When we come to Christ we begin an entirely new way of living because Christ lives in me.
God through the Holy Spirit lives within us.
The third word that we see here is Partnership.
Being crucified with Christ means partnership.
Paul wrote “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
That is the beginning of the partnership.
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