Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction -

The book

A Jarring Story

"The church is not a place.

It’s not a building.

It’s not a preaching point.

It’s not a spiritual service provider.

It’s a people—the new covenant, blood-bought people of God."

Remembering that the church is a people should help us recognize what’s important and what’s not important.

How do we balance these two things—caring about a people but also caring about what they do?

The church is not a place but it is also not a statistic.

Alyssa is a thirty-two-year-old single woman who is a member of your church.

By all appearances, Alyssa would make a great wife and mother, and she deeply desires to get married and start a family.

Mr. Right hasn’t come along yet, but she keeps hoping.

One day, you find out that she is seeing someone.

When you ask her about it, the conversation reveals that he is not a believer.

She knows the Bible speaks against this, but she’s tired of waiting.

Things are getting pretty serious, and they are even talking about marriage.

1.

What do you do when you find out about Alyssa’s relationship?

2. Do you think that the church should do anything about this?

Is it the business of members to stick their noses in people’s private lives?

MAIN IDEA

Through Jesus Christ, God is saving not only individuals but also a people.

The church is the people of God.

This means that, as Christians, we are neither independent nor autonomous.

Rather, we belong to God and to the people of God.

So we are to submit to God’s will and to one another.

1.

What phrases does Paul use in verses 17 and 19 to describe what we were as non-Christians?

What do those phrases mean?

Paul teaches that we were “far off” (v.

17), and were “strangers and aliens” (v.

19).

Both images communicate that in our lost state we were not only alienated from God, but also were separated and excluded from God’s people.

2. In verse 19, what two phrases does Paul use to describe our new state as Christians?

What does this teach us about what happens to us when we become Christians?

2. In verse 19 Paul teaches that we are now “fellow citizens with the saints,” and members of God’s household.

These phrases indicate that when we became Christians, we were not only reconciled to God but also brought into the fellowship of his people.

3. Given our new identity which Paul describes in verses 19 through 22, should we Christians view ourselves as autonomous, independent individuals?

Explain.

3. As Christians, we should not view ourselves as autonomous individuals.

Rather, we should view ourselves as fellow citizens of God’s people and members of God’s household.

While we still retain our individual identity and responsibilities, we also take on the new identity and responsibilities that belong to the people of God.

For instance, Paul says we “are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

That means God’s Spirit dwells among us specially through our togetherness.

There are things we are together that we are not apart.

4. List the different terms and images that Paul (quoting Leviticus 26:12 and Isaiah 52:11) uses to describe the church in relation to God:

4. Second Corinthians 6 teaches that Christians are:

• The temple of God (v.

16)

• God’s people (v.

16)

• God’s children (v.

18)

5.

In verse 16 God says of Christians, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Christians are possessed by God.

What obligations do the people of God have because of this special relationship to God? (Hint: Notice the “therefore” in v. 17.)

5.

The term “people of God” signifies that Christians are possessed by God and that the world will identify us with him.

His name is on us, and what we do will make the world think one way or another about him.

In light of this, we are obligated to separate from what is unholy.

More broadly, we are obligated to obey God, to pursue holiness, and to reflect God’s character to the world.

See, for example, Exodus 19:5–6, where God tells Israel that he redeemed them from Egypt so that they would become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

They were to show the world what he is like.

6. Whose character are the people of God to represent?

What does this say about our desire to be autonomous?

6.

The people of God are to represent God’s character.

This contradicts and overturns our desire to be autonomous (“a law unto ourselves”) because it means that we are called to submit to God’s will in all things.

7. Have you ever thought about how becoming a Christian means becoming part of a new people, the people of God?

In light of the two passages we’ve discussed, how should this truth change?

a) Your relationship to other Christians?

(a): we’re no longer autonomous but are to commit ourselves to other Christians by joining a local church and living faithfully in that church; we’re to bear one another’s burdens and rejoice with one another (see Rom. 12:15; 1 Cor.

12:26; Gal.

4:27); we’re to seek not our own good but the common good because we recognize that, as a people, we belong to one another.

b) Your relationship to non-Christians?

(b) include: we would recognize that we are to witness to non-Christians by being distinct from them; while we should love and care for non-Christians, we should not partner with them in any ways that compromise the gospel.

9. Once we grasp the fact that, as a church, we are the people of God, both an encouragement and a challenge follow.

The encouragement comes from knowing that we’re God’s treasured possession, the people he has specially loved and called to himself (Ex.

19:5; Rom.

1:6; 1 Pet.

2:9).

This is not because of any goodness in us, but because of his sheer grace (Deut.

7:7–8; 2 Tim.

1:9).

Further, it means that God is committed to being our God.

He will be with us in the present and will one day bring us to live in perfect, face-to-face fellowship with himself (Matt.

28:20; Heb.

13:5; Rev. 21:3–4; 22:4).

On the other hand, the challenge of being the people of God comes from the fact that God calls us to submit, to obey, and to reflect his character to the world.

What are some specific ways that being part of the people of God encourages you?

Challenges you?

10.

Think back to Alyssa from the beginning of the story.

In view of the Bible’s teaching that we as Christians are the people of God,

• How would you personally counsel Alyssa about her relationship?

• What should the church do about Alyssa’s relationship?

10.

Answers will vary, but they should reflect that, since Alyssa is a member of God’s people, she has a special obligation to obey God in every area of life.

This includes breaking off this relationship with a non-Christian (see, for example, 2 Cor.

6:14).

Therefore, in appropriate ways, both individual church members and, if necessary, church leaders, should be involved in helping Alyssa to obey God in this area of her life.

In other words, what Alyssa does with her so-called “private” life is the church’s business, because Alyssa is a member of the people of God.

Our lives reflect on one another, and all of us are called to reflect God’s holy character every area of our lives.