Sermon Tone Analysis

– Where we have been and where we are headed.

1.

A Look Back - The Gospel makes us new people.

We looked extensively at the nature of God’s redemptive work towards those who were dead in sin but who by grace through faith in Christ have been made alive by God to the praise of his glory.

In addition to looking at the text we have seen through the reformation of the 16th century the natural tendency people of all traditions have to minimize grace and maximize their contribution to their salvation.

In the end, it is God who makes us new people.

He saves, sanctifies, and ultimately he will glorify us by his grace through faith.

1.

A Look Back - The Gospel makes us new people.

We looked extensively at the nature of God’s redemptive work towards those who were dead in sin but who by grace through faith in Christ have been made alive by God to the praise of his glory.

In addition to looking at the text we have seen through the reformation of the 16th century the natural tendency people of all traditions have to minimize grace and maximize their contribution to their salvation.

In the end, it is God who makes us new people.

He saves, sanctifies, and ultimately, he will glorify us by his grace through faith.

2. A Look Forward - The Gospel makes us a new people.

Paul shifts the point of emphasis from what God does in saving individuals from death to life, to what God saves us into – A New Humanity.

2. A Look Forward - The Gospel makes us a new people.

Paul shifts the point of emphasis from what God does in saving individuals from death to life, to what God saves us into – A New Humanity.

Read .

Quick overview.

a. who has made us both one.

a. Read .

Quick overview.

b. that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

b.

Jesus even went so far as to say that the world will find the gospel believable to the degree the church lives as this New Humanity.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

c.

Problem – what should be is not.

c. and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.

i.

The Gospel Creates Unity

d. you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

e. Fleshes out what how this gospel birthed New Humanity is to live and interact

ii.

Unity is lacking in the church.

f.

Jesus even went so far as to say that the world will find the gospel believable to the degree the church lives as this New Humanity.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

iii.

Therefore, the Gospel is either not properly understood or believed.

Addressing the Elephant in the Room called Disunity.

Over the next three weeks we are going to see what God has done to bring unity out of division.

In seeing what God has done to bring unity it will bring us face to face with the hard truth that what God has declared regarding unity among Christians is not actually embraced by all Christians.

This is a problem that cannot be ignored.

The Gospel and the New Humanity (next three weeks).

1.

The Gospel creates unity.

1.

Part 1: The Root of Racism –

2. Part 2: The New Humanity – ( and 15)

2. The Church does not display unity.

3. Therefore; Either the gospel doesn’t really unify, or we might not believe the gospel as much as we think we do.

3. Part 3: Getting In Step with the Gospel – Racism Today ()

The Gospel and the New Humanity.

Overview – Gentiles and Jews made one in Christ

What you see right away in this passage is something that was once separate and hostile has been brought together and reconciled.

In this case, the two groups that have been made one in Christ are Jews who had the law and the promises and the Gentiles who did not have the law or the convent promises.

To understand Paul’s line of thought in Ephesians it is helpful to have some background on God’s plan for the nations and how the Jewish people were a part of that plan.

1.

Part 1: The Root of Racism – its Cause and Cure.

2. Part 2: The New Humanity – a picture of Gospel Unity.

( and 15)

1.

All men were created equal –

3. Part 3: Getting In Step with the Gospel – Race and the American Church.

()

2. Adam sinned and all men are under the curse of the fall – .

a. Sin brought separation between man and God.

Part One: The Root of Racism – its Cause and Cure.

b.

Sin brought and brings separation between man and man (individuals and groups).

Jews, Gentiles, circumcision, and belonging…

3. God’s plan of redemption begins with a man and his family –

1) All men were created equal –

4. God’s people and the sign of belonging – .

God created a people for himself.

He called them out.

He designated them as those who had the law, the promises of the covenant, and the people whom the messiah would come to the world through.

Note that have designated Israel is the recipients of these promises and blessings he did not give then to Gentiles.

At least not yet.

states to the Jew first.

This is what Paul is stating here.

Speaking to Gentiles he is reminding them that none of those promises applied to them until Jesus.

2) Adam sinned and all men are under the curse of the fall – .

a) Sin brought separation between man and God.

5. God fulfilled his promise to Abraham () through Christ ().

b) Sin brought and brings separation between man and man (individuals and groups).

Understanding the Root of Racism (Hostility)

3) God’s plan of redemption begins with a man and his family –

Notice that in making this new humanity Jesus had to remove “hostility”.

The word is used twice.

Once in verse 14 and again in verse 16.

The word hostility means to be at enmity with someone, or in this scenario the enmity is between people groups – enmity between Jews and Gentiles.

As long as there have been groups of people who are gathered together on the basis of some commonality, be it race, religion, nationality, culture, etc. there has been hostility between various groups.

This is as old as civilization.

I call this tribalism.

Tribalism is the belief that your tribe is superior to other tribes and that eventually leads to hostility.

That is not hard to see or understand.

Related to tribalism is a word not found in the Bible but seen al throughout the Bible.

Racism.

Racism is a type of tribalism but very relevant in terms of how we apply this text.

4) God’s people and the sign of belonging – .

God created a people for himself.

He called them out.

He designated them as those who had the law, the promises of the covenant, and the people whom the messiah would come to the world through