Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon delivered by Pastor Finn on Sunday, July 29, 2018 PENT 10 INTRODUCTION TO SERIES: “In Christ”

Text: (14-19) "Connecting Others to God, In Christ"

In the name of Jesus, dear Christian friends.

“In Christ.”

We're back in Ephesians today.

Each sermon keeps coming back to this: “In Christ.”

We’re exploring the meaning of those two words to understand who God is and what it has to do with us.

And we’re going to use two symbols to help us remember who he is and what he’s done for us—AND—they’ll helps us determine what God’s church is supposed to look like from day to day.

Here’s the first symbol.

Sometimes, God wants his church to look like this (Outward focus).

Do you remember what centrifugal force is?

You experience it on the playground on something like a merry-go-round.

Inevitably, some big kid came along and said, “Let’s get this going!” and he’d see how fast he could get the merry-go-round spinning.—all

the while you’re doing all you can as a littler kid to hang on for dear life!

Centrifugal force is at work in a ball on a string that you swing around in the air.

Centripetal force is the force in the opposite of that—centripetal force is the force pulling things back toward the center, so that the ball doesn’t go flying away.

That’s what things looked like in the centuries leading up to Christ.

God’s Church was centripetal in nature.

There was an inward focus on Israel.

God set his love and affection on the tiny House of David, keeping them separate and distinct from the pagans around them, commanding them not to intermarry with other peoples because then God knew his plan of salvation would be in jeopardy.

It would fall apart even before it had a chance if Israel were influenced by the unbelieving world.

So God built a protective hedge around his people to keep his plans in Christ safe.

But once Jesus came in fulfillment of his promises, God turned his church loose.

The gathered church became the scattered church (literally)!

We tend to want to stay huddled together with other people like us, where its safe—so when persecution hit the church at Jerusalem, and the Christians were literally scattered to the four winds—God turned evil into good (as he always does)--and he gets his way—though his NT Church always looked weak and was on the run from persecution—the whole time God was unfurling the Christian flag in victory, bringing lost souls to faith in Jesus.

So where God had set his love and affection primarily on Israel in the OT age, his ultimate desire was the salvation of all souls!

Focussed as he was for so long Israel, now the gospel was being made known in all the world!

Paul calls it a mystery, something no one saw coming--not even the Jews, God’s own people—they weren’t ready for this---they even resisted it.

Paul, dedicated as he was to Jesus, was persecuting and killing followers of the Way, at first.

(vv.8-9) “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people,” Paul says (least in his mind because he had persecuted Jesus’ followers)—“this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.”

So now the church, looks like this.

The Jews rejected Christ and his followers and persecuted them and God used this difficult thing to bring the gospel to the entire Gentile world.

Though she always looked like she was weak and on the run, God was unfurling the Christian flag in victory, conquering souls, one by one.

God’s love and affection as it was, focussed for so long Israel, was now being made known in all the world.

Paul calls it a mystery, something no one sawy coming--not even the Jews, God’s own people—they weren’t ready for this---they even resisted it.

Paul was one of those Jews persecuting and killing followers of the Way, at first.

(vv.8-9) “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.”

saving plan and promised line of the Savior so that sin and unbelief the promised line of the Savior would not be broken by sin and unbelief before

When Paul calls the gospel a “mystery” it’s not that it’s vague, murky, or hard to understand but, instead it’s something that needs to be explained.

Once I explain it to you, it’s perfectly clear, but one would never have stumbled onto it without some outside help.

Paul says he received that help from God.

This is good (Inward focus); this is what chapters 1-2 were mainly talking about.

(3:1,7) “I, Paul, (the prisoner of Christ Jesus)...became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.”

Here’s another reminder that Paul wrote Ephesians from prison— “I’m a “prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.”

That’s what this has all been about from the very start.

Ever since the day the risen Lord Jesus stopped Paul on the Road to Damascus to persecute more followers of the Way, nothing was ever going to be the same again!

By God’s almighty power, Paul understoood the “mystery” of God that Jesus is the Savior of all sinners.

What power and love the LORD displayed in Paul’s life, bringing him to faith this way!

So at the end of this section, he tells the Ephesians, “Don’t worry about me—don’t (3:13) “be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.”

(3:9-11) “For ages past,” Paul explains, this “was kept hidden in God...His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In and of yourself (this is something Christ accomplishes) you are not fit for God’s presence.

You are incapable of being welcomed into heaven the way you are born and because of the way you have lived.

The only solution (since you cannot change your sinful condition), is Christ.

You can’t clean yourself up, you can’t buy yourself right with God—there’s no amount of money in all the world to atone for your sins.

There is only one way to salvation and that is when God in his word leads you to repent and to acknowledge your sin before him, and then to plead for his mercy in Christ Jesus, and then that is exactly what he shows us: mercy and forgiveness, in Christ.

In and of yourself (this is something Christ accomplishes) you are not fit for God’s presence.

You are incapable of being welcomed into heaven the way you are born and because of the way you have lived.

The only solution (since you cannot change your sinful condition), is Christ.

You can’t clean yourself up, you can’t buy yourself right with God—there’s no amount of money in all the world to atone for your sins.

There is only one way to salvation and that is when God in his word leads you to repent and to acknowledge your sin before him, and then to plead for his mercy in Christ Jesus, and then that is exactly what he shows us: mercy and forgiveness, in Christ.

Panning, A. J. (1997).

Galatians, Ephesians (pp.

161–162).

Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub.

House.

(3:9-11) “For ages past,” Paul explains, this “was kept hidden in God...His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(3:1,7) “For this reason I, Paul, (the prisoner of Christ Jesus)...became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.”

the time he writes this he is in Rome awaiting trial after unbelieving Jews arrested him for preaching about salvation in Christ.

(3:1,7) “For this reason I, Paul, (the prisoner of Christ Jesus)...became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.”

(vv.10-11)“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The gospel is good news because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.

As we come together in worship God need to refresh this in our minds and make this clear to us again and again: It’s the reality that in and of ourselves we (you and I and all sinncer) are not fit for God’s presence.

You are incapable of being welcomed into heaven the way you are born and because of the way you have lived.

The only solution (since you cannot change your sinful condition), is Christ!

You can’t clean yourself up, you can’t buy yourself right with God—there’s no amount of money in all the world to atone for your sins.

No, Paul says, (v.12) “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

(3:1) “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.”

“Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

“

In and of yourself (this is something Christ accomplishes) you are not fit for God’s presence.

You are incapable of being welcomed into heaven the way you are born and because of the way you have lived.

The only solution (since you cannot change your sinful condition), is Christ.

You can’t clean yourself up, you can’t buy yourself right with God—there’s no amount of money in all the world to atone for your sins.

There is only one way to salvation and that is when God in his word leads you to repent and to acknowledge your sin before him, and then to plead for his mercy in Christ Jesus, and then that is exactly what he shows us: mercy and forgiveness, in Christ.

God proclaims his saving grace to us and we receive it in faith—knowing full well what we deserve for our sins we stand before God with open arms--“Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross of Christ I cling.”

What Jesus did for us, for the Ephesians and Paul, the least of the apostles, was that he obeyed all of God’s commandments perfectly for us.

He suffered the same and suffering we deserved, the whips and lashes we had coming, he bears for us, so that we are healed and forgiven, completely, in Christ.

The New International Version.

(2011).

(Eph 3:7–8).

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

So, what does our church look like these days?

Ephesians 3:9–11 (NIV): for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The New International Version.

(2011).

(Eph 3:7–8).

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The words “for the sake of” deserve some explanation.

If you go back 20 years before this remember how Paul was a Jew who was viciously persecuting anyone—Jew and Gentile alike if they became Christians.

He sought their death—he wasn’t trying to save them!