Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

I once took a group of teenagers on a short-term mission trip to Dallas, Texas.

We had two teams doing Bible study and games in two different locations and another team doing service projects at the church that was hosting us.

One of our van drivers had been there before, and he knew where both Bible study locations where.

So, we told the other van driver, who didn’t know where he was going, to follow the first one.

The first van driver would show the second where his location was and then take his group on to their location.

Everyone said they understood the plan.

I was on the service projects team, so I was standing in the parking lot when the two fans left.

The first van pulled out and went left and the second, which again was supposed to be following the first, pulled out and immediately went right.

Despite the clarity of our instructions, the vans were headed in opposite directions and the second van wound up in the wrong location.

Jesus’s instruction to his followers is just as clear when he said in ...

Now, if we follow Jesus the course of life is laid out for us.

At least in its broad strokes it goes like this - life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

We see that this was the course of life lived by Jesus in .

We see life in where it says that Jesus was “born in the likeness of men.”

We see suffering in his humanity and humility in v. 8, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself...”

We, of course, see death in the rest of , “he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

And then resurrection or glorification in ..

Now, this is the same course of life that Paul referred to in .

, “that I may know him” - that’s life.

Now, at this point in v. 10 Paul jumps right to resurrection or glorification with the words, “and the power of his resurrection,” but then he circles back to suffering and death with the words, “and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

And then he completes the course by coming to resurrection or glorification once again in v. 11...

So there is the course of our lives as we follow our Lord Jesus - life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

Through faith in Christ, we are given new life!

Because of our faith in Christ, we will suffer.

Because of our faith in Christ, we die to the flesh and it may be necessary to die in the flesh.

But through faith in Christ, we know our course doesn’t dead-end at death.

We know resurrection and glorification are coming!

Now, this assumes, of course, that we are following Jesus.

But if are like that second van in the story I began with, we too will end up in the wrong location.

If we are not following Jesus, then we haven’t been given new life through faith in him.

If that’s the case, we have physical life but not spiritual life and, though we may suffer and die, we will not suffer and die for the sake of Christ.

And if we die without faith in Christ, there is no glorification coming; only a resurrection to judgment leading to the second death in the lake of fire for all eternity.

If you’re not a follower of Jesus Christ, it’s of utmost importance that you repent of your sins, trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, and commit yourself to him as Lord this morning.

No matter what anyone says, there is a God who created you and everything else.

As a part of his creation, you are under his authority and accountable to him, which wouldn’t be such a big deal except that he is holy, which means without sin, and demands that you be holy or without sin as well.

That’s a problem because you’re a sinner.

You’ve lied.

You’ve stolen.

You’ve dishonored your father and your mother.

You’ve lusted.

You’ve failed to worship God as you should.

You’ve worshipped idols, chief among them the idol of self.

Like I said, you’re a sinner.

I am too.

says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

God has decreed that the price for our sin is death, which is eternal death in hell as we suffer God’s wrath forever.

says, “for the wages (or price) of sin is death.”

That’s the bad news, but the good news is that God in his grace has made a way of salvation through faith in his Son, Jesus.

does say that “the wages of sin is death” but it also says that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus was born to save us.

He suffered and died on the cross as sin to pay the price of death for our sins.

And on the third day, Jesus was resurrected.

Now his Name is above every name.

At the Name of Jesus every should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Why would God be so gracious to us even though we sinned against him?

Because he loves us! says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that there is a holy God who created you?

Do you believe that you’ve sinned against him?

Do you believe that unless you repent of your sin (i.e., your rebellion against God) and place your faith in Jesus, God’s Son, who gave himself as the sacrifice for our sins, that will spend eternity suffering unremittingly in hell forever?

Do you believe that if you call on the name of Jesus you will be saved from that wrath?

says, “For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.”

A few verses before in , the Bible says...

Are you ready to confess?

Today is the day of salvation.

Don’t let your course dead-end at death.

Trust Christ and experience new life!

There will be suffering and death, but that’s they course of life Jesus lived and we know that course is guaranteed to go on to resurrection and glorification.

++

But now let me focus on those of us who have already decided to follow Jesus.

In the course of following him, we have been born again and we are looking forward to resurrection and glorification; an eternity of bliss in the unimaginable glory of God’s presence in Heaven!

But at present we are in the midst of the suffering and death.

But at present we are in the midst of the suffering and death

[INTER] What sustains us as we follow Jesus during this part of the course?

[CONTEXT] Paul was familiar with suffering and was, it seems, nearly always being threatened with death for preaching the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation; the only way to be counted righteous before God.

The Philippians heard Paul preach that message and they believed that message but when Paul wrote this letter to them, some false teachers, known as the Judaizers, had come into the church threatening the Philippians and telling them to keep the law of Moses in order to be right with God.

Paul said there is no righteousness before God by obeying the law.

The law (think the Ten Commandments) only reveals how sinful we are.

It cannot make us right with God.

What we need is the righteousness “which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

It’s this faith and all its benefits that would sustain the Philippians as they faced they suffered the attacks and persecution of the Judaizers.

[CIT] In the Apostle Paul pointed toward the benefits of faith as the treasures that sustained him as he followed Jesus through suffering and death.

[PROP] These same BENEFITS will sustain us as we follow Christ through suffering and death and on to glory.

[TS] There are three of these BENEFITS.

Let’s take a look at each one...

MAJOR IDEAS

Benefit #1: Change (v.

10a)

Philippians 3:10

[Illus] Someone was talking about our modern idea of camping - or at least some people’s modern idea of camping.

He was saying how...

The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels.

The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels.

A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream.

Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity.

One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top.

No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream.

Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside.

A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream.

Now we can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity.