Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We all need reminders of who we are, why we’re here, and how we accomplish what we are called to do.

Passage is statement of identity, ability, and purpose grounded in and centered around the gospel.

This has both corporate and individual aspects.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

We’re going to take a look at the four verbs in these two verses to show us four truths about God’s work in our lives that will ultimately show us:

Because of the gospel we are marked by God for God

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ

And it is God

God is the active agent for all of these verbs.

establishes us - “makes us stand firm” together in Christ (literally into Christ)

We can’t stand firm on our own!

This is the gospel

This is why:

We are centered on the gospel.

We don’t

The verb is active - God is continually causing the effects of the gospel to be changing us, establishing us, making us stand firm together through the gospel.

We call this process sanctification.

establishes us - “makes us stand firm”

Gospel is not only a one-time event.

Not a prayer at a campfire, not an emotional raising of your hand when everyone’s head was bowed.

There is a moment when we are saved, we are justified.However, that is not the end of the gospel - it ramifications of the relationship of being “in Christ” - continues to (or at least should) change us.

ILLUST - In a moment I married my wife, but I continue in marriage.

The initial moment of marriage continues to have an effect on me and change me.

Sanctification is the process that begins when we trust in Jesus and

Point is if you ain’t growing you ain’t living.

ILLUST - Several years ago, and shortly after becoming Pastor for Discipleship I was a luncheon of some sort for the church and I found myself sitting at a table across from a member of our church who was asking me about my new role.

She then told me, “Pastor, I don’t need a Pastor of Discipleship, I’m where you want people to be.”

I guess that explained why she was eating angel food cake.

If you think you’re the perfect husband - you should first ask your wife, and if you think you’re the perfect Christian, you should first ask Christ.

We are commissioned for God’s mission.

Truth 2

and has anointed us,

Anointing was a blessing and was mostly used as a ritual in the OT to set something or someone apart for God’s work.

The concept of anointing something or someone in the OT was to set it apart for service for God.

Exodus 30:22-32

22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, 250, and 250 of aromatic cane, 24 and 500 of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.

25 And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.

26 With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, 27 and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, 28 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand.

29 You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy.

Whatever touches them will become holy.

30 You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.

31 And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations.

32 It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition.

It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

There was something distinct about the anointed things.

You could smell it.

Nothing else smelled like it.

Different in smell because it was different in service.

Throughout the OT we mainly see the roles of prophets, priests, and kings that were anointed.

Ultimately finding its fulfillment in Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One who simultaneously held the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King.

And now we, who are called ‘Christians’ or ‘little Christs’ are said to be anointed - set apart for God’s work.

Here’s the main point:

You don’t anoint bystanders.

But neither do the anointed simple stand by.

McManus, Erwin Raphael.

An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind .

David C. Cook.

Kindle Edition.

On August 20, 1978, I walked to the altar at the First Baptist Church in Orlando, Florida, and gave my life . . .  the pastor of the congregation,. . .

“Do you confess Jesus as Lord, and will you obey his Word?” . .

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After I left Orlando and returned to college, I ran head-on into a layered view of Christianity.

I began learning that it was necessary to not only receive Jesus as your Savior but also to accept him as your Lord. .

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Another misconception I had was that every Christian was called to proclaim the gospel.

I remember coming back home from college around Thanksgiving and sitting in a room with a bunch of guys.

I pondered aloud about how amazing it would be when all of us ended up all over the world, telling people about Jesus.

Everyone else in the room proceeded to tell me that they did not feel called to “preach the gospel.”

They explained to me that that required a “unique” calling.

So now I had discovered that there were at least three callings: a calling to be saved, a calling to Lordship, and a calling to ministry.

Again, this concept was confirmed by simple observation.

There were all kinds of Christians who were not involved in ministry.

In fact, in most places only the pastor seemed to do ministry.

Sometimes his wife would, but not always.

Ministry was what pastors did in relationship to their congregations.

If you were called to the ministry, then your life focus was to care for and nurture the Christians in your congregation.

Later I discovered there was even a higher level of calling.

At a missions conference the speaker began inviting people to give their lives to missions.

I was somewhat confused, since I was still a new Christian.

I asked the person next to me what the invitation was specifically asking for.

She said, “If you feel that God is calling you to missions, to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, then you’re supposed to go forward.”

I went forward again. .

.

But this time I discovered that there were two levels of missionary calling.

One was to be a home missionary, and one was to be a foreign missionary.

So now I had discovered five levels of callings from God—a calling to be saved, a calling for Jesus to be Lord, a calling to ministry, a calling to home missions, and a calling to foreign missions. . .

.

HOW MANY TIMES DOES HE HAVE TO CALL?

Why are there so many levels of Christian calling in our contemporary Christian community?

Where are they found in the biblical text?

I have a strange suspicion that the nuances of these “callings” have less to do with theology and more to do with the condition of the church.

Erwin McManus, Unstoppable Force

When Jesus gave the Great Commission he didn’t give it to some of his disciples.

He didn’t expect some of the disciples to while the others came by once a week to see what was happening.

What happens when the anointed become bystanders?

Nothing.

That’s the problem.

The number one reason why the Church is declining in the West today is because the commissioned have become complacent.>

- Jesus in the Temple, given scroll of Isaiah:

18  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.