Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This sermon will be a little different than this mornings in the sense that we will be jumping around to several different scripture passages this evening.

Tonight we are going to look at what the purpose for the church is as well as what you all, as a church body, can expect from a pastor.

In September of 2018, Gallop conducted a poll of several thousand Americans to see how many of them attended church on a weekly basis.

What they discovered was that only 38% of the people polled attended a church weekly (this isn’t just Baptist but any church), furthermore, 13% said that they had been once in the past month and 49% said that they either have not attended in the past month or do not attend church at all.

As a follower of Christ and as a church body, this statistic should give us reason to stop and question how well we are doing in our own lives of living a life that demonstrates our faith.

Whenever Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that they would receive power and be His witnesses.

If we are in fact born again Christians and possess the Holy Spirit, we should be a living church that is out and about in the community and telling people about what God has done in our lives and the good news of the gospel.

If we say that we are in Christ, our actions should back that up as a body of believers!

A different Gallop poll asked individuals who do not attend church their reasons as to why they do not attend.

As you can guess, the number one reason was that they “Do not believe in God”, however only 50% of people said that.

That means that a large percentage of people who do not have a church home do believe in some sort of God or perhaps even in the Bible, however they do not attend church.

26% of individuals stated that they practice their beliefs in their own way and 14% said that they do not feel welcome at church whenever they have attended.

Folks, let me make something abundantly clear.

The Gospel is offensive to the lost, yes, however as a body of believers we must be welcoming and hospitable to guests and love on our neighbors who are lost because we were once lost as well!

Jesus sat at the Last Supper table with a man who was going to betray him in a couple of hours (Judas).

The very least we can do is to make sure that the people in our community know that there is a church home that will love on them whenever they need some support and will make them feel at home whenever they visit.

Tonight we are going to look at 4 key things: the purpose of the church, the plan of the church, the power of the church and the people of the church in addition to what you can expect from the Pastor.

Please open in your Bibles to as we see what the Church is supposed to look like.

This is a passage of scripture that is very commonly associated with weddings and the duties of Husbands and Wives in a Christian marriage.

Paul most certainly hits on that here, however this particular section talks about how the husband represents Jesus and the wife represents the church.

By looking at this illustration from Paul, we see that the highest form of love between humans is the marriage union.

If we take that a step deeper, though, we see that self-sacrificial love (like Christ displayed whenever He died on a cross for our sin) is the highest way we display that love.

Often times in our society, we see displays of eros (romantic love) and many individuals believe that this type of love is the greatest type of love.

To Paul, though, the greatest type of love is one that sacrifices for the other individual.

Just as Christ sacrificed Himself for the church, so should the husband sacrifice himself for his wife.

Just as the wife submits to her husband, the church submits to Christ.

This leads us to our first point tonight:

The Purpose of the Church

The church has three key purposes that we will examine.

First, the church is supposed to meet meet man’s spiritual needs.

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As a body of believers, it is our duty to inform people of their desperate need of Jesus Christ! states that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We should live our lives in such a way that we meet the needs of people around us from a spiritual sense by loving on them but also letting them know where they stand before a Holy God.

We are supposed to be in fellowship with God (abide in the vine) and with one another in this process.

This is not something that we have to go at on our own, we are a team and we are to lift one another up along the way.

The church isn’t a place for “perfect” people but rather a place where sinners can come in and fellowship with one another in order to live a life more like Jesus Christ.

Think if you recently experienced a massive heart attack that required quadruple bypass surgery and returned from the hospital.

What would your natural reaction be whenever you saw people who had heard of the news?

You would tell them of the miracle that took place in your life!

You should have died, but instead you are now alive and have been given a clean bill of health.

This should be our response with those around us! We were once lost but now we are found thanks to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

We, therefore, are to point other people towards Him.

Second, the church is to meet man’s physical needs.

As James states in , what good is it to merely say that we believe in Jesus Christ but not to help out a brother or sister who is desperately in need?

As followers of Christ we know that life is not perfect once we become Christians, however we do have the ability to look into scripture and our past experiences and see all that Christ has helped us through in the past.

Whether it be health complications or the death of a loved one, we have the ability to look at those experiences and see a greater purpose behind them rather than remain angry at them like the world would.

There will come a time in all of our lives where a situation like this comes up.

In my own life my mother had a simple ear infection that turned septic and we didn’t know if she was going to make it (it was so bad that she couldn’t even remember my or my dad’s name!).

Had I not been a follower of Jesus, it would have been very easy for me to simply be “mad” during this time, however I knew that Christ was in control.

Even if my mom wasn’t healed or if she never regained her memory, God was still in control and that there would still be something good come out of the situation.

During this time, there was an outpouring of love and support from our church family on me and my father that helped us get through even the darkest of days at the hospital.

This should be the response of the church whenever a member of our congregation goes through a difficult time and it should be the response of each of us individually whenever someone in our sphere of influence goes through a situation like this!

Third, the church is to meet man’s mental needs.

Part of being a follower of Jesus means that we receive the Holy Spirit whenever we accept Him as Lord of our lives.

Because of the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to have unparalleled peace in times of great tribulation and despair.

Whenever I found out that my mom was going to have to go through emergency surgery my initial thought was not “Why would you let this happen, God?” but rather “I know you have this under control, God.” I’m sure that we all have examples of times in which we were able to get through a situation because of a divine peace that was from above.

This peace is something that non-Christians should see in times of great trial and they should ask us how we are capable of possessing this peace.

Part of the churches job is to represent Christ on Earth.

Because of this, we do not have to stress over every thing that transpires on the Earth.

As Christ states, “Take heart for I have overcome the world”.

Paul says in Philippians that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.

Take heart during difficult situations where it seems as though we are in peril because our God has overcome the world.

Likewise, the church should strive to live at peace with those around us because our God is in control.

Finally, the church is to meet man’s material needs.

The Plan for the Church

The plan of God for the church is for us to evangelize the world!

This is something that we see plenty of times in scripture and we have a responsibility to make known the name of Jesus with those around us and those around the entire world!

First, we must reach man with the gospel

We have a responsibility to make known the name of Jesus with those around us and those around the entire world!

First, we must reach man with the gospel

This is not just a command to go where it is easy or to share whenever it is convenient, no this is a command from Christ before his ascension to go and proclaim the name of Jesus with the entire world!

According to Wycliffe Bible Translators, there are 250 million people around the world who do not have a copy of God’s Word available to them in their own language.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t know, it means that they don’t even have the opportunity to know because they don’t have a copy of scripture in their native language.

If we are going to be a church that represents Christ, we have to reach people for the gospel!

That doesn’t necessarily mean that we go to China or India and evangelize, however it does mean that we share about Jesus whenever we are at work or at the grocery store.

If we truly believe in a place called heaven and hell, we should be passionately sharing the gospel wherever we go.

We must preach to all the world

A lot of times it is easy to simply say “someone else will do that” or “I’m not comfortable doing this” when in reality we simply do not want to take the extra step and get outside our comfort zone.

We are called to preach the gospel with the whole world and if we look at , we see that we will receive power to accomplish this!

Finally, we must teach all people about Jesus

Finally, we must teach all people about Jesus

Notice how Jesus does not say to make converts, but disciples.

Whenever we invite a person to our church and whenever they accept Jesus as Lord we should celebrate because a lost person has come into salvation!

However, we must not stop at salvation but we should disciple that person in the ways of the faith so that they can turn around and make more disciples.

If we could go about evangelism like this then we could impact the entire world in a matter of years rather than centuries.

Multiplication is the goal here.

The Power of the Church

The church is the most powerful force against sin and it is the brightest hope for the betterment of our community.

Satan cannot destroy the church

Satan would love nothing more than to ruin the church because the church is the representation of Jesus on the Earth.

How awesome is it, though, that Jesus says that the gates of hell will not overpower the church?

That should give us Biblical confidence for what we are doing here.

Satan cannot stand what we do.

Worshipping God is how we participate in spiritual warfare, though and as we gather corporately and as we invite others to join us, Satan is losing the battle.

He can try and defeat us and he might get us to stumble, however he cannot destroy the church!

Sin cannot destroy the church

As powerful as the power of sin is, God’s power is even greater.

is a great passage of scripture that talks about the effect that Adam’s sin has on humanity but how much more powerful the grace of God is!

This should embolden us to let grace reign in our lives as we interact with other people.