Sermon Tone Analysis

Reconciliation of the world to God

Synopsis

On account of sin, people are alienated from God and cut off from fellowship with him.

Through Jesus Christ, God reconciles the world to himself, breaking down the barriers of hostility and estrangement.

A broken relationship through sin brings alienation from God

(NIV) — 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

See also the expulsion from Eden; Cain’s alienation from God; ; ; ; the tax collector’s prayer for mercy; ; ; ; ; ; ;

(NIV) — 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

(NIV) — 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear.

14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

(NIV) — 22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

(NIV) — 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.

(NIV) — 5 in the fight with the Babylonians: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath.

I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.

(NIV) — 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

(NIV) — 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

(NIV) — 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

(NIV) — 1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

(NIV) — 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

(NIV) — 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

(NIV) — 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

(NIV) — 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?

Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

God takes the initiative in bringing about reconciliation

(NIV) — 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

(NIV) — 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

See also ; ; ;

(NIV) — 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(NIV) — 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

(NIV) — 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

(NIV) — 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The means of reconciliation is the death of Jesus Christ

(NIV) — 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

(NIV) — 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

See also ; ; ; ;

(NIV) — 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

(NIV) — 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

(NIV) — 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The results of reconciliation are both personal and universal

(NIV) — 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

The results of reconciliation are both personal and universal

Peace with God

(NIV) — 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.

43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles.

46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said,

(NIV) — 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

See also ; ;

(NIV) — 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.

43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles.

46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said,

Access to God

Access to God

Access to God

(NIV) — 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

(NIV) — 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Adoption as God’s children

(NIV) — 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

(NIV) — 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

(NIV) — 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Adoption as God’s children

(NIV) — 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

(NIV) — 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Peacemaking throughout the universe