Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Whenever you hear the word “diversity” what are some of your initial thoughts?

Maybe racial diversity?

Economic diversity?

Physical diversity?

Maybe even spiritual diversity?

Our text today comes out of and talks about diversity being a good thing.

We hear our culture tell us that we should be diverse and inclusive, but in the media people tend to shut others out if they don’t agree with them.

Diversity is a great thing!

If you were to pair up with someone today, whether it be your spouse, a parent, a child, a friend or a complete stranger, and you were to ask them questions to see how the two of you are alike and how the two of you are different, which column do you think would have more tallies when you were finished?

My wife and I have many things that we are alike in (a love for cheeseburgers, a passion for music and an interest in movies), however we have an even longer list of differences (her favorite color is maroon, mine is blue, she likes her steak medium while I prefer it medium-rare and the list goes on and on).

If you have siblings, are married, or have children, you understand that there is diversity in the family.

There is certainly diversity in the church as well!

We are unique creatures with different likes and different shapes and different backgrounds.

Here’s what really the church has an opportunity to be and do.

On one hand, those differences can lead to conflict and division and sorrow, so those differences have to, in some sense, be watched, and we have to be careful.

There’s a bit of warning that comes in regard to our differences, but those differences can also be the glory of God made manifest among a people.

The call from Paul in is for the church to use our diversity to reach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to equip fellow Believers and to build up the body of Christ.

The Church ought to be the place where the world see’s people of different backgrounds and personalities coming together to worship and serve the King.

We are not robots and we certainly are not perfect, nor do we get along with one another perfectly, however we are called to put aside our differences in order to serve the King and proclaim the Gospel - there is no greater call than that.

Let’s see what Paul has to say about “unity in diversity”.

As I mentioned last week, has 3 marks of a healthy, active church.

The first 6 verses showed us the first mark which was being united in faith.

In our text of Scripture this morning, we see the second mark: being united in spiritual diversity.

We see two very clear benefits of spiritual diversity, because of this, your outline shows those two points.

First, we have diverse gifts and second, we have diverse responsibilities.

We have Diverse Gifts (7-10)

Within the unity of the body of Christ, each member has a distinct part to play and a distinctive service to perform in order for the organism to function properly.

As the first 6 verses of told us, there are certainly some things that we are called to be united in - there are Christian essentials that we must be strong in and believe in.

What we see in verses 7-10 is that each Christian receives a gift from Jesus Christ (Paul calls this “grace” in verse 7).

In our Bible study on Wednesday night, we looked at the difference between common grace and saving grace and we spent a good amount of time talking about these types of grace and how we see them in our daily lives.

Common grace is something that all humanity experiences.

It is universal and seen in creation and through the church.

Both Christians and non-Christians experience common grace from God. Saving grace is different in the sense that not every person on the face of the planet is a Christian, therefore saving grace is something that only Christians experience.

Only those who have repented of their sin and confessed Jesus as Lord experience saving grace!

The grace that Paul talks about here in is a third type of grace, a sort of “ministry grace”.

This grace is a gift that is given to serve and build up the body.

In , Paul wrote that Grace was given to him so that he might preach to the Gentiles.

What Paul is saying in 4:7 is that grace is given to all Christians in order to carry on with the work of the ministry.

What is unique about these gifts, according to Paul, is that they are from Jesus Christ.

We talked about a couple of spiritual gift sections of Scripture in the spring (, , and this very text) however this is the only place in the New Testament where these gifts are given from the resurrected and ascended Christ Himself.

Paul highlights the generosity and authority of Jesus in verse 8 as He quotes .

Jesus died, rose and ascended to heaven as the victorious King with all authority and gave gifts to His people, while displaying extravagant generosity.

John Calvin called this particular psalm a “victory ode”.

We see this verse from and we can read the entire section of this psalm and see a picture of a military leader returning to Jerusalem with His followers after defeating an enemy army and taking many enemies as prisoners.

This is exactly what Jesus Christ has done!

Christ has vanquished our mortal enemy (sin and death) on the cross.

These things have no power over us as Christians because we are “in Christ”.

Not only this, though, but the resurrected Christ also gives us gifts!

The only response we should have because of this is to worship our Savior.

Now, do Christians all receive the same gift?

Of course not!

Some of us in this room are gifted teachers, others are gifted musicians while others are gifted cooks (praise God for you all!).

We have different gifts from God and we must praise God for that fact.

You must realize, though, that you do have a gift as a Christian.

This means that you must use that gift.

If you do not then you are not doing your job in this living organism.

Many Christians in present day America attend a church, sit in the same seat each week and maybe even take sermon notes, however that is the extent of their “Christian” experience.

Church, there is so much more for you than that!

You are given a gift by the resurrected King, you should use that gift!

The only excuse for not doing so is because you do not know what gift you have.

If that is you, I will gladly remove that excuse for you and give you some resources that can help you discover what spiritual gift you have.

On that same line of thinking, to the young people in the room today, never let someone tell you that you aren’t old enough to use your gift.

During VBS, just a couple of weeks ago, we had 3 awesome teenagers in charge of the recreation portion of the night.

Teenagers, not adults, but teenagers were used to not only help out, but to lead a vital portion of VBS.

I’ve said this before, but as a teenager I took part in a discipleship program called Leaders in Training at First Baptist, Ozark.

One of the best things that I learned in LIT was that I had a gift and I was supposed to use that gift.

What LIT did was helped me figure out what that gift was and our leaders helped find avenues in the church that teenagers could use our gifts.

For me, that meant being able to teach.

For some of my friends, it meant them being a part of a praise and worship band.

For others it meant helping out with our Wednesday night meal and serving others.

There is no excuse for you not to use your gift!

Young people, do not buy into the lie that you are the “church of tomorrow” - you are the church of today!

The problem that we can run into whenever we hear that as a younger generation is that we think that we don’t have to step up and take responsibility until we’re “adults”.

The fact of the matter is that if you have called upon the name of Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, He has given you a gift that you are supposed to use - use it.

Now, does this mean that we will have a 6-7 year old preach next week?

Some of you might like that better than seeing me up here as we go through , however we probably won’t do that.

However, if you feel like you have the gift of teaching, we would love to find an opportunity for you to be able to use that gift and teach a children’s Sunday school class.

You are given a gift and your gift is different from the person seated next to you.

Lindsey and I were both a part of this LIT class and I can assure you that our gifts are very different from one another.

I was strong in areas like leadership and teaching but weak in other areas whereas Lindsey was very strong in areas like mercy and service (two areas that I was not strong in).

Lindsey and I are able to compliment one another whenever we use our gifts because her strengths make up for my weaknesses.

This is the same picture we see in the church today!

Not everyone has the gift of service - but for those of you who do, praise God for it!

Use that gift.

Not everyone here has the gift of teaching, but for those who do praise God and use it!

We must use our gifts to serve the body and reach others with the Gospel.

Back to the text, verses 9 and 10 are interpreted in a couple of different ways by many Christian scholars and preachers.

We see Paul give a “pesher” or an explanation of the Biblical Text.

In this case Paul gives us a two verse explanation of what means.

In modern language, many of your Bibles have a commentary underneath the Biblical text in which a person or a group of people who are extremely educated (for the most part) get together and give you some insight into what specific verses meant back in Biblical times.

This is similar to what Paul is doing here.

He quotes and he then gives us an explanation of what the verse means for the believers in a 1st century context.

The dispute that some scholars have today, though, stems from what it means that Christ descended into the lower parts of the Earth.

Some scholars will say that this passage of Scripture is talking about Christ descending into hell and leading a host of captives with Him as illustrates.

The other interpretation, that I think more people subscribe to, is that these verses are talking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ (not what happened to Him after His death).

What Paul is saying here is that Christ came down from heaven.

He left His throne in glory - He did not leave His divinity!

But He took on humanity and He made Himself the lowest of lows so that we might have life.

Paul see’s the descent and ascent of Jesus Christ as evidence that Jesus is both Savior and King.