Sermon Tone Analysis

Biblical Theology

we talked about the importance of sound biblical theology…tonight we want to add to that...

If there is one special area that needs attention in churches today is to make sure we have a solid understanding of the gospel.

The gospel is at the heart of Christianity and should be at the heart of our churches.

Being a healthy church means we are united around the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Every text points to this in some fashion or in some aspect...

A biblical understanding of the gospel should inform everything we do!

We should pray and long to know this gospel more deeply.

2 Cor

Gospel Basics

How do most believers define the gospel?

How do you define it?

Jesus died, was buried and rose again the third day...

This is true but it doesn’t go far enough...

it is the good news that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrificial substitute for sinners and rose again, making a way for us to be reconciled to God.

Four key elements to the gospel

God — is holy and sovereign creator — Theology Proper

man — we are wonderfully made in His image, but yet horribly fallen and separated from him — Anthropology, Hamartiology

Jesus — is the God-man who uniquely and exclusively stands in between God and man as a substitute and resurrected Lord.

— Christology

response — every person must respond to the gospel and believe the message and as a result turn from a life of self-centeredness and sin — Soteriology

Our fundamental problem is we need God!

We need forgiveness!

We need spiritual life!

Without these radical truths then what we are really presenting is a watered down version that people can easily walk away from!

Gospel — Good news

When the NT talks about Jesus’ message of salvation, it uses the Greek word evangel…good news...

What is the message of Jesus?

What is that “good news”?

It is not simply that we are okay…Anthropology, Hamartiology

Some people think that Christianity is fundamentally a religious therapy session where we sit around and try to help each other feel better about ourselves.

What does the Bible teach about man — anthropology?

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were seduced into disobeying God and therefore we all are guilty of disobedience.

Look at

Look at

As a result no one enters this world on good terms with God...

Jesus tells us we need a whole new life...

Paul tells us we have to be created again

1 cor 15:51-

We are born dead in sin

Eph 2

Trespass/transgression is a word for sin that describes it as crossing a boundary…our sin crossed the boundary of God’s holiness…they may not seem so big to us, but they are deadly none the less.

James

Is 64 6

What James tells us is that the laws of God are not simply external statues passed by some heavenly congress, they are laws that reflect the character of God…they are an expression of God himself…so to break any of God’s laws is live against God.

When we blatantly disregard God’s laws, when we set our relationship with Him aside when it suits us, we show we do not fully understand the nature of our relationship with God…We cannot claim to be believers and yet knowingly, repeatedly, and happily break his law.

We have crossed over the boundary that God rightly sets for our life…we have contradicted both the spirit and the letter of his law…we not only feel guilt, we are guilty…we not only feel conflicted, we are in conflict with God…that is what it means to be dead in our sin and transgression...

Lets look at

So what does all this have to do with “good news”?

If we don’t have an accurate understanding of where we are now, we will never understand how to get to where we ought to be!

The starting point for faith is not in recognizing we haven’t reached our potential or that our problems are because we have messed up our own lives…the starting point is recognizing we have sinned against God.

As a result, we are objects of God’s wrath, deserve the judgment of death, hell and separation from Him…and unless this problem is fixed we will have to endure his active punishment now and forever…TOTAL DEPRAVITY…spiritual death…death that deserves death.

This is the warning we talked about this morning...

The good news is that God developed and executed a plan that brings about a wonderful transformation in the lives of those who are willing to accept His plan.

First step of that plan is to recognize the gospel is not simply we’re okay.

The Good News is Not Simply That God is Love…Theology Proper

This is often what you hear “God is love…God loves you...” but is that the whole story?

What does divine love look like?

Since the Bible says that God is a Spirit, how does a Spirit love?

God is also holy…How does a Holy Spirit love?

How does the perfect Holy Spirit love?

Remember our framework about God…loving, creator, faithful, sovereign, holy...

We must understand his love in light of everything else God revealed about himself...

Yes, God is loving but there is more to Him than just love.

The Good News is Not Simply Jesus wants to be Your Friend — Christology, Soteriology

Some people present the gospel as “Jesus wants to be your friend” or that he wants to be our example.

The gospel is not a matter of merely cultivating a relationship with Jesus or following an example.

We all have a real past with real sins and real guilt…how do we deal with that?

What will God do with that?

How can we know God without God compromising his holiness?

Will God just forgive and forget our sin?

What did Jesus say about the center of His ministry?

Jesus taught that his choice to glorify the Father by his death on the cross was central to His ministry…that is why the cross is the center and focus of all four Gospels.

How could something so horrible be at the center of something called good news?

Because the cross is God’s way to bring us back to Himself!

Mark 8

Jesus explained this event before it happened by bringing two OT prophecies together…he presents himself as the son of man in and the suffering servant of .

Jesus’ death is often presented as a sacrifice involving his blood...

What was the most important feast the Jews celebrated?

The Passover

Why did Jesus choose to die at the Passover?

Because the wanted to make it clear that he was dying as an atoning sacrifice.

What does this have to do with are slavery to sin?

This is where we examine the economic language used about Christ’s death...

Redeemed = means we have been bought out of slavery…just like God bought and brought Israel out of slavery to the Egyptians, so we as Christians have been bought and brought out of slavery to sin...

Jesus’ death was the price paid for our freedom from sin…it is how God redeemed us from our slavery to sin…Galatians.

Examine the relational language...

Through Jesus death, God reconciled himself to us…our fellowship is restored because the root of the hostility in that relationship has been dealt with...

Examine the legal language...

Examine the legal language

The NT speaks of Jesus’ death in terms that the reality of our guilt before God and the punishment we deserve is settled...

Justification…declaration of not guilty…describing the events of Christ’s death in terms of our penalty being transferred to him.

Examine the military language...

The Bible speaks of the world as a spiritual battlefield…we are told in Scripture that Jesus’ death on the cross has delivered us and disarmed the enemy.

John 19

reconciliation = term that indicates enmity between two parties has been resolved...

propitiation = God’s wrath has been turned away so that he can deal justly with sinners in terms of his love rather than in terms of his wrath.

All of this is not something that is merely potential or optional…it is actual…it not only has been made available, it has been secured by Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection to life...

The cross is central to the good news because it was the instrument by which God was effectively dealing with the claims of both his love and his justice.

Yes, Jesus is our friend, but He is much more…he was the Lamb that was slain for us, our Redeemer, the One who made peace between us and God, who took our guilt upon Himself, who conquered our most deadly enemy and turn God’s well-deserved wrath away.