Sermon Tone Analysis

Q.

The Gospel is said to bring liberty, but what is this liberty?

The Gospel Comes First Pt. 1

Date: 5-1-20 850 Echuca

Q.

The Gospel is said to bring liberty, but what is this liberty?

- It is certainly liberty or freedom to approach God – to have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe

Q.

But does Gospel liberty mean freedom to live however we please?

No

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- Gospel liberty, in this passage, means the liberty to not be the centre of attention

- The liberty to know that you have peace with God & don’t need to elevate yourself – in short, you are in Christ & have a new identity

- Gospel liberty means putting yourself behind & the Gospel in front

- It has bearing on how you present yourself to everyone else

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- This passage fits within the wider concerns from the beginning of chap.

8 to the end of chap. 10

—1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.

Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

—31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

—31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

- In actual fact, the persons that placed the chapter/verse divisions in the Bible got this one wrong – chap 10 should have finished with 11:1

- In actual fact, the persons that placed the chapter/verse divisions in the Bible got this one wrong – chap 10 should have ended with 11:1

- Just to clarify, the apostles did not write their Epistles with chap & verse divisions – the church did that starting no earlier than the 13th C.

- Chapter & verse divisions certainly have their advantages, but they also disadvantage us at times too, because they divide verses off from the whole story & we tend to like to quote verses, but often we do that independently from the context of the biblical passage - so we’re not getting the whole story!

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- How familiar are you with these chapters 8-10?

If you aren’t very familiar, you should be reading your Bibles

- Do you have a Bible reading plan?

If not, why not?

How will you grow in Christ or be familiar with His commands if you don’t read the Scriptures?

- You may not understand everything you read, but you will get something.

But better still, you are becoming familiar with the contents

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- No doubt, when you were a child, you had to learn the ABC’s & basic arithmetic

- You had to learn to pronounce names – like ornithorhynchus

- You may have not understood it all, but you had to go over it & over it for it to sink in

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- Christians mostly struggle with the Christian life because they don’t know what God wants or expects of them

- They think it will just pop into their brains like an epiphany

- That only happens when you have something there to start with

- The Holy Spirit ministers to you, giving you understanding based on what you have heard & learnt

- So let me urge you to work with the Spirit of God & keep reading the Scripture daily - after all, He is the author of the Scripture

—14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

- Why not make it your new year’s resolution in 2020 – daily Bible reading - a chapter a day will help keep the devil away!

- Why not make it your new year’s resolution in 2020 – daily Bible reading

- In , we get Paul’s “20/20 vision” of what was important in the lives of God’s people

—20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,

- He gave them what they needed to hear even if it would be uncomfortable

- He gave them what they needed to hear even if it would be uncomfortable

- He continues on in his message to the Ephesian elders

—27 “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

- You may not know it, but these passages were instrumental in the formation of my pulpit ministry

- You may not know it, but these passages were instrumental in the formation of my pulpit ministry

- Going through the books of the Bible ensures that I am not teaching you only that which is comfortable for me

- It also ensures that you are getting all the counsel of God & not just what I want to cherry pick out - what is easy & popular

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- Sometimes I have to speak on some uncomfortable passages that challenge what some people might think & do

- Going through context by context, book by book, you are getting what God is saying – you won’t get that if the pastor picks & chooses his own topic from week to week – because no one picks a topic that is controversial or uncomfortable or requires hard thinking

- That’s why I don’t like doing funerals – truth telling at funerals rarely, if ever, is experienced

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- It’s important, that you get the whole purpose or whole counsel of God & not just the pickings of the pastor

- Paul was committed to that & I have committed to that

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- So these 3 chapters – go to the heart of what Gospel living means & how we reflect the Gospel of Jesus in our lives

- It’s pretty straight forward really – reflect on what Jesus did

Q.

What led Jesus to allow Himself to be crucified?

Q. Was it not, so that we might be reconciled to God?

- If there was any other way, that would have satisfied the justice of God, the mercy of God & the grace of God, then He would have chosen that way

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- But there was no other way – Jesus had to drink the cup of suffering

- It was not His will – in His flesh that is – to suffer

- What made it all so special was His obedience to His Father

—42 “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

- His priority was to put others first – He did His Father’s will & He thought of us in His obedience

- His priority was to put others first – He did His Father’s will & He thought of us in His obedience

- If this is the Gospel, then Gospel living must surely reflect those truths, attitudes & desires

—3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

- These passages are indeed about the importance of the Gospel

- These passages are indeed about the importance of the Gospel

- Someone asked me recently: “what is a bond-servant”?

- A bond-servant is another name for “slave”

- A slave is different from a servant in that a slave has no choice as to whether he or she wants to serve – they are a bond servant as in bonded to their master - they are his property - & unable to walk away

- A servant, on the other hand, is usually a free person who is employed to serve

- Taking the form of a bond-servant – that is, taking on the role of a slave in His absolute obedience to His Father’s or master’s will

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- Let’s begin then by looking at some of the crucial junctures in this passage – chap.

8 today

- We will not get through this whole passage today, but we will certainly be able to look at the overall point – I will continue it next time

1.

Paul’s Standing (9:1-2)

- The general consensus among church teachers is that, in the NT, there are 2 types of apostle

- A person who is a personal messenger of Jesus & a person who is generally a messenger of either some person or by some church

- Apostle means “one who is sent” or “a messenger”

- The apostle in this passage, we are speaking about, relates to the first category which is a messenger of Jesus

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- The question, however, is why does Paul even have to raise this issue?

Q. What! Don’t they believe he is an apostle of Jesus?

- Well, in fact, they are wrestling with him in many ways

- They think he is a lousy speaker

—10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”

- They tell him what God accepts & what God doesn’t, since they have the Spirit & perhaps, he doesn’t or is not in sync with the Spirit

- They tell him what God accepts & what God doesn’t since they have the Spirit & perhaps, he doesn’t or is not in sync with the Spirit