Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Reading of Scripture

This is God’s Word, Amen.

[ Scripture Reading ~2 min.

]

II.

The Exhortation

Do you remember when you first believed the gospel?

John Newton, writing in the year 1772, penned the words to the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.”

The second verse reads:

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

  And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

  The hour I first believed!

For some of us, we may remember a moment of time.

It may be an hour we can point to and say: “That was it — THAT was when I first believed.”

For others of us, we may not have the hour nailed down, but we know that an hour exists, we have a testimony, we have a story that says we first believed.

Do you remember when you first believed?

Now, I want to ask you a follow up question.

Do you STILL believe?

Do you still BELIEVE what you BELIEVED?

Brothers and sisters, the answer to that question makes all the difference in the world.

Do you still believe what you believed?

Or did you believe in vain?

The apostle writes in verse 11:

The apostle says of his labor among the Corinthians: “We preach” — that’s the present tense, a present action.

And in response to that action, the apostle says of them, the Corinthians: “You believed” — that’s past tense, a past action.

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In verse 1, he addresses them as “brothers” and says: “you received.”

Again, a past action.

But then in verse 2, the apostle raises a possibility at, that should get them thinking about their faith.

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He does not think that this is true of them, but nevertheless, it is here, a possibility in a passing phrase, a short clause, the words:

“unless you believed in vain.”

“I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”

What does it mean, to believe in vain?

It means to believe without careful thought.

Without due consideration.

To believe in a haphazard manner.

To believe to no purpose.

(BDAG).

“Unless your belief,” in other words, “was useless.”

(TTC).

Church, What could cause such a “useless” believing?

Jesus said:

A person who first builds without counting the cost, believes in vain.

Salvation is not cheap, or quick, or emotionally driven.

That kind of salvation has been promoted for many decades as a one-and-done checkbox, a walking of an aisle, a repeated prayer — through special events or revivals or mission trips that are all meant to be the beginning of something that lasts, but instead it is short-lived.

The cost of salvation is not considered nor counted.

Jesus said:

Our lives are not built upon sand.

Our lives are built upon the rock.

Salvation bears fruit of patience.

It perseveres.

The salvation process is an enduring, lifelong work of God’s grace.

Day by day.

Week by week.

Year by year.

Hearing and holding fast to the word, to the gospel of God’s grace.

What about when you believed?

Did you believe in vain?

How do you know?

III.

The Teaching

The apostle introduces a new subject here in Chapter 15, and he doesn’t do it in his characteristic way, responding to a question and saying “now concerning.”

It may be that he is not responding to question at all.

Instead, he runs head on into a subject that was familiar to the Corinthians, and a subject that is foundational to his labor as an apostle and preacher among them.

He writes:

15.1

15.2

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The apostle is reminding them, but also revealing again to them, the gospel that he first preached, and continues to preach.

The word “gospel” is the Greek word [ εὐαγγέλιον ] where we get our word “evangel” or “evangelism.”

A gospel is good news — proclaimed!

THE gospel is the good news about God’s grace through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So the apostle “preached” the gospel.

In verse 1, the word translated “preached” is not the word for “preaching” used elsewhere.

Here, it is the verbal form of the word for “gospel.”

And so what the apostle is saying, is “I make known to you the gospel which I gospelized to you.”

Every one of us can do this work of “gospelizing.”

“Evangelizing.”

Proclaiming the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

And notice in verse 1, what happened as the apostle “preached” or “gospelized” —

“which you received”

There is a back-and-forth here.

The apostle preaches — The people receive.

To receive is to “take close.”

To take it in.

And the Corinthians did that, they received the gospel message.

But that is where it stops for most people.

Receiving only.

For many, that’s what it means to believe.

To hear a message, and agree with that message.

To simply receive it.

But that was not all the Corinthians did with what they heard and received.

The apostle goes on —

They are actively standing in that message.

Which means, they are remaining in it.

They have a gospel “state of mind.”

When the rain falls — they stand.

When the floods come — they stand.

When the winds blow and beat against the house — they stand, firmly established in that message that they have received.

But still, that’s not all!

How does one stand in this way, so firmly established?