Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning I want to preach a timely and I think providential message on the subject of giving.

I don’t go out of my way to preach about giving.

In fact I normally only talk about it as I am naturally preaching expository through a book.

This year God worked so that we could address this subject right as I am also encouraging everyone to give to our grace giving fund for 2022.

So I pray that God would use this text to stir each one of us up to love and good works in the area of giving.

Followers of Christ ought to love to give towards gospel ministry.

What are the Biblical reasons for giving towards missions?

I. Giving for gospel ministry produces a loving concern for others.

II.

Giving for gospel ministry creates a spiritual partnership with others.

III.

Giving for gospel ministry increases eternal reward.

IV.

Giving for gospel ministry accomplishes spiritual worship.

Philippians 4:18 (ESV)

18 I have received full payment, and more.

I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

But I have received all and I am oversupplied; having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent,

Notice the descriptive words Paul uses to describe the gifts from Epaphroditus!

A. The Descriptive Words of Spiritual Worship

1).

A Fragrant Offering

The quality of something that affects the mind with an odor.

There are pleasant things that affect the mind with a sweet fragrant odor.

The point is when you graciously give for gospel ministry it is like the fragrance of freshly baked chocolate chips cookies to the Lord.

God loves when you give this way!

2).

A sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

θυσίαν δεκτήν, εὐάρεστον[2]τῷ θεῷ.

an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

Giving for gospel ministry is one of the ways we can offer spiritual sacrifices of worship to God!

This comes right out of the Biblical teaching that every believer is a spiritual priest before God- we call this the priesthood of the believer.

B. The Biblical Teaching of the Priesthood of the Believer

1).

The priesthood of the believer is only possible because of the priesthood of Christ (Heb.

10:1-18).

The Mosaic law and its sacrificial system were only a shadow or a picture of the true reality that God would one day provide a better sacrifice.

Because the OT sacrifices were only a shadow they could never make the participants perfect- they had no power to forgive sins.

OT saints should have realized this, because if those sacrifices had made them perfect, they would not need to offer them continually.

Truly forgiven people no longer bear the consciousness of their sins.

The act of offering sacrifices over and over again should have reminded people that their sins could never be forgiven through the sacrificial system.

Why was that?

Why could the OT sacrificial system never truly forgive people’s sins?

Mere animal blood was not a sufficient sacrifice to remove our sins.

In fact it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

So if offering a sacrifice of animals was insufficient, what kind of a sacrifice is sufficient to take away our sins?

The only sufficient sacrifice for our sins was made possible through the incarnation- the in-fleshing of God as a man.

God prepared a body, a human body made of flesh and blood just like ours, for Jesus as our Messiah.

When Jesus came into the world a Messiah his purpose was to perfectly do the will of the Father.

What was the will of God the Father for Jesus his son?

Why did God prepare a body for Jesus to function as our Messiah, as our Savior?

The will of the Father, the reason He prepared a body for Jesus, was for Jesus to be our perfect sacrifice.

God had no pleasure in the sacrifice of bulls and goats, but through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all- believers have been sanctified!

Do you know what the word sanctified means?

It means to make holy.

The only way for our sins to be forgiven is through the perfect sacrifice, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

This alone is able to sanctify us- to make us holy.

Nothing else will do!

That is why the OT priests had to stand daily- there work was never finished.

They had to offer repeatedly the same sacrifices over and over again- because they were powerless to take away sins.

But Jesus offered a far better sacrifice!

Jesus is both priest who offers the sacrifice and He Himself is the sacrifice for our sins.

His perfect sacrifice had to be offered only once, and then Jesus could sit down at the Father’s right hand because His work was finished.

What were the words Jesus cried out on the cross as He gave up his spirit?

“It is Finished!”

What kind of power was there in the perfect sacrifice of the body of Jesus?

My friends if you have received God’s gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says that you are perfected in the mind of God.

Positionally, you have been declared righteous.

The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you.

And your sins are fully forgiven- God no longer counts them against you!

It is not that God has divine amnesia.

God does not actually forget your sins in that he no longer remembers them.

But, because of the perfect sacrifice of God, because God’s justice has been fully satisfied and his wrath for your sins fully appease in the blood of Christ, God no longer counts your sins against you!

This is what I mean when I talk about the Priesthood of Christ.

If Christ had not functioned for us as our Great High Priest, if Christ had not offered his body as our perfect sacrifice, then none of us would be afforded the privilege of being believer priests.

But because of Christ’s priestly work on our behalf the most ordinary Christ is afforded the most extraordinary privilege imaginable.

Refutation-

Any attempt to add to the priestly sacrifice of Jesus is the antithesis of the gospel.

If you are depending on any other offering for your sin you are not believing the true gospel.

Catholics transforming the Lord’s Supper into a sacrifice that supposedly secures grace for the sinner / attempting to offer up good deeds as a supplement to secure grace / flat out thinking that you are not in need of the sacrifice of Jesus!

2).

The significance of the priesthood of the believer is our access to God (Heb.

10:19-25).

The most extraordinary privilege imaginable is direct access to Almighty God!

Therefore- because of the priestly work of Christ on our behalf- the most lowly Christ has confidence to enter the holy places.

The holy of holies was a place on the High Priest could enter but once a year on the Day of Atonement.

But now by the blood of Jesus, and

Every believer exercises the highest privileges of priesthood, we have been granted access to the very presence of God!

No one has greater access to God, no one has a higher standing in God’s presence, than the most ordinary Christ because of the work of our great high priest!

This truth- the priesthood of the believer has some powerful implications for our church.

With such a high priest, and such a sacrifice, and such privileges- we must remain faithful to Christ!

One of the implications of the priesthood of the believer is we are expected to act as priests for each other- not in the sense of the removal of sins (only Christ can do that), but in the ministry of encouraging and exhorting one another to love and good works.

I need you to function as a priest on my behalf before God!

I need you to go before God, to enter the holy places with confidence and intercede on my behalf.

That is the fulfilling the role of a priest- to represent someone before God.

When we pray for each other we rightly exercise our privilege of priesthood.

I need this ministry for you and you need this ministry from me.

It is one of the ways we stir up one another to love and good works.

The second way we do this is through regular assembly.

Intercessory prayer and purposeful regular in-person meetings are vital to our role as priests of encouraging and stirring each other up to love and good works.

How often should we assemble?

More and more as you see the Day drawing near!

3).

As believer priests we are to offer spiritual sacrifices of worship to God.

We are all believer priests.

Every Christian has the privilege, because of the forgiveness of our sins through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, to enter into the very presence of God.

We can all draw near to God because of Christ’s work on our behalf.

And as we draw near to God as believer priests one of the things we ought to do is offer God spiritual sacrifices of worship!