Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good morning,

We’re so glad to see all of you here!

I’m so excited because I think we’ve resolved some of our technical issues

I want to say why I think this is so important:

We need to connect to people where they are, which is increasingly online

I feel like the world needs to hear the good news that we have

I know that God has placed things on my heart to proclaim

And as I’ve gotten to know you, I know that you all have a message the world needs

Having good online presence is the first step to reaching people today

So I appreciate your patience and support while we try to make these things better

Briefly I wanted to mention Zoom:

What I’m trying to do with our ministry here is to be intentional

We use Zoom to facilitate discussion on Wednesday evenings

So I see purpose that is beneficial to everyone for Zooming Wednesday

My sermon is being live-streamed because we want to connect to a broader audience

But our purpose is not to replace in-person worship with digital worship

We want you to be present when you are physically able to be present

So I want to hear your thoughts about whether or not we should keep Zooming Sunday

I invite you to come down and share your thoughts with me in person, to call me, email me, or connect with me on Telegram

Challenge

Our challenge this month is to create a friendship prayer-list.

1 Timothy 2:1–4 (CSB)

1 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

These challenges are designed to teach us how to fight our spiritual warfare using the weapons that have been given to us.

And one of the most powerful spiritual weapons we wield as Christians is the weapon of intercessory prayer: our privilege to enter the presence of God and make requests of him has the ability to shake the foundations of the world.

I’ve seen it move nations!

So what is “intercessory prayer”?

This is the kind of prayer in which Christians take up God’s cause in someone’s life to intercede on their behalf according to God’s will.

This kind of prayer requires persistence (i.e.

“knocking”: Luke 11:9) and personal holiness so that you can discern the will of God (i.e.

“renewing”: Romans 12:2).

So what cripples the effectiveness of our intercessory prayer the most is wavering in inconsistency and personal compromise by which we are defiled by worldliness.

Where our intercession is fruitless, these things are sure to be found.

So part of our challenge this month is to build upon this foundation by becoming more faithful in our intercessory prayers for those God has put into our lives.

Assignments

Read Romans 5:1-2.

God’s Righteousness: Revealed Through Faith

Romans is one of the longest and most important writings in the New Testament.

It was written by the apostle Paul, who was formerly known as Saul of Tarsus.

He was a Jewish rabbi belonging to a group known as the Pharisees.

He was passionately devoted to observing the Torah (Law) of Moses and the traditions of Israel.

And he viewed Jesus and his followers as a threat to these traditions.

So he sought to kill the followers of Christ and eliminate his teaching from the land.

But, while he was on the way to kill Jesus’ followers, he encountered the risen Lord in such a powerful way that he could no longer deny him.

He became a follower of the Risen Lord and was commissioned by him as his official representative to the Gentiles.

Rome was the capitol city of the most powerful military and economic force on earth at the time.

Their history, culture, and background is radically different from Paul and the Jewish people through whom the Messiah has come to the world.

Paul’s letter to Rome must bridge these gaps in order to explain the meaning of the gospel to a small group of disciples who have been battered by the overwhelming social, political, cultural, and spiritual challenges that they were facing.

And we also remember that it was not very long before this letter that Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome (A.D. 49), which is what led to Paul meeting Priscilla and Aquilla in Corinth, and probably provided him with this connection to Rome.

So Paul opens this letter by introducing himself and his Kingdom-commission from the Lord to bring the gospel to the gentiles.

He reminds the Christians in Rome of the power of the Lord because it is by this power that they must overcome the challenges they face, just as we, today, must also overcome our challenges by the power of the risen Lord.

Paul gives the essential premise of the gospel that “the righteous must live by faith” (Romans 1:17) and then begins in Romans 1:18-32 with a creative retelling of Genesis 3-11 in order to explain how the world was separated from God and lost their knowledge of the truth.

Both Jews and Gentiles have rebelled against God, and Israel’s sin against God is even worse because, unlike the Gentiles who were ignorant of God’s glory, Israel saw his power and recieved his precious promises, but still turned away from him.

But the gentiles aren’t off the hook because of their ignorance either.

No.

In fact, even though they are ignorant of God’s glory and covenants, they still agree with his moral standard through the knowledge of his law that is written upon their hearts (i.e.

“their consciences”).

So chapters 2 and 3 make the case that all humanity is hopelessly trapped and guilty before God.

Within the context of human brokenness, Paul introduces the ideas of “justification” and “righteousness”.

There ideas are so closely interrelated that they are sometimes interchangeable.

And they refer to being set right and living right with God.

So how can humanity be made right with God? Through the law?

No.

We are so broken that the righteous law of God only brings condemnation to us because we can’t ever possibly live up to the standard of his glory.

The good news of Jesus is that God has made another way for us to be made right with him through his faithful love.

And this is very good news because its success depends solely on God’s unfailing love, which is why “faith” is the means for our being made right with him.

Now that there is a new way for broken people to be made whole in God’s love, we find that God is bringing out of Jesus one new unified humanity: people of every tongue, tribe, and nation are being called together and made one through the faithful love of God!

So in chapter four, Paul explores the huge implications that all this has for those who can now become part of this new family through in following the footsteps of Abraham’s faith.

He turns to Abraham’s story in Genesis 15 to explain how Abraham was made right with God before the law of Moses was ever given by his radical faith in God to do the impossible.

This “faith” is what now unites the diverse gathering of peoples in the Church together in one, new, huge family.

We have just finished working through this first discourse and are now ready to enter Paul’s second discourse which explains how God redeems one unified humanity in Christ.

God Redeems: A Unified Humanity

After showing that Jesus is forming a new covenant family of diverse peoples from every tongue, tribe, and nation, Paul goes on to explain in this next discourse how these people are a kind of “new humanity”, which truly satisfies the righteous requirements of the Torah through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

This redemption is what the prophets of old foretold:

God is reforming out of unfaithful humanity - represented by Israel - one new faithful humanity that will live with him in peace by his faithful love.

What the Jews missed was the transformative nature of God’s promises.

They were like those who wanted to put new wine into old wineskins.

But God is making something new.

This Jerusalem is this new humanity in which God dwells in perfect peace:

Again the prophets speak about the future of God’s redeemed humanity:

The prophets envisioned one humanity that would be established upon the foundation of righteousness.

There they would not know the oppression of sin and death; their terrors would be far from them because of the Lord who leads them in the ways of life.

This was realized in Jesus:

Really, you could not regret taking time to read Isaiah 54 and meditate upon Isaiah’s words.

Jesus has come and taught us his living way in order to establish his people in righteousness.

He is building something new - the Church - upon an unshakable foundation.

He is calling forward a new people.

Then perhaps the most important prophetic foretelling of the new covenant is made by the prophet Jeremiah:

You will see deep connections between this and Paul’s writings in his second and third discourses (chapters 5-11).

A new covenant established upon the faithful promises made to Abraham and realized in Jesus has been established.

This is the Lord’s promise to complete our reconciliation to him.

His righteousness will finally be written within our hearts.

He will be our God alone, and we - those who believe him - will be his people.

A new people not like the old ones who constantly rebelled against God and defied him all their days.

A new people that will know the Lord even from the least unto the greatest.

And look how they are established: “for I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.”

The new humanity that walks in God’s ways will be established in righteousness by the grace of God!

Chapter Five: The New Adam