Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Welcome/Announcements/Prayer

Over the next few weeks whenever we meet on Wednesday nights, we’re going to be studying out of Romans 8 and we’re going to dive into one of the greatest chapters in the New Testament as Paul shares with us the hope that we have in Christ as there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

As we go through this chapter, we’re going to also have an introduction to Biblical interpretation crash course as well.

It’s important for us as Christians to not only spend time reading the Bible, but to spend time carefully studying God’s Word.

Suppose that someone came in to our church and said that FBC Salem is sitting on top of a massive amount of buried treasure that has been dispersed from 10 feet below the soil to 100 feet below the soil and the further you dig, the more treasure you’ll find.

It would take a split second for us to run home and grab our shovels and work clothes before we came back and got busy digging!

In fact, some of us would go and buy some tools in order to dig deeper and deeper to extract the treasure below our feet.

This is the reality of studying the Bible.

The deeper you go, the more treasure you’ll find.

Sure, if you just read the Bible at surface level you’ll be blessed but if you dig deep and really study the Scriptures and spend effort and time doing so, you’ll be even more blessed as you walk away knowing more and more of God’s Word.

This is why Bible study matters so much in our individual lives and also in the life of the church corporately.

Sometimes in Bible study we read some Bible verses and the leader will discuss some thoughts and study that they have done and then this question is asked, “What does this verse mean to you?” I’m not opposed to this question, but we have to be careful with this question.

The Bible will never mean something that it never meant.

Our responsibility as Christians and Bible students is not to immediately think about what this verse means to me but instead to think about what this verse meant back in its original context and then to think about what its modern application is in 2022.

Some people jump immediately to modern application and we can miss the original meaning and make the Bible mean something that it was never meant to mean - this is called Eisegesis or reading something into the text that isn’t naturally there.

We don’t want to practice this… Instead we want to practice Exegesis or extracting the meaning of the text.

Books and books have been written on how to best do this and this is what we call the process of Hermeneutics or Biblical interpretation.

Maybe we’ll do a Wednesday night series on the nuances of this process one day in the years to come… But for now, let’s take a crash course and look at what’s called the grammatical/historical method of Biblical interpretation to see what the plain meaning of the Bible text is.

How can we know the meaning of the text?

This requires us to do some studying and investigating.

Some things to keep in mind in this process:

What is the context of this passage?

What is the context of this book?

Who - Cultural

What - Historical

Where - Geographical

Why - Theological

What is the genre of this passage?

Historical Narrative like Exodus

Wisdom like Proverbs

Prophecy like Isaiah

Apocalyptic like Revelation

Epistle like Ephesians

Parable like John

Each book has different genres and we have to read the Bible in light of that genre.

Narrative is a story - you would read this just like you would read a story in a biography book.

Acts is a lot of historical narrative.

These are real events that really happened.

You read those stories differently than you do Prophecy in a place like Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 talks about the suffering servant and that prophecy we know is fulfilled by Jesus but Isaiah didn’t see Jesus do those things.

It’s prophesying what He will do.

Not what He has done.

As a result, we have to read those prophecy sections differently than we do a story from the Gospels or Acts.

Same for apocalyptic sections of Scripture.

You can’t read those passages like historical narrative sections.

We have to study what the genre is and study accordingly.

What is the main idea of the text?

Let’s put some of these things to use tonight as we look at Romans 8:1-11 and look at what it looks like to experience the life giving Spirit

Context of Book

Who wrote the book of Romans?

Paul

What is the setting of Romans?

Written to Christians in Rome

Genre of Romans?

Epistle from Paul to church

When was Romans written?

~57 AD

Why was Romans written?

To address problems in the church

To emphasize salvation in Christ, not the law

To encourage believers to walk in the Spirit

To give hope to those being persecuted

To glorify God

Context of Romans 8

What is going on in Romans 8?

Paul begins with “therefore” what does that mean?

Have to go back to Romans 7 and see what he has said about the inner struggle that Christians face

We’re tempted to do what we shouldn’t do and not do what we should do

Yet, it ends in verse 24-25 with this

Why address this?

Because some Christians are tempted to think that they are a failure because of their sin

Because Christians are called to walk in the Spirit

Because Christ has come to set Christians free

Text

Let’s start with verse 1

Questions to ask as we examine this verse

What is the therefore doing?

Why is there “now” no condemnation?

57 AD - Christ has come and died on the cross for sinners and paid the price.

Only true for Christians

Why would there be condemnation?

Sin - Romans 3:23 shares that we’re sinners and we deserve death/separation from God

What does it mean to be “in Christ?”

To be saved and a new creation

If we used to be under condemnation and not a new creation… What changed?

The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free!

Who does the Spirit set free?

Those who are in Christ.

Why does the Spirit do this?

Because of what Christ has done - because (v. 3) of what God did!

Look at these first 2 verses and note some application for us today.

We deserve condemnation left to ourselves

Through Christ and only through Christ can we be set free from condemnation as we are under something new

We have every reason in the world to rejoice in what Christ has done for us!

We can look at these opening verses with 3 “R’s”

Reality - Celebration

We celebrate what Christ has done on our behalf

Reason - Justification

The reason that we can celebrate is because Christ has justified us before God and set us free