Sermon Tone Analysis

! Installation Service For Pastor Terry Bolds

!

At Rising Star Baptism Church

 

 

       We are here to officially install Pastor Terry Bolds as Pastor of this church.

It’s my honor and pleasure to preside over this installation, because of my relationship with the past pastor, Pastor Frost, and with Pastor Bolds.

We have maintained contact and friendship over the years.

So, I have come to install my friend and co-laborer in the Gospel ministry as pastor of this church.

While there is *no* specific biblical reference illustrating the installation of a pastor in a church, the tradition is *not* without biblical support.

To see this support, we must start with the rite of ordination.

Paul wrote to Titus and told him to appoint elders in every city.

This is a descriptive word for “pastor.”

There are numerous words for pastor, which desribe the various functions, i.e. shepherd, overseer, elder, etc.

The word “appoint” is

 

/kathistemi/, kath-is’-tay-mee, 2525; appoint, be, conduct, make, ordain, set.

*In Christian churches, this verse**¾**and others like it**¾**have been related to the tradition of ordination, which is closely related to an usually precedes installation.*

The scarcity of references makes it impossible to establish a full-orbed procedure practiced in the early church.

*However, there is evidence of a solemn rite marking the setting apart of individuals to specific church functions.*

In Acts 6:6 seven men were chosen by the church, set before the apostles, and prayed over with the laying on of hands.

In addition, Paul and Barnabus were sent forth as missionaries by the church at Antioch with fasting, prayer, and the laying on of hands.

And furthermore, hands were laid on Pastor Timothy by the elders and the apostle Paul.

From these references we can see that individuals were solemnly ordained or set apart to specific ministry and leadership positions.

We can also see that *ordination is the recognition by the church of those whom God has called and equipped for a regular ordered ministry in the church*.

The rite of ordination does not confer authority or spiritual gifts, because these are solemnly given by God.

Rather the fundamental meaning of ordination is identification and representation.

The laying on of hands by the church leaders is an act by which the whole church identifies itself in solidarity with those who are ordained as one with them in their ministry.

And the one being ordained acknowledges his responsibility to properly represent that particular local church.”[1]

\\        *So, I see the ceremony of installing a pastor as an extension of the ordination process.*

The complete process is the calling of God, the licensing by the church, the ordination to specific church ministry, and the installation of the pastor into his own pastorate.

/(As we come to this sacred and esteemed occasion, let us turn to the Word of God for appropriate words of focus and encouragement.

I believe that the Lord has laid upon my heart to talk about being commissioned to preach.

Please notice with me Romans 10:14-15.

Here we see:)/

 

I.

The Commissioning Of The Preacher (vv.

14-15).

(Paul, who was inspired to write concerning God’s plan of salvation, began to illuminate this commissioning by asking some very important questions.

Let’s look at these potent questions.)

 

1.

“How will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?”

*Answer:  “They cannot!

It is impossible!”*

To call upon Jesus Christ would mean to worship Jesus as the Messiah, who is One with God and Very God of Very God.

But how can people worship Jesus as the Messiah, if they have never believed in Jesus Christ?  *To worship Jesus Christ people must have a conviction of the Gospel.*

The Greek word for “believe” means a strong belief or a conviction.

Belief in Jesus Christ is not an “easy believism,” but strong conviction the Jesus is the Messiah, plus trust in Him to save us from our sins!

/(Question number two:)/

 

2.

“How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?”

*Answer:  “They cannot!

It is impossible!”*

The Greek word “heard” means to perceive one’s voice or to understand.

*It is impossible to have a conviction of the Gospel without comprehending the Gospel.*

There can be no acknowledgment of the truth of the Gospel without some level of comprehension.

*Once again,* *this belies the easy believism of our day.*

/(Let’s move on to the next question, which reveals:)/

 

3.

“How will they hear without a preacher?”

*Answer:  “They cannot!

It is impossible!”*

No one can call on Jesus, until they have believed on Him.

And no one can believe on Him, when they haven’t heard about Him.

And no one can hear about Him without a preacher.

*The conviction and comprehension of the Gospel are based upon the preachers of the Gospel.*

The word ‘preacher’ is /kerussontos/ and comes from

 

/2784 kerusso/  “/to be a herald/;/ to officiate as herald/;/ to proclaim after the manner of a herald/; always with a suggestion of formality, gravity, and an authority which must be listened to and obeyed; b. spec.

/used of the public proclamation of the gospel and matters pertaining to it/, made by John the Baptist, by Jesus, by apostles and other Christian teachers.”

*Preachers, of the time of Jesus, were actually town criers.*

They would actually stand in a public place, such as a street corner, and cry out the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

And God has *not* changed this method.

God still speaks through preachers!

*This is God’s method for providing His vehicle of our destiny and His sovereignty, namely:  the Gospel.

And I am contending for the revival and preservation of passionate Preaching, i.e. a sermon that is solidly based upon the Word of God and ends in appropriate celebration!  Henry Mitchell wrote, *“The cardinal sin of the Black pulpit is probably that of irrelevant celebration—gravy that does not match the meat, so to speak.

Good gravy is always made of the essence of the meat to be served, and the same is true of the good Gospel feast.

(/In other words, “Good meat makes its own gravy!/)

When the celebration is about something else, the real message is lost, while the celebration, if it has any substance at all, is recalled.

It is vitally important that all preachers conclude by lifting up the main concerns of the sermon in genuine, joyful celebration.”[2]

God’s plan for the salvation of His people is inextricably bound up with the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, i.e. that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Author of eternal salvation.

You may read the Bible; you may study on your own; and both of these are important, but nothing can take the place of the public proclamation of the Gospel by God’s preacher.

\\ God spoke in times past in many different ways.

He spoke through His presence

 

·        Upon Mt.

Sinai,

·        In the Tabernacle,

·        In the Temple,

·        Through the sacrificial system,

·        Through the High Priest,

·        Through the holy days and feast days,

·        Etc.

*But when the fullness of time came, God Himself came down and spoke to us in the body and being of His Son.*

When God wanted to save men, He sent His Son, in human form, to *proclaim* and *demonstrate* the message of the kingdom of God.

He sent */The Logos,/* the living word, speech, wisdom, and reason of God.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

/The Logos/ became flesh!

And God is not through with His revelation of the Word made flesh.

*God still sends His Word in flesh today, but He does it through His preacher.*

In 2 Timothy 4:2, we find this phrase,

 

“Preach the Word” = /keruxon ton logon/.

“Through preaching the /logos/ or Word of God is manifested, which brings to humanity the eternal life that was promised.

God could have made His Word known to humanity in other ways, but we could *not* have borne this.

(/Had God manifest Himself to us directly, we would have been killed.

He told Moses, “No man can look upon my face and live./”)

Hence God would *not* have been the Savior who gives life; His declaration would have spelled death.

(/We see this in the case of Moses./

/When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai from the presence of God, the glow on his face frightened the people.

They surely could not have borne the presence of God./)