Sermon Tone Analysis

Ideas:

Messiah Complex?

What does it mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

:

I Corinthians 9

What does it mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

What does it mean to pick up our cross and follow Jesus?

Our crosses are not redemptive!

passage: kerygmatic vs. ethical

Kerygmatic: With this approach, “Paul does not use the hymn to set forth a series of steps to follow in the imitation of Christ,” yet the Christ-hymn, which sets forth the gospel message, still calls readers to “humble Christian service.”

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

138).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

If this is the model for Christian living, then how do we model the move from incarnation to glorification?

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

138).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Missionaries in Christ; not Christ themselves.

Paul in I Corinthians: “I have made myself a slave to all.”

How to be a missionary?

Is it to be Jesus to people, or to show the love of Jesus?

Missionary: incarnate or cruciform?

Incarnation: That saves people.

Our ministry does not save people, we serve merely as witnesses of Jesus.

Calvin: We are not our own: let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds.

We are not our own: let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh.

We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours.

Conversely, we are God’s: let us therefore live for him and die for him.

We are God’s: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions.

We are God’s: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal.

We are not our own: let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds.

We are not our own: let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh.

We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours.

Conversely, we are God’s: let us therefore live for him and die for him.

We are God’s: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions.

We are God’s: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal.[

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

150).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

How are we connected to Christ: Drawing on Paul, Calvin asserts that Christ does indeed live within believers, but he is sensitive to the way Paul connects this with obedient living in Christ and participating in his death.

As Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” ().

Commenting on Paul’s phrase that “it is Christ who lives in me,” Calvin writes, “Christ lives in us in two ways.

The one life consists in governing us by his Spirit, and directing all our actions; the other, in making us partakers of his righteousness; so that, while we can do nothing of ourselves, we are accepted in the sight of God.”[ 364] By participating in Christ’s righteousness, believers receive forgiveness of their sins, and as they continue to participate in Christ, the Spirit directs their lives and actions after the pattern of Christ.[

365]

Drawing on Paul, Calvin asserts that Christ does indeed live within believers, but he is sensitive to the way Paul connects this with obedient living in Christ and participating in his death.

As Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” ().

Commenting on Paul’s phrase that “it is Christ who lives in me,” Calvin writes, “Christ lives in us in two ways.

The one life consists in governing us by his Spirit, and directing all our actions; the other, in making us partakers of his righteousness; so that, while we can do nothing of ourselves, we are accepted in the sight of God.”[ 364] By participating in Christ’s righteousness, believers receive forgiveness of their sins, and as they continue to participate in Christ, the Spirit directs their lives and actions after the pattern of Christ.[

365]

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

151).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

151).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

How do we understand our ministry?

Christian identity is derived from the pattern of Jesus’s life: self-denial and obedient service toward God and love toward neighbor.

Moreover, since believers have actually been united to Jesus Christ, the way of service is not an abstract “model” for ministry, which would make Christ an “example” to follow at a distance.

According to Calvin, Paul says we have been united to Christ, “not only a conformity of example, but a secret union, by which we are joined to him.”[

366] But on the other hand, Christians are “far from being equal to Christ” as they follow him.

Christian action is always derivative and subordinate, even as the call to discipleship is real—“ for though we do not overtake him,” it is right that “we should follow his steps.”[

367] Precisely because Christ is the “King and High Priest” and we are not, there will be ways that Christians need to act differently than Christ even as we are called to carry our crosses in following him.[

368]

Christian identity is derived from the pattern of Jesus’s life: self-denial and obedient service toward God and love toward neighbor.

Moreover, since believers have actually been united to Jesus Christ, the way of service is not an abstract “model” for ministry, which would make Christ an “example” to follow at a distance.

According to Calvin, Paul says we have been united to Christ, “not only a conformity of example, but a secret union, by which we are joined to him.”[

366] But on the other hand, Christians are “far from being equal to Christ” as they follow him.

Christian action is always derivative and subordinate, even as the call to discipleship is real—“ for though we do not overtake him,” it is right that “we should follow his steps.”[

367] Precisely because Christ is the “King and High Priest” and we are not, there will be ways that Christians need to act differently than Christ even as we are called to carry our crosses in following him.[

368]

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (pp.

151-152).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (pp.

151-152).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Witnesses!

But there is a better way— that of being sent as witnesses to Christ who discover the Spirit’s creation of a new humanity in Christ as one identifies with people of a different culture.

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

152).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Billings, J. Todd (2011-11-01).

Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (p.

152).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The oneness of the church is a gift.

The church is not one because of an achievement but because of the oneness of Jesus Christ himself.

Because Christ is one, all who are in Christ are one— given one inheritance and one Spirit who enables Christians to grow in this unity in Christ.