Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Introduction
Summer series
Setting Sail
The Church was just getting started.
This was the second generation of believers.
With Christ ascended back into heaven, and most of the original followers of Christ either persecuted or dead, this was the first generation to embark on the Christian mission without Jesus or and Apostle present.
The Challenge: What is the Christian Faith All About?
Challengers:
Gnostics - “secret knowledge”
Montanists - passion without truth
Celsus - criticism from the Jews and Gentiles
Response: Apostolic Fathers
Clement of Rome - Dear Corinth, unify
Ignatius of Antioch - hold to good theology
Polycarp - love those who are hard to love
Didache - How to run church
Epistle of Barnabus - allegory and legalism
Shepherd of Hermas - how to live a godly life
Response: Apologists
Justin Martyr
Athenagoras of Athens
Theophilus of Antioch
Response: Point out Heresy
Irenaeus
Lesson:
The Church turned to God’s Word and wise counsel to solve the problems it faced.
Signs of Danger:
The influence of philosophy and the desire to be accepted by the world made the church curious about allegorical interpretation and fitting Scripture into secular categories.
Learning the Ropes
The Challenge: Theology vs. Philosophy?
Response: Christian Thinkers
Clement of Alexandria - integrate Christianity with the thinking of the day
Tertullian - stick with Scripture
Origen of Alexandria - used worldly categories and set the stage for heresy
Response: Christian Authority
Cyprian - the bishop has great authority
Lesson:
Christians wrestled with how to fit in with the culture around them and stay respectible and unified as a church.
Signs of Danger:
Christians began to compromise what the Bible says to fit into what was acceptible in the culture, and because they were relying less on Scripture alone, they began to keep unity through emphasizing the authority of men.
Weathering the First Storm
The Challenge: What is the Trinity
The Challenger:
Arius - heretic who denied the deity of Jesus
Response:
Alexander of Alexandria
Council of Nicaea - the Nicene Creed
Council of Constantinople
Council of Ephesus
Council of Chalcedon
Athenasius
Cappadocian Fathers
Lesson:
The Church can gather and study God’s World to answer important questions about the Christian faith.
Signs of Danger:
Certain churches began to be seen as more important than other ones.
Weathering the Second Storm
The Challenge: Who is Jesus?
Response:
Alexandria - increasingly allegorical view of the Bible
Antioch - return to a biblical hermeutic
Response:
Western church seeks to explain things very precisely
Eastern church seeks to preserve mystery
Lesson:
How you interpret the Bible is very important to how you understand the Gospel and how you live.
Signs of Danger:
Disagreements between theological positions start turning into political and personal attacks instead of a closer look at Scripture.
Rot Leads to Splitting
The Challenge: What (or Who) Defines the Church?
Response:
The Western church gives more and more power to Rome to decide what it thinks
The Eastern church grows increasingly frustrated with the power and pride of Rome
The Western Church officially begins to call itself the Roman Catholic Church
The Eastern Church officially stops caring what the Western Church thinks
Response:
The filioque controversy
The Great Schism
Lesson:
The Church wasn’t split by doctrine, but by a lack of humility and love.
It became proud and selfish.
Signs of Danger:
The Church now looks to Rome more than Jesus or Scripture for its authority.
Salvation becomes more about obeying the voice of Rome than about obeying the voice of God.
Darkness Falls
The Challenge: What Is the Gospel?
The Response:
Papal power
Political power
The Response:
The Scholastic movement
Dualism
Secular/Sacred
Common/Clergy
Latin/Vulgar
People/God
Gospel/Grace
Response:
Increasing corruption
Increasing persecution
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