Sermon Tone Analysis

The Gospel Project

Matthew Barrett, in the new book, Reformation Theology, writes:

The authoritative Word, which necessitated proclamation, brought with it not only law but also gospel.

Sola Scripturabestowed gifts on the people, gifts called sola gratia, sola fide, and sola Christus.

Once God’s Word was at the center, supreme in its authority and infallibility, it gave birth to the gospel.

As Martin Luther said, the Scriptures are the swaddling clothes in which Christ lies.

The Gospel Project is designed to help us see Christ everywhere we ought to see him in Scripture.

And Christ is everywhere in Scripture.

In the book, Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah and fellow sociologists surveyed religion in the United States:

They concluded that it is best described as “Sheilaism,” named after one person they interviewed who said that she follows her own little voice.

Every American is the founder of his or her own religion, following the dictates of his or her own heart

If you cannot feel the weight of God’s law, cannot sense the incomprehensible majesty of God’s righteousness, and do not appreciate the profound wickedness of your sinful heart, you cannot know the surpassing riches of divine grace!

Grace is unavoidably and necessarily diminished by modern attitudes that neglect or weaken God’s law, fail to elevate and emphasize God’s righteousness, and that downplay and marginalize sin.

A lack of concern for holy living is the logical outworking of a presumptuous attitude toward grace and it is an obvious mark of many modern, supposedly evangelical churches, not to mention, not a few professing Christians.

The gospel project seeks to recover the gospel from the Scripture as a whole for it is the Scripture as a whole that is the gospel.

Apart from recovering Scripture as a whole, there is no recovery of the gospel.

The safest way for you and me to avoid being the creators of our own individual religion is to fully embrace sola Scriptura.

And we do not embrace Scripture alone by importing our modern experiences and ideas and biases into the text and interpreting the Bible through our own life.

We also do not embrace Scripture by subjecting its claims to the authority of science and reinterpreting it accordingly.

We must stop reading ourselves into the text and start allowing the text to speak to us, to threaten us, to make us uncomfortable.

Only when we appreciate the unique nature of Scripture and the events it records will we begin to experience the transformation that is described therein.

The gospel project is about recovering the unifying theme of the gospel across the entirety of Scripture.

By recovering the reformation principle of sola Scriptura the gospel project seeks to recover the true gospel

What are the five solas of the reformation that Clint referenced last week?

One of the ways that some evangelicals have abandoned the doctrine of sola Scriptura and subsequently distorted the gospel is demonstrated in the way they understand the doctrine of repentance and their rejection of law as a component of the gospel.

This lesson focuses on God’s delight in granting true repentance to undeserving sinners.

No one wrote more NT revelation than Luke, other than his travelling companion, the Apostle PaulTheir eyes were being restrained to recognize him.

The voice of ἐκρατοῦντο (ekratounto)and διηνοίχθησαν (dienoichthesan) is passive.

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What is Luke Doing

An orderly account to Theolophilus.

Who opened the disciples’ eyes in ?

ANSWER IN YOUR ALL WORDS AND PROVIDE YOUR REASO

So that Theolophilus would have certainty concerning the things that he had been taught.

Having Certainty

Διὰ τοῦτο

To know - ἐπιγινώσκω

If your life is not defined by repentance, there is no reason to think that you know and love God.

Διὰ τοῦτο

John never uses this word in his literature

Matthew and Mark use it but without much theological significance

Of the 44x it appears in the NT, 20 belong to Luke

If you were sitting on a jury that was deciding whether or not someone is truly a Christian, what evidence would you need in order to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?

“But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him

“ And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”

Who opened the disciples’ eyes in ?

And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.

Their eyes were being restrained to recognize him.

The voice of ἐκρατοῦντο (ekratounto)and διηνοίχθησαν (dienoichthesan) is passive.

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We learned that Luke included this arable in his project in order to provide Theolophilus with certainty regarding the things that he had been t

διηνοίχθησαν is passive.

This was happening to them.

ἐκρατοῦντο

Learning Objectives

Be able to identify the basic principles for interpreting parables.

Provide you with an understanding of the cultural setting to better understand the parable of the prodigal son.

Help you identify the primary and any subordinate lesson(s) expressed in this parable.

The Basics of Interpreting Parables

What are parables?

Are parables allegories?

[Irenaeus, Augustine, Gregory the Great]

The first problem with conflating a parable with allegory is that it can lead to highly subjective interpretation

The parable of the wheat and the tares.

The field is the world, NOT the church.

The wheat is the children of God.

The tares are the children of the devil, unbelievers, not false Christians.

Why?

This interpretation contradicts the very possibility of church discipline in ; .

The second problem is that it tends toward anachronistic interpretations of parables

The Good Samaritan is a perfect example

Many Christians use this parable to talk about caring for the poor and things like social justice or the evils of racism.

The tree bears no spiritual fruit

But when the tree

Finally, there is no safeguard against parallelomania - everything has a corresponding referent

The Function of Parables

Parables reveal and conceal

And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that

And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’

”

“ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive,

It is best to think of parables as having one main point or lesson to which other points must be subordinate

and may indeed hear but not understand,

Most parables project a familiar world, but then introduce an element of surprise which provokes the hearer to reexamine his/her worldview

Parables are didactic - they serve to instruct but with an eye to provoking thought and action.

Parables defined

Parables are short stories that demand a response from the hearer.

lest they should turn and be forgiven.’

”

Where does the parable begin?

What is the catalyst for the parable?

Who are the actors in the parable?

What cultural issues need to be understood?

How does the parable end?

What follows the parable?

Can we make a parable mean anything we want it to as long as it seems to help someone who may be in a spiritually challenging position?

We conclude then that there are valid rules for interpreting parables and that those rules must be respected.

Parables have one main lesson to which any other lesson(s) must be subordinate.

Parables are not quite the same thing as allegories but should be understood as teaching devices containing one primary lesson to which any other lesson(s) must be subordinate.

The Parable

The context

How do we determine the context of this parable?

What is the occasion for the parable?

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.