Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAY

INTRO: Do you ever step back and ask yourself what the plan is?

With all the busyness, have I recently adjusted my plans and practices according to what God’s priorities and purposes are for my life?

Or… What is the purpose and plan for the Church?

And then what should be God’s purpose and plan for us as a local expression of the Church?

How would you describe the vision of the Church?

Who are we, and what do we do?

It has been almost exactly four years since I last preached any messages on this topic, so we’re entering a topical series before launching into our exposition of Acts, Luke’s sequel to his gospel that we just completed.

The aim of this short (3-week?) series is to give us clarity and focus on the answer to this question: “Who are we, where are we going?”

The only “vision” worthy of a local church is the purpose and mission given for Christ’s universal Church.

What do we aspire to do?

We aspire to mature in ever-increasing faithfulness to all that our Lord has commanded of us.

So we must look to God’s word to get to the bottom of what that is.

Context: Last supper discourse.

More specifically, what we call the high priestly prayer of Jesus, where he intercedes for his apostles and for all who will believe in him.

The Point: Gets to the heart of the gospel.

The gospel is the good news that the God of the universe has offered a relationship with himself to sinful humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom a response of repentance and faith is required.

Knowing him is what God made us for.

And if we will know him on his terms, as he truly is, we will fear him (in his holiness and power)… we will love him (in his majesty and grace toward us)… we will trust him (in his perfections and his plan)… and we will obey him (bc no other response will do for the heart that has come to know him).

[transition]

Context: Peter writes a letter to the churches to offer them encouragement and courage in their suffering.

He writes from his own persecution in Rome to other believers who are and will suffer for the Gospel.

So Peter challenges the Church to live with a laser focus on the hope that we have in Jesus Christ in the face of hostility.

In this section more specifically, Peter uses the metaphor that we (the church) are being built up (like living stones) into a sanctified house that reflects the uniqueness of our Lord, who is himself the cornerstone.

The Point: The emphasis is on holiness here.

We are a people set apart for God’s own possession, so we must live consistently with whose we are.

In so doing we are proclaiming God’s excellencies (the virtues of his character).

Context: Paul’s ministry in the church, and more specifically the message God gave him to preach that through Jesus Christ God makes himself available to the Gentiles as well.

The Point: When God has made us his own by grace through faith in Jesus, our whole being and behavior proclaims the excellencies of God and proclaims the message of restoration to him through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[title again] That is who we are, and that is what we do: We Are His.

Him We Proclaim.