Sermon Tone Analysis

Where are you going?

If I was to ask you the question, what does your future hold?

How would you answer?

Often times when I’m sharing with my friends about Jesus, I share with them the promises of Jesus, that hope that we have as Christians, that there is a day coming where this world as we know it will be drastically renewed.

Living in a new body, in a world without sin, without natural disasters, without sickness and without death.

There was an experiment done in two separate German concentration camp on prisoners during one of the world wars.

One group of prisoners had to shovel a mountain of dirt from one end of the courtyard to the other, day after day after day.

You may be struggling with HOPE at present.

The other group had to do the same thing, but they were told how long they would have to do it for.

In the experiments those in the group that weren’t told how long they’d have to do this for all died or became mentally insane.

Those who were in the group that new there was an end to it survived.

Why? Hope.

You may have people in your life suffering at present with cancer, with addiction, with loneliness or depression.

You yourself might be suffering with these things.

At times it can seem it’s just loss after loss

Bad news after bad news.

You may be struggling with HOPE at present.

Is there any reason for us to believe that things will get better in the future?

Is this just wishful thinking?

Is this just wishful thinking?

On what grounds do we have this hope?

And how certain are we of experiencing the glory of this new world?

These are all the questions that Paul is addressing in this section of Scripture.

BIG IDEA: The Christian life and hope is GLORY through suffering; becoming like Christ in his dying and rising.

1.

The shape of our hope;

the rebirth of the whole of creation, from a relationship of servitude to sonship.

From a taste to a never-ending banquet.

2. The way of our hope;

groaning, suffering, while having joy within it.

Working for liberation as those who are liberated.

3. The assurance of our hope;

nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Firstly, the SHAPE of our hope.

- In one word; GLORY

- V17 – Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

- V18 - 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

- V21 - the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

- V30 - And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

- It’s a glory that no one can fathom.

It’s a glory that no one can fathom, but that has been revealed by his Spirit.

“What no eye has seen,

what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived”[b]—

the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. .

- It’s a glory that is nothing short of the rebirth of the whole of creation.

God’s plan is cosmic.

It’s not that the new world will be a return to Eden.

It’s a new world that far surpasses Eden.

19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

- It’s a glory that moves us from a from a relationship of servitude to a relationship of sonship.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.15

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

V19 - For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

V23 - we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship

For all of you ladies, we have to understand the context that this was written to understand why it’s an adoption to sonship.

It was the firstborn son in the family that was heir to the family inheritance.

What this is saying is that we are all firstborn sons of God, through our union with Christ.

And that means that we are all heirs to the family inheritance.

We share in everything that Jesus has been given.

Every Christian both male and female, in this way, are sons of God.

There is no favouritism with God, all share equally in his glorious inheritance and in the riches of his house.

- It’s a glory that moves from a taste to a never-ending banquet.

V23 - we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly.

Jesus repeatedly described our future hope in terms of a banquet.

And it’s a banquet in every sense of the word.

Not just food and drink, although it will certainly include that.

But a banquet of intimacy and relationships.

When Jesus says there’ll be no marriage in the new creation, some of us sometimes get a bit down about that.

I really like marriage.

Why won’t there be any marriage in the new creation?

Because the quality and level of the relationship that we’ll have with God, and with each other, will far exceed any marriage relationship.

It’s on a whole nother level.

It’s from a taste to a never ending banquet.

Some of us are seriously feeling the weakness and the lack of glory that our bodies currently have.

Just getting out of bed in the morning is a struggle.

It takes me 5 days to recover from my soccer match these days.

When I was younger I could play a game the next day!

The constant back aches.

We feel it don’t we!

- V23 - we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies

Seed/plant analogy

We groan cause we feel trapped like a seed stuck in its shell.

Until it dies and is buried it can’t become what it was truly made for.

Likewise with us.

Currently a seed, will be a full blown tree.

That’s the difference of our new bodies to our present ones.

Dishonour now, honour then.

Weak now, strong then.

We groan cause we feel trapped like a seed stuck in its shell.

Until it dies and is buried it can’t become what it was truly made for.

Likewise with us.

V36-43.

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.