Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Working outline:

How does witness fit into the call to make disciples of all nations?

Our mission must be to live as witnesses to Christ, which includes building relationships with unbelievers to share the gospel with them and to call them to believe.

We must be willing to be bold with our evangelism.

This is not something that is fulfilled with a program - this is an individual call for all of our lives on a day to day basis.

Working outline:

Introduction

Context of this message within the greater series - we are looking at the call of our church in light of the Great Commission.

The call to gospel-centered witness covers the portion of “making disciples of all nations” ()

If we all feel a little uncomfortable at the end of this message, then it has done its job!

It should challenge those of us who believe to be better messengers for Jesus, and it should challenge those who do not believe to put their trust in him

Why witness is important

The name of Jesus is the only name by which people will be saved from their sins () - no one comes to the Father except through Jesus

People cannot believe in someone that they have not heard about ()

Who is called to witness

Key concept - “preach” in is best understood as “proclaim” - not as a Sunday morning sermon

We have been commissioned and sent by the Lord himself!

How can we assume that this is a job for someone else? ()

What it means to witness

We must proclaim the gospel - simply “living well” is necessary, but is not sufficient ()

We must fully understand and comprehend the gospel () - we cannot be effective witnesses if we do not fully understand it ourselves

We must not water down the gospel - we must be bold with our evangelism and be true to the message of redemption

We must call people to repent and believe

We must start local ()!

Begin with your immediate context - some people God will call further afield, but we can all be witnesses within our own Jerusalem!

God calls us to build relationships with those who do not know him (find reference) - if we do not have any non-Christian friends, then we are not living out the Great Commission!

Our relationships enable us to speak specifically into their lives as a friend and as someone who loves and cares about them, not as someone shouting at them from a street corner (although God does, in his grace, use that method sometimes!)

Witness is more than a program - it can be tempting to wait for specific outreach events and then to say “I’ve done my evangelism!” but that is not what God is calling us to do - He is calling us to be His witnesses in our everyday lives

Conclusion

To witness is a gift from God - an opportunity to demonstrate his grace to a rebellious and fallen world () - it is a beautiful thing!

The gospel compels us to share it - we are all like beggars pointing one another to where there is bread.

Key passages:

Introduction

Good morning church!

If you are able, please stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

Our passage this morning is from .

If you are following along in the bibles under the seat in front of you, the passage is on page 946.

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Let’s pray:

Gracious God, we thank you for your Word - your Word that is sharper than a double-edged sword and that cuts us deep to our hearts.

We thank you that your Word convicts us - that it calls us to repent of our sins and of our own striving for righteousness and to place our trust in the only one who can truly save our souls - our Lord Jesus.

We pray that the light of your Word would shine upon our hearts tonight, showing us where we have strayed from you and bought into the messages of this world, and we pray that we would rightly orient ourselves around living witness for your good news for all people - that you have purposed to save us from our sins through your Son.

Amen.

Good morning church!

It is my joy to bring you the Word this morning, while the Huttos enjoy their time in South Dakota (hopefully avoiding all of the bears)!

Our message this week continues the “Vision” series that we have been progressing through over the past month on the distinctives of King’s Church.

We have been working our way through the implications of the Great Commission and what those implications mean for how we function as a church body.

We have already spoken about the importance of gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, and gospel-centered discipleship, and this morning we will close out our series while speaking about gospel-centered witness.

Like our other sermons in this series, since this is topical rather than expositional, we will be jumping around a little bit throughout our Bibles, so be ready to do a little bit of flipping!

If we look back to , which has been the main text of our series so far, we read:

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Our topic this morning fits neatly into verse 19, where Jesus calls his followers to go out an “make disciples of all nations”.

It is clear that Jesus intends for his followers to be witnesses to who he is and what he has done.

And we will have much more to say about that over the course of the morning!

As I have been writing this sermon for the past week, I suspect that it will make all of us a little bit uncomfortable, perhaps for different reasons.

It certainly made me uncomfortable when I was studying and preparing for it!

If you belong to Christ and the church, I suspect it may make you uncomfortable as we strive to understand the gravity of the mission of going forth and making disciples (it certainly did for me!), and I hope that it encourages you to step out of your comfort zone in order to do so.

And if you do not know Jesus, I suspect that some of the things that we will speak of this morning will seem foreign and strange, but I pray that the Holy Spirit might open your eyes to see the truth of them.

Our message this morning will focus on three main questions about making disciples of all nations:

Why must we witness?

Who is called to be a witness?

What does it mean to truly be a witness of the gospel?

It is my hope any my prayer that these questions challenge all of us to consider our calling to witness, and that it spurs us on to delight in the message of Christ our King even in the face of opposition.

With that in mind, let us turn to our first question this morning: Why is witnessing to what Jesus has done important?

Why Must We Witness?

Well, the first reason is quite simple: God tells us to.

Multiple times, in fact!

Let’s look first at the Great Commission passage in :

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We might be tempted to think that God only commanded the apostles to go out an make disciples (after all, that is who Jesus is speaking to primarily in this passage), but that would not be correct.

God has commanded all of us to spread the good news of the gospel to as many people as we can.

We see this clearly in a number of different passages.

For example, Jesus in commands us:

14 “You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus tells us again in :

Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

48 You are witnesses of these things.

8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Similarly, Peter encourages us in to:

Similarly, Peter encourages us in to:

Similarly, Peter encourages us in to:

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

And Paul reminds us in :