Sermon Tone Analysis

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: , POINTER!, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself.

Thank the band and choir.

Invite guests to parlor after service.

Through the month of July, we are taking up our annual offering to combat world hunger and to provide assistance during disasters through the Southern Baptist Convention.

Our goal this year is $3,700, and so far, we’ve received ????.

Please pray and consider how God would lead you to give to this offering this year.

We have our regularly scheduled bi-monthly business meeting of the church next Sunday night, July 21, at 5:30 here in the Sanctuary.

Please plan to be here to be a part of discussing and deciding the business of the church family.

Adults on Mission (AOM) will be held tonight following our evening service in Miller Hall.

The service starts at 5:30, and then AOM will be immediately following at 6:30.

Richard and Anna Shelley will be sharing about their recent trip to Croatia.

I also need to let everyone know that our dear miss Tenna Eckert went home to be with the Lord this past Tuesday evening.

Her memorial service will be held on Friday, July 26, at noon here at the church building.

I really appreciate how many of you grabbed a Sunday Morning Bible Study card last week after I mentioned them in service.

Remember that our Sunday morning Bible studies are the best vehicle we have here at EHBC for intentionally connecting the members of the family to each other on a weekly basis.

If you aren’t currently involved in a Bible study on Sunday mornings, please look at the card and find one to try next week!

Opening

Last week, we finished our sermon series on “Who’s Your One?”

But that doesn’t mean that we’re done with the language of “Who’s Your One?” or that we’re done thinking about evangelism.

In fact, today as we begin our next series of study together, the idea of evangelism and the gospel will still be very much a part of what we do.

Today, we will begin our new series: a study of the book of Galatians that we’re going to call “Dear Church:” Galatians is considered by many to be one of Paul’s great writings.

It is both theological and practical in its scope, and as we go through this letter together, I pray that we will all be able to make application of its truths to our life as a church family.

This morning, we’re going to start at the very beginning, with the first five verses of the book of Galatians and a little bit of background:

Pray

When we approach the Bible, we get that it’s a book.

And inside this book are 66 smaller sections, which we also call “books.”

However, the majority of the Bible isn’t what we would call “books” today.

These “books” are of various lengths, covering a variety of historical and political contexts, from a variety of genres, written by a variety of authors, with a variety of purpose, to a variety of people, in a variety of times.

What we call the “book” of Galatians (and all of Paul’s writings, incidentally) is actually what we would call an “epistle.”

An epistle is a 25-cent word for a formal letter.

This letter was written in a real time by a real person to a real audience.

As we go through Galatians together during this study, we will see that this letter was particularly personal for Paul.

Author Timothy George said, “Romans and Ephesians, though addressed to Christian believers in specific places, tell us very little about the development or problems faced by the churches in Rome and Ephesus.

On the other hand, Galatians, in this respect very much like Paul’s Corinthians correspondence, addresses specific issues and controversies arising at a particular place and time in his missionary activities.”

(NAC Galatians)

What we call the “book” of Galatians (and all of Paul’s writings, incidentally) is actually what we would call an “epistle.”

An epistle is a 25-cent word for a formal letter.

This epistle is unique among Paul’s writings, however, for a couple of reasons:

We are going to go back next week and give more consideration to verse 1, but for now, just to make sure we have a good idea of where we are and what we’re doing, we’re going to just use verse 1 to show who is writing, and to verse 2 to show whom he is writing to:

The addressee for Paul’s letter to the Galatians was “the churches of Galatia.”

Galatians is the only one of Paul’s letters addressed neither to an individual nor to Christians in one specific city.

It is very likely that Paul was writing to churches that he and Barnabas founded on their first missionary journey.

Here is a current GOOGLE MAP (2) of the area of Paul’s first missionary journey.

During this first missionary journey with Barnabas, recorded in & 14, they traveled from Syrian Antioch across the island of Patmos, then up to Perga, then on to Pisidian Antioch, then south to Iconium, then Lystra, and finally to Derbe, where after ministering, they reversed their course and went back through those towns, helping the churches in those places get more established as they went back.

During Paul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas, recorded in & 14, they ministered in a

Now, these places: Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, are all in the area that at the time was known as the Roman province of Galatia, as shown on this SECOND MAP (3).

These would have been predominantly Gentile churches in these cities.

I believe that Paul is writing this letter to these churches shortly after this first missionary journey, but before the Council of Jerusalem, when it was decided what to instruct the Gentile believers regarding the keeping of the Law.

Throughout this series, we will be looking at the issues that Paul addressed with these churches in their time, and the application of his instructions to our church in this time.

For today, though, we will be looking at verses 3-5 of Paul’s introduction.

One thing that I might understand is who is doing the writing.

We can understand that here as well:

What we call the “book” of Galatians (and all of Paul’s writings, incidentally) is actually what we would call an “epistle.”

An epistle is a 25-cent word for a formal letter.

This epistle is unique among Paul’s writings, however, for a couple of reasons:

This epistle is unique among Paul’s writings, however, for a couple of reasons:

First,

Paul’s initial greeting here is not particularly remarkable compared to the rest of his letters.

He blesses the churches with “grace” and “peace” from “God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Our Lord Jesus Christ,” is the One “who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us...” Jesus Christ gave Himself in order to rescue us.

First

We understand pretty clearly the concept of a rescue.

I mean, how many superhero movies have been made?

Someone, or many someones, or a whole planet, or the whole universe, is in dire peril, and the superhero or heroes have to step in and save everyone.

We celebrate real life heroes, who put their lives on the line to protect or save those who can’t protect or save themselves.

These stories of heroic rescue grab a hold of our imaginations, they light a fire in our chests, they inspire us to be better people.

And this is what Jesus did.

He came to rescue us.

He came in the flesh, as one of us, to live the perfect life that we could never manage to live, because He is the Son of God.

And He died, shedding His blood as one of us, so that He could redeem us, bring us back, rescue us so that we can be in a right relationship with God again.

And He defeated death and rose again, so that we who have received His rescue can spend eternity with our God who loves us and proved it my giving up His Son for us.

He rescued us by His blood.

As we prepare to take the Lord’s Supper together this morning, we should reflect on what He has done, and on what it means.

According to Scripture, here are three things that Jesus has rescued us from by His blood:

1: The blood of Christ rescues us from the world.

1: The blood of Christ rescues us from the world.

Spend 5 minutes on your favorite news app, and you’ll see that this present age has much evil.

This is what Paul means in verse 4, when he says that Jesus gave Himself “…to rescue us from this present evil age.”

According to the will of God the Father, Jesus the Son of God died so that we could be a different people.

So that He could set us apart from the world, make us different, make us more like Him.

In the series of messages I just started last Sunday during evening worship, I’m asking the question, “Who Do You Think You Are?”

And we’re looking at as our focal passage:

Jesus gave Himself to rescue us from this present evil age by dying in our place because of our sins, according to the will of our God and Father.

In Christ, God is marking off a people that should be distinct from the world and the way the world works.

A people who absolutely belong to Him, so that we might proclaim the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness and into light.

Look at what Paul said to the church at Colosse:

This is who we are supposed to be.

Sadly, we too often look just like the world.

But we must not!