Sermon Tone Analysis

The Gospel of the Lord

Its effect, its demand and its content

!!! /Lord’s Day 14 January 2007, 9.00am/

!!! Announcements

!!! Moments of silent prayer

!!!

The word of God in our midst

!!!

Call to worship

“God is exalted in His power.

Who is a teacher like Him?  How great is God—beyond our understanding!

The number of His years is past finding out.

(Job 36:22, 26)

!!! Blessing

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

(Galatians 1:3-5)

!!! Approach: Hymn No 327:      /“Lord Jesus, when your people meet”/

!!! /(Tune 19 – 5 verses)/

!!! Forgiveness

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

(Isaiah 1:18-20)

!!! Prayer of Confession of sin

!!! Hymn:                            /“I vow to You my Saviour” (Screen, 4 verses)/

!!! Prayer of Adoration, Thanksgiving and the Lord’s Prayer

!!! Hymn No 321:            /“Bring to the Lord a glad new song”/

!!! Tithes, offering and dedication

!!! Prayer for others

!!! Scripture Readings   /Psalm 19:1-14; Colossians 1:3-14/

!!! Sermon

!!!!!! Introduction

My dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,

I am sure most of us had the privilege to be out in the bush, camping under the stars.

In my days as Patrol Padre of the Presbyterian Inland Mission I would camp where the sun sets.

In the clear sky night, without the effect of street lights or other lights around me, I would look up into the sky with the stars so bright that I felt it was possible to reach out and pluck one.

And yet, those stars so bright and beautiful are millions of kilometres away.

Being enveloped by the darkness of the night, the stars seemed bright as they reflect the light from the sun into the darkness of the par of the earth not exposed to the sun itself.

But, how beautiful the stars might be, they have no light in themselves; they only reflect light.

Furthermore, the stars are not enough to give us light to live on earth.

There is a time ordained by God, every morning, when the earth turns toward the sun.

The stars seem to disappear in the light of the sun.

Darkness is left behind and for about twelve hours the light of the sun distinguishes the darkness of the night.

Not only can we then see what is around us, but the sun is the source of live giving us energy and all other sources of vitamins and enzymes to sustain human, plant and animal life on the planet.

!!!!!! ; The effect of the Gospel

In the first chapter of Colossians the Gospel is described in the same way.

The Gospel is like the stars reflecting the glory of Christ, the Son of God’s love.

The Gospel is our leading light in darkness.

Verses 3-8 describes to us the effect of the Gospel.

We have to go the end of this paragraph to understand the message.

It works like this:  God called men to preach the Gospel to people living in darkness.

They were Epaphras and the apostle Paul.

Epaphras is described as a faithful minister.

; We gather that Epaphras evangelised the cities of the Lycus valley in Phrygia under Paul’s direction during the latter’s Ephesian ministry, and founded the churches of ; Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea.

Later he visited Paul during his Roman captivity, and it was his news of conditions in the churches of the Lycus valley that moved Paul to write the Epistle to the Colossians.

; When Epaphras went to Rome to visit Paul and report to him about the work of the Gospel, Paul greatly rejoiced and thanked god for His work through the Gospel.

The people all over the Roman world, and indeed all over the world today where this Gospel is preached, hear and understand about God’s grace in Jesus Christ – we will come back to what the message about Jesus Christ is further into this message and more elaborately tonight as we consider verses 15-23.

Now we are in verse 6.

The Gospel is presented as ; God’s grace.

It is the truth about Him who is the Truth.

The Gospel is not one message amongst other possibilities.

As we will see tonight, when God speaks He speaks as the Creator of the universe.

When God speaks He speaks about Jesus Christ, his Crown Prince through Whom He created the universe and to whom all things created, visible and invisible, belong.

All other messages and gospels are not truth; it may present itself as a philosophy or theory, but in essence they are nothing more than very poor attempt to make people believe they can improve themselves into a better existence.

That’s no Gospel.

When the Gospel is preached and heard in truth something happens to those who hear it.

It happened on the first day of the New Testament Church, and it is still happening today.

; The apostle describes it as “bearing fruit”.

And let us thank God for the wonderful effect of the Gospel.

Let us pray to the Lord that he would bless the work of his ministers as they sow the seed of the Gospel.

What is it that happens when people hear this message?

Those called by God to eternal life hear it and understand it.

Now we are in verse 5.

They hear about God’s grace and they hear about the hope.

What hope?  ; It is the inheritance in Jesus Christ laid up in heaven.

We will hear more about that tonight, but let’s say this here:  Jesus Christ, through his blood, bought us back for God.

He took us out of the dominion of darkness and put us in the dominion of light, which is the kingdom of the Son of God, the Son God loves.

This is the same Gospel we preach today.

I am just preaching the same truths from the Word of God today.

It is the same message the servants of God preached all over the ages.

It was the only Gospel Epaphras had when he was called to a part of the Greek world of his day who would, according to human standards, not respond to a message which would sound silly and did not challenge the philosophies of his day.

But God blessed his faithful and devoted labour:  people accepted God’s grace, their hearts were changed, and their disbelief was changed into saving faith in Jesus Christ.

So what was the effect of the Gospel on the people in Colossae?

Now we are in verse 4:  ; they believed in Jesus Christ.

Their faith in Christ became known.

Their faith was more than just an intellectual interpretation of the message of Epaphras.

They understood it as the words coming from God.

What happened is that they now saw themselves as part of the family of God, and their lives were changed:  the usual way of sin in anyone’s life is to love himself, care for himself and protect himself.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ changes all of that.

Instead of loving oneself, the Gospel changes one’s heart to accept the fact that we need to love one another as Christ loves us.

This is precisely what happened in Colossae.

; Their love for the saints became known to all around them.

Suddenly there was something new going on in Colossae:  people really loved one another.

God’s people made a difference.

God’s people are supposed to make a difference, because the Lord said that by our love for one another people will know that we belong to God (John 13:35).

I wonder what people outside of the Christian community say about St Andrews.

Do they know us as a loving community of God’s family?

It is our love for one another in the Lord Jesus Christ that distinguishes us as God’s disciples?

It is our love for a broken world and our care for them that sets us apart as God’s people?

Or is it so that we have become so used to the fact that we worship on Sundays, that we almost see it as our right to be here, rather than grace in Jesus Christ that really binds us together?