Sermon Tone Analysis

*LESSON ONE: WHY STUDY DOCTRINE?*

/Bible Doctrines Class/

 

VINCE LOMBARDI ILLUSTRATION

Coach Vince Lombardi is well-known for building a championship team out of the Green Bay Packers several decades ago.

He is also well known for his commitment to coaching and teaching the fundamental truths, not only to rookies, but also to those who think they know it all, to veterans, to starters, to all-stars.

He refused to complicate a game that, when boiled down to the basics, consisted of blocking, tackling, running, passing, catching—all to be done with abandon.

As he often said, “You do all those things right, you win.

It’s a matter of the basics, concentrate on the basics.”

Probably the most well-known and retold story of this coach is how he began training camp.

I’ve been told the players all sat in a heap, tons of massive humanity hanging on the words of one man.

In front of him were sitting some of the best athletes in the world.

They had played football since they were children.

They were some of the highest paid athletes of their day and some of them are now in the Football Hall of Fame.

Holding the football high in the air, coach Lombardi would say, “Gentlemen, this is a football” 

He certainly did not have to tell these men what that pigskin was.

He was not trying to demean or belittle them.

He was simply making the point that they were going to go back to the basics.

And that’s our intent with this class, too.

Go back to the basics.

Coach talked to the men about the size and shape of the football, how it can be kicked, carried, or passed.

Then he took the team out onto the field and said, "This is a football field."

He walked them around, describing the dimensions, the shape, the rules, and how the game is played.

I’ve read that he did that every year -- even after the Green Bay Packers became NFL champs and then won the first two Super Bowls ever played.

Can you imagine how "basic" and "fundamental" that must have sounded to his veteran players?

And yet maybe that explains why Vince Lombardi was such a successful coach, because he began with the basics and was committed to the fundamentals.

There’s a lot of churches out there with more programs than us, we know we’re not as flashy or fine-tuned, we’re not on the cutting edge of Christian trends.

But I hope we are not guilty of neglecting the core teachings of the Bible.

Just like high school athletes who want to do what the pros do without really learning the fundamentals, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves without making sure we’re grounded in the fundamentals of Christianity.

This is not an exhaustive list of doctrines, and we will not exhaust these subjects to everyone’s satisfaction, but our hope is that these classes will be easy enough for a new Christian to understand and also will have something for veteran believers, and that all of us will be better grounded in foundational theology for life.

Last year some of the elders began talking about doing a class like this, and the need to really address a lot of subjects and doctrines that do not always get covered in this fashion when we do expository preaching of a biblical passage, like we usually do in the Sunday worship services.

We agreed of the need for this class, and the timing seems perfect in Providence with a lot of new people, and we look forward to growing together.

FORMAT OF THIS CLASS

-          <Put up overhead with schedule and talk a little about it>

-          Class will continue thru end of year, welcome for all or to join at any time

-          Taught by various men in the church, mostly elders

-          Some of these subjects are not traditionally classified as “doctrines” (ex: expository preaching, legalism, guidance, etc.); in some senses this class is both “Doctrines and Distinctives” or what we believe, including ministry philosophy

-          The focus is teaching; we’re not going to spend a ton of time with prayer requests – we want to of course begin and end with prayer, and include any important needs in the body – but please help us start on time and minimize talking and sharing before so that we can get to the subject and give the speaker at least 45 minutes, and time for interaction with questions at the end

-          When appropriate, we want to welcome questions during the teaching as well, if the question seems valuable for all, but we also want to keep the lesson moving and not get too far off-track

-          This is the first time we have done this, so please be patient with us as we work through things, and we’ll try to be sensitive to the Spirit as well as the saints in the class,  not just rigidly tied to dates here which may change as need arises

-          We are working on seeing if we can record the classes, as well as provide our notes in the future, available either in hard-copy or on the Internet

-          Any suggestions on how to improve, let any of us elders know

 

Three questions I want to cover today:

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What is doctrine?

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Why study doctrine?

#.

How should we study doctrine?

*I.

WHAT IS DOCTRINE?*

<Ask audience to define>

 

According to Oxford English Dictionary, the English word “doctrine” comes from Latin and derives from the original meaning of /docere/ (to teach) or /doctor /(teacher).

In an examination at a Christian school, the teacher asked the following question: “What is false doctrine.”

A little boy thought she said “doctorin’” so he raised his hand confidently and said:  “It’s when the doctor gives the wrong stuff to people who are sick.”

Although the little boy had obviously confused /doctrine/ with /doctorin’/, his answer is true for both.

We have a sick world, and even the church at large is not in great health – we need to make sure we are giving the right stuff, right doctrine, rather than just talking about light and fluffy subjects and topics that people want about how to improve their life, tips for happy living, or any culture-driven approach that may be a mile-wide but is only an inch deep.

A good illustration of this and the Biblical words for doctrine are found in 2 Timothy 4

<TURN TO 2 TIMOTHY 4>

The N.T. Greek words usually translated “doctrine” or “teaching” are /didache /and /didaskalia, /which are either translated “doctrine” or “teaching” but it’s the same basic meaning and can either refer to the act of teaching or the content of the teaching ~/ doctrine.

At the end of v. 2 is the word /didache /

-          “doctrine” in KJV

-          “instruction” in NASB

-          “careful instruction” in NIV

-           “teaching” in NKJV and ESV

 

Verse 3 talks about how many won’t endure sound doctrine, and the word there is /didaskalia, /but is basically a synonym for the word “teaching ~/ instruction ~/ doctrine” in v. 2. Part of preaching the Word faithfully includes doctrine, and we must do this as a church even though there will always be some who don’t want it.

Puritan sermons would often have a section called “Doctrine” and then another section called “uses” (page upon page of application based on the doctrine of the text)

 

<Question: Why does this text say some won’t endure sound doctrine?>

The N.T. words /didache /and /didaskalia /are used a total of 51x and reveal that ‘Christian doctrine refers to Scripture, whether read, explained, or even theologically systematized.

Perhaps the modern avoidance of doctrine lies partially in the fact that “doctrine” has been understood too narrowly like a doctrinal statement or theological essay, rather than more broadly in the Scriptural sense of biblical content.

The Scriptures never envisioned doctrine referring to ivory tower musings over theological speculation or minutiae.’[1]

<Illustration: husbands arguing over extent of the atonement while camping and wives did all the work>

Another reason is laziness or lack of concern about truth or we don’t think it’s “relevant.”

/ /

Spurgeon lamented: /Everywhere there is apathy.

Nobody cares whether that which is preached is true or false.

A sermon is a sermon whatever the subject; only, the shorter it is the better./

[John MacArthur tells of his experience visiting Spurgeon’s grave]

*T*hose words from Spurgeon were written more than a hundred years ago.

He might have been describing the state of evangelicalism at the end of the twentieth century.

Last summer I stood by his tomb in London—a heavy stone vault, blended into the cemetery between a road and a large building.

If I hadn’t had someone to lead me there, I would not have found it.

Spurgeon’s and his wife’s names are engraved in stone, but there is no information on the tomb itself about who he was.

The average sightseer might miss the stone vault (there are larger, more impressive ones all around), or on seeing it, not realize it is the burial place of a man who in his time was perhaps more well-known and more influential than England’s Prime Minister.

As I stood by Spurgeon’s grave, I couldn’t help thinking how much the church needs men like him today.

Spurgeon was not afraid to stand boldly for the truth, even when it meant he stood alone.

Preaching the Word of God was his sole passion.

He believed the church’s tolerance of preaching was beginning to decline, while some ministers were experimenting with alternative approaches and abbreviated messages.

He saw in that a great danger, and his concern thrust him into a battle that ultimately led to his death.

He had been placed in that grave exactly a hundred years before my visit.

Contrast Spurgeon’s attitude toward preaching with the prevailing opinion of our day.

In fact, Spurgeon’s lament is diametrically opposite the perspective expressed in a column that appeared a few years ago in a popular Christian magazine.

A well-known preacher was venting his own /loathing/ for long sermons.

January 1 was coming, so he resolved to do better in the coming year.

“That means wasting less time listening to long sermons and spending much more time preparing short ones,” he wrote.

“People, I’ve discovered, will forgive even poor theology as long as they get out before noon.”

Unfortunately, that perfectly sums up the predominant attitude behind much of modern ministry.

Bad doctrine is tolerable; a long sermon most certainly is not.

The timing of the benediction is of far more concern to the average churchgoer than the content of the sermon.

Sunday dinner and the feeding of our mouths takes precedence over Sunday school and the nourishment of our souls.

Long-windedness has become a greater sin than heresy.

The church has imbibed the worldly philosophy of pragmatism, and we’re just beginning to taste the bitter results.[2]

/Definition of Doctrine/: Doctrine is basically teaching of the Bible.

We often use the word for when you systematize or summarize what the Bible teaches on any subject of theology, this is closely related to the idea of systematic theology.

Wayne Grudem defines systematic theology this way: ‘any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible teach us today?” about any given topic.’