Sermon Tone Analysis

* *

* *

*The Evangelical Impulse:*

* *

*Reformation Essentials and Biblical Truth in a Catholic Context:*

*An Exegesis of Second Corinthians 5:11-21*

 

 

 

 

* *

*A Essay Presented to*

*The Theological **Summit** of the*

*United States** House of Bishops, CEC*

*April 22, 2009*

* *

* *

* *

* *

*By*

*Cn.

Glenn E. Davis*

 

 

 

*Introduction*

* *

The Evangelical impulse is a vital, Spirit-motivated, joyful hunger to declare the saving, unmerited grace of Christ by calling all sinners to the bloodied Hill of Calvary for forgiveness and mercy.

The Evangelical impulse proclaims this message of Good News to the least, lost, and the lonely while simultaneously working to reform the Church according to the Scriptures.

This impulse began with the New Testament, continued in the Patristic period, renewed during the Reformation and revived during the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.[1]

The Evangelical impulse is birthed in the Scriptures, empowered by the Holy Spirit, centered in the Cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and compelled by the story of Christ’s saving acts throughout the world.

Church historian, Stephen Nichols elaborates:

Luther spawned more than a singular alternative to the Roman Catholic Church.

Yet, while there are alternatives, to be sure, at the heart of these various Protestant groups who remain faithful to the gospel there is a common core: a theological center that consists of the authority of Scripture alone and insists that salvation comes by faith alone through God’s grace alone—and that this salvation comes through the work of Christ alone.

This is the lasting legacy of the Reformation—not the discovery of truths, but their recovery and their return to the heart and center of the church.[2]

At the heart of the Evangelical impulse is the abiding concern for the salvation of every person and that salvation in grounded in the phrase, “The truth of the gospel is salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.”

Our deliverance from sin is not based on our performance, but based on Christ’s performance on the Cross—it is all grace.[3]

The Evangelical impulse is motivated by God’s very gracious grace:

No one can understand the message of Scripture who does not know the meaning of grace.

The God of the Bible is 'the God of all grace' (1 Pet.

5:10).

Grace is love, but love of a special sort.

It is love, which stoops and sacrifices and serves, love which is kind to the unkind, and generous to the ungrateful and undeserving.

Grace is God's free and unmerited favour, loving the unlovable, seeking the fugitive, rescuing the hopeless, and lifting the beggar from the dunghill to make him sit among princes.”[4]

God’s grace draws us saying, “Trust Christ’s finished work on the Cross as your own, know that his death paid your penalty, and that his obedient life is now your righteousness.”

This story of conversion from 19th century typifies the Evangelical impulse:

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship.

When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel.

In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people.

I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people's heads ache; but that did not matter to me.

I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache.

The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose.

At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.

Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really stupid.

He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say.

The text was, —"LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (Isa.

45:22)."

He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.

There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text.

The preacher began thus — "My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed.

It says, 'Look.'

Now lookin' don't take a deal of pains.

It ain't liftin' your foot or your finger; it is just, 'Look.'

Well, a man needn't go to College to learn to look.

You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look.

A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to be able to look.

Anyone can look; even a child can look.

But then the text says, 'Look unto Me.' Ay!" said he, in broad Essex, "many on ye are lookin' to yourselves, but it's no use lookin' there.

You'll never find any comfort in yourselves.

Some look to God the Father.

No, look to Him by-and-by.

Jesus Christ says, 'Look unto Me.' Some on ye say, 'We must wait for the Spirit's workin'.'

You have no business with that just now.

Look to Christ.

The text says, 'Look unto Me.'" Then the good man followed up his text in this way: — "Look unto Me; I am sweatin' great drops of blood.

Look unto Me; I am hangin' on the cross.

Look unto Me; I am dead and buried.

Look unto Me; I rise again.

Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven.

Look unto Me; I am sittin' at the Father's right hand.

O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!

When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether.

Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger.

Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable."

Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before.

However, it was a good blow, struck right home.

He continued, "and you always will be miserable — miserable in life, and miserable in death, — if you don't obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved."

Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ.

Look !Look! Look!

You have nothin' to do but to look and live."

I saw at once the way of salvation.

I know not what else he said, — I did not take much notice of it, — I was so possessed with that one thought.

Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me.

I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh!

I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.

There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.

Oh, that somebody had told me this before, "Trust Christ, and you shall be saved."[5]

Of course, this story is the testimony of a young Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers.

Spurgeon’s conversion story is typical of the Evangelical experience: conviction of sin, power of preached Word, call to faith, focus on Jesus Christ and his saving work on the Cross, and personal heart change.

Scholar, David Bebbington, identifies four key elements of the Evangelical impulse:

1) Life-change: the belief that hearts need conversion.

2) Bible priority: all spiritual truth is found in sacred scripture.

3) Evangelism: all Christ-followers are engaged in spreading the knowledge of Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection.

4) Crucicentrism: Christ’s death and resurrection is the central event for our salvation providing reconciliation with God.[6]

Evangelical theological convictions can be best explained by exegeting Second Corinthians 5:11-21.

*Exposition*

* *

Verse 11: *Evangelicals believe in a final judgment:/ /*“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord,” The reverential awe of Paul for a God who is judge and divine assessor (see v. 10).

We begin by understanding that we are accountable to God: we will be judged for our faithfulness to the gospel, behavior in his name, and the quality of our ministries.

We must give an account to God for the gifts, opportunities, and abilities that God granted us in this life (1 Cor.

3:10-15).

We will have to explain how we used God’s gifts for his glory.

This reverential awe is a sure cure for our carelessness.

It is dangerous to claim a relationship with Jesus, while no genuine fruit is manifesting in our lives.

We want to be diligent that we are actually walking in the “works that have been prepared for us to do” (Eph.

2:10).

[Illustration: When God asks what I did with my life, will I say, “I invested in people, served the church, reached out to the world, and advance the kingdom to the best of my ability.”

On the other hand, will I have to admit, “I wasted my life playing all fifteen hundred levels of Warcraft, watched every S.E.C. football game since 1985, and ignored and alienated everyone around me.”]

*Evangelicals affirm the need to share Christ:* “We persuade men [people]”- Paul is not sitting back or assuming that people understand the gospel.

He is actively engaged in overcoming their objections by persuading them to yield their lives to the Lord of the universe.

He is actively participating with the Holy Spirit in attempting to win hearts to the Savior.