Sermon Tone Analysis

“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.

Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

In the Law it is written, „By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.‟

Thus, tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”1

All of mankind can be divided into two groups—saints and ain‟ts.

Either an individual is saved, or an individual is lost.

When the Apostle Paul instructs Christians, “Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God” [1 CORINTHIANS 10:32], he established the divisions for all mankind before God.

While the Jewish people are truly God‟s chosen people, it remains that the nation rejected their Messiah when He was presented.

In his letter to Roman Christians, however, Paul makes it clear that God has not rejected His ancient people forever.

Of Israel, he writes, “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen” [ROMANS 9:1-5].

Then, soon after writing these words, Paul cautioned Gentile believers to watch out lest they should begin to feel superior to their Jewish forebears.

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

„The Deliverer will come from Zion,

he will banish ungodliness from Jacob‟;

„and this will be my covenant with them

when I take away their sins.‟

As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake.

But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” [ROMANS 11:25-32].

Therefore, it should be obvious that the world is divided into categorised designating them as either saved or lost, saints or ain‟ts.

It will be beneficial for us to compare our own meetings with those of the New Testament churches, focusing particularly on the purpose of our meetings.

In the account of the meetings of the early churches, we find a passage that tells us something of their purpose in meeting.

I am reading from the NET Bible, so it may differ somewhat from your own translation.

Therefore, I ask you to listen, making any notes to assist your understanding in your own Bible.

Later, review your notes, comparing them to what is written in your own translation.

Luke writes, “Those who [acknowledged the truth of]2 [Peter‟s] message were baptised, and that day about three thousand people were [won over]3” [ACTS 2:41].

The first thing to note is that only those who acknowledged the truth of Peter‟s message were baptised.

Thus, we see that baptism is for those who are believers; it is not administered to make believers.

Moreover, it is apparent that those who were baptised were counted as believers—they would henceforth be expected to live as examples of God‟s grace.

Perhaps others believed, but the divine enumerator did not count them because it would not be possible to make any statement concerning them.

Of those who received baptism, I continue reading in the NET Bible as Doctor Luke writes, “They were devoting themselves to the apostles‟ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Reverential awe came over everyone, and many wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles.

All who believed were together and held everything in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need.

Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people.

And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved” [ACTS 2:42-47].i

Thus, the divine account informs us that they met together on an ongoing basis, and also that whenever they met it was for the purpose of receiving doctrinal and practical instruction from the apostles, for fellowship, for worship, and to unite in prayer.

Applying this information to our contemporary situation, we can say that the purposes of our meetings should have as a priority instruction from the Word of God.

An untaught congregation is susceptible to every sort of evil.

Though many modern congregations undoubtedly consider themselves well versed in the Word, they are actually ignorant of the will of God.

Certainly, we want to enjoy fellowship, but the concept is distorted to mean something other than what it originally conveyed.

Fellowship, in the New Testament, was the sharing of life—it was the investment of spiritual gifts into one another to build up the Body of Christ.

Worship was integral to the services of the apostolic churches; but the worship of those early churches was seeking and experiencing the presence of the Risen Saviour, rather than generating artificial ecstasy through singing and dancing.

Finally, if we will emulate the earliest churches, we will invest significant time in prayer.

Congregational worship will lead to the salvation of souls.

We seek to glorify God, and He is glorified in the salvation of lost souls.

This is evident from a statement the Apostle makes when writing his second letter to the Christians in Thessalonica.

According to the revelation the Apostle provides, the Master is coming again “to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” [2 THESSALONIANS 1:9-12].

Unquestionably, the services of the church of the Living God are to be evangelistic.

Every Christian is expected to be an evangelist—a living testimony of God‟s grace, telling of the mercies of Christ that he or she has experienced and testifying to the grace of God.

Especially is this true when outsiders come to church.

By this, I do not mean that we are to preach solely about how one is to be redeemed; but I do mean that we should exalt God and always point all people to consider Him.

Neither do I infer that each of us should collar every guest who enters into our services; but I do mean that we are responsible to pray for the salvation of souls and to seek an atmosphere that ensures the Spirit of God works without hindrance in our meetings.

Above all else, I mean that when we come together, God‟s glory should be our primary concern.

SURRENDERED TO THE FLESH — “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.

Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

In the Law it is written, „By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.‟

Thus, tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”

Contemporary worship seems frequently to lead to an error that characterised the Church of God at Corinth.

Worshippers focus on their feelings rather than on building one another.

Worshippers imagine that the purpose of their activity is to make themselves feel good rather than to meet the True and Living God.

Christians in Corinth, and many contemporary believers, are more focused on what they can get out of worship than they are on what they can give in worship!

They seek to be served rather than seeking to serve others.

Thus, just as was true in Corinth, so it is that modern Christianity is often guilty of spiritual infantilism.

We are taught that the gifted men given to the churches to instruct the people have as a goal the advancement of believers toward maturity.

Listen to the Apostle‟s words concerning this matter in the encyclical we have received as the Book of Ephesians.

[The ascended Saviour] “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” [EPHESIANS 4:11-16].

Let those words soak in for a moment.

God intends for you to grow up, to move toward unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to move steadily toward mature manhood, to make perceptible progress toward becoming Christ like in your character and conduct.

This movement toward spiritual maturity presupposes that you will leave behind childish attitudes and childish conduct and that you will not move beyond being susceptible to attraction to every passing fad.

Above all else, God‟s goal is that each of us who name the Name of Christ will permit His Spirit to work through us to build up the Body of Christ in love.

If you are not growing, you are at best rebellious; at worst, you remain dead in your trespasses and sins.

The author of the Letter to Hebrew Christians sought to move readers toward maturity.

However, he expressed his frustration with them because they were not growing.

Take note of his frustration when he has writes, “Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” [HEBREWS 5:12-14].

He expected that these Christians would be teaching others of the Master at every opportunity.

Instead, they were content to continue in spiritual infancy.

He wanted to speak to them of Christ‟s priesthood and the practical impact of that divine service.

He longed to delve deeper into soteriology—the doctrine of salvation, exploring the cost and discovering the privileges that accrue from the salvation we enjoy.

However, he considered it impossible to speak to them of these great truths.

The author writes as though he anticipates each Christian will be a teacher!

It is a reasonable expectation!

It is anticipated that those who have been in the Faith for any period should be teachers!

If you have faith in the Risen Son of God, you surely know that all about you are individuals who need to be taught of Him, and you are God‟s appointed messenger to these people.

Each Christian is to be a teacher, telling others of Christ the Lord.

This is the truth communicated by the Apostle Peter‟s words, “In your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” [1 PETER 3:15].