Sermon Tone Analysis

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

“To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

[1]

If Christ has not been raised from the dead, we Christians have no Good News to declare at Easter, or at any other time.

We have no message of hope if Christ did not conquer death.

If Christ did not rise from the dead, our message has no hope nor is it any more valid than fanciful stories such as that of an illiterate, paedophile Arab who rode a white steed from Mecca to Jerusalem in one night.

The Apostle Paul has written, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” [1 CORINTHIANS 15:14-19].

However, Christ the Lord did conquer death, rising from the tomb and presenting Himself alive to those whom He had called and who had walked with Him during the days of His flesh.

In Him—the Risen Lord of Glory—all who believe are forgiven all sin and every transgression against the True and Living God.

Those who are thus forgiven are redeemed—adopted into God’s divine family and called by the Name of the Son of God.

The Christian Faith is distinct from all the other religions of the world.

Christianity is concerned with ethical living; but ethics divorced from the knowledge of God is meaningless.

Christianity is deeply concerned with morality; but morality without the power of a regenerate life is a fantasy that can never be attained.

Christianity is concerned with the life to come; but those who focus on the world to come while ignoring this present life are deceived at best and utterly useless to the inhabitants of this fallen world.

The Christian Faith brings a message of transformation through faith in a God who conquered death and rose again to life.

Those who have been thus transformed by God’s divine power no longer live solely for their own pleasure; rather, they seek to glorify Him who has redeemed them and brought them into union with Him.

The lives of the disciples were transformed.

These men, terrified and cowed, were changed into lions.

Threatened by theological and civil powers, they responded, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” [ACTS 4:19, 20].

When they were threatened with beatings and hardship, they returned to their friends, where they “lifted their voices together to God,” praying for even more boldness to continue speaking of His power that was at work in them [see ACTS 4:23-31].

Thrown into prison, they would pray and sing hymns to God [see ACTS 16:25].

These men were unstoppable.

One of them would write, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Who is weak, and I am not weak?

Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

“I must go on boasting” [2 CORINTHIANS 11:24-12:1].

That man would conclude by testifying, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong” [2 CORINTHIANS 12:10].

Having seen the Risen Son of God, these men were unstoppable.

And throughout history have been found men and women who met the Risen Saviour.

Their lives have been transformed by His presence.

As was true of those who preceded them in the Faith, so it is true for them.

“Through faith [these saints] conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword.

They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” [HEBREWS 11:33-38].

It is amazing how one singular event permeated the faith of the earliest believers.

They had heard Jesus speak, and yet they didn’t dwell on his voice.

Neither did they invest inordinate amounts of time speaking of His philosophical musings, nor even of the theological truths He presented.

They did speak of His conquest of the grave and what that means for all who are born from above and into the divine family.

The Resurrection of Jesus was central to the apostolic message; and flowing from that message of God’s triumph is the promise of man’s triumph over death, hell and the grave.

The Apostle to the Gentiles penned a missive to saints living in Rome.

It is a gem presenting foundational truths marking us as God’s own people.

In light of the centrality of the message of hope in Christ’s resurrection, we should not be surprised that the Apostle opens the letter by speaking of that singular event.

On this Easter Sunday, this day of joyous celebration for believers in the Risen, Conquering Christ, it is appropriate that we reflect on what the Apostle has written.

Turn, then, to the opening words of Paul’s Letter to the saints in Rome.

*THE GOSPEL OF GOD* — “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son.”

No one decides to be a servant of Christ Jesus as result of serendipity.

Tragic is the situation when an individual decides to enter into the service of Christ the Lord because he considers it a job with low demands on his time, or because he imagines it will provide a good living, or because he seeks stature in the community.

The condition is tragic because those whom he is called to serve will be deprived, suffering mystical malnutrition.

Woe to the congregation that exhibits signs of spiritual scurvy, deformation of the soul.

Such was not the case with the Apostle.

He confident that he was a servant of Christ, certain that he had been called to his position and set apart to the Good News of God.

Christ alone is able to appoint whom He wills to His divine service.

No seminary can make a man a servant of Christ.

No presbytery can make a man a servant of Christ.

No hierarchy can declare a man to be a servant of Christ.

God appoints to holy service.

God calls His servants by Name.

They are known by various titles—pastor (or shepherd), teacher, elder or overseer, and even as evangelist.

However, their appointment always carries the responsibility to advance the cause of the Risen Son of God through presenting the Good News of His triumph.

The servant of Christ is not appointed to be a counsellor, though he will counsel parishioners through pointing them to the will of God as revealed through His Word.

He is not appointed to serve as a community liaison, though he will seek to represent Christ wisely in the communities served.

He is not appointed to make people feel good about themselves, though he will be diligent in his endeavours to build them in the Faith.

Each of Christ’s servants will bear light into the darkened places of this fallen world, evangelising through declaring the message of life in the Risen Son.

God’s messenger will always be conscious that he must not compromise His first responsibility of advancing the cause of Christ the Lord.

What is this Gospel, this Good News, ascribed to God?

When was it promised and what does it say?

Writing a young preacher on another occasion, the Apostle opened the letter thusly, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior” [TITUS 1:1-3].

This gives us a little more information.

Permit me to expand what the Apostle is saying, however, by citing something he wrote to another young pastor.

He urged that young pastor, named Timothy, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher” [2 TIMOTHY 1:8-11].

The Good News of God is the declaration that God would save fallen people.

He would do this for His own purpose and because of His grace.

Moreover, this grace was expressed in Christ Jesus “before the ages began.”

This Good News is not merely old; it is timeless.

The Good News of God began in eternity and extends to eternity; it has, however, been manifested in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

God purposed, even before man fell into ruin through the sin of our first parents, to provide for the redemption of lost people.

I draw great comfort from the opening words with which Paul began the encyclical we have received as the Book of Ephesians.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” [EPHESIANS 1:3-14].

It is Easter, and we Christians declare with renewed joy and with fresh determination the Gospel of God.

The reason we speak of the Resurrection of Christ our Master is that for us this was the culmination of God’s provision of life.