Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Genesis 2:4-7; Jeremiah 1:1-5; Colossians 1:16-17

Theme: In a culture of death, Christians need to be Salt and Light.

Date: 01/12/2020 File Name: Salt_and_Light_03.wpd

Sermon ID:

Jesus commands us to be Salt and Light.

“You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

(Matthew 5:13–16, NIV)

In a culture of death, Christians need to be Salt and Light.

The actual term “Culture of Death” first entered common use after Pope John Paul II mentioned it several times in his 1993 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae.

Evangelium Vitae is Latin for “The Gospel of Life”.

In the encyclical, John Paul II wrote about the intrinsic value of every human life, which must be welcomed and loved from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.

Here is a quote from the encyclical in which he defines what he means by a Culture of Death: “A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favoured tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated.

In this way a kind of 'conspiracy against life' is unleashed.”

The Culture of Death is a culture where "it is the strong who decide the fate of the weak."

How do we live righteously in a culture of death?

This morning I’d like to do four thing: 1) Read the pertinent Biblical Texts, 2) articulate the Christian Doctrine, 3) examine the Cultural Challenge, and 4) contemplate the Believer’s Response.

I. THE BIBLICAL TEXT

“This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

(Genesis 2:4–7, NIV)

“The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

(Jeremiah 1:1–5, NIV)

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

(Colossians 1:16–17, NIV)

1. these passages, and many more, teach us that God is the Creator and Sustainer of life

a. he breathed into Adam the breath of life and Adam became a living being

b. in Jeremiah we hear God saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you ...

1) even though a man and a women come together in sexual union, one providing the seed and one providing the egg, it is God who brings the two separate elements together and forms a person within the womb ... no child conceived is conceived “by accident” from God’s viewpoint

2) contrary to what some people think, the verse does not teach that we existed as a soul waiting to be born into a body, but that God’s foreknowledge of events is so certain that their reality is certain

c. the Colossian passage teaches that we are a revolutionary creation of God and not an evolutionary accident of the cosmos

2. from these verses (and many, many others) we develop the doctrine of man and our come to understand our humanity

II.

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

1. the doctrine of man teaches that a Sovereign God created human beings to reflect His image, to enjoy the blessings of marriage and family, to accomplish good works, and live in relationship with Him

ILLUS.