Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Alright, you ready?

Big question, big question.

Who are the two most important people who have ever lived in the history of the world?

First one, Jesus, yeah.

Even if you’re new, there’s a layup, okay?

I’m like the teacher who gives you an easy one before crushing you, alright.

So, the most important person who’s ever lived is Jesus.

Who’s the second most important person who’s ever lived in the history of the world?

It’s very quiet.

One guy said his wife.

That guy is a genius.

His life is pretty good because of his genius answer.

Think about it for a moment.

The second most important person who’s ever lived in the history of the world.

Your answer reveals a lot about something called your worldview, how you see history and your place in it.

The Bible teaches us that the second most important person in the history of the world is a guy named Adam.

In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15:45, it talks about Adam, the first Adam, and Jesus, the last Adam.

One of the great myths, particularly in the West, is that each of us is exclusively an isolated individual.

We see ourselves almost exclusively, in individualistic terms, at the very most, perhaps, part of a family and a role and an identity within the context of a family.

The result is, then, we tend to have an identity based upon things like: “Am I young?

Am I old?

Am I black?

Am I white?

Am I rich?

Am I poor?

Am I Republican?

Am I Democrat?

Am I smart or not so smart?

Am I beautiful or am I average?

Am I a winner?

Am I a loser?

Am I healthy?

Am I sick?

Am I single?

Am I married?

Am I married?

Am I divorced?

Am I married?

Am I widowed?”

All of these things may help explain us, but they don’t define us.

Really, there are only two categories of human beings today, yesterday, and tomorrow: those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ.

Those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ, that’s how God sees all of humanity in human history.

So, the next question is for you, personally, practically: are you in Adam or in Christ?

Are you in Adam or Christ?

Sometimes when we talk about Adam or we talk about Jesus, because of the therapeutic nature of the culture we live in where everybody’s almost only, exclusively thinking about, meditating upon, and talking about themselves, when we start to talk about Adam or we start to talk about Christ, some of you may be disinterested.

But here’s a very important point: you’re either in Adam, or you’re in Christ.

And this is so incredibly important because, literally, your identity and your eternal destiny hang in the balance of whether you’re in Adam or you’re in Christ.

You’re born in Adam as a sinner and you’re born again in Christ, who is a Savior.

So incredibly important.

Here’s how God sees history: he sees two leaders, two heads, two captains.

You’ll read with me, as we’re going to spend the next few months together going through the book of Ephesians, you’ll see this word come up a few times, this word “head.”

The word “head,” and what that means is leader.

That means captain.

That means one whose decisions implicate and affect everyone else who is associated with them.

None of us are individuals.

None of us are isolated.

None of us stand alone.

We’re part of one of two groups, one of two families, one of two teams, one of two nations: those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ.

Here’s how Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 15:21–22.

“For as by a man came death,” that’s Adam, “by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead,” that’s Jesus.

And here’s the language: “For in Adam,” there’s one team, one group, one category, “all,” what?

“die, so also in Christ,” there’s our big idea, “in Christ shall all be made alive.”

I want you to start to see yourself in these two terms: in Adam or in Christ.

Now, this is why it is so incredibly important.

We’re all born in Adam.

We all inherit from him a sinful nature.

We all inherit from him separation from God, and we need to be born again.

We’re physically alive, but spiritually dead to God.

We also need to be made spiritually alive to God, born again in Christ.

This is the foundation, this is the framework for your identity.

And the big theme we’re going to be studying through the book of Ephesians for months, and months, and months is this big issue of identity.

Identity.

The Bible speaks of identity as being in Adam or in Christ, so much so that the Bible speaks of believers being in Christ no less than 216 times.

Just the Apostle Paul himself, in the thirteen letters of the New Testament that he writes, he talks about us being in Christ.

He’ll use language like, “in him, in the Beloved, in Christ,” 216 times.

Let me say this: anyone who tells you something 216 times, number one, it’s important, number two, they’re afraid you’re going to forget it.

Right?

Do you know how many times the New Testament says that a Christian is a Christian and uses the language of “Christian”?

Three times.

The Bible says that your identity is as Christian three times, and that your identity is in Christ 216 times.

It’s one of the primary ways, if not the most common way, that God refers to a Christian.

Here’s the difference between being in Adam and being in Christ: at the cross of Jesus Christ, he traded places with us.

He literally traded places with me.

All of the death, all of the shame, all of the condemnation that I deserve went to Jesus.

All of the forgiveness, all of the love, all of the grace that Jesus rightly has as the sinless Son of God comes to me.

What that does is that changes our identity.

I want you to see this: if you are in Christ, you are in Christ’s position and Christ is in your position.

He suffers and dies so that you might be blessed and live.

Do you believe that God the Father loves the Lord Jesus Christ?

Do you believe that he is kind toward him, and gracious toward him, that his ear is attuned toward him, that his affection is devoted to him?

Mars Hill, I have great news for you.

If you are in Christ, you stand in the position of Christ.

You are loved as Christ is loved, you are blessed as Christ is blessed, you are embraced and adored as Christ is embraced and adored.

I need you to see that so that you’ll live from your identity in Christ, that you’ll realize that you’re free from religion and trying to perform for God.

You’ll be free from shame and condemnation, because all of that is taken care of for you by Christ and is available to you in Christ.

So, we’re born in Adam.

That’s our original, inherited, fallen identity.

We’re born again in Christ.

That’s our new, redeemed, resurrected identity, given to us in Christ.