Sermon Tone Analysis

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

*CHURCH UPDATES: Digital and paper connect Card

DECLARATION:

Ephesians 2:20–22 (ESV)

20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

SVCC is built by God, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone.

We are joined together by union with Christ, we are growing, and we are a dwelling place of God by his Spirit.

Prayer for...

INTRODUCTION:

Review:

WHY?…

TODAY:

Defined: “Theology commonly refers to the ordered, systematic study or interpretation of the Christian faith and experience of God based on God’s divine self-revelation.

Theology also seeks to apply these truths to the full breadth of human experience and thought.”

(Grenz, 113)

Theology is God talk (i.e.

What we believe > what speak about God > how we live our lives )

Opening Scripture:

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY IS...

From the perspective of the Christian faith

From within the Christian Church

For the Christian Church

About the Christian faith

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell

The third day he rose again from the dead

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead

I believe in the Holy Ghost

I believe a holy catholic church; the communion of saints

The forgiveness of sins

The resurrection of the body

And the life everlasting.

Amen.

Conclusion/Reflection:

Karl Barth was once asked to sum up in a few words all he had written in the field of theology.

This was his summary: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Sources:

Barth, Karl.

The Faith of the Church: A Commentary on the Apostle’s Creed according to Calvin’s Catechism.

Edited by Jean-Louis Leuba.

Translated by Gabriel Vahanian.

Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006.

Ensminger, Sven.

Karl Barth’s Theology as a Resource for a Christian Theology of Religions.

Edited by John Webster, Ian A. McFarland, and Ivor Davidson.

Vol.

28.

T&T Clark Studies in Systematic Theology.

London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2014.

Green, Michael P., ed.

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 Sermon Illustrations Arranged by Topic and Indexed Exhaustively.

Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file.

Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989.

Grenz, Stanley, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling.

Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms.

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999.

Historic Creeds and Confessions.

Electronic ed.

Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997.

OTHER:

THEOLOGY is derived from the Gk.

theologia, compounded of two words, meaning basically an account of, or discourse about, gods or God.

In the Christian church ‘dogma’ became teaching which was considered authoritative.

Throughout the first three centuries, the Lat. and Gk.

writers were inclined to call everything related to faith ‘dogma’.

Chrysostom used the word specifically for those truths revealed by Christ and above reason.

Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics did not often use the term and preferred to speak of the articles of faith.

From the Reformation onwards, the word came to designate those articles of faith which the church officially formulated as the truth which had been revealed.

It reflected therefore a common recognition by the Reformed and Roman churches that dogmatic formulation is an activity of the church, often arising out of theological controversy or the need to clarify the faith to be embraced.