Him We Proclaim

Philemon 1-7: Outline:

Considering God's household (1-3)

Remembering God's blessings (4-5)

Pleading God's provision (6-7)

Luke 23:46: Summary: These are the last words of Jesus from the cross, His last words on earth as He was, and they lay the surest foundation for the Christian's consolation. His spirit is the best spirit which, knowing the work is done, He confidently commits to the best hands, like the greatest treasure into the most inviolable vault. The Man Christ Jesus, the Son of God, completes His course in the soundest trust ever offered. Relationship restored, as it were, He believes the Father, being good, will do what's right by Him. He believes in His reception. He believes Him for resurrection. And in all this, we receive our consolation too. 'If Mine, then thine.' The spirit He lays in God's hands is the spirit that's collected His people. His confidence before the Father is the consolation of all who, by faith, are united to Him. What He says, we too own to say.

Sermon Outline:

The testimony in Christ's trust on the cross.

The treasure entrusted by Christ on the cross.

The treasury trusted by Christ on the cross.

John 19:30: Summary: The primary grace has been established and the invitation expressed to all with an ear to hear it. To one with an ear, the petition of penitence has been greeted with the immediate amen of Paradise. So it is for all who belong to the family of faith in Christ. And this family is a family not forsaken, a family with a fountain at its heart, a family---as to this sixth saying of Jesus from the cross---possessing as their own the finished work of Christ. As it pertains to what He began on His cross, it is finished. It is no longer future. It is no longer held in suspense. It is certainly not incomplete. Jesus has achieved once for all the eternal work committed to Him by the Father for execution on the cross. On the cross, Jesus has finished what needed doing in order to immutably save His people from our sins. Our duty is not to redeem ourselves, as if we could. It's to rest in His redemption, finished as only He could.

Sermon Outline:

The most awesome assignment of Christ on the cross.

The most assured achievement of Christ on the cross.

John 19:28: Summary: The agony of the cross brings Jesus, the fountain of life, to the place of thirst. As Jesus endures the punishment for our sin, bearing the wrath of the Father in our place, he also suffers as the righteous servant, who has been rejected by his own. But Jesus remains steadfast in his mission to call a people into new life, into a new community: "a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9)

Sermon Outline:

To Fulfill The Scripture

Made Like His Brothers

Let Your Hearts Revive

Matthew 27:46: Summary:

We have here the saddest words in human history. God, the Son, has been forsaken by God, the Father. God’s presence is still with Jesus and Jesus is still God; rather, the Father has hidden his love for his Son and now shows his righteous wrath against sin. Even though the Father and the Son have had a perfect relationship for all eternity, and even though we were dead in our sin, God showed his great love for us by sending his Son to bear his Father’s wrath in our place. Just as He took our sin on himself, we have been granted His righteousness. Now, as Christians, we have confidence that because Christ was forsaken for us, we will never be forsaken. He will be faithful and sustain us until He comes again or we see Him face to face. The saddest words in history also bring the greatest hope of mankind.

Sermon Outline:

The perfect love between the Father and the Son for all eternity

The sinfulness of humanity deserving wrath

God’s love shown through the great exchange: What Jesus actually accomplished with a call to the unconverted and confidence for the Christian

John 19:26-27: Summary: On the cross, Jesus has pled with the Father for forgiveness. One, a thief, has been swept up in that sweeping word. Through the instrumentality of repentance and faith in Jesus, he will soon be with Christ in Paradise. But what about those He's leaving behind for a while yet? They're not to live in isolation. They're not to abide in unbelieving company, even of the nuclear family, to the exclusion of the new family of God. With the pull of heavenly gravity settling them at the cross of Christ, they're to gather 'round in humble, helpful, and hospitable obedience to the Word of Christ. This third saying is the echo of Genesis 3:15 at its fullest. Christ crucified achieves the union, not only of sinners to Himself, but believers to one another in a way that greatly transcends what may be expected of those without new birth. His blood wets the soil in which His church is planted, bringing it to flower thereby.

Sermon Outline:

The biblical tale of two families to the cross.

The saying of Jesus to God's family from the cross.

The implications of the third saying from this family tree.

Luke 23:43: Summary: Jesus has been crucified. He's demonstrated the most excellent love in asking the Father to forgive responsible sinners on the basis of His intercession. Hearing his companion in sin in contrast to the Savior's plea, the thief on the cross, losing his life, gains the divine sight of Jesus. Though he also blasphemed Him, he now becomes a model of the faith that gains from Jesus. He rebukes his friend. He fears God. He confesses his guilt and condemnation. He claims the innocence of Jesus, and he ventures on Him wholly. He directs himself to the Jesus of the cross as the King Who will survive it and, in the process, qualify him to be a citizen of God's Kingdom. He takes Jesus' plea of forgiveness as a promise of forgiveness to all who believe in Him for it. The second saying of Jesus proves to him and to all that such faith is not in vain. It's the gift of God that so unites and identifies the sinner with Jesus that the sinner gains, through Jesus, what only Jesus stood to inherit: Paradise in the presence of the King. The saying underscores the sufficiency of Christ's Person and Work over sin and death for all who believe on Him.

Sermon Outline:

The thief as he was on the cross.

The believer grace made on the cross. (23:39-42)

The Savior Jesus is on the cross. (23:43)

Luke 23:34: Summary: Now crucified, Jesus still speaks. This, the first of His seven sayings, begins to give the marrow or substance of the cross, disclosing the themes dearest to the Heart of Him Who paid for our sins in the hours He did so. Jesus reveals that there is no innocent ignorance in light of Christ and Him crucified, but the spiritual pride and ignorance of every person is most sinfully exposed just there. It's an ignorance that needs forgiving. Thankfully, that's what the cross is about. In grace above nature, Jesus responds to sinners at our worst by interceding for them, 'Father, forgive them.' These few words are light eternal which, in essence, reveal the cross of Christ as the plan of God for establishing the only sufficient basis for forgiving sinners who, by the gracious light and pardon of the Father, and seeing the truth as it is in Jesus, exercise a penitent faith in Him.

Romans 8:31-39: Summary: What shall we say to Paul's exposition of the Gospel? If God is for us, who can be against us? In one sense, anything in all creation. But in the final sense, nothing at all. And that is the paradox of the Christian's and the Church's existence for Christ in this world. Though all Hell rage against us, we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. The grace of God and the cross of Christ are paramount to our assurance of spiritual and final invincibility. But have we considered Paul's 'more than that'? Have we realized what the resurrection of Jesus adds to the inevitability of our perseverance? How far does it extend that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who are 'believing,' and what does our risen King have to do with it? Everything in every way!

Main idea(s): The resurrection of Jesus is the divine declaration that His intercessory work, on the cross and on the throne, has established and vindicated the Church's response to the Gospel: If God is for us, who can be against us?

Sermon Outline:

The answer of 'more than conquerors' to the Gospel. (8:31)

The logic supporting the answer of 'more than conquerors' to the Gospel. (8:32)

The place of Jesus' resurrection in the logic supporting the answer of 'more than conquerors' to the Gospel. (8:33-39)

Genesis 16:1-16: Summary: God has said know for certain. Grace guarantees glory. God will do what He has promised. But Sarai has her own bout with doubt. Her flesh outdoes her faith. If God will not give her a child, she will take matters into her own hands. The promise can be achieved by human labors. In the process, she lays aside her relationship with God and Abram by giving her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to Abram as his wife and mistress. Hagar conceives, but conception leads to a contempt of Sarai which the matriarch bitterly resents. Abram's Adamic side looms large in Sarai's fleshly slide. The pregnant Hagar flees from Sarai's wrath to a well in the wilderness. Remarkably, and contrary to His people, it appears the Lord Himself pursues and finds her at that place. He speaks promised provision to the outcast, exhorting her to return to the family of faith, and Hagar exercises a faith that puts Sarai's flesh to shame. She exalts the God of Abram as the Living One Who sees and looks after her. He's the Fountain of her life, though her offspring, Ishmael, will prove to be a persecutor of the child of promise. Ministry by the flesh may produce children, but only of the flesh. Therefore, it is good for faith to go to the Well of Him Who Sees, even if just to see how far God will go in seeing His promises fulfilled.

Main idea(s): The flowering of the promises of God (yes and amen in Christ) depend on God and demand a faith that, while it labors, is willing to wait on Him.

Sermon Outline:

The mass of mess that's made when, for the promise, the faithful go fleshly. (16:1-6)

The mass of grace displayed when, to the promise, God models faithfulness. (16:7-16)