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Support and Resources For Pastors and
Christian Ministry Professionals
Thomas F. Fischer, M.Div., M.S.A., Editor
The Sixth Sunday
After Pentecost
Series A
Children's Sermon: Galatians 6:1ff
Needed: Sports Team Jersey.
Show the children the sports team jersey. Ask them, "What is this?" ("A sports jersey.") Then ask, "Why do teams wear them?" (To identify a player as a member of a team).
Then ask, "What would happen if one of you put on this jersey?" ("You'd be a member of the team.") Who would like to find out?
Then have a volunteer come to demonstrate the shirt on to demonstrate. Ask their name. Then ask if they are a member of the team indicated on the jersey. Then have the volunteer put the jersey on. Then ask, "What is your name now?" Share how their name and identity has now changed because they put on the sports shirt.
Then show another sports jersey with the name "Jesus Christ" on it. Relate how when we are baptized into Jesus, that it's just like putting on a new jersey....a Jesus jersey. When you put this jersey on, whose team are you on? Jesus' team. How do we get that jersey? By being baptized.
St. Paul said, "Whoever has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ." That means our baptism is our Jesus jersey. How many of you have a Jesus jersey? Actually, everyone who is baptized has one.
Do you know what's special about this jersey? Everyone in heaven has one! Why not you!
Thomas F. Fischer
Option #1: "The Miracle of
Christian Baptism"
Roman 6:1b-11
Rev. Wayne Dobratz
I. A miraculous connection takes place--text, v3; 1 Cor
12:13; Gal 3:27; Col 2:12; 1 Pet 3:21
Kenneth S. Wuest defines this particular use of baptizoô (to be baptized) as
"the introduction or placing of a person or thing into a new environment or
into union with something else so as to alter its condition or its
relationship to its previous environment or condition" (Romans in the Greek
New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955], pp 96-97).
II. A necessary execution is carried out--text, vv5-7; 11; Gal 2:20, 5:24;
Col 3:3
John MacArthur writes: When Christ redeemed us, our old self was crucified,
that is, put to death and destroyed. Old does not translate archaios, which
simply refers to chronological age, but rather palaios, which refers to
something that is completely worn out and useless, fit only for the scrap
heap. For all practical purposes it is destroyed. In a passage quoted above
from Colossians, Paul declares "I have been crucified with Christ,"--that
is, my old "I" is dead and no longer exists--"and it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20). In other words, our new life as
Christians is not a made-over old life but a new divinely-bestowed life that
is Christ's very own. Bishop Handley Moule translated that verse as, "Our
old man, our old state, as out of Christ and under Adam's headship, under
guilt and in moral bondage, was crucified with Christ" (The Epistle to the
Romans, p164). Still another expositor and commentator, the late Martyn
Lloyd-Jones, rendered the verse: "Do not go on living as if you were still
that old man, because that old man has died. Do not go on living as if he
was still there" (Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 6 [Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1972], p64).
Again, John MacArthur: Our historical death to sin at the cross in Christ
results in our sin being done away with. Those truths are so nearly
synonymous that verse 6 is almost a tautology. Sin that is dead (crucified)
is obviously done away with. Paul states the truth in those two different
ways in order to make his point more understandable and to remove any
possible ambiguity. Katargeoô (done away with) literally means "to render
inoperative or invalid," to make something ineffective by removing its power
of control. That meaning is seen clearly in the term's rendering in such
other passages in Romans as 3:3, 31 ("nullify"), 4:14 ("nullified"), 7:2
("released from").
III. A new life is begun--text, vv4-5, 8-11; Eph 2:6
John MacArthur: Newness translates kairos, which refers to newness of
quality and character, not neos, which refers merely to newness in point of
time. Just as sin characterized our old life, so righteousness now
characterizes our new life. Scripture is filled with descriptions of the
believer's new spiritual life. We are said to receive a new heart (Ezek
36:26), a new spirit (Ezek 18:31), a new song (Ps 40:3), and a new name (Rev
2:17). We are called a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), a new creature (Gal 6:15),
and a new self (Eph 4:24).
We read in the Disciple's Study Bible: sin, slavery-humans are depraved.
That means our entire personalities and beings are trapped in slavery to
sin. The Christian identifies with Christ's crucifixion, accepting His death
as victory over sin. As symbolized in baptism, the old depraved self is dead
for the Christian, who becomes a slave to Christ rather than a slave to sin.
God accepts the Christian and forgives sin because of Christ's death and His
grace. The Christian continues to struggle with sin, repenting and seeking
forgiveness for sins committed; but the direction of life is obedience to
Christ and death of sin. The resurrection is the sure proof that God has
power over death and sin. To live in slavery to sin means to deny the power
of Christ's resurrection. We have earned sin's wages and deserve to die. In
His love and grace, God has given us eternal life through Jesus Christ. When
the power of His resurrection works in our life, we conquer sin and its
temptations, living for God's righteousness. We will sin, but we must not
easily excuse sin. God has provided the power to live for Him and not to be
enslaved to sin. We must let that power rule our lives.
Richard Lenski writes in closing re: "logizesthe"--Take it ever as a
settled account you died to sin in Baptism, died with Christ, Baptism
connecting you with His death, not only as removing your guilt, but at the
same time as removing you from sin's dominion and slavery. ...En denotes a
vital spiritual connection so that we translate 'in connection with.' This
connection is established objectively by grace, subjectively by faith. ...It
would be useless to tell sinners not to let sin reign over them...; sinners
could not prevent sin reigning over them. But Christians who have died to
sin (v2, 8, & 11), who are alive to God, they can, indeed, prevent sin
reigning so that they are no longer slaves to sin. (Richard Lenski,
Interpretation of Romans, passim, pp. 408-411)
+ + +
Option #2: "Getting a (New) Life!"
Romans 6:1-11
Rev. Kelly Bedard
A. Sin-slaves
1. Outwardly: charmed by appearances and religious showings
2. Inwardly: our thinking is futile and our hearts darkened (Romans
1:21)
B. Life-servants
1. Inwardly: we "know" (v3&9) and "believe" (v8) most "certainly"
(v5) that we're dead (to sin)
2. Outwardly: God's grace empowers us to "live a new life" (v4)
before both God and neighbor
Notes
1. The slave in me, the enslaver of my mind and will, uses even God's grace
as a weapon to divert me from living a truly human life through faith in
Christ. Paul uses even the goodness of God's gift of new life as a weapon,
which condemns and destroys desires to use this gift of new life as the
basis for rejecting God's expectations of what shape that new life should
take in relation to the neighbor. (Robert Kolb)
2. Slaves to sin, we have been raised for service.
3. God's law, whose demands hold us ceaselessly accountable, shows us...that
sin enslaves us utterly, to the bitter end. Death is the fruition of all
things, of our pretty bodies, profound philosophies, and techno-superiority,
even of time itself. (Bruce Martin)
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This page was revised on: Monday, November 13, 2006 10:05:45 AM |