Sermon Tone Analysis

Thunder

(Acts 1:1-4)

April 11, 2021

Read Acts 1:1-4 – This book is written to Theophilus – same as the Gospel of Luke, thus identifying Dr. Luke as its author.

Who’s Theophilus?

His name means “friend of God”.

In Lu 1:3, Lu calls him “most excellent Theophilus”, a title Lu also uses of the Roman governors, Felix and Festus.

Thus he was likely of the educated, ruling class of society, probably a Roman.

He clearly wanted to know all he could about Jesus and had very likely become a Xn.

Now, to get the flavor of Acts, here’s a question.

When you see lightning, what is the one thing you know?

Thunder is coming, right?

Thunder follows lightning like day follows night.

It may be now, or it may be delayed a few seconds, but it’s coming.

You can’t have lightning without thunder.

And if the life of Christ in Lu’s gospel is Lightning, Acts is Thunder.

Imagine reading the Gospel of John, and the next page is Romans.

You’d wonder, who in the world is Paul, and how did Jesus’ message get to Rome already.

You need the Thunder of Acts to bridge that gap.

We think of Jesus’ life as confined to the gospels – birth to ascension.

Life in full, done and over with.

But look at Lu’s language again: “I have dealt with all the Jesus began to do and teach.”

Implication – He’s not done yet.

Not even close.

We here today are an extension of Jesus’ work.

He’s not on the scene now, but what He started in His earthly life and continued in Acts is still in progress.

His earthly life was the Lightning; but the Thunder rolls on!

So, what is that work?

His life, death and resurrection purchased forgiveness from sin and release from guilt for all who believe.

Now His work is to gather more believers, to take up rule in their hearts and enroll them in the kingdom of God about which Jesus continued to teach His disciples until ascension.

With Israel’s rejection of their Messiah, God’s kingdom program took a turn.

God put Israel on the shelf for a time and formed a new people for Himself -- the church.

In the church, Christ works through His disciples to bring others to Himself and rule in their hearts until Israel is provoked to jealousy and God one day turns His attention specifically toward them again.

Meantime, the King rules in the hearts of believers, and kingdom principles drive the lives of people called the church.

Acts shows us how it all came about; how the message spread; how we got from the end of the gospels to the epistles.

Acts is the bridge.

How did this little group of defeated followers of Jesus establish a community that eventually overcame the Roman empire?

They had nothing going for them – no money, no strategic leaders, no technological tools, or proven strategy.

They taught truths that the world found incredible, worshiped a crucified man, and were subject to intense persecution.

Yet, the church spread from this obscure corner of the world to the world’s capital within the lifetime of the first generation of believers.

In 1942 when the Allies won their first victory over Hitler, Churchill said: “This is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end.

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

So Acts shows that Jesus’ resurrection was not the end.

It was not even the beginning of the end, but it was the end of the beginning.

And here we are 2,000 years later, still part of the continuing history of Jesus Christ.

We’re into something big and can take heart at how the lightning of Jesus’ life rolls on in the thunder of His lifechanging gospel.

It’s a spellbinding story; these 5 verses are a first clap of thunder that intro us to the primary players who are center stage in this great, cosmic drama.

The Head

The idea that all religions lead to God by different roads is the height of stupidity.

They do not and cannot.

Their contradictory claims are impossible to reconcile.

Eventually we must choose.

Which is more credible, and it is here that Xnty separates itself.

Two major facts separate it from the rest of the field and elevate it far above any other religions.

First, grace is at the core of the Xn faith.

Every other religion tells us what we must do to be accepted by God.

Xnty alone tells us what we intuitively know.

We can’t make ourselves acceptable to God.

Rather, God has in His own Son paid the penalty for our sin, paving the only way to Him by faith in Jesus.

It’s not about man ascending the mountain; it’s about God descending to save a lost race.

The second differentiating feature of Xnty is it’s not about religion; it’s about a relationship with a crucified, risen Lord.

Every other religious founder died and that was it – the end!

Jesus died but that was just the beginning bc He rose again, and while the great work of redemption was complete, the work of spreading the good news of that redemption was only beginning.

He was and He remains the head of His church.

Two critical facts contribute to this.

A. Jesus is Living – This is the most wonderful thing about being a Xn.

Our Savior is living.

No other religion can make this fantastic claim.

Jesus overcame our greatest enemy – death, and He is alive.

We don’t revere a dead leader, we worship a living Lord.

We don’t do pilgrimages to a gravesite to do homage; we visit an empty tomb.

That’s a world of difference?

There is no Xn faith without the resurrection.

The disciples fled, and were ready to scatter – until they met Jesus again face-to-face.

Resurrection turned them around; it turned Jesus’ brothers around; it turned Paul around.

Take that away and there is not Xn faith.

His redemptive work would have been negated had He remained in the tomb.

How can you save someone else from death if you can’t save yourself?!

That was Paul’s point in I Cor 15:17: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

So right at the beginning of this book, Luke emphasizes Jesus’ resurrection: 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” Jesus’ resurrection was the lynchpin for everything.

So, He gave many proofs (irrefutable evidence) that this was all real.

In a sense, His work was done.

Redemption was bought and paid for.

He could have returned immediately to the Father, but He stayed another 40 days giving proofs of His resurrection.

They began the minute He left the grave.

Recall what Peter and John found: Jn 20:6: “Then Simon Peter came, following [John], and went into the tomb.

He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth . . .

folder up in the place by itself.”

Who would move the body and leave the grave cloths, looking as tho a body were still in them, face napkin neatly folded.

Something extraordinary had happened.

That day and in the days that followed, Jesus talked and walked with them.

From His first visit, the evening of resurrection, He gave proofs.

Lu 24:39) See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Touch me, and see.

For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

40) And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

[That’s a good start, but he wasn’t done yet] 41) And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42) They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43) and he took it and ate before them.”

Thomas wasn’t there for that first meeting.

He insisted on seeing the scars for himself.