Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

You know Peter Marshall, the chaplain to the US Congress once wrote:

11731 Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.

Peter Marshall

The book of Acts is really a book about God’s vision for the church.

It is a book that lays out what God want’s the church to do, and what the church should stand for, and what the church isn’t going to fall for.

And so today, I want to focus on what happens in the Book of Acts as God’s vision for the church starts unfolding.

now In some ways, Acts is a bit like a company strategy induction document.

There is a mission statement at the beginning, and then it tells the story of how this mission has been accomplished by God’s people, throughout the insitution of the church.

Now last week we focussed on Pentacost, pouring out of the Holy Spirit on God’s people, and the critical role the coming of the Holu Spirit played in God’s Redemption history as part of teh story that spans from Garden to Garden city.

Today we are going to change tack a bit and look at teh story of the whole book of acts in brief and see what it is that Acts hopes to teach us.

So let’s dig in, let’s first look at the mission statement in the book of acts.

Mission Statement

Now we look at this last week too, and we saw how the Holy Spirit was given to the church so that the church would be empowered to bear witness to Jesus.

How the Holy Spirit was given so that we humans would have the power to and the ability to bear witness.

But what we didn't look at is exactly how this was going to play out.

And Actually v8 becomes a kind of mission statement where Jesus outlines exactly what his organisation - the church is going to persue, and tells us exactly how he intends to achieve that mission.

The mission statement for the church is: “You will be my witnesses”.

The strategy is: in Jerusalem first, then in Judea and Samaria, then the ends of the earth.

And that then is how the Book of Acts is actually structured too.

It follows the spread of the gospel

Firslty in Jerusalem

Then in Judea and Samaria

Then to the ends of the earth.

So Jerusalem first.

Jerusalem

Now notice here friends, they were in Solomon’s collonade.

This is part of the Temple complex in Jerusalem.

The Holy Spirit was powerfully working through them, and sick people were being healed, demon oppressed people were set free.

And this was having a major effect on the people there.

Believers were being added to the Lord in increasing numbers - multitudes of both men and women.

These signs, these wonders were there in part to authenticate the message of the Apostles.

As they were bearing witness to Jesus, they did so with signs and wonders.

But even though there was this massive outpouring of God’s blessing on people as the Gospel was being preached, opposition to the Gospel message started spreading.

In the passage just before this, we get a story of how the growing church faced opposition from the inside.

It is the story of Annias and Sapphira, who lied to the Church and pretended to give more money to the cause of the Gospel than they actually did.

And they were judged instantly for their Hypocrisy.

Attacking the church’s unity from inside is one of the strategies Satan loves to use to halt or stop the spread of the Gospel.

It is precisely for this reason that the New Testament is so full of instructions to the church to guard the unity of the faith so closely.

And why the leadership fo the church is to guard against heresy and sin from within the church so strongly.

But what happens here is the other tactic Satan loves to use - Opossition from outside of the church community.

In Jerusalem it came from the High Priest and from teh Sadducees - the people of religious power in the day.

The Gospel enraged them, it directly challenges the power the hold, and they throw the gospel preachers in jail.

Only to find that the Lord broke them out and sent them back to the temple to preach some more...

But here is the lesson.

Living a life of Gospel faithfulness will result in spiritual opposition.

Setting yourself up against the powers of darkness in this world is going to cause the prince of darkness to fight back against you.

Satan does not care about churches who are inward looking, who are ineffective, who don’t want to preach the gospel.

They are no threat to him.

But it is a hallmark of Gospel faithfulness that you expereince opposition when you decide to pursue Jesus’ mission - to bear witness in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and now in our day and age - to the ends of the earth.

We see just how far and how strong the opposition to Jesus’ message is in Acts 7, with the first Martyr.

The First Martyr

This is what Gospel Faithfulness might look like.

This is Stephen the first Martyr.

In Acts we see persecution begininning with threats, then imprisonment, then floggings, and now death.

And the question Acts is asking us here - do I really want to be like Jesus.

You see Stephen is highlighted as someone whose life most closely mirrors Jesus.

Stephen reminds us, that pursuing Christ, not just as a Church, but as an individual is costly.

IT might cost us… everything.

It is a life of suffering - that is worth it!

But is it worth it, for you?

How expensive does the cost of following Jesus have to get before we are unwilling to pay it.

At what level of suffering will we abandon our witness to Christ?

This is a question we need to think about BEFORE the suffering comings.

Before the cost needs to be paid.

Because the way humans work is that when we are under extreme stress, when we are under duress, we go on autopilot.

We need to have our scripts sorted in our heads, and in our hearts, so that when we get to a situation that is going to cost us, we are playing from a pre-determined play book.

Jesus, on the cross gives us the best example of this.

on the cross, in the middle of the torment he was in, he goes to the place in his mind that is most familiar - God's word.

and when in the depths of his suffering he cries out My God why have you forsaken me, he is quoting from psalm 22.

His script is sorted!

when you are in the middle of trouble, in the middle of temptation, in the middle of spiritual assault - you already need to have your script sorted.

That's is the worst time to start thinking about how you might react if something bad happens.

which is why we need to think Now about how we will handle Persecution.

and this is the program, the script we need.

This is the script:

Will I deny Christ?

no.

Will I compromise Biblical truth?

no

What if it costs you your freedom?

no

What if it costs you your life?

no.

What if it costs you your children? no

why?

Because I count it all loss, in view of the all surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Now the cost to me is most likely not going to be my life.

IT is unlikely that Dan’s death squad will come looking for me.

I think it is far more likely that the cost will be imprisonment for holding to biblical views, which are increasingly considered far right wing extremism.

For teaching a biblical view of sexuality.

Insisting that marriage is between man and woman.

Insisting that unborn babies are in fact living human beings.

If you set your heart on obeying Jesus, on living a faithful Christian life, of bearing witness to Christ, you will face opposition.

Yes, Salvation by Grace is absolutely free.

But following Jesus will cost you.

Worship that costs us nothing is worth precisely what it costs.

Leon Morris

So persecution breaks out against the Christians in Jerusalem and it culminates with the death of Stephen.

But notice now what happens: