Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #35

*Whose Gospel is Good News?*

*Acts 18:24-26; 19:1-5*

 

So many religious teachings, self help books, do it yourself articles …

 

There are so many different ways to choose in life.

Aren't they all really the same thing?

It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere right?

Islam, Judaism, Christianity, they all claim to pray to the same God so as long as it helps me get my life straight, make sense out of the world, be a good person, a good husband and father, they are all the same right?

They are all equally good right?

And as for Christianity, as long as I believe in God and attend church, be a good person it is alright isn't it?

As we go back to the book of Acts again for #35 in our message series, let's ask the question.

Whose Gospel is good news?

*Acts 18:24-26 - 19:1-5 (read through verse 10 if time allows)*

 

Who is the John we are reading about here that Apollos and these 12 disciples were talking about?

It's John the Baptist.

Now surely John the Baptist was a good one to follow.

How much closer to Jesus could you get than his cousin, 6 months older than him, HE baptized JESUS remember, so … "what's good enough for Jesus is good enough for me right?"

Now, we need to lay some groundwork here first before we get to our points … what was the spiritual state of these 12 men?

Were they religious?

Yes.

Were they "righteous" in the world's eyes?

Probably?

Were they born again and washed in the blood of Jesus, Christians?  NO.

"well Pastor, you can't judge that" … yes I can.

As Paul observed these men, he obviously was noticing that something wasn't quite right.

Have you ever met someone and you just thought, something's not right here.

This person is saying the right things, and doing the right things, but … something's missing

 

Paul did what I've done many times in this case he said "tell me about when you came to Christ" … He asked in a different way but that's what he asked … "did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed"

He was saying … "did you have God come to dwell in your life"

They said … 'huh' … 'we don't even know what you're talking about'

 

Then what did you do? 

"I was baptized in repentance."

Now, John's baptism served a purpose of preparing people to come to Christ, it was NOT an end to itself.

Jenny Craig is a baptism of repentance!

But it is NOT salvation

 

It would be like someone saying, "I went to AA and decided to turn my life around"

"I went to a godly parenting class and decided to be a better parent"

"I decided it was time I gave up my bad habits and read the Bible and go to church"

 

That makes them a better person but it doesn't make them born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God

 

But how do you know that they aren't Christians?

Rom 8:9,16 /"if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."/

Eph 1:13 /"and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit"/

 

If they didn't have the Holy Spirit, they didn't have Christ.

But IS it really important?

The Da Vinci Code movie opened this week.

It teaches that Jesus wasn't really who he claimed to be … he was just a man, a good man, a teacher, but he wasn't divine.

That was all just a hoax they tell us in the book~/movie … Jesus didn't live a set apart and pure life, he was in a relationship with Mary and had a child and the church leaders tried to hide it.

THEY SAY

 

Is it really important whether you believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God?

Is it really important whether we all follow the Good News, the Gospel as laid out in Scripture?

Can't I just find what works for me?

 

Well let me tell you … These teachings in the Da Vinci Code, are NOT new teachings.

There were those just a short time after Christ that came into the church, they were called Gnostics.

That comes from a word for Knowledge.

They believed that you needed secret special knowledge in order to be in Christ.

They believed that Jesus couldn't have been Human because material things were evil.

So, either his Spirit came into the man Jesus and left him before the Cross … or it was all an illusion, a spiritual image but not a real physical man.

And Paul said

2 Cor.

11:3-4 /"I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion for Christ.

4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough"/

Gal 1:6-12 /"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - 7 which is really NO gospel at all.

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ 8 But even if we or an angel of heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

9  As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

10  Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men?

If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ 11 I want you to know, brothers that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.

I did not receive it from man nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ./

Children … there is only one Gospel that is GOOD NEWS, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ …

 

And the Church has always had people in it, who have turned over a new leaf but haven't turned over their lives to Jesus Christ

 

They have placed their hands in the Pastor's Hands … but Haven't placed their hand in the Nail Scarred Hand of Jesus

 

They are TRYING a new Trend and not TRUSTING in the TRUTH

 

And we need to look within today …

 

What Gospel have you followed, with what baptism have you been immersed?

Without Jesus …

*1.

The "gospel" has no wisdom*

    Job 9:4 - /his wisdom is profound, his power is vast.

Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?/

Job 36:4 - /be assured that my words are not false; one perfect in knowledge is with you/

    Job 37:14 - /Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God's wonders.

15 Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?

16 do you know how clouds hang poised, those wonders of him whos is perfect in knowledge?

17 you who swelter in your closes when the land lies hushed under the south wind, can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?/

The religion of science has tried and continues to try and explain the origins of the world, WITHOUT recognizing God, to take all their wisdom and explain how all things came and have still too few answers

 

The Psychiatrists who reject Christ try and explain the causes and effects of life without God and find their answers coming up short

 

The Marriage counselors try and make sense of marriages without Christ in the equation

 

Without Christ, there is no good news … without the wisdom of the ages there is no wisdom

 

Ps.

147:5 / Great is our Lord and might in power; his understanding has no limit/

Rom.

11:33 /Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!/

 

Isa 44:7 /who then is like me?

Let him proclaim it.

Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come - yes, let him foretell what will come/

 

Jer 10:7 /who should not revere you, O King of the nations?

This is your due.

Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like you./

Isa 40:14 /whom did the Lord consult to enlight him, and who taught him the right way?  Who was it that taught him the right way?  Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? /

 

Without Jesus Christ there is no wisdom