Sermon Tone Analysis

Imagine with me that you’ve been given your dream job.

Then imagine that less than 24 hours later, you’re pushed out.

Imagine that all of this took place publicly, with your face on the front page of newspapers announcing you’ve been fired and the reason for it.

And - imagine that you’re firing took place not because of lack of skills or experience, but because you’re a Christian.

This is exactly what happened to a man in Australia named Andrew Thornburg.

They said the new leader would provide stability.

That stability lasted last than one full day.

The reason?

He is a member of a church there in Melbourne.

Once his church membership was discovered, some folks went and listened to some sermons that were archived on the website of the church.

In the sermons it was clear that this church holds to a biblical worldview when it comes to gender and sexual orientation.

Here’s what the chief political officer of the province of Victoria said about this guy once his church membership was discovered: "Those views are absolutely appalling.

I don't support those views, that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred... bigotry.

It is just wrong."

[https://albertmohler.com/2022/10/05/briefing-10-5-22,

accessed November 5, 2022]

And let me just say one thing that is so important and I would never preach a sermon on this without saying it: We do believe that homosexual sexual expression is a sin.

It is a sin.

But it is not an unforgivable sin.

And it is not a sin that is fundamentally any worse than other sins.

The men and women who struggle with homosexuality are not “perverted” anymore than any other sinner is.

They are broken, just like you and just like me.

They need Jesus and they need our compassion — not because they’re gay but because they’re sinners.

Before the cross, we stand beside and with them and there is no major difference between us.

No one goes to hell for being gay.

We go to hell for not accepting God’s offer of forgiveness in Christ, and that’s something that applies to each and over one of us, homosexual or not.

Church, we will not be able to avoid taking a stand on this forever.

Opposition is coming.

Whether we’re ready or not depends on the work we’re willing to start doing now.

How are we to think and respond when our message of salvation in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone is challenged and opposed?

Our text this morning helps equip us for this.

#1: God wants a relationship with people from every nation, and He uses the preaching of His word to reveal Himself

Let’s take those two statements apart one at a time.

God wants a relationship with people from every nation.

How do we see that in the text?

This story features Paul and Barnabas setting out on the mission trip that the church in Antioch had sent them on.

But was it just the church that sent them out?

Were they acting independent of God? No, look at verse 4: “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia.”

God sends them on this missionary journey.

And where does he send them?

The church has been increasingly moving outward from Jerusalem.

Every episode in Acts pushes the early believers out further and further away from the center of Israelite worship and into lands filled with people who are alienated from God, who are lost.

The Holy Spirit sends them out to nations of people who don’t know God, and God wants a relationship with them.

Friend, do you know God wants a relationship with you?

He doesn’t just want you to come to church and check your boxes: went to worship? check.

Sunday Morning Bible Study?

check.

Got my Bible with me?

Check.

Invited my friend to church?

Check.

[SLIDE: GOD WANTS YOU…]

No, God you to do all of those things, but first He wants your heart.

Parents, you want your kids’ hearts.

Grandparents, you want your grandkids’ hearts.

How many of you would be heartbroken if you thought your kids and grandkids were just checking boxes with you and their heart wasn’t in it?

God wants you more than He wants what you do.

In fact, the Bible even tells us that God wants relationship with us so much that He has arranged all the circumstances of our lives to draw us into that relationship with HIm.

Look with me at Acts 17:26-27.

[SLIDE: ACTS 17]

God wants a relationship with you, even you — people from every background, from every nation.

And — He wants to use the preaching and teaching of His word to draw you into that relationship.

From Antioch, they set out to Seleucia on the coast, then to the island of Cyprus, and then they finally landed at a place on that island called Salamis.

What’s the first thing they do when they get there?

Verse 5: “When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.”

This is why God has commanded pastors to preach.

“Preach the word”, Paul told Timothy in his second letter to him, “in season and out of season” (2Tim.

4:2 ESV).

Preaching isn’t just some guy getting to share his own thoughts and his own wisdom.

The preaching of the word of God, preaching from the Bible, that is God’s choice method for drawing you and I into relationship with Him and keeping us in relationship with Him.

That’s why preaching is so important.

That’s why I always take a text in the Bible and preach what that text says.

That’s why we do this Sunday after Sunday.

You need it and so do I.

God wants a relationship with people from every nation, every background, and He uses His preached word to accomplish that.

But there’s a problem.

The problem?

The preaching of God’s word will be opposed by the forces of darkness who want to keep people from knowing Him.

#2: The preaching of God’s word is opposed by the forces of darkness to keep people from knowing Him

Where do we see that in the text?

Look with me at verses 6-7: “When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus.

He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.”

And the thing that Luke focuses in on for us is a man who has totally bought into all this demonic influence and his name is Bar-Jesus.

[SLIDE: BAR-JESUS]

Who is Bar-Jesus?

His name = “son of Jesus”

A “quack” magician who profited off his “magic”

Also a Jew

Also a false prophet

He represents Satanic forces which oppose the salvation of souls

There’s a slide on your screen about Bar-Jesus.

The best way to think about Bar-Jesus is this: think of Benny Hinn with his “healings”.

Then sprinkle in a little bit of David Copperfield with his magic, and then a dash of Kenneth Copeland or Joel Osteen.

And what you wind up with is a guy who peddled so-called magic that was really just religious superstition masquerading as real spiritual power when it reality he is a fraud, a channel for the sinister dealings of Satan and in it just for the money.

And the money explains why he gets so upset at what happens next.

Look at verse 7: “He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence...” It seems the magician has managed to attach himself to this proconsul.

But Bar-Jesus is threatened.

What is he threatened by?

The proconsul seems to be buying the message of Paul and Barnabas.

The magician is thinking: “I cannot let that happen.”