Sermon Tone Analysis
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Acts - 19
Acts 7:1-53
Introduction
When I was in college, I did an internship at a church in Chesterfield, MO for student ministry.
After a year, the church hired me on to the permanent staff.
During the interview with the elders, my first church interview, I learned firsthand the tactics of how to interview.
Chesterfield, MO is a swanky, wealthy west suburb of St. Louis.
The elders consisted of a bank president, a couple of doctors, some investment guys, and as chairman we had Gary.
Gary was the Vice-President of GE.
He was a wealthy, intimidating man.
When they brought me in for the interview, I was shaking I was so nervous.
But pretty quickly, the nerves went away.
The elders proved to be laid back, funny, and genuinely interested in me.
For about a half hour we exchanged personal stories, told jokes, and had a great time together.
In the midst of the laughter, Gary asked me, “what is your favorite verse in the Bible?”
I said Romans 12:1-2.
Immediately his face changed to deadpan, he locked eyes with me with his cold black eyes and said, “Quote it.”
Thankfully I did.
Nailed it!
And then we went right back to the fun and laughter.
He totally set me up!
The stories and the laughing disarmed me and opened me up to the sneak attack he had planned all along.
This is what Stephen does in Acts 7. Stephen, along with six other men, were chosen to administrate over the daily distribution of food to the widows in the Church.
But his ministry expanded beyond that and he became a powerful preacher, attesting to the reality of who Jesus is to a hostile audience.
The hostile Jewish leaders have arrested him and dragged him before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Senate of the day.
His enemies have started the rumor mill to turn the crowds against him.
In court, they bring in false witnesses who lie about him, claiming he has been undermining the Jewish faith.
Acts 6:13-14 - 13 And they put forward false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases speaking words against this holy place and the Law;
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”
Stephen stands before a Jewish Senate, filled with hostile Jewish leaders, surrounded by a hostile Jewish crowd, accused of undermining the Jewish faith.
Not a safe place to be.
But he is not intimidated.
He seems to be comfortable and confident.
Acts 6:15 - And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin saw his face like the face of an angel.
He sits there, focused on the Lord.
And it even shows on his face.
This is a sign of divine vindication by God.
God stands with Stephen, not with the crowd.
God endorses Stephen, not the Jewish leaders.
And that is about to be proven without a doubt.
Acts 7:1 - And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
In the field of preaching, there is a kind of sermon called an ‘inductive’ sermon.
Think of it like a V.
It starts out more general but then moves its way down to one specific point.
It is in contrast to a ‘deductive’ sermon that starts out with a specific point and then expands the idea and explains it.
Inductive sermons are, in my opinion, the most challenging sermons to write.
It takes a tremendous amount of effort and energy to start general and then keep the audience with you all the way until you get to the point.
The inductive sermon is the preaching equivalent to what that elder did to me in that meeting.
Keeps you engaged, disarms you, all the way until he brings the killer blow.
Stephen, in response to all this, on the fly, preaches an inductive sermon.
He engages the crowd with their own history.
He reminds them of what they already know to be true.
He puts himself on their side so they would see him as a friend, not an enemy.
That is, however, until he unleashes the death blow at the very end.
Let’s take a few minutes and engage with his sermon, pulling from it the glorious truth of the gospel he faithfully preaches to them.
Stephen covers four main epochs of Jewish history by giving short biographies of five different primary leaders throughout their history.
ABRAHAM - THE ORIGINATOR (V.
2-8)
Acts 7:2-8 - 2 And he said, “Hear me, brothers and fathers!
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’
4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.
From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.
5 But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child.
6 But God spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
7 ‘And I Myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’
8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
In Genesis 12, God did something new.
Up until then, He had interacted with individuals like Noah.
But with Abraham, God originates with him a new way of working in the world.
Through Abraham, God is going to birth a new nation in the world.
That nation, through no merit of their own, without having ever done anything to deserve it, will become God’s possession on the earth.
God promises to bless them and to protect them.
In fact, God is going to bless them so greatly that eventually the entire world will be blessed through them.
Abraham was faithful to the Lord.
God called him to leave his country of origin, his pagan background, and to place his faith in the one, true God.
Abraham trusts in God and points all future generations to the God who has chosen them.
God makes a covenant with Abraham and his descendants to work in and through them for 1,000 generations.
It all begins with Abraham.
What we know of all OT history, ancient Israel, and eventually the Lord Jesus coming into the world through that line, it all begins with Abraham.
He is the originator of faith in the one, true God.
JOSEPH - THE SAVIOR (V.
9-16)
Acts 7:9-16 - 9 “And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.
Yet God was with him,
10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.
11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.
13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.
15 And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died.
16 And from there they were removed to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
The back half of the book of Genesis is dedicated to the story of Joseph.
An incredible story of betrayal, God’s providence, and forgiveness.
Though Joseph is not the firstborn son, God gives him dreams of leadership and authority over his brothers.
They don’t really like that, so they fake his death and sell him into slavery in Egypt.
But through God’s miraculous working in Joseph’s life, he becomes second in power in all of Egypt.
By the wisdom given to him by God, Joseph saves Egypt and the surrounding areas from the effects of a devastating famine.
Israel is affected by the same famine and Joseph’s own brothers, the very ones who had betrayed and rejected him, come to Egypt for help.
They stand before Joseph, though they do not know it is him, and ask for the help only he can provide.
It is a beautiful scene when Joseph reveals his identity to them and forgives them for their sins against him.
By his grace, Joseph saves even those who rejected him.
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