Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
In his short time of proclaiming Christ, Saul has a group of converts who are able to help him escape by lowering him through a window in a basket.
What a strange turn of events for Saul.He came to Damascus to destroy the church.
Saul, not only had great power, but also all the authority to do so.
A powerful entrance with great authority, that ended with a humility filled ride as a fugitive in a basket and into hiding.
This was a new life for Saul.
This is what conversion looks like.
The English word, conversion, comes from the Latin word, convertere.
This word simply means, to turn around.
This is what has happened to Saul.
He has had a turn around.
The Saul to Paul conversion is far from the norm.
It began from a direct post resurrection visit from Christ and it involved an immediate turn towards Christianity.
This was without any evidence that he was on a journey towards Christianity.
No this was a journey towards stamping out Christianity.
In this end, Saul simply surrendered.
Saul's surrender did not come without a price tag and scrutiny along the way.
Today we will start to get a peek into what Jesus meant when he told Ananias that Saul would suffer for the name of Jesus.
This was just the beginning and yet in God's great providence, He allowed Saul to see that He was with him, even in the scrutiny.
Fist we will see that God used the spiritual gift of one brother to alleviate scrutiny.
Second we will see an unlikely brotherhood come together for a common cause to keep the gospel on the move.
Finally we will see that a church on the move is one filled with strength, encouragement, and grows and all this is facilitated through one source.
This morning we begin with the gift of Barnabas and how he played in the role of helping Saul from being Saul the avoided to...
1. _Saul the encouraged_
Read: Acts 9:26–27
1. Saul the encouraged
At the very beginning of Saul's new found faith we see that he is informed that he will suffer.
This was no different for any other convert in the early church.
This was a common teaching to all disciples, that discipleship leads us to a cross.
Or as Deitrich Bonhoeffer said, "When Jesus calls us, he bids us come and die."
We have learned to this point that the early church was persecuted often and that being the minority would leave you to be defensive and protective.
This seemed to be that way it was for the church in Jerusalem.
By the time he gets to Jerusalem they have heard the news of him and they were skeptical to say the least.
It did not matter how effective his message had been in Damascus or that he was beginning to understand the what persecution felt like.
It did not matter the disciples of Damascus hid him and protected him, the disciples of Jerusalem wanted nothing to do with this murderer.
Saul was not finding welcome.
Illus: My first years in the church were good and stressful (Making amends early on, Becoming a para 4 years later)
It did not matter that Saul had legitimately changed, there was no welcome for him in Jerusalem.
It had to have been an emotional journey for Saul to return to the very place that he loved, grown up, and had much power.
He had to assume that he would deal with the un-trust of those disciples he was reaching out to only to see that they were all afraid of him.
Even though this was the current situation God sends a solution.
Enter Barnabas.
He is known as the encourager and an encourager he was.
God has blessed him with this gift of encouragement and it was time to extend it to Saul.
Barnabas recognizes the it was going to take more than the words of Saul to make any kind of impact to these disciple of Jerusalem.
They had to be looking at him and thinking, "He has to be a spy!
He is just looking for a way in to take out the leaders!"
Barnabas shows two traits of encouragement.
First he takes a very big risk.
He trusts Saul's conversion was legit, but also takes him into the inner circle of the believers.
He takes him to where the apostles were.
Had Saul proven to be a spy then this would spell to be a drastic move.
Secondly, he does not send Saul in to fend for himself, he also speaks on behalf of Saul and speaks on his behalf.
He tells the story and simply gives his stamp of approval for Saul.
Barnabas is not so much giving them new information, but rather, communicating with authority that Saul was trustworthy and called by Jesus.
There is a major role for the encourager in the church today.
We can probably imagine what it was that Saul felt like during this time, dejected, lonely, and looking for any kind of encouragement along the way.
How many of you, especially in your early walk, have come along this way and because of your past have felt this?
It starts with loneliness in the very place where you should find acceptance and turns into despair and bitterness as people focus in on the past.
Here is some truth for you.
God provides healing for these people in the church through encouragers.
This gives way to opportunity for the Barnabases' of the church to stand in the gap for the Sauls' that are coming in.
The church needs you to rise up!
We need encouragers now like never before because it is the Saul's of this world that we are seeking!
Where are our Barnabases' to welcome them in and tell their story?!
The story here is Barnabas was willing to take a risk.
We need to take some risks too.
We need to be in the business of accepting the risky and leading them to share the good news.
Illus: We have former addicts leading addicts in Fred and going into the prisons.
We have Ed and Barb serving donuts and coffee each week.
The list is bigger than them but it needs to get bigger and bigger, especially if we are going to impact those around us.
It is because of this new brotherhood, we see an unlikely scenario unfold.
We now move from Saul not only a partner in the gospel message but also he was...
2. _Saul the trusted and protected_
Read: Acts 9:28–30
2. Saul the trusted and protected
He is now embraced by both Hellenistic and Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem.
It was because of this he was now able to continue to speak with such boldness for the gospel and also to break through the barriers that were keeping him at bay in the past.
He was now a part of the circle and a teller of the good news.
He was once trusted to go about freely and speak boldly in the city.
But just as quickly, this same group of people who had conspired to kill Stephen when he preached the good news, is now out to do the same with Saul.
Thankfully his new found brotherhood of friends saw this and realized that Jerusalem was to hot for Saul to remain so they protected their new brother.
They took him down to Caesarea and boarded him on a ship to go to Tarsus.
Tarsus is where we will leave Saul until 11:25.
It is unrecorded testimony that is taking place there.
It was a free city and a leading city of culture, schooling, and would be a fitting place for Saul to spend time to get to know and understand this faith that he would someday die for.
Finally we see that a church is on the move and that a church on the move is a...
3. _The Spirit filled church_
Read: Acts 9:31
3. The Spirit filled church
Normally when Luke writes about the church he is speaking of the local congregation but here he is very clearly speaking of the church universal.
The whole church was on the move and the HS was behind every step of it!
The church was strong and mighty.
It was filled with encouragement and ready to grow and grow and grow.
I was recently asked why the church struggles growing.
It is not the first time I have ever heard that question before and I am sure it will not be the last.
But I shared with them a portion of an article from R.C. Sproul that I will end things out with this morning.
I’m still amazed whenever I see the bumper sticker that reads, “Visualize world peace.”
The idea is that if I, and enough other people, create the right mental picture of peace, it will soon come to pass.
It’s astounding that some people actually believe that silly technique will bring about such a desirable goal.
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