Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Intro:
Good morning everyone!
I am so happy to be back up here preaching the word of God.
It has been a long stretch since I have preached, and I am always so blessed by the oportunity.
It has been really cool for me personally to have such diversity in our peaching.
Getting to have Joey, Matt, Adam, and Sam come up here are share the word on a regular basis has been a work of the Lord, and I am really thankful to share this responsibility with these men.
I am going to begin by inviting the kids up to the front, to share a condensed version of the sermon with them.
Kids, you can come up here to the front.
Kids Sermon
Who can tell me what prayer is?
Prayer is when we talk to God
Today’s story is about a man named Peter.
Peter’s friend James was killed because he followed Jesus, and Peter was locked in jail because he loved Jesus.
Peter had lots of people guarding him, making sure there was no way that he could escape.
No one could help Peter when he was in jail.
But the other Christians did something while Peter was in jail to try and help him, can anyone guess what they did?
They prayed for Peter.
The whole church prayed for him
Then God sent an angel who went into the jail and let Peter out because the church prayed for him!
God used the Church’s prayer to save Peter from jail by sending his angel!
The text we are in today is critical for our understanding of how we as the christian church deal with persecution and suffering.
The story we are unpacking today is in Acts chapter 12, and it took place over 2000 years ago.
But the truth is just as true today as it was back then.
Before we get into the text, I want to share a more modern story with you.
This is a story of a man named Alexander.
“Alexander Traverston followed someone he thought was a friend into a building.
He sat down and was offered water.
Then eight men entered the room with angry faces.
They dead-bolted the door behind them.
Alarmed, Alexander asked why the door was locked.
“Because we are about to beat you,” the men replied.
“What is this?” the missionary called out.
“I thought we were friends.”
One of the eight men replied, “You are no friend.”
Alexander serves in South Asia with the International Mission Board.
He had been threatened multiple times before, along with his wife, Lillian, his IMB teammates and their national partners.
But this time it wasn’t an empty threat.
This was reality.
The missionary stood up and walked toward the door.
That’s when the first blow came to his back.
As he struggled to move about the room, blow after blow came.
Someone broke a bottle over his head.
He made his way to the still locked door, before being pulled back and beaten again.
His crime?
Boldly proclaiming the gospel to people in a South Asian city who are in desperate need of God’s saving grace.
“I thought of my children and my wife,” Alexander recounted.
His wife was one street over, discipling new believers alongside a national partner.
An IMB partner was with their children, leading a Bible club.
A tremendous peace passed over Alexander.
He knew God would take care of his family.
“Lord, I can trust You,” he thought to himself as the first blows came to his back and head.
“God this is for You.
I love You.
I trust You.”
The second time he made his way to the door, it was unlocked.
Another group was waiting for him outside, they threw him in a vehicle and took him to the police station.
There, a mob of over 100 people waited.
They shouted accusations to the police – all of which were false.
The police took him in for interrogation.
Lillian joined him for the interrogation as soon as she could get to his side.
The police wanted to know why Alexander insisted on sharing his faith.
“Thankfully, I was able to tell the reason for the hope that I have in Christ,” Alexander said.
After he was released, he spent a night in the hospital.
None of the injuries were life-threatening.”
Living in the in the safety and security of modern America we might tempted to think that stories like Alexander’s are rare.
This is far from the truth… This is a quote from Lifeway Research.
“In the past year, 360 million Christians, or 1 in 7 believers around the world, suffered significant persecution for their faith.
Every day in 2021, an average of more than 16 believers were killed for following Jesus.
With close to 6,000 total martyrs, 2021 saw a 24% increase in Christians killed for the faith.”
- Lifeway Research
In our current context, here in Pasco Washington, we are blessed with safety, security, and freedom of religion.
We live in a bubble that tempts us to disassociate from the hardship our brothers and sisters face around the world every day.
Do not fall into this temptation, instead open your ears to the Word of God and hear what it has to say to us.
The story we are about to read in Acts 12 provides instruction and help for us in this great time of need.
First, we must pray and ask the Lord to speak through His word, then we can approach the text.
Prayer
Father, we are in desperate need for you to speak this morning.
Your people have gathered to commune over Your body and blood, and to hear you speak to us in a special way through your word.
Open our hears, Lord! Soften our hearts.
Give us wisdom and accuracy as we seek to understand the text.
Help us leave this place changed, because we know and love Jesus more.
Because this is a long-ish narrative, I think it will be beneficial for us to read it all the way through first, then go back and take it in sections.
During long readings like this it is especially important for you to turn to the text in your bibles.
For that reason, we will not have this section of text on the screen.
Take a moment and open Acts chapter 12 in your bible or on your device.
What a powerful account.
There is lots to cover, so we will dive right into verse 1.
As a little bit of a bonus point, and so you aren’t confused as you read the broader new testament, I will explain who the Herod’s were.
The Herod’s were a particularly cruel line of kings who ruled around the time of Christ.
Herod the Great is the king you read about who was around when Jesus was born.
He was responsible for the killing of all the children 2 years and younger in an attempted to kill Jesus shortly after He was born.
Matthew 2:16 reads:
Now, Herod The Great had a son named Herod Antipas, and he was the one who killed John the Baptist.
We see that in Mark chapter 6.
The Herod we see in out text, Acts 12, is Herod Antipas’ grandson.
His name is Herod Agrippa the 1st.
He is the one who executes James and imprisons Peter.
His Son Agrippa the 2nd rules after him, and that is who Paul is on trial in front of in Acts 25.
That is a lot, but it helpful to keep these things straight as we constantly move around the new testament in our teaching.
So back in verse 1,
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