Sermon Tone Analysis

Text

Main Idea

We are living in

Jesus is continuing to act through the Church to make Himself known to the ends of the earth

Development

The Gospel of Luke tells us all that Jesus began to do and teach before and immediately after the Resurrection.

Acts tells us all that Jesus continued to do through the Church (not just through the Apostles) after his Ascension.

Power was given to every Christian to be witnesses to Jesus, starting in Jerusalem and continuing until all the earth has heard about Jesus.

The story of Acts ends with the Gospel reaching Rome, demanding a part 3 to a trilogy - this 3rd part is being written right now by the Church, of which we are all part.

Jesus continues to work through the Church, and we are all called to be Jesus witnesses until the mission is complete.

Introduction

Commonly known as the Acts of the Apostles

Actually written as the second volume of a two-volume work which was the History of Christian Origins

The first volume starts very much the same way -

You’ve heard the introduction to this volume, let me read you the introduction to the first volume:

That is of course, the introduction to the gospel of Luke

The first volume is Luke’s Gospel

These 2 volumes were probably circulated together as a complete set, until...

Early in 2nd century, the 4 gospels were gathered together as one collection called the “fourfold gospel”

And then, when the canon was put together, Luke’s second volume - Acts - was placed right after the fourfold gospel as a natural progression from the resurrection of Jesus...

and as a narrative background for the rest of the New Testament letters

The Purpose

The Purpose

What is the purpose of the book?

First, let me tell you what it is NOT

The book of Acts is not a manual on running the church

The first thing we need to understand is that for the most part, Acts is narrative

Most of Acts is descriptive - not prescriptive

It tells us what happened - not teaching us what to do

For sure there are some passages which contain teaching, but much of Acts is an eyewitness account of what happened that is not necessarily the formula for us to replicate

For example, it records the apostles drawing straws for who should be the 12th apostle to take over from Judas

Should we all draw straws to see who might become our next elder?

It records Peter telling a paralysed man to get up and walk

Does that mean that we should visit every paralysed person we can find and command them to stand up walk?

It records the people in the church selling everything they had and sharing everything in common

Should we all sell everything we have and share it all with each other?

Its funny - most people who believe that Acts is prescriptive and shows us how we ought to be running the church, and that we should be seeing the same performance of miraculous signs through our preachers and pastors today, are not willing to do that.

Acts is a record of what happened, and we need to apply proper exegesis and interpretation principles to understand what is narrative and not the formula for us to follow, and what is instructive for us to follow

The book of Acts is not a book about miracles

That’s how most people view Acts - “Oh thats the book about the miracles”

Its also suggested that it should be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit - but not because of what the Holy Spirit is teaching through the book, but because some associate the Holy Spirit only with miracles and signs and wonders

For sure there are many miracles recorded in Acts, and there is no doubt that Christianity is a supernatural religion

but signs and wonders and miracles are not the central focus of Christianity - and they aren’t even the focus of Acts

In fact, miracles and signs make up only a tiny portion of the book

In fact, preaching receives far more emphasis in Acts than miracles and signs do

Far more verses are devoted to reporting on the sermons that were preached than to the miracles and signs that were witnessed

The people in the Acts narrative were amazed at the signs and miracles that Jesus performed through the apostles, but it was through the preaching of the Word and the sermons that Peter and the other Apostles delivered, that people repented and believed and were saved

Far more

So if Acts gives us one example for the modern church to follow, it certainly is not a focus on signs and wonders -

it is that the preaching of the gospel is of first importance and nothing else must overshadow the preaching of the Word

OK so Acts is not the handbook fhow to r

What IS the purpose of Acts?

Luke actually tells us quite plainly in both Luke and Acts what his purpose is, and his introduction and purposes statement in Luke can also be understood as the introduction to the whole 2 volume work, including Acts

Purpose of Luke’s gospel was to give Theophilus an accurate and orderely account of the origins of Christianity ()

Christianity was “everywhere spoken against ()

Christianity was “everywhere spoken against ()

Misunderstood as a movement that was a threat to imperial law & order

Their leader was executed as an enemy of Rome

All created by misleading accounts of the Pharisees

Luke wanted to provide clarity as to the nature and origins of Christianity

Roman government always legalised the religions of the nations Rome conquered

Judaism was therefore a legal religion

The Pharisees persuaded Rome that Jesus was an enemy of Rome and that his followers were too

It was therefore urgent that Luke give an accurate account of all that had transpired:

to show the Jewish roots of Christianity so that Christianity would be understood - not as a new religion - but as the continuation of the Jewish religion and story

so that Christianity would be understood as the continuation of the Jewish religion and story

so that he could show that Christianity was not a threat to Rome

to assure citizens of Rome that nothing should prevent their participation in the Christian community

Now in Luke’s second volume he says by introduction in “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up...”

Acts 1:

The Gospel of Luke gives an accurate eyewitness account...

of all that Jesus had begun to do (miracles, his death, resurrection, ascension)

So Luke gives an account based on eye-witness testimony, of all that Jesus

AND all that Jesus had taught

The key word there is began...

If Luke’s gospel tells us all that Jesus had begun to do and teach until the day he was taken up and ascended to the throne...

then Luke’s second volume tells us what Jesus continues to do after the ascension

The book of Acts then, is an accurate eyewitness account of the work of Jesus Christ in and through the Church after the Ascension, to grow the Church and make His name known to the ends of the earth

This is our story - this is where we are in history - the last days

So then, the book of Acts should not be referred to merely as The Acts of the Apostles, because...

the book doesn’t only record what those 12 men did, but what Jesus Christ did in and through not just through the apostles, but through the whole Church

the climax of it’s story does not end with the apostles...

Jesus tells the disciples in “...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Chapters 1-7 record the spread of the gospel and the growth of the Church in Jerusalem

Chapters 8-12 record the spread of the gospel outwards from Jerusalem and northward to Samaria and the surrounding regions

The book reaches it’s conclusion with Paul arriving in Rome

Is that it?

Rome was in many respects the end of the known world for the apostles...

but the ending demands a sequel… a third volume

and we are living in it

the climax is still to come

the spread of the gospel is still making its way outward to the ends of the earth - and we are part of the third installment of the trilogy...

we are also those in and through whom the resurrected and ascended Jesus is working to make His name known to the nations

so Acts is much bigger than a record of what 12 men did 2000 years ago...

Rather, Acts is the record of the continuing acts of the ascended and living Jesus working in and through the Church to make Himself known to the ends of the world

Every other religion’s prophets are all dead

But our Lord Jesus is alive - and He is working even now, calling people by name to repent of their sins and believe the gospel, and receive eternal life

So this book is about the Acts of Jesus...

... and the main principle I will be trying to show through this sermon and the whole series is that...

So the main idea that Acts teaches us, and the main principle I will be trying to show through this sermon and the whole series is that...