Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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God’s plan for the worship service: a place for believers to gather for worship, prayer & fellowship
the goal: be strengthened and grow so that they will be salt and light in and to the world
example from 4:23-31: when threatened they went back to the church, shared, prayed, were filled, continued to speak with boldness
the gathering together of believers is for believers not unbelievers
unbelievers are welcome but we don’t order our gatherings to suit their tastes and desires
our prayer is that seeing our love they we know we are Christians and come under conviction and repent of their sins
Satan’s mission to weaken or destroy God’s people so that the world will remain in spiritual darkness
NT gives us insight as to how he works so that we can be prepared and not surprised
works as an angel of light
a master of disguise
a liar, a deceiver and a murderer
how Satan attacked the Jerusalem church
1. Persecution
the progression of persecution:
Acts 4:3, 21: threatened not to speak
believers prayed about the opposition (v.4:24-30) and all were filled and continued to speak with boldness (v.31)
Acts 5:33: Sanhedrin filled with a murderous rage
Peter and John beaten and charged not to speak (v.40)
Acts 7:58: they stoned Stephen in a frenzied rage
persecution spread against all followers of Christ
2. Sinning Believers
one of Satan’s tactics if he can’t win through persecution is to corrupt the church through sinning Christians or by planting false Christians
sinning Christians:
Ananias & Saphira concoct a plan to lie to the church and were put to death by the HS
if Satan cannot divert or distract the church from without he do it from within
other ways: bitterness, lack of forgiveness, gossip, failure to practice church discipline, false teaching (check out the problems in the 7 church of Rev 2-3)
planting false Christians (Mt 13:24-30)
must know the truth and exercise church discipline otherwise the operate undetected and win people over to them
3. Growing Pains
Apostles distracted from their primary ministry of preaching and prayer by an important but lesser program
given that the church was devoted to the Apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42) how did the 12 teach thousands on a regular basis with no church building?
they did not have to worry about benevolence because those with extra resources were divesting themselves in order to provide for needs as they arose
though Satan opposes and at times appears to be winning Jesus promised
Jesus builds with willing and faithful servants
cannot build with spectators
knowing we have an enemy to oppose our building efforts we need to be prepared for adversity (Nehemiah)
A Great Persecution
Acts 8:1b
And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem,
on that day = the same day that Stephen was killed
the frenzied mob went from stoning Stephen to attacking believers throughout the city of Jerusalem
the attacks were severe enough to make many believers flee the city of Jerusalem
first the apostles were targeted, then Stephen, then the church
general teachings about persecution:
“there arose a great persecution”
great: we get our word “mega” from this greek word
it was a mega-persecution
it was huge
it spread throughout the whole city
it was widespread
those who once looked upon believers with favour (Acts 2:47) and held them in high esteem (Acts 5:13) quickly turned violently against them
They Were All Scattered
believers had been fulfilling Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8 but only in Jerusalem and only to Jews
they were not leaving Jerusalem and were not preaching the gospel to Gentiles
“scattered”
from this gk word we get our English word “disperse”
Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover and came to a saving knowledge of Christ stayed until persecution arose
the persecution caused them to disperse
like a shotgun!
they were scattered
they returned to their homes and as they scattered they communicated the gospel
they were “all” scattered
not every single believer but a great number left Jerusalem
wherever they scattered they went to the synagogues and in them bore witness to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection
at the beginning of Paul’s ministry this was his preferred method of church planting
go where people know something and start there
when rejected by the Jews Paul went directly to individual gentiles, won them to Christ and built churches through them
fleeing persecution is not wrong
implication is that fleeing persecution was a means of spreading the gospel
“except the apostles”
in spite of the persecution the apostles remained in Jerusalem
they were unfazed by the persecution
Devout Men vs. Saul
who were these devout men?
these were most likely Jews who were very familiar with the scriptures and lived their lives in faithful obedience
were not like the murderous religious leaders whose religion served their selfish purpose of retaining power, prestige and wealth
though they may not have been believers they recognized the evil injustice committed against a righteous man
“made great lamentation over him” (v.2)
lamentation: basic sense “to beat”, secondary sense “to mourn”
mourning or lamentation for the dead accompanied at times with beating the breast
Jewish funerals:
mourning consisted of a formal kind of lamentation along with weeping or wailing
lamentation often accompanied with beating the breast or the head, scratching cheeks and/or breast
most serious lamentation occurred on the days before the body was buried and the stone rolled over the tomb
occurred in the home and at pauses along the way to the burial
conducted mainly by women though men were not excluded
fasts and laments occurred for 7 days following the burial
formal laments were often sung by trained singers
they were often paid
hiring professional mourners could be expensive
shows that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were probably wealthy
such mourners were not genuine
examples of such would be those who came after Lazarus’ death (Jn 11:37,46) and Jairus’ daughter in Luke 8:52-53
Stephen’s mourners were not these insincere paid ones!
theirs was a real, heartfelt pain at the loss of one so gifted and full of the Spirit and grief over the injustice done to him
it was offered by non-Christians because having been attacked the Christians had scattered
“great lamentation”
great = mega
the lamentation was a mega-lamentation
it was loud, it was demonstrative
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