Sermon Tone Analysis

.3

I. It’s not Really Being Evangelized

In Jerusalem, the Christians were accused of saturating the city with the gospel.

The authorities complained to the apostles, “Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine” (read ).

This should be the goal of people who were commanded by Jesus to, “Preach the gospel to every creature” ().The fact is, that most cities we label as gospel-hardened are really gospel-ignorant.

If there is little spreading of the gospel going on in your town, there is something you can do about it.

It isn’t the town that’s so hard; the problem is that the church is not really evangelistic.

II.

Because we are not really filled with the Holy Spirit

Our witness to Christ is supposed to be given in the power of the Spirit of God.

The Lord Jesus made this clear before He went back to Heaven.

Luke 24:46-49

The bible Teaches that we must be “endued with power from on High.”

In order to effectively preach the gospel, we must be willing to be filled with the Spirit!

The night before He died on the cross, our Lord introduced His disciples to the new ministry of the Holy Spirit, which would begin on the day of Pentecost.

He would live within them, and would act as their “Comforter” (Helper), giving them the power to obey the commands of Christ (see ).

He explained His role in our witnessing with these words:

The Holy Spirit in believers will reprove the world and prepare lost men to receive the Saviour.

With the Holy Spirit testifying to the truth as we witness for Jesus, sinners will see their need of Jesus.

In this way, we can expect to bear fruit (read ).

The Holy Spirit in believers will reprove the world and prepare lost men to receive the Saviour.

With the Holy Spirit testifying to the truth as we witness for Jesus, sinners will see their need of Jesus.

In this way, we can expect to bear fruit (read ).

Now every Christian receives the Spirit when He believes in Jesus (), but every believer, thus sealed with the Holy Spirit, is commanded to be filled with the Spirit ().

That happens when we surrender to obey the Lord Jesus, no matter what (see and 15:14).

Before fulfilling our horizontal duty to evangelize, we must address the vertical issues we have with God, just as the first Christians did in the days before Pentecost.

When we line up with Jesus and are thus abiding in Him, we are filled with the Spirit for evangelism and our witness is made effective.

Spirit-filled Christians have power in their witness, and men will be saved (look at ). God gave us all we need to meet the needs of our town (), but the town seems hard when sins and rebellion keep us from being filled with the Spirit.

We need to get on our knees before we start blaming our town.

III.

Because Satanic influences are not being restricted

Often, we fail to fix spiritual problems because we fail to take into account activity in the invisible world.

We must “resist the devil” for him to “flee” from us (see and ).

We must “resist the devil” for him to “flee” from us (see and ).

Sometimes the problem in our town is in the invisible world.

Perhaps we are being opposed in our work of evangelism and preaching by satanic principalities and powers.

Thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ defeated the devil and his angels (), and we can stand against them successfully in the authority of our Lord.

In prayer, let’s bind them and bring them to defeat.

It can be done, and often must be done before the truth can advance.

IV.

Because nobody has had the patience to Prevail

Persistence is an essential element in winning spiritual victories.

Have you run across the Scriptures that call on us to persist and not give up (such as , , and )?

In the New Testament, the work of evangelism is compared to the work of farming.

We plow, sow, water, and reap, but it is God that gives the increase.

Farming requires patience and persistence (be sure to read , , and ).

We must stay at it if we are to reach our town: stay at evangelizing, stay at praying, stay at seeking the Lord, stay at letting God lead us, stay at living for Jesus, and stay at believing for results.

When our church persists in such things, it looks like the church in Acts!

CONCLUSION

Often, a town gets the reputation of hardness because nobody has stayed at it long enough to reap a harvest.

The city of Ephesus finally saw the triumph of the gospel after several years of sowing the seed in the power of the Spirit.

Read the story again in .

Somebody will have to persist in the important work of getting the love of Jesus to everyone in your town, and sticking with people until they are made into His disciples!