Sermon Tone Analysis

Do you love Covenant Reformed church?

Fizzle Obstacle: too base, too common, too real.

We wanted radical, instant, independent, and emotional.

Learn Church (being Christian)

In America, the problem goes back to the First Great Material elements, like hearing, bread and wine could no longer serve as means of communion with God.

This was too base, too common, too real.

We wanted radical, instant, independent, and emotional.

In order to not lose people, the church had to give up the ordinary means of grace for a performance of the radical with lights turned down in the sanctuary that you might have that independence even in a crowd; you can turn within for immediacy while the band strikes your emotional cord.

This awe is reverential fear.

It’s the fear of God that strikes the very soul.

This fear sparks wisdom.

Do you love Covenant Reformed church?

The Christians in the book of Acts really loved their church.

When you study Christian history, the same picture emerges.

Christians love the church.

This love however is beginning to fizzle.

In America, the problem goes back to the First Great Awakening, where Christians wanting an immediate connection to the divine, began seeing church as an obstacle.

Christians wanted ecstatic and mystical experiences and so began an exodus away from the church.

For example, the famous transcendental poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson rejected his ordination because he denied a mediated encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist.

He wanted to experience God immediately without means of bread and wine.

He turned away from the church by turning into himself.

Soon titles like “Experiencing God” became the norm.

Material elements, like hearing, bread and wine could no longer serve as means of communion with God.

This was too base, too common, too real.

We wanted radical, instant, independent, and emotional.

In order to not lose people, the church had to give up the ordinary means of grace for a performance of the radical with lights turned down in the sanctuary that you might have that independence even in a crowd; you can turn within for immediacy while the band strikes your emotional cord.

Do you love Covenant Reformed church?

The Christians in the book of Acts really loved their church.

When you study Christian history, the same picture emerges.

Christians love the church.

This love however is beginning to fizzle.

In America, the problem goes back to the First Great Awakening, where Christians wanting an immediate connection to the divine, began seeing church as an obstacle.

Christians wanted ecstatic and mystical experiences and so began an exodus away from the church.

For example, the famous transcendental poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson rejected his ordination because he denied a mediated encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist.

He wanted to experience God immediately without means of bread and wine.

He turned away from the church by turning into himself.

Soon titles like “Experiencing God” became the norm.

Material elements, like hearing, bread and wine could no longer serve as means of communion with God.

This was too base, too common, too real.

We wanted radical, instant, independent, and emotional.

In order to not lose people, the church had to give up the ordinary means of grace for a performance of the radical with lights turned down in the sanctuary that you might have that independence even in a crowd; you can turn within for immediacy while the band strikes your emotional cord.

We need to learn to be the church again.

We have to get back to being Christian.

We need to get back to Acts.

Acts 2:43a.

This awe is reverential fear.

It’s the fear of God that strikes the very soul.

This fear sparks wisdom.

This is the knowledge that forsakes a dying world… We want the knowledge of another world, the age to come that breaks into this day to create a holy space.

The Word breaks in today that we might see God at work among us .

In Acts God was at work through means.

It’s the Acts of the Apostles

Christ uses means.

We are a people of the ear, water, bread, and wine.

Mediation is the Biblical way.

The fear we see here does not come about because men experienced marvelous deeds.

It’s the fear of God, which the disciples…

They were afraid… How do we know God.

The Hypostatic Union shows us that we need mediation.

Now when I say we have to get back to Acts… We are not to repeat these signs but to believe in them “and all who believed.”

These men have given us the Word of God ().

Do we repeat the cross?

Birth of the church

The Apostles ministry focused on the Word.

Wherever growth occurs, it is attributed to the Word (; ; ).

It is the Word that prevails against darkness not signs and wonders.

So Paul adds that Christ in his ascension distributed gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

Through their ministry the saints will be built up into the body of Christ, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” no longer tossed back and forth “with every wind of doctrine” ().

We need to get back to Acts means we need to get back to the means of grace.

We love the church because here Bible is ours

We love the church because we love to be together .

We should repeat this.

What should we repeat?

Is it communism .

Separate Compounds

Voluntary and occasional.

Their needs were related to the physical and social environment in which they found themselves.

Believers continued to maintain their own homes and used them for the benefit of others in the church (cf.

).

Private party

This verse does not rule out private party.

We are not to give everything to everyone because we would then not have anything to give anyone.

That’s the problem with the communal lifestyle, separation from the world.

How are we to be salt and light in the world when we are not in the world.

The medieval age gave us monks and nuns who were holier than thou because they owned nothing.

The Reformers however asked, “How are you to follow the apostles’ teaching when you have nothing to sell nor any help to give to those in need.”

So the Reformers emphasized the holiness of common vocation.

The Lord has called you to a common vocation.

It’s your divine calling to be a nurse, engineer, teacher, financial consultant, salesman, mother, husband and so forth for the betterment of society and the church.

So, make money.

Problem Communial

Does that sound worldly?

The doctrine of scarcity… This is the common here, giving to the poor “as any had need.”

It was occasional and dictated by the needs of the day.

Here’s the truth for us, that which is worth repeating: where is your treasure.

If you love Christ and his church, your heart will follow.

It will bring along…

Does that sound worldly?

The doctrine of scarcity teaches us to make money, use it to make more, hide, and give it to none– that’s worldly.

You can also spend it all on yourself and run up debt, that’s worldly.

There is a third day, the biblical way, work hard for the Lord, make as much as you can, be wise with it, so that you can be ready to give it readily and cheerfully for the welfare of one another.