Sermon Tone Analysis

The Promise of the Father

As we begin a new sermon series in the book of Acts, I want to first give you an idea of where we are headed for the year ahead.

We will be in acts till just before Easter, Then we will have 3 weeks of Easter followed by about 8 weeks in 1 John, then our Summer Psalms series will continue.

In the Fall we will be starting a 4 yr journey through Genesis and complete the year with an Advent series again.

This will be pretty much the same pattern for the next 4 years until we have completed Acts, Genesis and 1 John.

As we begin today in looking at the Book of Acts there are some themes that I would have you notice over the next 12 weeks.

Obedience in Action - Fearing God not Man - Boldness in Evangelism - Repentance - Resurrection Of Christ is central - the Trinity is everywhere (Acts isn’t just about the Holy Spirit) - the early church

Waiting until the HS comes

Fearing God not Man

As we preach and teach through Gods word we want you to know that there were more than just “these eleven” Though we highlight the few at the front, there are more.

Boldness in Evangelism

More than just “these eleven” Though we highlight the few at the front, there are more.

There were 120 gathered - Don’t discount yourself just because you aren’t “at the front”Sovereignty of God

Acts is the beginning of Welcoming all types of people into the family of God The dividing wall of hostility is torn down.

Welcoming all types of people into the family of God The dividing wall of hostility is torn down

The dividing wall of hostility is torn down

We will see Filling w/ Holy Spirit come and then a gift of Tongues will be explained

Tongues More about the hearers understanding, than about the speaker speaking.

A constant theme you will hear from me is The miracles are there to validate the message of the Gospel!

It isn’t for the person doing it, but the person receiving it.

Tongues, the healing of the blind beggars

And we will always see the Spirit is working WITH the word.

So let’s begin our study inActs with a brief understanding of the context.

First of all I need you to know that this book is not a letter written to the church like other epistles are.

In Ephesians and Galatians for example, Paul is writing the churches there to bring correction and instruction in life and worship.

they are full of rich theology for the church today and were written with specific ideas for their original audience.

In Acts we have a narrative story being told from an eyewitness to a Gentile, or non jew - Theophilus.

SO while there is obvious stories about how the Early church started, and there is a lot of Rich theology, meaning we learn a lot about God from this book, It is not something that was written to an encouragement for these specific things to be repeated or attempted to be relived in our experience.

I would actually submit to you that this is the number one thing most of the modern church gets wrong about Acts… And I humbly say that as a former Assemblies of God credentialed pastor.

I know how this gets twisted because I am guilty of it.

I can articulate the Charismatic argument better than most and I am most excited to share this book with you in an effort to help clear some confusion and show you what the church has historically believed, no matter how that has changed in the last 100+ years of the 2,000 yrs of church history.

Let’s start by look at these opening verses...

While the author does not introduce himself here, we have a huge clue to who is writing this book, that is a narrative story of the early church.

The Author is none other than Luke the Physician.

So what do we know about him...

We know that Luke was the Apostle Paul’s special friend who accompanied him on multiple journeys.

He is mentioned by name in 3 other letters - Colossians, Philemon, and 2 Timothy.

We know he was a highly educated man who had a special attention to details of names, events, geography, and more than anything healings done by both Jesus and his Apostles.

Luke has interviewed eyewitnesses of every event he is describing and his work was recieved by the Apostles as the best history of these events and so were circulated by the Early church as historical truth.

How do we know it is Luke?

Because he starts by making an address to Theophilus, and noting his first book, which is reference to the Gospel of Luke, written to Theophilus.

let’s look at it quickly...

So here we have Luke admitting that he has been following these things closely, and his intentions are to write an orderly account so that Theophilus and the readers can have Certainty of what they have been taught.

But taught about what?

All the things that Jesus began to do and teach.

So we know it is Luke writing, we know he wrote the Gospel to be an orderly account for us to have certainty of what we have been taught about Jesus, all that he did and taught.

But who is this Theophilus?

While we cannot say with exact certainty, what we do know is that he was not a Jew.

His name means “Friend of God” and he is addressed as “Most Excellent Theophilus” in Luke, which is a similar greeting Paul gave to Felix and Festus the roman governors.

This would cause us to conclude that Theophilus was of the ruling class, and he had been converted to Christianity, yet needed to know exactly what happened.

So, Luke writes a 2 part book… the Gospel of Luke and Acts.

In this short beginning we see 3 things

The Ascension, His Instructions, and His Election...

His Ascension

We will talk more in depth about this next week, but he is telling Theophilus here that his last book was written up to this point....

When Jesus was taken up… Which is found in vs 50-53...

It is important to note that this means that they were currently at Bethany outside of the city of Jerusalem at this point, because we know from other places that this is where the Ascension happens.

Hold on to that thought for later… This is happening in Bethany outside the city of Jerusalem.

With the Ascension narrative, Luke ties together the Gospel of Luke and Acts… he ends the Gospel that way and will begin this book that way.

This is like when we watch a movie in 2 parts.

Usually the start of the second movie gives you a quick review of what happened in the first movie.

Without making too much of this right now, I would say that the Idea that Jesus Ascends into heaven as a living resurrected person in bodily form is one of the most distinguishing trademarks to the Christian faith.

Christianity unlike other religions, believe that we worship a God who is 3 in1, and that the second member of the Triune God, Jesus Christ, was raised from the dead and is alive and bodily departed from the planet Earth to go sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven until he bodily returns!

His going is called the Ascension.

Next we see His Instructions.

His Instructions

In that second verse it says, “after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit”...

A command is an instruction to be followed.

It seems as though Luke is connecting the Ascension to the great commission at the end of … “Go and make Disciples, baptizing and teaching them everything I commanded you...”

What we do know from scripture is that there is a 40 day period between the resurrection and the Ascension, and that Jesus taught them many things about the kingdom.

But the Gospels are full of Instructions from Jesus to his followers and especially to these Apostles.

We will see more specifics next week when they are told to Wait for the Holy Spirit, but there seems to be emphasis put on his instructions to his Apostles here, because the Book of Acts carries a theme of Obedience in it.

If I may take just a moment to briefly touch on an important fact that we will see over and over in Acts, it is the idea on God’s Sovereignty and mans responsibility.

While God is Sovereign and knows everything, and orchestrates everything according to his predetermined will, it never releases us from being responsible for acting accordingly.

So, By his Grace we are Saved and that is a gracious gift that we do not work or earn, yet there are still instructions for us as believers who are now following Christ.

And we are responsible for following those instructions, as these Apostles were.

but finally we the doctrine of Election...

His Election

While Luke is telling of Jesus’ choosing of the Apostles, there is an important Doctrine we see here and I would be remiss if I brushed over it...

The questions is Did Jesus choose the Apostles and then is is did he choose us?

For that answer let us look to scripture...

In Jesus is speaking directly to his Apostles...

But we see this language repeated when the Apostle Paul is talking to believers in general…

Before the foundations of the world means before creation God knew you!

Way back then, God choose you!

And again from Peter in teaching believer about their salvation...

It is undeniable that God has chosen those who are believers in Jesus.

But why?

Is there something special about me that led God to choose me?

The short answer is, no, God did not choose us because of anything inherent in ourselves.

He chose us out of His love and mercy, and for His glory.

P

says, “He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

It is undeniable that God has chosen those who are believers in Jesus.

But why?

Is there something special about me that led God to choose me?

The short answer is, no, God did not choose us because of anything inherent in ourselves.

He chose us out of His love and mercy, and for His glory.

eph.14-6