Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning we are picking back up in our study of the book of Acts.

If you’re new to our church, it would be good for you to know that we practice a form of preaching called “Expository Preaching”.

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What that means is we believe the Bible is best taught by taking books of the Bible and then studying them from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in order to understand what it means in our lives today.

With that said, we are currently doing that through the NT book of Acts.

A book that highlights the beginning days of the church and gives us a template for how Jesus designed the church to expand, function, and accomplish the mission of taking the Gospel from our local communities to the rest of the World.

So, if you haven’t been with us, I would encourage you to go online to www.mcf.life,

where you can listen or watch all of the messages in this series leading up to today.

As we pick back up today, you may recall last week picked back up as we moved into , as for the first time the disciples faced the resistance that Jesus promised wold come.

A resistance that came as a result of a healing miracle that was performed by the Apostle Peter in chapter 3, resulting in the conversion of 5000 people who responded to Peter’s sermon.

Luke describes the resistance as follows:

Acts 4:1-

Luke says as Peter and John shared the good news of Jesus Christ, three different groups of people approached who had a problem with the message about Jesus.

the disciples of Jesus, for the first time began to experience the resistance that Jesus promised would come.

And as we learned, each group had specific issues with what Peter and John were sharing about Jesus.

In fact, we learned they weren’t just upset, but they were ticked off.

It’s as if Peter and John have walked into the temple wearing Jesus t-shirts and “Make Jesus Great Again” hats, and it ticked them off.

So, the question then is, “Why are they so ticked off?”

Well, for each group it’s different.

For the priests, they’re ticked off because faith in Jesus is moving people away from the temple sacrifice system.

Because according to , Jesus is the final sacrifice needed for sin.

And if Jesus is the final sacrifice, then there’s no need for a temple system.

Because instead of a religious system there’s a relational savior now, and his name is Jesus.

And it’s ticking the priests off.

Hebrews 10:1-

The captain of the Temple is ticked because his job is to maintain order on the Temple mount.

And what Peter and John have done has caused disorder.

Peter and John have basically started a revival service on the temple mount, and it’s ticking him off.

And then finally the Sadducees are ticked off, because if this continues, Rome might get involved, and that’s the last thing the Sadducees want.

Because as religious political leaders, they have an agreement with Rome.

And the agreement is, as along as the Sadducees can keep the Jewish people quiet and submissive, Rome will continue to give the Sadducees power, influence, and resource.

But what the disciples are doing could disrupt this agreement.The message of Jesus could create a situation that gets Rome involved and robs the Sadducees of their cushy lifestyle and position.

And their ticked off.

And as we learned last week, not much has changed since the first century.

The truth is, regardless of the century, the culture, or the country, when you stand up for Jesus, when you make Jesus great, you’re going to tick some people off.

And as a result, you’re going to face some resistance.

What kind of resistance?

Well, as we learned last week, resistance comes in all shapes and sizes, but there are two specific types of resistance you can expect.

The first type of resistance is isolation.

As we saw in our passage last week, when confronted by the three groups, the disciples were quickly arrested and put in isolation.

The first type of resistance you can expect is

And that’s the first thing the enemy is going to try and do when you start standing up for Jesus.

He’s going to try and isolate you from the people who need to hear about Jesus.

He’s going to isolate you from friends, from family, and those who you may influence with the good news of the gospel.

The truth is, many of you have experienced this in your own journey of faith.

You’ve experienced the isolation that comes as friends abandon you because of your faith in Jesus.

As family members shun you because you embraced a relationship instead of a religion.

Some of you have experienced it in the workplace as supervisors, co-workers, clients, and customers have started to treat you differently or avoid conversations with you because of your faith in Jesus.

As a result, because of your faith, you’ve been isolated.

The truth is, the more you stand up for Jesus, the less popular you’re going to be in the eyes of the world.

Jesus puts it like this:

Jesus says, “Listen, your faith in me is going to run so contrary to the worlds standards and views, that it’s going to cause them to hate you just like they hated me.”

Why will they hate you?

Why will they isolate you?

Because the message of the gospel runs contrary to what they believe.

The message of the gospel isn’t religiously, politically, culturally, or Hollywood correct.

And when confronted with the gospel, the knee jerk reaction of the world is to isolate you.

Which will eventually lead to a second type of resistance.

Because if isolation doesn’t work, then the next step is to threaten our faith.

That’s what happened to Peter and John.

Because after spending a night in jail, Peter and John were then brought before the religious leaders and threatened.

Luke writes:

Now Peter and John are being threatened and warned.

Now they are being told, “You better stop spreading the message about Jesus, or else...”

Or else what?

Well, as we’re going to see throughout the book of Acts, “Or else” comes in all different shapes and sizes as well.

For some it will be threats of violence.

For some threats of financial loss.

For some threats of social outcast.

And for some, threats of death.

For some Christians, it’s going to be, “Or else we’re going to beat you.”

And they did.

For other Christians, it could be, “Or else we’re going to ruin you financially.”

And they did.

For other Christians, it could be, “Or else we’re going to ruin you financially.”

And they did.

For some, it’s going to be, “Or else you’re going to lose social status.”

And they did.

For some, it’s going to be, “Or else you’re going to lose social status.”

And they did.

Or else we’re going to beat you.

And for some Christians, it could be, “Or else we’re going to kill you.”

And they did.

And for some Christians, it could be, “Or else we’re going to kill you.”

And they did.

And the truth is, we see the same types of “Or else’s” today.

And the truth is, we see the same types of “Or else’s” today.

Almost on a daily basis Christians around the world are warned to keep their message and their beliefs to themselves, or else.

Or, “Or else we’re going to financially ruin you.”

Or,

Or else you’re not going to be popular at school.

Or else we’re going to sue you, like they did to the Christian florist in Seattle and the Christian Baker in Colorado.

Or else we’re going to

Or else you might not get that promotion.

Or else you might lose your social status.

Or else we’re going to sue you, like they did to the Christian florist in Seattle and the Christian Baker in Colorado.

Or else we’re going to kill you like they are in countries like China and Saudi Arabia.

Or else you might not get that promotion.

Or else you might lose your social status.

Or else we’re going to sue you.