Sermon Tone Analysis

All In Following Jesus On His Mission

So, Crossway Student Ministries – we have talked about how Christians are :

All In Following Jesus

All In Following Jesus Together

and tonight, for our last message, we are going to talk about how we are ALL In, following Jesus ON HIS MISSION.

But first, I want to tell you a story.

This story is about the first time that I ever had a Philly Cheesesteak.

How many of you have ever had one?

No, not one down here.

No, not even a Jersey Cheesesteak (though I hear their chicken cheesesteak is better than Philly’s).

But a legit Philly Cheesesteak, In Philadelphia.

Anyone?

Well, it was the end of summer after my senior year of high school.

In one month, I was going to be heading off to college.

Me and three of my friends were hanging out in my house one (I think it was Friday) night, and we were talking…Somehow we got on the discussion of Philly cheesesteaks, and I started talking about how I’ve never had one…And then, one of my friends says, “Why don’t we just drive to Philly and get some?!”

Us 17-18 year old guys, what do you think we did?

We looked at each other and said, yes!

That’s a great idea.

So I asked my mom to borrow her van, we loaded up, and set off for Philadelphia.

We took turns driving, and about 4 hours later…we’re in Philly.

Mind you, this is at like 9 pm when we set off…so we’re pulling up into Philly at 1am!

Luckily the cheesesteak is open all night.

So we went to the two famous spots – Pats and Geno’s, and I believe we each bought one from each spot.

I mean, if you’re driving during the middle of the night for a cheesesteak, you’re going to get both.

And we got our cheesesteaks, and ate them, and they were phenomenal.

Trip WELL worth it.

After that, we drove to Delaware (lol) because one of the guys had a sibling there that we thought we could sleep at their house… that didn’t work out, so we actually ended up sleeping on a beach in Delaware…I don’t know if that’s legal, but that’s neither here nor there.

But I will say to you that sleeping on a beach is TERRIBLY uncomfortable.

And then, later on in the day, we drove home.

That’s the story of my first cheesesteak.

Now, I ask you–WHY ON EARTH DID I SHARE THAT STORY?

I mean, for one, it’s a pretty awesome story, no? haha, but that’s not why I shared it.

I shared it because it says something about our motivations.

Why did I drive all the way to Philly to get a cheesesteak?

Because I had heard about how amazing it was.

I was motivated by love for the cheesesteak, to drive four hours in the middle of the night, just to get a piece of it.

And it paid off–it was great.

I say that to say, we are motivated by the things that we love.

Just think about your life for a second.

The things you go all in for, the things that you work hardest at – they’re probably things you love, right?

Otherwise, why would you do them?

You practice an instrument or a sport because you love playing it.

You read ?maybe? a great book because you love literature.

You make every effort to spend time with your best friend because you love being with them.

You play fortnight day and night because you love the game.

(Can I get a witness?)

Not only are we motivated by the things that we love, but we are motivated to share the things we love with others.

To illustrate : what’s someone’s favorite food?

Okay, you really love that food, right?

Have you ever told someone they should try it?

Why?

Probably because, you’ve tasted how great it is.

And there’s just something inside of you that wants others to know how great it is also, right?

Why?

Because our happiness multiplies when we share it with others.

It goes back to that togetherness we talked about this morning.

How silly would it be of me to say, nah, don’t eat _______ .

It’s whack.

Nah, that’s whack!

Haven’t you experienced that – where you are eating something with friends, and it’s the bomb, and you just look around at each other like “are you eating what I’m eating?”

And then as if their joy in the food isn’t enough, you look around for other people to share that joy with?

Right?!

You experienced that?

Our joy goes up when we share something we love with others.

The same is true of our faith – in fact, it’s the most true thing about this illustration.

This is the main point of this message:

People who are all in for Jesus want to share Him with others at all costs.

They will be motivated by love for Jesus to share Him with others.

They who have tasted and seen His grace will want others to experience His grace, too.

They are ALL IN on his mission.

They are all in on his mission.

For this closing session, I want us to look at a guy – Paul, who was motivated by love to share Jesus with others, no matter the cost.

Just like I was going to drive four hours in the middle of the night because I loved cheesesteak, Paul was going to do some crazy things to share Jesus with others because He loved Jesus so much.

Open your Bibles up to .

So, to set the scene, Paul and Barnabas had shifted the focus of their ministry from the Jewish people to the Gentiles —> they were proclaiming the gospel to them; the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus – they we’re bringing about the ‘salvation to the ends of the earth’ that God had promised.

When they made this shift, more and more non-Jews (Gentiles) began coming to faith in Jesus, and the word of the Lord spread in Antioch (which is around modern day Turkey, above Israel).

When this happened, the Jews stirred persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district.

They then went to Iconium (also modern day Turkey) preaching and a bunch of Jews and Gentiles believed in Jesus.

But there were some that didn’t believe and they too stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas.

They were trying to stone them, but Paul and Barnabas figured it out ahead of time and went to Lystra (same modern day Turkey).

This is an aside, but I think it’s important to realize...

Wherever Jesus is preached, opposition comes.

But God is at work.

In Antioch, where people tried to stone Paul and Barnabas – we see God at work.

Ultimately, the devil doesn’t like the spread of the gospel, because through it God is winning back souls into His kingdom, and the kingdom of Satan is falling.

So he stirs up people and things to be in opposition to the gospel message.

But in the midst of that persecution, we read this.

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

This gives me hope that God is at work.

It’s not my ability, it’s not my eloquence at sharing the gospel – it is me simply being faithful to tell people what Jesus did for my soul – and since He is my everything, and I love Him so much, I want others to know Him that way, too.

And He promises to do the work.

Okay, so we find ourselves in Lystra in .

Let’s read what happens.

Acts 14:8-

So God worked a miracle through Paul in this crippled man’s life to make him able to walk.

And this is not walk again, this is FROM BIRTH.

He had never experienced the FREEDOM of walking.

He was confined to understand life through his experience of being immobile.

Can anyone relate to this man– that, apart from Jesus, we all lived our lives like this man – who was resigned to understand life from a vantage point of not being able to walk.

It’s even more though – apart from Jesus, we don’t even know what life truly is.