Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Last week we saw the attack of the enemy upon the early church, we saw the the arrest of Peter and John and the threat.

Peter and John were charged not to speak or teach in the Name of Jesus any more.

Of course as we saw last week, Peter and John stood faithful in the face of opposition and

Acts 4.19

But then in v.21 we are told that the leaders of the day threatened then further and then let them go.

Peter and John go back and share with their friends what happened and the church prays for boldness to continue to be witnesses for Christ and we are told in v.31

“and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

But the enemy does not give up so easily does he.

Do you remember the story of the Trojan horse?

In Greek mythology

After a fruitless 10 year siege upon the city of Troy the Greeks a huge wooden horse and hid select men inside the horse and left the horse outside the gate of Troy.

The Greeks deceived the people of Troy into thinking they had sailed away and so the people of Troy brought the horse into the city thinking it was a gift left by the Greeks

but that was their undoing.

It was from within that the enemy struck the death blow to the city of Troy.

We have a crafty enemy and if he cannot destroy from without then he will attack from within and that is what we see before us today.

Dangers from within

Unity Established

As we begin this section we again are given a glorious picture of the church.

we begin this section we again are given a glorious picture of the church.

Notice that as v.32 describes the church, the members of the church it describes them as what?

those who believed, the believing ones

Unity is built on the gospel.

The full number of those who believed, that is who were believing in Christ, believing in the gospel.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father

One heart

The scriptures uses the heart to define the wellspring of our being, it is the central place where religious experience has it’s root, it determines conduct.

The heart is the inner spirit, there was a unity in the deepest part of being

One soul

They shared the same focus, the same mind.

This was the greatest unity that the world had ever seen.

What the text is not saying

Text is not saying that there were a bunch of Christian clones.

That they read the same books, all educated their children the same way, all wore the same clothes, that they all liked and disliked the same type of food, that they all shared the same background.

Actually the beauty of this unity is that it was unexplainable.

They had different opinions on food, clothing, language, customs, and the list could go on; but they had all been baptized by One Spirit into One Body, they were all followers of one Lord Jesus Christ.

You know what unity may mean that we don’t even agree on every point of doctrine.

We must agree on primary issues

Within churches there are secondary issues that we need to agree on

Tertiary issues that can disagree on and still enjoy the fullness of Christian unity and fellowship.

I want to say three things about Christian unity while we are talking about it.

It is supernatural

Brothers and sisters, we are all made one and put into one body by the Sovereign Supernatural Work of the Holy Spirit of God.

That the full number were of one heart and soul cannot be explained naturally.

Paul refers to the unity of the Spirit in .

And, it is by the One Spirit that we are baptized into the One body according to 1 Cor.

12:13

It must be protected

Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians

Being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit

that word eager is translated, being diligent, endeavouring, making every effort

Brothers and sisters we are to make every effort to protect unity, within the body of Christ

Unity has it’s benefits

The Lord blesses unity.

I think that is what we see in v.33

There was the unity of the Spirit and the Spirit also brought 2 things.

We see great power

The Holy Spirit was working powerfully.

God was working powerfully to save sinners, men and women, boys and girls were having the eyes of their hearts open to hear and to receive the Gospel!

If you are here today and do not know the gospel, the gospel is .... Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will work powerfully within your heart to hear and receive it.

We would love to know if He does.

Can you picture it?

What a glorious picture we have here.

We see great grace

I think the picture here is that there was grace upon grace.

People were growing in grace.

The grace of God was evident among the people.

Oh what a glorious picture.

Can you imagine it?

Unity Exemplified and Encouraged

We see the unity of the church put on display as we see their care for one another.

Notice v.32b

v.34-35

Interesting point here, This is an echo of

So again we see the blessing of the Lord upon the people.

We see a picture of this unity as the church is caring for one another, ministering to one another

But we also see the unity being encouraged or strengthened here in this passage.

Then we have a pa

I would submit to you that what we see in this passage is unity that is being pictured and strengthened by selfless followers of Christ.

Selflessness.

We do not see the church or the state making Christians give to others or sacrifice for the good of others, instead what we see is people joyfully, willfully giving for the good of others, sacrificing for the good of others.

The more I meditated on this passage this week, I thought the reason a gospel centered community is united is because a gospel centered community is full of people that are dying to themselves.

Selflessness is the water that causes unity to grow.

Take the example of Barnabas in v.36 and 37.

All that we know about Barnabas leads us to believe that this was a man who considered others more significant than himself.

He invested in the lives of others 9:26-30

He rejoiced in God’s work in others 11:22-26 (also point out v.24 and how he brought Paul along with him there, his humility, he was an encourager)

He was trustworthy 11:27-30

Much we could say about this brother and his faithfulness in chapters 13 and 14

.

Discuss his patience and forgiveness toward John Mark

Barnabas was not a man who wanted to draw attention to himself, he was humble servant of the Lord who served others, encouraged others, he was patient and forgiving.

We see exemplified within this man the kind of selflessness that Jesus and the gospel calls us to.

Brothers and sisters, members like Barnabas encourage and strengthen unity within a church.

Let me ask you

Are you investing in the lives of others?

Are you rejoicing at God’s Work in the lives of others?

Are you making disciples?

Are you faithful and bold?

Are you patient and forgiving?

You know, I understand that Barnabas was a man with a nature just like ours and he had his struggles with sin (he was not perfect), but in all of the text that I read about Barnabas this past week I always see him giving to others, serving others.

He was not worried about himself, he was not worried about what he was going to get, he was not worried about others noticing him, he was not jealous when Paul’s ministry took off and Paul became more popular than him.