Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are picking back up in our study of the Book of Acts.

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

What that means is we believe the 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 written to tell the story of how the church was started and how God intends the church to function in order to accomplish the mission of reaching the entire world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, if you haven’t been with us, I would encourage you to go online to MCF.LIFE where you can listen to all the messages leading up to today.

As we come back to our study today, we are picking back up in chapter 5.

LAST WEEK

You may recall from last week, with the church growing and reaching more and more people Jesus, Luke reminded us of the reality of what happens to a church that is committed to telling people the truth, as for a second time the church was targeted for persecution by its opponents.

In this case the opponents were a religious sect known as the Sadducees.

A group that isn’t so much religiously minded as they are politically minded.

In fact, when it comes to their religious beliefs, they don’t even believe in life after death, and as a result much of their focus is on what they can build and attain in this life.

As a result, the Sadducees have an agreement with the occupying Roman government, that as long as they can keep the Jewish people in line, Rome will line their pockets and give them all of the power and authority they desire.

And herein lies the problem.

Because the message of the church runs contrary to everything the Sadducees believe.

First, the church is teaching that Jesus is the promised redeemer of Israel and savior of mankind.

And that if you put your faith in Jesus, you can not only have hope in this life, but in the life to come.

Second, because the church is teaching that Jesus is the redeemer, it’s a message that might encourage the people of Israel to rebel against Rome.

And if that happens, the Sadducees are going to lose their power and influence.

So with the church growing and hope rising, the Sadducees are bent on putting a stop to this radical movement.

And now their more adamant than ever.

Because they’ve already warned the disciples once, and now their warning them again.

And we see the same thing happening in our culture today.

The more the church steps up and tells people the truth, the more secular culture is going to push back as faith in Jesus threatens everything they hold dear.

And so now, with round 2 of persecution in process, their tactic was one of fear, intimidation, and humiliation as last week we saw them publically arrest the disciples.

They’re hope.

That with enough fear and intimidation they will be able to put a muzzle on the church.

And so now, with round 2 of persecution beginning, their tactic was one of fear, intimidation, and humiliation as they had the disciples publically arrested.

They’re hope.

That with enough fear and intimidation they will be able to put a muzzle on the church.

Luke records the arrest like this:

Acts 5:

Luke says the Sadducees are beyond upset at this point.

They are filed with jealousy and hatred for what the church has become and the influence it has.

And to be honest, what was true then, is still true today as we see anybody who stands up for truth in our culture today often publically and verbally assaulted by those who oppose them.

They’re hope.

Through verbal threats, public lawsuits, and social media character assassinations, they will intimidate Christians enough to shut them up and shut them down.

Why do they do it?

They do it because when the truth is proclaimed, lies are exposed.

When the truth is proclaimed, people are set free.

And when that happens, those who oppose the gospel lose their power and influence.

And it makes them jealous.

But as we learned, the efforts of the Sadducees backfired on them.

Because in the middle of the night, God sent an angel to set the disciples free.

Luke writes:

Acts 5:

The fact of the matter is, for those who stand for truth, God stands with them.

And because God stood with the apostles, not only could they get back up and continue preaching the truth, they could do so with confidence and courage.

As a result, instead of backing down, the disciples geared back up and went back to speaking the truth.

The angel said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.

And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.”

(ESV)

Acts 5:

Because the fact of the matter is, for those who stand for truth, God stands with them.

And because God stands with them, His army is bigger than their opponents army.

Because after freeing them, the angel told them to go back to speaking the truth.

The angel said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.

And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.”

(ESV)

Luke says the disciples picked up where they left off as they continued to preach truth regardless of the threats of their opponents.

Acts 5:

And again, what was true for the Christians then is true for Christians today.

The fact is, if we are willing to stand for the truth regardless of the threats, we can be confident that God stands with us.

And even if the enemy knocks us down, God stands ready to help us get back up.

And it’s with that understanding we should have the confidence and courage to get back up.

It’s knowing that no matter what the enemy throws at us, the army with us is bigger than the army with them.

So, that’s where we were last week.

But here’s what we need to understand about standing back up.

Even though God is with us, the enemy isn’t done fighting us.

So, a good question might be, “When we get back up, how do we continue to speak the truth and overcome our opponents despite the ongoing threat of persecution?

That’s a great question, and is our focus today as Peter and John not only continue to preach the word, but are once again confronted by their opponents.

Karate Kid Introduction:

So, in order to set up where we are going today, I want to take a few moments and build some framework for our passage.

And to do that, once again I want to reference an 80’s film series.

Last week I referenced the Rocky film series.

And today I want to reference another popular movies series from the 80’s that fits with our passage today.

How many of you are familiar with or have seen the original Karate Kid movie?

And when I say that, I’m not talking about the wanna be Karate Kid movie with Jayden Smith.

I’m talking about the original Karate Kid movie from 1984 starring Ralph Machio.

If you’re not familiar with the movie, the story centers around a character named Daniel Larruso who has just moved with his mother from New Jersey to Southern California.

And as you can imagine, in a transition like that, Daniel struggles to fit in to his new environment, and in the midst of trying to fit in, becomes the target of a group of boys at the high school who are part of a local karate dojo called Cobra Kai.

A dojo that isn’t the most friendly karate dojo in town.

In fact the motto for the Cobra Kai karate dojo is: Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy.

In fact, just so you don’t forget it, I thought I’d give you a visual this morning.

As a result, Daniel spends most of his days experiencing this motto as he is harassed and beat up on a continual basis.

But thankfully, Daniel meets a savior so too speak.

An older man named Mr. Miyagi.

And through a series of unorthodox training sessions, Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel his version of karate.

The difference though is, Mr. Miyagi’s approach to karate and Cobra Kai’s approach are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

You see what Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel is that karate isn’t to be used as an offensive weapon, but instead as a defensive weapon.

In other words, it’s not something you use to attack and go after people, but instead something you use to defend yourself when they come after you.

The point being, while karate is a weapon, it’s a weapon that should be used to overcome your opponent through defensive measures versus offensive measures.

And in the end, that’s exactly what Daniel does as he overcomes his opponents through a defensive approach versus an offensive approach to karate.

Now, you might be thinking, “Ok pastor, that’s great.

But what in the world does that have to do with sharing the gospel and our passage today.

Where are you going with this?”

Here’s where I’m going with this.

The fact of the matter is, when the world attacks Christians, it comes at us with a Cobra Kai mentality.

The world’s approach to dealing with Christians is to Strike first, Strike Hard, and show No mercy.

The world attacks with the objective to take us out.