Sermon Tone Analysis

Charging the Gates: A Study in Acts (The Acts of the Apostles).

Read ; .

What an exciting book of the Bible.

Written by Luke, probably around AD 61-62 while he was with Paul in Rome.

It is full of action, suspense, miracles, disappointments, victories, and most of all, it is a record of the work of Christ through His people after He had been crucified, risen and ascended to His Father in heaven.

Illustration of the unstoppable sprinkler system:

This past Friday (May 31), I had one of craziest mornings I have ever had.

Easy morning got up early to study and relax and get to work early cause a I had a huge day ahead of me.

It had rained all night and there was still a slight sprinkle coming down outside.

The sun was just beginning to come up and I went over to the window to look out in the back yard and I found that my sprinkler system was spraying in the back yard.

The whole back half of the yard was flooded due to the rain and my sprinklers.

I had not programmed it for Friday, so I was confused.

So, I went out to the garage and turned the system off.

I went back to the window and was shocked to find they were still spraying.

So, I went back to the control box and checked all the programs and made sure everything was completely off.

They kept spraying!

So, finally I just unplugged the entire system.

That’s when I kind of lost it, they were still spraying!

How can this be?

I figured I need to find the valve and manually turn it off, but where was it.

So I go out and scrape around in the mud in the flower beds to see if I could find it.

Nothing.

So, I decided to cut the water off from the backflow device but I wasn’t 100% sure where it was, but I thought it was probably this red valve near the water meter down in the ground.

I turned it to the right a full turn until it got tight and checked on the sprinklers and they were still on!

After an initial freak out and a small panic attack about being late for work and missing some key appts, Loree suggested cutting off the main water supply to the house until I could get someone out to look at the system.

So that worked!

They finally shut off!

I was soaking wet, covered in mud, humiliated, and defeated!

Well, I got a repair man out to help me and everything is back to normal.

Except my pride.

Later that day I am thinking about this Bible study and asking God for an illustration that introduces it well, that might give a picture of the book of Acts, it hit me!

What had happened that morning is the perfect illustration I was looking for!

(Be careful what you pray for!)

No matter what I did to the sprinkler system, they kept right on spraying water all over!

That is exactly what Jesus said would happen to every Christian.

John

[On the seven days of the Feast, a golden flagon was filled with water from the pool of Siloam and was carried in a procession led by the High Priest back to the temple.

As the procession approached the watergate on the south side of the inner court three blasts from the šôp̄ār—a trumpet connected with joyful occasions—were sounded.

While the pilgrims watched, the priests processed around the altar with the flagon, the temple choir singing the Hallel (; cf.

Mishnah Sukkah 4:9).

When the choir reached , every male pilgrim shook a lûlāḇ (willow and myrtle twigs tied with palm) in his right hand, while his left raised a piece of citrus fruit (a sign of the ingathered harvest), and all cried ‘Give thanks to the Lord!’ three times.

The water was offered to God at the time of the morning sacrifice, along with the daily drink-offering (of wine).

The wine and the water were poured into their respective silver bowls, and then poured out before the Lord.

Moreover, these ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles were related in Jewish thought both to the Lord’s provision of water in the desert and to the Lord’s pouring out of the Spirit in the last days.

Pouring at the Feast of Tabernacles refers symbolically to the messianic age in which a stream from the sacred rock would flow over the whole earth (cf.

J. Jeremias, TDNT, 4. 277f.).[1]]

When the Living Water, Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, is filling our life, we cannot help but spread that Living Water around to those around us.

We spray living water on them so to speak.

And there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop us.

It frustrates the world so much because no matter how hard Satan and his world system have tried to stop the flow, Christianity has kept spreading and growing and souls are saved, lives are changed, and the world has become a better place everywhere Christianity has entered in.

That was what happened with the sprinklers!

No matter what I did, they kept spraying and spraying.

I was shocked, frustrated and freaking out.

I was soaked, covered in mud and at my wits end.

It didn’t make sense!

That is exactly how the world feels about us.

Nothing they try works.

That is exactly what the book of Acts is about!

The early disciples and followers of Christ were filled with Living Water and could not help but spread it to those around them.

They were arrested, beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, killed, rejected, and mocked.

It did not matter.

They kept on spreading the Gospel to a lost and dying world.

Now with my sprinklers, nothing I did would stop the spray, at least not until the source of water was cut off.

With the sprinklers, I did it.

But in the Christian life, only each person themselves can do that.

We can choose to live outside God’s will, rebel, ignore him and His Word and His Church and consequently, that flow of Living Water is cut off at the source.

Then there is no spread of the Gospel, no power in prayer, no miracles, no power in Christ.

This can happen to us individually and as it does, it can happen to the local church.

“When a church loses touch with its God-given purpose, its energies quickly become institutionally focused and self-serving rather than self-giving” (Gerald D. Wright, Missiology, 19).

Motif: The light goes out, the water stops flowing.

The purpose of the study is to learn how Christ, through the Holy Spirit, works in the lives of His people to spread the Gospel throughout the world, to teardown Satan’s stronghold, and to establish His church.

As we learn these facts, the intent is not just to gain a head knowledge about it, but to allow His word to motivate us to action, convict us of any sin, and teach us strategies that we might use in the 21st Century to continue the spread of the Gospel.

Before we actually get into the book of Acts itself, we need to set it up.

What’s going on and what has led up to this point that we just read in Acts chapter 1.

First, Acts is unique in that the phase of the kingdom of God that it describes is still going on.

Ask: When you think about the Bible and all the stories it contains.

Is there a story you would have liked to have lived in.

Is there a time period in the bible you would like to have lived?

· Eden

· 10 commandments

· Jericho

· Elijah and fire from Heaven

· Birth of Jesus

· Jesus and feeding the 5000

· Peter walking on water

· Resurrection

But we are living I the best time in all world history—the age of the church.

Jesus’s church.

· Heaven and earth meet at the tabernacle and then the temple

· Heaven and earth meet in Jesus (new temple).

· Heaven and earth meet in us (We are the temple) as HS indwells.

We are on mission!

As we allow HS to work through us (obedience, ministry, witnessing, etc) Heaven on earth; light in the dark, glorifies God!

My Notes: Design of the study is to approach the book chronologically, following the book as it is written.

But there may be times we focus on a specific geographic church area.

In other words, we will study the church in Jerusalem.

How did it start and what all happened there?

What was it like to be a member of the church in Jerusalem?

We might follow the Jerusalem church throughout the book and try to see it from the perspective of the Christians in Jerusalem.

When possible, we will also look at Paul’s letters.