Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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

So, if you’re new to MCF, I would encourage you to go online and listen to the messages leading up to today.

What that means is, not only do we believe the Bible is God’s authoritative Word, we believe it 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 how it applies in our lives today.

And what we’ve learned so far is that the book of Acts represents in many respects a template for the church today.

Currently, we are doing that through the book of Acts.

A NT book that was written by a first century historian named Luke, who wrote Acts for two primary reasons:

First, he wrote it to give us a history of how the church started.

Who was involved, how it happened, and the circumstances that surrounded it.

Second, he wrote it to give us a template of how God intends the church to accomplish the mission of taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world.

A mission Jesus gave to His followers right before he ascended into heaven.

Listen to how Luke records it in .

Notice, the template involves two primary components.

#1, it involves the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

We saw the importance of this in as the first Christians were empowered by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

An empowerment that allowed them to share their faith in a supernatural manner.

Luke puts it like this in :

:8-

Acts 4:

Luke goes onto write:

Acts 4:

Luke says Peter and John’s witness was so powerful, so bold, that the religious leaders were left speechless.

They didn’t know what to think.

And as we’ve learned this continues to be the pattern throughout the book of Acts as the Holy Spirit continues to supernaturally empower the early Christians to spread the gospel.

Why is this important for us to understand?

It’s important because what was true then, is still true today.

The truth is, if we want to affectively share our faith, we have to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We have to be empowered in order to be Jesus’s witnesses.

An empowerment that comes when a Christian makes leading people to Jesus a priority in their life.

So, that’s the first component, Spirit empowerment.

The second is this.

If we want to accomplish the mission Jesus has given us, we have to be willing to go to the people who need to hear it.

Remember, Jesus said:

Jesus says the gospel is for people living in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

That’s Jesus’s way of saying, “The Gospel is for everyone on the planet”.

And as we’ve seen in the book of Acts, that’s exactly what the early disciples were committed to, as the Gospel started in Jerusalem in chapter 2, moved into Judea by chapter 4, and then by the end of chapter 8 it’s in Samaria and reaching out to the ends of the earth as a disciple named Philip shares the gospel with an Ethiopian man who is from a region known as “The ends of the earth”.

Again, why is this important for us to understand?

It’s important because the mission hasn’t changed.

Just like 1st century Christians, as 21st century Christians, our job is to continue to spread the gospel to the entire world.

And that begins with our Jersualem as we share our faith with friends and family.

It spreads to our Judea as we share our faith in the workplace, and in our community.

And it expands outward as together we commit to a local church like MCF as together we accomplish the mission of reaching our county, region, and even the rest of the world through missionaries and mission work.

You see, just like 1st century Christians in the book of Acts, we have the same mission.

A mission that continues through us as we love people, lead them to Jesus, and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That’s where we’ve been in chapters 1-8.

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.

Today however, we are moving into chapter 9 as Luke switches gears for a moment in order to introduce us to a man, a man who for the rest of our study in Acts, will become a central focus.

A man nobody thought would ever put his faith in Jesus.

A man that came to faith in Jesus in a supernatural and spectacular way.

A man who is responsible for writing 13 of the 27 books found in the NT of our Bible.

A man who would eventually become one of the most influential Christians to walk the face of the earth.

But before we get to this man, I want to lay some framework for our text today by asking you a question.

A question about a possible experience you may or may not have had at some point in your life.

It’s an experience we sometimes refer to as a “Come to Jesus Meeting”.

Anybody ever been invited or been a part of one of those meetings?

Or how about this, how many of you have ever held one of those meetings for someone else?

You all know what I’m talking about, right?

Somebody does something stupid or somebody gets in trouble, or somebody crosses a line, or somebody’s about to make a big mistake, and so you say, “I think it’s about time we have a come to Jesus meeting with them”.

And what we mean by that is, its time address the issue.

It’s time to quit playing games.

It’s time to bring an end to the shenanigans.

It’s time to sit down with this person, speak the truth, and maybe even lay down the law.

And the hope is, by having the “come to Jesus meeting”, the person who is being addressed will come into line.

The hope is the meeting wakes them up to some realities that they need to face.

The hope is, the come to Jesus meeting will bring some needed change into their life.

We all tracking on this?

Example - When I was 27 years old, a pastor, who was a mentor of mine, held one of those meetings for me.

After spending some time with Denise and I one evening, he called me and asked if I could meet with him.

I said, “Sure.”

So, later that day I met him at his office, and as I sat down he started the conversation by saying, “You know Brad, as your mentor, there are going to be times when I need to speak into your life.

Times when I’m going to challenge you and maybe even chastise you a little bit in order to help you grow.

And I need to know if you’re going to be ok with that?”

So, I said, “Yeah for sure.

I’m open to that.

I can live with that.”

And he said, "Good, I’m glad you feel that way, because this is one of those moments.”

He went on to say, “Brad, last night, as we sat at dinner, I noticed whenever Denise talked, you got embarrassed.

You hung your head, you looked the other way, you were visibly bothered.”

And it was at that point I knew he had my number.

He went on to say, “Brad, the fact is, Denise is a gift God has given you.

And you should never be embarrassed of the gifts God has given you.

Denise is going to be a big part of your ministry.

She’s going to help you and bring strength where you have weakness.

You need to quit being embarrassed of her and start cherishing the gift that she is.”

To be honest, when he said that, it was like somebody had just punched me in face.

I was stunned, embarrassed, and ashamed all at once.

And as tears welled up in my eyes, I realized he was right.

For years I had been trying to squelch Denise.

Trying to make her more like me.

Trying to silence the best part of her.

But in that moment, my eyes were opened to the gift that she was.

And what I discovered is what I had been so embarrassed of is what everybody else loved about Denise.

What I had been embarrassed of is what drew people too her.

And from that point on, I started to view Denise differently.

I started to see her as a gift God had given me.

It was a “come to Jesus meeting” for my marriage, and I’m so glad I attended the meeting.

Maybe you’ve had a meeting like that.

A moment when you were confronted with something you needed to hear.

Something that woke you up to some realities.

Something that maybe even changed the course of your life.

The reason I bring this up, is because as we come back to today, we are about to attend an actual “come to Jesus meeting”.