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”.

What that means is we believe the Bible 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 what the Bible means in our lives today.

With that said, we are currently doing that through the NT book of Acts.

A book written by a disciple named Luke for two primary reasons:

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

Second, to give us a template for how Jesus wants us to accomplish the mission of taking the gospel to the entire world.

To date, we have covered the first 8 chapters in this study, so if you haven’t been with us, I would encourage you to go online to mcf.life where you can listen to messages leading up to today.

Today however, we will be finishing out chapter 9 as we come back to the second of three stories surrounding the Apostle Peter.

If you’re not familiar with the Apostle Peter, he was one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus.

And of the 12, he was probably one of the closest to Jesus.

We know this because on many occassions when Jesus would go off to pray or minister, he would sometimes only take 2-3 disciples with him.

And of these 2-3, Peter, James, and John were typically included in that group.

Which meant at times Peter, James, and John were privy to information the other disciples weren’t.

And so like we said last week, if you wanted to know WWJD, what would Jesus do, Peter would be a good one to ask because he spent a lot of time with Jesus.

And this is probably why Luke focuses in on these particular stories, because in many respects these stories represent “What Jesus Would Do”, specifically when it comes to the subject of Evangelism.

And when I say Evangelism, I’m talking about the responsibility of every Christian to share their faith with people who don’t know or haven’t heard about Jesus.

A responsibility that goes back to something Jesus instructed his disciples to do right before he ascended into heaven.

So, going back to , listen to what Jesus says concerning Evangelism:

Jesus says until He returns, our job is to be His witnesses as we take the gospel literally to every person that lives on the planet.

The Apostle Paul echoes this command in as he writes:

Paul says the only way people are going to hear about Jesus is if they are witnessed to.

And the only way they are going to be witnessed to is if people like us, who already know Jesus, are willing to tell others about Him.

All that to say, the evangelization of the entire world is the primary mission Jesus has given us.

The question then is, “What would it take to do that?”

In other words, what would it take to reach every person on the planet with the gospel?

Because let’s just be honest, that feels like an overwhelming and daunting task.

So what would it take.

Well, as we learned last week, like most great endeavours, we have to start small.

We have to start with some manageable bites.

And Jesus knew that, because that’s why he said it starts in Jerusalem.

In other words, it starts where you live.

It starts in the community you’re a part of.

we have to start with some manageable bites.

And to do that, we have to start where we live.

And so last week, in order to answer the question, “What would it take?”,

we started by asking the question, “What would it take to lead every person that lives in Marshall County to faith in Jesus?”

And as we learned through the story of Peter and Aeneas, it would require at least three initial steps.

“What Would It Take?

What would it take to reach every person on the planet with the gospel of Jesus Christ?”

Well, as we

First, it would require each of us to be committed to proactively sharing our faith.

In other words, it’s one thing to say, “I want to reach people for Jesus”.

But it’s another to actually be committed to doing it.

Like we said last week, it’s the difference between wanting to learn a foreign language like Spanish and actually committing learning the langue.

For it to happen, it’s going to require a commitment of effort and time.

So, if we want to reach Marshall County, everyone of us has to be willing to make a commitment to day by day proactively share our faith.

Second, it would require us to be willing to reach the most broken people in our community.

For Peter, it was Aeneas.

A man who had been paralyzed for 8 years.

A man society had written off as hopeless.

A man others had discarded and given up on.

So, why did Peter seek out the most broken person?

He sought him out because Peter knew it would be through the most broken person that the power of Jesus would be most displayed.

Because if Jesus can heal the most broken person living in a community, imagine what he could for everyone living in that community.

And it must be the same for us.

If we want to reach our county, what better way to do it then by showing that Jesus can heal and transform the most broken person in our county.

The individuals society has written off.

The ones that others view as hopeless.

If Jesus can transform them, and He can, imagine what he could do for anyone that would put their faith in Him.

Finally, it would require you and I to believe that Jesus can work in and through anybody he wants.

To believe hat despite our own brokenness and our own deficiencies, that Jesus can and will work through us.

To believe we are the “Peter’s” of our day.

Paul says Jesus uses broken people to reach the broken.

He uses people who don’t have it all figured out.

He uses people like you and me.

So, those are the initial steps we have to be willing to take.

And my prayer is that individually and as a church, we would be willing to take those steps.

But we can’t stop there.

In order to maximize our evangelistic efforts, we have to be willing to ask another “What would it take?”

question.

A question that on the surface will probably sound personally impossible and improbable to most of us here today.

But a question that we need to know the answer to if we want to accomplish the mission that Jesus has given us.

So, what’s the next “What would it take?”

question?

The question is found in our text this morning.

So, before I present the question to you, let’s take a moment and read through our text as Peter continues his evangelistic tour.

Beginning in verse 36, listen to what Luke tells as he introduces us to this next story.

Luke writes:

Acts 9:36-

Wow, what a story!

What a miracle.

Peter has definitely taken it to the next level.

I mean it was amazing to watch Peter heal a man who had been paralyzed for 8 years.

But this is off the charts as he now raises a dead woman from death to life, which then leads to many people putting their faith in Jesus.

Peter has definitely hit it out of the park.

Now, at this point, some of you may be putting two and two together, and you might be thinking, “Hold on Pastor, surely your not going to suggest that we need to be able to raise people from the dead, are you?

Pastor, I hope you’re not suggesting that in order to lead people to Jesus, we need to be able to perform such a miracle?

Surely not pastor?”

That’s exactly what I”m suggesting.

I’m suggesting the next “What does it take?”

question we need to ask and know the answer to is, “What would it take to raise a dead person to life?”

What I’m suggesting is if we want to reach “many people” for Jesus , then like Peter we need to be able to take somebody from death to life.

Now, I when I say that, you might be thinking, “Pastor, what have you been smoking.

Pastor, did you just hear what you said?

Because pastor that’s impossible.

There’s no way I could do that.