Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
In the history books we learn a lot about the heroes of old.
We learn of great leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and others.
We learn of military leaders from ages ago like Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and others.
We learn of great inventors and scientists like Leonardo Di Vinci, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and others.
In the Bible we learn a whole lot about great leaders like David, Joshua, Moses, Daniel, and others… But who do we often neglect to talk about?
It can be easy to look over the individuals God used to help those great leaders.
Moses had Aaron, David had Jonathan, Joshua had Caleb whenever they were sent as spies into the Promised Land.
Daniel had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
Yet, we rarely talk about those “other” people because they don’t get as much ink in Scripture.
Does this mean that they were not devoted followers of God? No. Does this mean that they were not faithful to obey what God called them to do? No.
In fact, these people were faithful to their calling.
So why don’t we talk about them often?
Whenever most people read their Bible, it’s easy to want to paint ourselves as the hero of the narrative.
That’s why you have sermons about David and Goliath and the application of the text is this: You are David.
Be just like David.
Besides presenting significant hermeneutical problems (you and I aren’t and never will be David), this reading of Scripture is dangerous.
If I’m always the hero, why do I need Jesus?
If I’m being told from this person that I have the heart of David, faith like Daniel, obedience like Abraham, leadership like Moses, and strength like Joshua, why do I need Jesus?
The fact of the matter is that you and I are never and will never be the hero of Scripture.
The hero is Jesus!
He’s the main character of the narrative from cover to cover!
You and I won’t have the opportunity to lead thousands of people out of exile like Moses.
We won’t be thrown into a lions den like Daniel.
We won’t play music before a king and slay a giant like David.
We won’t evangelize much of the known world like Paul did.
We aren’t the hero… But who do we more closely line up to?
People like Ananias.
People like Jonathan.
People like Caleb.
While the history books might not devote a page to us, much less a chapter, will we be obedient and follow through with what God commands of us?
Will we do the “little” things that He is calling us to do?
In our text, we see someone that we can more closely relate with than Paul.
His name is Ananias.
Not the Ananias from Acts 5:1-11 who lied to the Holy Spirit and was zapped dead.
This Ananias was a faithful follower of Jesus.
He was tasked with something difficult, but as we will see, he trusted in the Lord and obeyed.
Are we willing to trust and obey today?
I pray that we would leave here ready to give God our complete devotion.
Let’s read
Christ Demands Our Obedience (10-15)
Last week we studied how Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians.
This man was public enemy number one to followers of Jesus Christ.
You would want to avoid this man at all costs!
Yet, we read in our opening verses that the Lord says to Ananias in a vision that he is supposed to go and meet this same killer of the Church!
What would your immediate response be in such a situation?
You’d probably object like Ananias does in verses 13-14.
That’s what I would do.
We see Moses do this exact thing whenever he is called by God in Exodus 3. Moses is called and God gives him instructions, yet he says
Moses objected to God’s plan left and right and eventually gets to the main conflict in the matter: Moses wants someone else to do what God is calling him to do.
He’s willing to come up with however many excuses necessary along the way!
Ananias has some objections as well.
He notes how Saul is a known persecutor of the church in Jerusalem and that he has come to Damascus to continue his persecution.
Whenever God calls you to do something, you’re left with 2 options: Obedience or Disobedience.
Now we can get really technical about Ananias complaining and say that he initially disobeyed.
You can go that route if you want to, I think Ananias is just being a human.
He is being called to do something extremely difficult and has some understandable concerns.
Put yourself in his shoes.
You’re in your bedroom and the Lord calls you out.
Would you be read?
Ananias simply says, “Here I am, Lord.”
Is there another person in Scripture who is called by God and answers this way?
Isaiah does in Isaiah 6 as we find this
Isaiah was ready to be sent.
Ananias was ready for what God had to say.
How were they ready?
They were prepared.
Faithful followers of God are ready to obey whenever they are called upon.
What is God calling you to do this morning?
This past week was the Missouri Baptist Convention meeting in Branson and we had the opportunity to hear some amazing reports about what God is doing around the world right now.
Paul Chitwood, president of the IMB, shared some tremendous words of encouragement, but he also issued a strong challenge for Southern Baptists.
We are living in an unparalleled time in history.
You can travel just about anywhere in the world in just a few days thanks to air travel, technology, and transportation advances.
There are more lost people alive today than at any point in human history.
It’s always been important to go, but now it’s easier to go than ever before in many respects, yet we are tempted to pass the buck off and say that someone else will pick up the slack.
Someone else will go.
Someone else will obey.
Make no mistake about it, this is a natural human thought.
We’re all about self-preservation.
We will obey when it’s convenient but when there’s a cost, we have to reconsider.
As Southern Baptists, we’ve given over $5 billion to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering in our history and every penny of that has gone to share the Gospel overseas.
Praise the Lord for this - but, hear me, if the Lord is calling you to go and you just give, you’re disobeying.
You’re doing something good - but you’re not obeying God’s call for your life.
How many of you have heard of the great missionary Adoniram Judson before?
He was a young, gifted preacher who graduated from seminary in the early 1800s.
He was called to serve as assistant pastor of a large, wellknown church in Boston.
This was near his hometown in Massachusetts - his family believed that it was a God-thing!
Yet, Judson couldn’t accept the call.
God had been working on his heart and had called him to go and share the Gospel overseas.
He said this, “My work is not here.
God is calling me beyond the seas.
To stay here, even to serve God in His ministry, I feel would be only partial obedience, and I could not be happy in that.”
Do you think Judson struggled with this decision?
You bet he did.
He could’ve been next to his family for years and years and become a wellknown pastor of a prominent church in one of the most important cities in the United States.
There was security in staying home… Yet, God’s call required Judson to leave his comforts behind.
Do you see the same thing in our text?
Ananias knew the risk of going before Saul.
That would require him to not only leave his comfort zone but to risk his life!
It would’ve been easy to stay at home and continue to do good things - to teach others about Jesus in Damascus, but that wasn’t what God called him to do.
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