Sermon Tone Analysis

When I was growing up, one of the things I most disliked was having to get my picture taken.

This was before there were digital cameras on our phones.

That meant that you had to get it just right.

Do you remember how we used to do that?

“Move your chin up, but look down; turn your head to the right slightly but make sure you’re looking to the left.

Turn your body slightly toward the person beside you but angle your head away from them.”

And that was with professional photos.

Then there were the family pictures that we took with our own cameras.

It seemed like the guiding principle was “let’s see how many different combinations of people we can cram into these photos.:

And then there were the camera difficulties: Everyone is in place and smiling and it looks perfect, but oops, my camera is out of film.

Everyone is ready for the picture and we’re saying cheese and pickles and all of that until our facial muscles hurt from smiling, and, “oops, my flash isn’t working; let me see if I can fix that.”

And on and on it went.

But looking back, we’re always glad we took the time to take the pictures, right?

Our memories only last so long, and even when they do, they get fuzzy over time.

But pictures are an objective, accurate window into the past.

We treasure pictures of those we love for this very reason.

Last year my parents along with me and Shannon and the kids hired a photographer and we did the family photo.

It’s formal, right?

You’re posing and it’s intentional.

It doesn’t catch you in action.

A snapshot catches you in action.

A snapshot shows you how things were going when we didn’t think anyone was watching.

It’s casual.

No one is posing.

The kids are playing and the adults are talking and eating.

It’s natural.

It shows you realistically what life is like.

When we look at the book of Acts, we can think of it as a photo album, and we can think of this text here, Acts 5:12-16, as a snapshot of the early church in action.

Every now and then, Luke pulls back the curtain on the early church and gives us a glimpse, a snapshot, of what life was like in the early church.

What was life like in the early church?

Notice with me four things.

#1: God was unquestionably at work

God was unquestionably at work.

Look with me at verse 12: “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles”.

What were the signs and wonders that Luke is talking about?

Obviously, these are miracles.

People are being healed of long-standing and chronic diseases.

Things like leprosy and paralysis.

You’ll remember that in the gospels, our Lord Jesus was always drawn to these types of people.

They lacked, of course, the scientific knowledge that we have today.

There were no proven treatments.

These diseases back then were either death sentences, or they meant you would be permanently disabled and maybe even shunned and rejected by society and maybe even your own family.

We often don’t know how to treat people we love who are sick - I mean really sick.

We’re uncomfortable with their suffering.

We want to overlook it and get back to normal.

And unfortunately, our desire to get back to normal often means that we try to rush them back to normal too.

Their sickness reminds us that we are fragile and vulnerable too.

But that didn’t stop Jesus.

Jesus was not afraid of their sickness; our Lord was not sickened and disgusted by them.

His stomach did not turn at the sight of them.

No, their sickness and brokenness and suffering and pain kindled His compassion.

What repelled others away from them drew Jesus toward them; and in turn they were drawn toward Him.

There was something about Jesus’ personality and His tone and His gaze and His words and touch and embrace - they knew that here was someone who was so wonderfully different than even those closest to them.

Jesus is so wonderfully different than we are!

And here’s the thing: the closer we get to Jesus, the more we come to know Him, the more we come to learn His heart toward the sick and the hurting, the more we are drawn to the sick and the hurting.

This is why Christians down through history have always been on the frontlines of medical care.

Charles Spurgeon, the great English Baptist preacher, sat at the bedside of countless men and women and children who were dying of cholera in the 19th century.

He had accepted that in doing that, he too would probably get sick and die.

He did it anyway, and God spared him from getting sick.

He did it because that was his calling as a pastor, but it is also simply part of being a Christian.

The early church understood this and so did the apostles.

And one of the main ways that God showed His power in the days of the early church was through miraculous healings.

What does it look like today for God to be at work among His people?

We have to be honest and say we do not see healings to the same degree that Jesus’ disciples saw or the early church saw.

We pray for the sick and still they die.

We pray for healing and still God takes them.

I prayed consistently for God to heal a man in my first church who suffered from Parkinson’s.

He never got better, but always declined and eventually he died.

Does that mean God is not at work among us?

We should pause there and feel the weight of that question.

Why do we not see healings?

Especially when we’re told by some of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters that we should see healings, and that if we don’t, something is wrong with us.

Why we don’t see healings:

Medical advancement

Different historical situation

Limited to the apostles

I don’t think that’s the case.

Is God able to heal?

Yes and amen!

Should we pray for healing?

Absolutely.

Is something wrong when God doesn’t heal?

Maybe, but maybe not.

It could be that God heals differently today than he did in the first century.

We have medical technology that allows people to live a full life when in previous generations they couldn’t.

It’s also possible that God is doing something different today than He was doing then.

In the first century, the church had the need to spread.

Christianity was transitioning from being a Jewish sect to a worldwide movement.

It was crossing borders of language and culture.

Miracles were one of the main ways that showed that the message the apostles preached was true.

Listen to how the author of Hebrews described this:

You see how it says that signs and wonders and miracles attested to the truth of the message?

And it might even be that miraculous healings, for the most part, were something that God never intended to continue once the apostles died.

2Cor 12:12

We know the office of apostle was something that ended with the death of apostles.

God can certainly heal today and often does, but it could be that as a regularly way of showing up among His people, God never intended for that miraculous healings to continue after the unique office of apostle had come to an end.

So what does it look like for God to be at work unquestionably today?

When God’s word is proclaimed with power and accuracy and conviction, God is at work by His Spirit.

When the lost are saved, when people who hated God are changed into lovers of God, God is at work by His Spirit.

When we are changed, when long-standing habits and addictions are broken, when we grow in love and joy and hope, God is at work.