Sermon Tone Analysis

Piper Scott Shull, born 4:15am to Brandon and Courtney;

BRTP

[PLAY VIDEO]

The video you just saw was recorded by pastor John Piper.

The interesting thing about this video is that it was entirely an accident.

The audio from this video was originally part of a sermon delivered in 2005 to a packed house of college students in Birmingham, AL.

And it was an accident because the prosperity gospel — the health, wealth and prosperity gospel — was not what Piper had planned to preach on.

Instead, he had come to suffering.

The southeast Gulf Coast had recently been devastated by Hurricane Katrina and the message he was intending to preach was “Where Is God?”

Why the change?

Well, turns out that out of the group of college students he was preaching to, some had bought into this health, wealth and prosperity gospel.

And before the event, the host had spoken with Piper about his concern about this false teaching and asked pastor Piper to say something on this false teaching.

He agreed to talk about it in his sermon.

He still preached his original sermon, but about two thirds into the sermon, he went off-script.

And that’s where this clip comes in.

John Piper is normally a very meticulous preacher.

He writes his messages out word for word.

But this three-minute clip in which he went off-script has become an internet sensation, the very definition of a viral video.

In fact, John Piper has become known, in many ways, in the evangelical world precisely for this video.

This particular version of the video has received over 350,000 views in the past nine years.

The original version has gained over one million views since then.

Those three minutes were given to pastor Piper by the Holy Spirit in a clear instance of divine anointing.

He had no time to prepare those remarks and claimed later that he didn’t even really have much of a memory of saying what he said.

Our text this morning in Acts gives us a chance to talk about the health, wealth and prosperity gospel.

John Piper told us how he feels about that false teaching.

I’m going to be presumptuous and go out on a limb and tell you how I think you as Christians should feel about it: you should feel angry about it.

You should feel outraged about the prosperity gospel.

The prosperity gospel says that God wants you to enjoy perfect health in this life, overflowing bank accounts in this life, unfettered happiness in this life, and that if you do not experience these things in this life, something is wrong with you; you are defective; you need to get right with God.

Just a moment’s reflection will reveal why this teaching cannot possibly be true.

But let’s get into our text and we’ll learn more.

What we’re looking at this morning is what happens when the gospel takes hold in a new place among previously unreached people.

Demonic strongholds are broken when the gospel takes hold in a new place with previously unreached people.

And, people sometimes make false professions of faith.

You might wonder how the prosperity gospel fits into that, but I trust it will become clear to you as we go through it.

So, Acts 8:9-25.

Just two points today and the first: When the gospel is preached, demonic strongholds are often broken.

#1: When the gospel is preached, demonic strongholds are often broken

In Acts 1:8, the Lord Jesus before He ascended into heaven gave the early disciples a commission.

He said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 ESV).

The whole book of Acts up to this point has seen the church in action in Jerusalem and Judea and only.

But the persecution that broke out after Stephen was killed sparked a mass exodus of believers from Jerusalem.

Jesus had told them to make their way to Samaria and then to the ends of the earth.

God used that first persecution to nudge them toward obedience.

And it paid off.

Because now Philip is actually in Samaria.

He’s preaching the gospel in Samaria.

Look at verse 12.

What is he preaching?

“But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ...” That’s the gospel.

The incredibly good news that despite our sin and depravity, the gracious rule and reign of our God has entered into the brokenness of our world and our lives in and through His Son Jesus who will redeem us out of that sin and brokenness if we will place our trust in Him.

That message changes lives and it changed Samaria.

Here’s how.

Look with me at verses 9-11: Acts 8:9-11

I saw a magic show recently.

First one I’ve ever actually been to in person.

It was really fascinating, genuinely entertaining.

Think about guys like David Copperfield.

Is that demonic?

I don’t think so.

I think when the Bible talks about magic, it’s talking about something a lot darker than David Copperfield.

I think we’re talking about something like the dark arts.

Oriental magic.

Things like occult practices and sorcery.

There’s a biblical example of this.

Now I want you to see this hold that Simon had over the Samaritans.

The way you see this is by putting these sentences together and seeing the pattern.

Luke has structured these sentences with similar words and phrases that when you stack them and label them you see the pattern and it’s the two phrases in the center that show us what Luke wants to emphasize.

Simon’s hold on the people of Samaria:

A: “previously practiced magic”

B: “amazed the Samaritans”

C: “said he was someone great”

D: “they all paid attention to him”

C1: “this man is the great power of God”

D1: “they paid attention to him”

B1: “he had amazed them for a long time”

A1: “with his magic”

He wants to emphasize two things indicated by C and D and C1 and D1: the people of Samaria 1) thought he was really someone who was a sort of divine man, they said he was someone great, the power of God that is called great, they said.

And 2) they as a result paid close attention to him.

He held sway over them.

He had power over their minds.

They couldn’t look away.

When our kids were little and we’d be watching TV, if one of them needed to leave the room to get something or whatever, sometimes they would back out of the room instead of walking straight ahead so they didn’t have to take their eyes off the TV.

It had a hold on them.

Many of us battle constantly to put the phone down and be engaged with our families or whoever we’re with.

At least times we feel transfixed by all that our phones can do.

Literally all the accumulated information of the ages is available with the touch of a finger.

Our phones have a hold on us.

And I don’t know about you, but I think there’s something more sinister beneath the surface with all of this.

I don’t think it’s just a matter of being preoccupied with entertainment.

I’m not sure it’s merely that we’re obsessed with social media.

Especially when we consider how much of a struggle it is to break away from them.

The deeper question is, why are we obsessed with our devices?

Why do they have a hold over us?

Could it be that we’re dealing with a demonic influence?

In Samaria, there was a demonic influence at work among the Samaritans through Simon.

Whenever we try to access the spiritual realm on our own apart from Christ, we open ourselves to demonic influences.

That’s why the Lord is so adamant that we avoid those things.

These things are real.

The spiritual realm is real.

These practices are real.