Sermon Tone Analysis

May 1st 2022

Series: The Book of Acts

Sermon Title: Introduction to Acts

Topic: Journey through the book of Acts.

Key Passages: Acts 1: 1-10

Sermon Blurb: This message marks the beginning of our church’s journey through the book of Acts in our Bibles.

In this message, we will give an introduction to the book and begin diving into it!

Sermon:

Family Moment

Family Church I have to admit….I am REALLY excited about today!

We are a church that is PASSIONATE about the Word of God, our Bibles, and we LOVE to help you all understand the Bible and apply it to your lives.

That is why we just sent 4 weeks talking about how you could literally transform your life in just 52 days!

If you don’t know what I am talking about….go

back and listen to the messages last month, I think they will really help you make 2022 a year unlike any other!

PAUSE

But this month we are shifting gears.

I know we have a lot of people that have joined our church family over the course of the last year, which is awesome, and we are so happy you are here!

But if you are newer to Family Church we want to take a moment and explain something before we get into the book of Acts.

PAUSE

When Pastor Adam felt called to come here and go after this church plant he felt God call him to begin that journey by preaching through the life of Jesus.

That began our church on a journey in 2017 and continued into 2021!

As a church, we walked through the life of Jesus chronologically….

Chronologically meaning….we

started with the birth announcement of Jesus and then walked through Jesus’ life as he grew up and all the way to Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension.

We spend years investing in growing as a church in our knowledge of Jesus.

Pastor Adam wanted us to know who Jesus really was not based on what we remembered as a kid.

Or what we learned about in college.

Or what our parents told us.

BUT based on what the Word of God, the Bible teaches us.

And the reason why we parked there for 4+ years is because of the mission statement of our church.

Family Church’s Mission Statement: Love God, Love People, Make Disciples

That first part….

Love God…

That is why we spent 4+ years diving deep into who our savior, our God, Jesus, is.

And if you are not aware Pastor Adam started his Doctoral studies in 2021 and as a church we will be really focusing in on how do we make disciples like Jesus called us to.

PAUSE

As we wrapped up the life of Jesus, Pastor Adam told us that next we would be diving into the book of Acts because in the book of Acts we learn how the early church lived out this call to Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples.

So that is where we pick up today.

We pick up after the life of Jesus and will start walking forward.

PAUSE

So because we as a church do NOT like anyone feeling like an outsider….let’s

start with an overview of the book of Acts.

Grab your Bibles and open them up to the Book of Acts.

If you don’t know where that is it is about ¾ way through the Bible after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

What I am going to do is paraphrase a lot of what you can read later today in the introduction to Acts in your study Bibles plus some other fun tidbits.

And one more side note…….

Remember how we talked about how we as a church walked through the life of Jesus Chronologically?

Well if you look in the study Bible we give away…..

On the page before the Introduction to Acts, you see what is called a Harmony of the Gospels which is the guide to walking through Jesus’ life!

So, if you want to read through Jesus’ life sometime…there is a free guide right in your Bible!

PAUSE

Let start with, who wrote the book of Acts?

Almost all scholars agree that Dr. Luke, who wrote the book of Luke before this, wrote Acts as well.

And Dr. Luke is one of my favorite writers in the Bible because I think he was like a lot of us in the room…..

Dr. Luke was a SUPER logical guy who just wanted to know the truth.

Dr. Luke in his first book says this

Luke 1: 1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Keep that on the screens….

I want to start here because I think it is important that we understand who brought us the book of Acts.

Luke was a Dr.

Now I don’t know how many Dr.’s you know….

But my older brother is a Chief Medical Officer…AKA a Doctor to Doctors…..and my brother is one of the most logical and methodical people I know.

Most doctors are naturally skeptical.

Science teaches us to doubt everything and prove everything.

So Dr. Luke is commissioned by a guy called Theophilus, who was a prominent Roman, to go find out what really happened with this guy Jesus.

So Dr. Luke wrote this letter to Theophilus to let him know after in his own words HE CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED EVERYTHING

Everything they heard about Jesus.

All these crazy claims about the stuff Jesus did.

All these crazy stories about who Jesus was.

Dr. Luke did NOT just take the rumor mill for evidence.

Dr. Luke went and PERSONALLY interviewed, cross-examined, and so forth the EYE-WITNESSES.

Eye-witnesses are the people who SAW with their own two eyes all these claims…..

Luke likely spent YEARS….interviewing….. studying….

Analyzing… EVERYTHING claimed about Jesus….

And then Dr. Luke wrote the book of Luke with all his findings….

Amazing book, if you have not read it please do so later today….

PAUSE

Dr. Luke ends his book with this:

Luke 24: 50-53 The Ascension of Jesus 50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Jesus raised Himself from the dead!

Everyone is happy!

Everyone is praising God!

Everyone is staying at church…the temple….praising

God….

But….

But write this down…..

This is something you are going to see come to life in the book of Acts….

Disciples (Christians) naturally want to stay in the church.

Jesus wants His disciples to get OUT of the church!

Repeat

That is literally what you see here!

The disciples are so excited that Jesus is raised and they want to stay with their church friends and hang out!!!

BUT

BUT….that is not what Jesus designed disciples to do….

And we will see this struggle in the book of Acts.

This struggle….internal