Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This is the last of our focus on the Book of Acts.

I hope that this dip into this book has brought some issues to light for you and your walk with God.

This morning we are going to focus in just for a short while on the ministry of Paul.

For most of the book we have been looking at the Beginning of a movement, but we want to end off this series by taking a look at the man God used in a powerful way to not only give us God’s written Word, but to model a lifestyle of a follower of Christ.

Last week for those of you who were hear or listened to the sermon on the website and you took on the challenge I left with you last Sunday.

I’m not looking for a show of hands, but I left you with this challenge

May I challenge you this week to write out, tell someone, give testimony to God working in your life.

If you write it down, I would love to hear it

Do we look back at the many things God has done in our lives?

To be honest, I often am so focused on what the future may look like that I move on, and often too quickly, left the past in the past.

What about you.

How was your week.

Was God speaking to you this past week?

Did you come this morning with a rejoicing spirit excited to celebrate the Goodness of God with fellow believers,

or did you come this morning with a weary heart because it has been a tough week and you came to be filled once again by the encouragement of God’s Word, and the fellowship of other believers.

You see both of these states of mind Paul experienced in his walk.

There were moments in time when everything seemed to be running great.

Blessings upon blessings were flowing through his ministry, yet sometimes it was just plain hard.

In both of these Times as we will look into the life of Paul we see a consistent Paul.

Pressing forward

Paul lived these words and as we look into the passage this morning we are going to see two sides of Paul.

Turn with me to the 17th chapter in the book of acts and jump into Paul’s journey

Paul’s Custom

Paul’s custom.

Here at the church we have said that a disciple of Christ is one who is seeking to know God while being transformed into the image of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit in the context of community.

Paul went to church as a custom.

What brought you here this morning.

I can tell you why Paul came to church.

To discuss the written Word of God.

His primary reason to gather at the synagogue was to come to the Jewish people and open up God’s Word and show them that all of the Old Testament was written to show the coming of Christ.

Look at verse 3

I often get confused by leaders who want nothing to do with the Old Testament as we are followers of Christ.

They cry out.

Only read the NT and Paul’s Words as we follow Christ.

Remember, Paul used the OT scripture to show that they were all pointing to the fact of Christ’s work on the cross.

Paul spent time with the people Sabbath after Sabbath and as we see in verse 4, many turned to follow the way of Christ.

Before we read any further, I don’t want to skip over these folks in this city.

You see they became very dear friends to Paul and it was no small turning point in their lives.

Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians and we are going to see a story behind Acts 17

Examples of the Faith

When history books are written, what will they say about you and me?

Back in the 90’s when I was early in my ministry, as we sat around a table and planned what we needed to do, we felt called as leaders of a church to move the church forward following a model set out by a famous church that seemed to be attracting people.

Not only where they attracting people, but people were being saved and following Christ.

We set out to explore there methodology, to visit their facility to gain an understanding of what secret formula was working in their midst.

Many other churches did the same and I know of many churches fully embraced the methodology down even to the design model of the building.

Examples of the faith don’t always work that way.

But what I can tell you is that these folks listed in scripture had one example we should look at.

Their example of turning to God came at a great cost.

Turn back to Acts 17:5-9

Paul came into the city and with the message of Christ turned the city upside down.

They made such a powerful impact on the people.

And when this always happens the focus was taken off of others.

and what happened

Jealousy.

Why do we always want to compare.

Are you trying to compete with the Jones.

do you look around your friends and even your neighbours and that small jealous voice tries to reach into our heads and say.

Hey why do they have that and I don’t.

Why is there plan successful and mine isn’t

A conflict arose in this town.

The synagogue leaders where losing their control.

The people began to follow the Way.

Follow the teachings of Paul through the spirit working among them and there was conflict.

If there is one thing that Covid has taught us is how do we handle conflict.

As I sit on the district board of the EFC here in BC and hear of other friends churches, Covid has caused divisions among the people of God.

In some cases, and I am so grateful that it hasn’t been here, but some churches had divided over the issue of how does on respond to Covid.

This week I continued in a course and the concept of conflict came up.

This was one of the progressions that conflict can take

steps of Conflict

Problem identified, working together to solve

Disagreement, but I want to come out looking good

Contest- I want to win even if you look bad

Fight/Flight- I want to hurt you even if I escape

Intractable- I will hurt you

Many of the people were in the later stages of conflict as some of the brothers, were shouting.

Look at Paul’s letter,

How would you like to start a ministry like that.

You come to faith only to be dragged in the public square and challenged.

What is interesting to note is that they people didn’t flee.

They stayed.

They persisted.

They held onto the faith.

In fact they realized that things could get worse and sent Paul and Silas off to another place by night.

One person wrote,

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 28: Acts (Turning the World Upside Down)

With that Luke’s account of the ministry in Thessalonica comes to an abrupt close.

Paul and Silas were secretly sent on their way by a firmly established church.

But these new and beloved converts were never off the apostle’s mind.

.......

That’s the reason he wrote what I believe to be the first of his epistles to the new church in Thessalonica from Corinth a brief time later.

The letters review Paul’s essential message: the Lordship of Christ, conversion, the blessing of His Spirit, how to pray, and how to live in the spontaneity of the Spirit without quenching His inner fire.

Now we find the Trio in a town called Berea.

When you go to seminary and you begin to talk among other soon to be Pastors we all agree that this type of church would be wonderful to be called to.

Why,

Look at the second part of verse 11

Acts 17:11 (ESV)

11 ......... they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

As Pastors we love to hear a great desire among the people who have a passion to study the scripture.

To diligently pour over the scriptures to have it as the most important book on their shelf and that they are not satisfied enough to hear, but to examine for themselves the truths that they have been told.

I could image that this was a high point in Paul’s ministry.