Sermon Tone Analysis

Main Idea

Main Idea: Christian Community is a winsome, devoted, and unified community.

Have you ever been in a place where they nailed it when it comes to creating the right atmosphere and culture?

Coffee shops are really good at this.

The lighting, jazz music, coffee aroma, the comfy chairs… all of it is designed to keep you in, and it works!

I’m also reminded of a story from my OCC days of how a company created a culture for their volunteers.

In this particular company, their entire process was driven by volunteers, and they knew how to motivate them.

The highlight of the story was in how they managed to maintain a high level of excitement, and therefore, a high level of productivity.

They did this by taking a general management tactic and flip it on its head.

For managers who have employees they manage, they typically do so by maintaining a presence and keeping an eye out for things that are going wrong, and by consequence, they would inevitably catch people doing the wrong thing.

Since this was a volunteer situation, they decided to intentionally catch people in the act of doing something right or doing it well.

When this happened, they would blow a whistle and point at the person, then the room would erupt in a wave of applause.

At first, it was a bit odd.

Someone would discern the situation as a person in charge blowing a whistle and point at me, so now I’m embarrassed and confused as to what I did wrong and what all the noise is about.

But, as this was done and explained, people started to get excited.

They wanted to be the next one who was caught doing something right.

They would start to think, hey, I want the whistle blown at me! What a thrill!

I want my work to get applause!

And so the room was electrified with excitement, applause and a desire to do good work.

They nailed it.

Today, we are going to see 4 key elements that show us what real christian community looks like, and in the process, today’s scripture is going to hold up a giant mirror right in front of us and shine a 1,000 watt spotlight on the reflection.

Outline

Conviction [vv.37-41]

Devotion [vv.42-43]

Unity [vv.44, 46-47]

Sacrifice [v.45]

Result - an attractive, winsome, and growing community

Conviction

[of sin, of Jesus’ Messiahship & Lordship, and separation from the world]

Cut to the heart.

They were not entertained.

They didn’t have a momentary pause with a fleeting thought of conviction.

Peter did his part to proclaim, and clearly the Spirit was doing His part to convict of sin and righteousness.

The writer of Hebrews says the word of God is living active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 ESV).

What should we do?

This is the only right question to ask.

They were in unmarked territory and Peter was their only reliable guide through this jungle.

They started off by asking, “What does this mean,” and have ended with, “What should we do about it?”

Being cut to the heart, they were convinced to their very core.

They immediately recognized they were powerless to do anything about their current circumstance.

We would do well to take note of their reaction and act accordingly.

Peter’s reply: repent and be baptized, In the name of Jesus Christ, You will receive the Holy Spirit.

Repent: Turning away from sin and error is the only way forward.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: “If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”

To repent is a sorrowful recognition the moral significance of the wrong track you are on and to change your mind… to turn a full 180 degrees and go the opposite way, so to speak.

This is an aorist verb in the Greek, meaning, it is a one-time event that happens and is completed.

Peter exhorts them to actively turn from sin and their misguided presuppositions of the Messiah and embrace the real one.

We must recognize that our sin is a violation of God’s holy commands and character.

We are the guilty party and must call on the one we have offended to forgive us.

Be baptized in the name of Jesus means fully accepting Jesus as Lord.

The Great Commission commands us to baptize in the fullness of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit), but here, Peter is driving home the reality of Jesus as God.

Circumcision was no longer the external representation of being set apart as God’s people.

Baptism is the new outward symbol.

Thank goodness.

Baptism doesn’t save us, but we follow the command to be baptized once we are saved, just like we do not do good works to earn salvation, but as an outward display of our faith, we do good works.

Receive the Spirit.

This was the promise at the beginning of the book.

It wasn’t just for the 12, or the 120.

Repentance from sin, acceptance of Jesus, and baptism into His name results in adoption as God’s own child.

Who needs to hear that today?

Separate yourselves from the sin of the people.

Baptism is the outward sign of the inward faith you profess.

It shows the believing community that you have been set apart by God for God.

Now, you must take it a step further to save yourself from further harm and danger by avoiding the crookedness of the people around them.

This doesn’t pertain to salvation, because we are commanded to perform the action.

This is another aorist command to do something now.

Who is the promise for?

This is for you, your children, and all who are far off… All who God calls to Himself.

No singular people group has exclusive rights to this promise.

The door has been flung open for all people - those present for Peter’s sermon, for their families back home, and for the gentiles beyond them.

Notice who is still the main active participant, thought.

The promise is for people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, however, it is still initiated by God who is the one doing the calling.

God calls, we respond - in that order.

Praise God for his call to each and every one of us who have responded!

The result: 3,000 souls added to the Kingdom.

Not too bad, eh?

So, we see that the gospel sandwich is powerful and effective.

We must proclaim Jesus - his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

When we do, hearts are cut, sin is rejected, and lives are transformed!

That finishes off the story of Pentecost.

Who knows how long it took to baptize 3,000 people, but at some point after that, we are now given a glimpse of what their fellowship and community looked like.

Devotion

[teaching, fellowship, eating together, prayer]

This is what I want us to model ourselves after in Ashe Alliance.

If we want transformative community that fills our sails and pushes us toward spiritual maturity, this is how we capture it.

And Peter begins by explaining what the posture of their hearts was like… devotion.

Apostle’s teaching.

This massive group of 3,000+ new believers devoted themselves to the teachings of the Apostles, meaning the 12.

Notice how Luke mentions their teaching and not just Old Testament scripture.

This is important, because it was these very men (and later, Paul) who would pen God’s revealed will in their letters.

Even before pen was put to parchment, it was recognized that they held spiritual authority.

They were the ones who sat at Jesus’ feet.

They were the ones we see in verse 43 performing similar miracles to what Jesus performed.

This was a clear sign that they held a God-given authority that would verify their positions as Apostles as well as the truthfulness of their teaching.

For us, we must devote ourselves (individually & collectively) with scripture.

It is our authority and foundation of understanding God.

All christian community should and must start here.

This is why the first of our 7 core values is biblical authority.

Fellowship.

They actually enjoyed being around one another!