Sermon Tone Analysis

Main Idea

Jesus is exalted despite man’s efforts to reject Him and still calls His enemies to Himself.

Today, I want to begin by discussing light filters.

Videographers and Photographer’s use transparent colored film that they attached over their lights so that they can achieve a particular, visual outcome.

If they want to portray a melancholy mood, they can use a blue light filter.

If they want calmness, they can use green, or attach a red filter for a sense of danger or warning.

They use a standard light, but then cast that light through a specific filter so that they can enhance and dramatize whatever shot they want to create.

Today, I will begin by reading Isaiah 53, because this is the filter in which Peter will deliver his second sermon to the gathered Jewish crowd.

Isaiah 52: 13 - 53:12 (ESV)

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.

14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.

Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Outline and Passage

Explanation to the people [12-16]

Application for the people [17-26]

Acts 3:11–26 (ESV)

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s.

12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.

14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses.

16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.

25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

I - Explanation

This section has a chiastic structure, which is a literary device that notes a progression, then repeats a mirror image with the main thrust of the story being in the middle.

v.12 - Miracle (not by my power)

v.13 - God glorified Jesus

v.13 - You denied Jesus

v.14-15 - You killed Jesus

v.15 - God raised Jesus

v.16 - Miracle (done in the name of Jesus)

Through the explanation of this miracle, Luke is trying to drive home the deity of Jesus while also laying out the realization that they are culpable for rejecting and killing Him.

1.

The section is sandwiched between a definition of the miracle:

top layer - not man’s power

bottom layer - done through the power of God in Jesus

2. The second layer, of veggies let’s say, is the person of Jesus:

Jesus is glorified by God and

Jesus is raised to life by God

3. Finally, the meat of the sandwich is the sinful actions of the people:

You denied Jesus

You killed Jesus

This was the point that Luke was highlighting and that Peter was driving into the hearts of the people.

But, Peter also laid the Old Testament filter over the light he was shining.

Four filters, in fact, for this section.

4 OT parallels in this section:

The God of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob

This is found throughout the Old Testament books as a reference to the founders of the Jewish faith.

If you are extremely patriotic and love the stories of how the USA came into being, you would likely have a special place in your heart for people like George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

These men are our founding fathers.

Likewise, these men were the founders of the Jewish faith.

Not only would this have sparked national pride for the nation of Israel, but also a deep appreciation for the role they played in God’s redemptive history.

Speaking their names would recall all of God’s promises to Abraham of making Israel into a great nation.

Peter is trying to show them that what he is saying is in agreement with these men and performed by the same God who spoke to these men, and therefore should be recieved.

Glorified His Servant

Isaiah 52:13 from the section of the Suffering Servant:

Isaiah 52:13 (ESV)

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.

The section of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah begins in chapter 52 and runs through 53.

The Jews would have immediately recognized the language of God’s holy servant being exalted and Peter used this knowledge to build a bridge from that Servant in Isaiah to Jesus of Nazareth.

It’s kinda like if I said the phrase, “Four score and seven years ago...” you would immediately think of Abraham Lincoln.

Saying phrases like this would have had a similar affect, drawing their mind to the Messiah.

Holy and Righteous One

Isaiah 1:4 + many more describes the Messiah as God’s holy and righteous man.

Isaiah 1:4 (ESV)

4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!

They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

The ‘Holy One of Israel’ and the ‘Righteous One’ were titles for a specific person and Peter’s audience would have known that.

So, if I asked you who the Italian Stallion was, many of you would answer Rocky Balboa.

This is similar.

This was the title given to the coming Messiah, and now, Peter is helping them connect the dots that Jesus is this anticipated Messiah.

All of these light filters working together to cast a shadow of Jesus.

Author of Life

Genesis 1 & 2 show God as the creator of all things and the creator of human life.

Decades later, (+65 years or so from this point in time), John 1 shows Jesus as God and the one by whom all things have been made.

This word ‘author’ is rendered differently in other translations.

For example:

ESV - Author of life

CSB - Source of life

NASB - Prince of life

LEB - Originator of life