Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #22

Back to the Beginning: When Church Was Church

*What About Me?*

*Acts 13:1-3*

 

Acts 13 is a Transition point for the Church and for the Book of Acts

* *

Up to this point, Peter and Jerusalem have been the center of ministry and the church.

From this point on … the center of ministry for the church becomes Saul~/Paul and the church in Antioch  Let's jump right into this teaching

 

*READ Acts 13:1-5*

 

 

 

*1.

Selected*

 

*A talented, gifted church in the teaching and proclaiming ministries owed it to the gospel to send out some of those Teachers and Evangelists to the World.

*

*Why**?

Because Jesus said that they would.

Acts 1:8 - Requires the obedient church to be involved in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the World.

So, for this Church it would be Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece, and the Uttermost parts of the world.

*  A.

*Missionaries *Commissioned*

    1.

From Whom did they have to choose?

Doc, I like this group of preachers and teachers.

It kinda looks familiar to me.

Barnabas was a Levite from the Resort Island of Cyprus who had family money, Simeon called Niger (Black Man), Lucius of Cyrene (Lybia - Northern Africa) may have been one of the founding Pastors as this church was founded in Acts 11 by a group of men from Cyprus and Cyrene … by the way … his name Lucius means "bright white" (ebony and ivory …), Manaen raised as a Foster child in the family of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul who was a Jew, a Pharisee by education with Roman Citizenship.

I like the diversity of this group which I'm sure represented the diversity of the church

    2.

So Barnabas and Saul were selected …

      a.

Barnabas - his name was Joseph but they called him Barnabas … Son of Encouragement or Son of Rest.

This teacher was a living breathing walking Refuge and Nurturer.

He came alongside Saul as a new convert and enabled the church to trust him and him to grow

      b.

Saul - he was tenacious in his pursuit of Christians when he was a Persecuting Pharisee - "breathing out murderous threats against the church" Acts 9:1 - and NOW as a Prophet~/Evangelist of the Lord Jesus he attacked the strongholds of Satan with equal fervor

 

SO they sent out Missionaries … We have all read stories of great missionaries and envoys of the church … So What about Me?  What about everybody else?

 

Don't miss this … this is an important foundation for us today … what about the rest of the prophets and teachers, what about the rest of the church?

Well … The …

 

*  B.

*Members *Continued*

They continued being Christians.

They continued living the Christian life, they continued the work of the church.

Remember that they were CALLED Christians FIRST in Antioch.

So what about you?

What about Me?

At the VERY LEAST … they kept on doing what they were doing that got them the name CHRISTIAN in the first place.

So let's review from our Study in Acts 11 regarding what a Christian is.

So what did they CONTINUE doing?

1.

Believed and Turned - continued to Believe in Jesus and turn from their way and turn to the way of Christ

2.   Cleave or Cling to the Lord with Purpose of Heart - Remaining true

3.   Assembled Together - worshipping, teaching, praying, fellowshipping

4.   Unashamed to Suffer Persecution - living boldly in the face of persecution

5.   Slaves in the house of Christ - servants offered up to Christ - the word translanted Lord - in verse 2 means "He to whom a thing or a person belongs"

6.   Followers of the way of Christ -

7.   Doing Business as Christians -

 

So we have missionaries Commissioned to Go OUT and if you will Members Continuing what they had always done so in a sense commissioned to STAY

 

So …

 

*  C.

*All *Consecrated* - what does it mean to consecrate?

It means to induct a person into a religious office - to devote irrevocably to the worship of God

    1.

Rom 6:16 /don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which lead to death, or do obedience, which leads to righteousness/

    2.

Rom 12:1 /therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship/

 

/ /

   

 

So … they were Selected or Called

 

*2.

Set Apart*

* *

set apart - - /aphorizo (af-or-*id*-zo) / mark off from others by boundaries; sever from; set apart for a purpose

 

The Holy Spirit is saying … we're going to set some boundaries for these guys, we are calling them to something specific.

Set a fence around them and cut them off from other ministries and purposes.

*  A.

*… for *Me* - Set Apart for ME - Separate TO Me (YLT) - "set apart for me, NOW AT ONCE (Weymouth)

    1.

FOR me - TO - ME -  I am NOT my own - 2 Cor 6:19-20 - /do you not know that your bodies are a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is within you - The Spirit whom you have from God? 20 And you are not your own for you have been redeemed at infinite cost.

Therefore glorify God in your bodies/

 

    2.

"we all have OUR work today" … well if you are set apart for yourself, you are going to be working under your own power and for your own rewards

    3.

to whom are you set apart?

 

*  B.

*… for the *Work*

Rom 1:1 - /Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God/

 

1.   the work is not hard to figure out … The Work is the gospel of Jesus Christ

2.   God has not called any of us to rest.

Oh, "but Pastor, Jesus said, 'come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.'"

Well you are absolutely right, but I've got news for you, Jesus defines it differently than we do.

In that passage he says /"come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest, take my YOKE upon you and learn from me now, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light" / (mt 11:28-30)

3.   Resting in God is found in JOINING him in his WORK - Jesus is about bringing people to God and we should be about joining him

4.   Paul said, we are Ambassadors for Christ and we have been given the Ministry of Reconciliation.

That is we are to join in the process of Reconciling the World to Christ (2 Cor 5:19-20)

5.   For Paul, the call was for taking the Gospel to the Gentiles, Peter released the Gospel to the Gentiles but his primary Job and that of James and others was to continue the Gospel to Judea

6.

What about you … Your may be to take the Gospel to FORD, or take the Gospel to UMSL, or take the Gospel to Your Neighborhood, or your children's playgroup, or to your family

7.   We have not been called to fill up spiritually - We are called to JOIN God in the Going and Being his Witnesses filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit

 

*  C.

*… for the *Calling*

1.   /proskaleomai (pros-kal-*eh*-om-ahee)/ - this word is in the perfect tense which means it is not PAST or PRESENT or FUTURE it is ALL THREE.

It is completed before it is begun.

That means that it is PERFECTED in the Heart and Mind of God in ages past and is now being implemented

2.   When God calls you to his task he is NOT hoping it will find success, he knows what is going to be and in his mind it is done and he is inviting you to join him

3.   Mt 15:32 /Jesus called his disciples to him and said "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me 3 days and have nothing to eat.

I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse/ - Jesus KNEW he was going to do a miracle and feed these people, his miracle was driven by his compassion for people but equally great was for him to include his disciples in the process

4.   When God calls you it is decided already and he equips you for the task with all the gifts and authority needed Mt 10:1 /he called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and heal every diseases and sickness/

5.   The Work and the Calling are about PEOPLE … bringing People to God the Father through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit

6.   Sometimes as the years go by we change our focus and forget the original purpose.

Jesus said GO … Teach … Baptize … Disciple … People … Jesus said … You will be my disciples

7.   Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address you will remember said that "/government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people should not perish from the earth/ … But One Entertainer performing had done intensive research and discovered that we had CHANGED the emphasis on the words and thus changed the focus of his speech.

His study revealed that Lincoln had emphasized it this way, that /"government of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, and for the PEOPLE, shall not perish from the earth …"/   Sometimes we place our emphasis on prepositions instead of on the PEOPLE, we place our emphasis on propositions and not on people, we place our emphasis on Traditions instead of on the Teaching of Christ to the People, emphasis on good production instead of on the Good News to people

8.   When Jesus was on the cross he wasn't just thinking about the WORLD in a generic sense, he looked down at those gambling for his clothing and said "Father forgive THEM" … that is THOSE specific people, he looked to his side to the thief and said "today YOU will be with me in paradise

9.   Let us NOT lose sight of the Work and Calling of the Gospel and that is people, being brought to Christ one by one with the Message of the Gospel.

10.

But this wasn't ONLY about the Missionaries … The Missionaries were called ~/ selected to Go out and the rest were called ~/ selected to STAY both for the purpose of the Work of the Spirit in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

 

Finally they were selected, they were called and they were …

 

*3.

Sent*

* *

Who was God's agent for sending?