Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #48

Back to the Beginning: When Church was Church

*A *Twenty *First Century Church*

*Acts 28:30-31*

 

Well New Life Baptist Church … we are finally ending this journey through Acts

 

The Resurrected Christ commissioned the Church to be on mission as his witnesses

He then filled them baptizing them with the Holy Spirit and Fire.

The church grew exponentially as the gospel was preached

 

The young church grew in relationship and maturity

 

Then Christ used persecution from outside forces to scatter the church throughout the world

 

Peter was freed from tradition to preach the gospel to all men and the church followed his lead

 

Saul a persecutor of the church met Christ on the Road to Damascus and became known as Paul and became the driving force to carry the gospel throughout the world, planting churches and teaching the truths and mysteries of the Kingdom of God

 

Through persecution of the same leaders who crucified Christ, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and transported to Rome to stand trial before Nero.

*Read Acts 28:16-31*

 

He was placed under arrest but allowed to live in his own rented house while awaiting trial.

And many that have read this book have always thought it a strange place to end this story.

Why didn't Luke tell us the rest of the story of Paul

Why didn't he record the end of Paul's story

Well, I can't answer this question other than to say that the story wasn't about Paul

This is the story of Christ and his church

This story was intended to teach and record the church of the Lord Jesus Christ …

 

With that in mind, with our goal to learn as a 21st Century church, from the 1st century church … I believe this ended in a beautiful way as Paul's Prison House Church gives us a model of what every church should be doing till Jesus comes …

 

ILLUSTRATION

/I have a book in my office of instruction for Golf and the Christian Life./

/Wally Armstrong is the writer, he is a teacher and a former touring pro.

He tells of playing at the Los Angeles CC for the first time.

There is a hole on the back nine where you can't see the fairway from the tee box.

But more than 480 yards in the distance stand 3 palm trees behind the green.

He asked his caddie, "where do I aim" and his caddy said, aim at the palm trees and you will be in the fairway.

He did and he was.

But his caddie told him a story about the great golfer Ben Hogan.

When he played that course for the first time he asked his caddie the same thing, "where do I aim"?

His caddie had the same answer, "aim at the trees in the distance"  Ben Hogan replied "which one"?  /

/Now that's the difference his focus was honed down to the specific tree./

The Book of Acts is large and we have looked at 49 different things … if we are to aim at the book of Acts, we might ask, "which one" well, today we can narrow all of that aim down to a simple formula

 

A *twenty FIRST* Century Church is Evident in …

 

*1.

Welcoming All People*

 

There is nothing more central to who Jesus Christ is, the heart of The Father, than for the Church to Reflect Heaven as a Place where all are called to Christ.

Heaven will be a place where every people group, rich and poor, young and old, black, brown, white, green, red and blue, intelligent and not so, weak and strong, socially connected and social outcast, powerful and powerless, and everything in between.

God chose Israel as his unique people, and God chose the church as his holy nation, NOT so that they would be religiously elite, but to be a display of his splendor and to call those apart from him, to him

 

Zechariah 8:20-23

 

/20 //This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, 21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, 'Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty.

I myself am going.' 22 And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him."

/

/' " /

 

The Purpose of God's choosing and blessing of Israel was to reveal himself to the world

 

Isaiah 61:3

 /and provide for those who grieve in Zion- /

/to bestow on them a crown of beauty /

/instead of ashes, /

/the oil of gladness /

/instead of mourning, /

/and a garment of praise /

/instead of a spirit of despair.

/

/They will be called oaks of righteousness, /

/a planting of the Lord /

/for the display of his splendor.

/

 

 

God picks us up out of the Ash heap of life and anoints us with gladness

He takes us out of our mourning and gives us a heart to praise him

 

He takes us off shifting sands and plants us with deep roots as a firm Oak of Righteousness

 

FOR THE DISPLAY of his Splendor

 

God doesn't choose to exclude, he chooses to include

 

God knew us from the dawn of time and called us to himself, justified us, sanctified us, and glorified us for a purpose

To Call all to himself

 

His plan is the same with his church, in that area, as it was with Israel

 

1 Peter 2:9,10

/9 //But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

/

 

We have been chosen, we have been made into a royal priesthood, a holy nations, God's special people … NOT because of who we are

 

We were in DARKNESS

 

But we have been called into light

 

We were NOBODY, not even a group of people

 

Now we are God's people

 

FOR A *PURPOSE*

 

That we may DECLARE his praises … to WHOM?

To Each other?

To Gather and have a Spiritual Pep Rally?

NO! to declare to the world, those who do not know him.

To declare to people who are in darkness, separated as nothing and nobody.

Paul was welcoming all who would come - "welcome" means to "/embrace heartily or accept gratefully"/

 

   1.

Engaging those who would reject - v17 sent for the Jewish Leaders - You would think that the people Paul would be avoiding at ALL COSTS would be the Jews in Rome.

It is the Religious Jews that led to Paul's arrest in Jerusalem.

So, cut your losses, and move on to other people right?

Not for Paul … Welcoming all, communicating with those who he KNEW would reject the gospel.

A church like the 1st Century church is not afraid to welcome those who are hostile to the gospel - It wasn't that Paul received them ONLY as they came to him.

He REACHED OUT to them.

He arranged to minister to them.

A church that welcomes all reaches out and creates opportunities to reach those who are by nature rejecters of the gospel

 

Also welcoming is ..

   2.

Answering those who would listen - v22 "we want to hear your ideas" - creating opportunities and then sharing will all who would listen

 

   3.

The Gospel is for Everyone - v 28 - A church that segregates the gospel is NOT a church like the 1st Century Church, is not a church that reflects the heart of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit

 

So, a 21st Century Church like the 1st Century Church Welcomes ALL People

 

We say at New Life Baptist Church that we are a church for everyone, a church like Heaven

 

The Second Critical Component that Paul exhibited in Rome that our Church must emulate is … He was …

 

*2.

Boldly Preaching the Kingdom*

* *

Paul said "I believe in the hope of Israel" --- Believing in the infallibility of the word of God - He is a God of his Word, you can Count on him, you can bank on him

 

  *A.

Preaching with Boldness* and *Without* *Hindrance*

There are 4 words here that we need to see …

    1.

Preaching - /kerusso ~/kay-*roos*-so~/  to be a herald, to proclaim after the manner of authority and gravity that must be listened to and obeyed/

      a.

a herald is a representative of the King who calls out a message of importance.