Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.63LIKELY
Joy
0.62LIKELY
Sadness
0.18UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.54LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.4UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.87LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.89LIKELY
Extraversion
0.73LIKELY
Agreeableness
0.88LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
A community on mission is devoted to a common life and has a public grace.
There is an internal aspect along with an external aspect of their life together.
The external aspect was an open door for others to enter into the common life.
In what ways are we devoted to a common life?
Where do we have a public grace that invites others to enter in?
As we look at these two aspects in the church in Acts 2, we will ask four guiding questions for us.
Are we a community on mission?
Devoted to a Common Life
2:42-45 - They were being devoted continually to...
2:42 - They had an internal focus.
Their common devotion to Jesus gave them a common devotion to learning, partnership, breaking bread and praying together.
These four practices summarize what happens in the rest of the passage.
Learning from the Apostles
Are we all devoted to learning from the same teachers?
Right now, people are choosing churches based more on political party affiliation than theological distinctives.
This says we are learning from the wrong teachers.
A community on mission is united in Christ Jesus, and the teaching of His apostles.
2:42 - devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching - linked with,
2:43 - Every soul experiencing daily fear because signs of God working wonders were constant through the apostles.
Wouldn’t you love to be part of a community like this? Constantly in awe of what God is doing around you?
These were miracles that confirmed that they were God’s chosen messengers, like the prophets of old.
This wasn’t fear of the apostles.
This was the same fear mixed with celebration that had been experienced when God came down on Mount Sinai to give the Torah to the people of Israel through Moses.
We are restarting the Exodus, God redeeming a people to dwell in their midst.
Luke’s point here is that the message the apostles was preaching was on equal authority with the Torah as God’s word.
What were the apostles teaching?
From writings such as “The Didache” (“The Teaching”), we know that they were teaching how to put Jesus’ teaching into practice in their daily lives.
How do I love God and love my neighbor?
What does humility look like in my relationships?
What are cases in which I should forgive and give grace to my brothers and sisters?
They were teaching the disciples to obey everything Jesus had commanded.
They begin with love God, love others, do to others as you would have them do to you.
But they also teach things such as...
2 If it is a traveler who arrives, help him all you can.
But he must not stay with you more than two days, or, if necessary, three.
3 If he wants to settle with you and is an artisan, he must work for his living.
4 If, however, he has no trade, use your judgment in taking steps for him to live with you as a Christian without being idle.
5 If he refuses to do this, he is trading on Christ.
You must be on your guard against such people.
1:7 Do not hesitate to give and do not give with a bad grace; for you will discover who He is that pays you back a reward with a good grace.
1:8 Do not turn your back on the needy, but share everything with your brother and call nothing your own.
For if you have what is eternal in common, how much more should you have what is transient!
Partnering in Life
Am I acting as a disciple of Jesus in the way I share my possessions?
Fair warning, we’re going to talk about money.
In 2:42 Luke says they were devoted to “the fellowship”, the Greek word koinonia.
This is partnership or sharing kind of fellowship.
Not just hanging out with coffee.
It is a shared life.
2:44-45 - They “were together”.
A modern translation (okay, maybe already a little dated) would be, they were all up in each other’s business.
They really believed that they should be together in everything.
This included their possessions and money.
The Bibles they read, the Torah, commanded a tenth, or a tithe, of all of a person’s wealth be dedicated to God.
So many people even today believe you should give ten percent of your income to God in some way, to your church or another ministry.
But there were many other offerings required in the Torah as well.
There was the first-fruits of your crop, a half-shekel offering per person, sacrifices for sin, for Passover, and the outer edge of your field that was left in the harvest for the poor to take for themselves.
Some people have done the math and found that up to thirty percent of a person’s wealth was commanded to be made available to God in some way.
Maybe we would consider this our taxes, which provide for a common national life together.
What we see in the New Covenant of Jesus is something very different.
Jesus tells the scribes, the Torah legal scholars, and the Pharisees
Jesus shifts the focus from what’s in your wallet to what’s in your heart.
If you give all you have to the poor but don’t have love, you gain nothing.
So, as Christians, we believe that God doesn’t want 10% of what I have, or even 30%.
Everything I am and everything have belongs to God.
I don’t give Him 10% and keep the rest.
I make 100% available to Him and trust that He will care for me.
This is the generosity of the gospel.
What if Jesus had given us 10% of God’s grace, or 10% atonement for sin, or 10% adoption into God’s family?
Jesus has redeemed believers from sin and death.
Even my body, my very self, is not my own.
I have been bought with a price.
So Jesus tells us to be generous, give to whoever asks you and expect nothing in return, even to be gracious to our enemies.
The early disciples of Jesus did not consider any of their possessions to be their own.
A Jesus-centered community on mission is devoted to Jesus with everything they have.
Everything I have is on the table if He needs it to build up the body of Christ.
I am thankful to be part of a generous church.
When needs are presented, you always come through above and beyond.
For the few of us that might need to grow in this area, you have plenty of teachers to learn from.
What you will find is that Christians who are devoted to giving generously are first and foremost devoted to Jesus Christ.
Devoted to their Community
The internal, common life, united in the apostles’ teaching and sharing all they had, was mixed with an external public life.
The community on mission with Jesus is living their common life in some publicly visible way.
Verses 46 and 47 tell us what that public life of the early church looked like.
The Prayers
2:42 - Devoted to...”the prayers”.
We think of prayer as the heart’s free expression to God.
That is one element of prayer.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray in secret to our Father in heaven and gave them a structure they could follow.
We call that the Lord’s prayer.
But it’s important to remember that He and His disciples were Jews.
They had prayers, most of which came from the Bible, that they recited with the rest of their community three times a day.
Jesus’ disciples didn’t stop being Jews when they became Christians.
They now understood the fullness of their Jewish religion was found in the person of Jesus Christ.
While there were some aspects that would be left behind because they had been added by men, in other ways they were worshipping as they had before, but with a new, fresh understanding and vibrancy.
Verse 46 tells us every day they attended the temple together.
The word for attended is actually the same word we find in verse 42 translated, “devoted”.
This public attendance of morning and evening services were an opportunity to say their prayers as a community.
The disciples devoted themselves to being part of the community around them, now with the growing understanding that the sacrifices had been fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah.
As that understanding grew, their public praise for God grew.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9