Acts 4:32-5:6
Sermon Outline
• Advent – beginning is the end; end is the beginning
• Luke text as “end-times” text
• Problem: Luke’s text is all about end times and yet the end times still aren’t here
• Said “this generation shall not pass away”
• What is a “generation”? What is an “age”?
• Solution: not about end-times, but about how to live
• Signs will come – but will be in the sun and moons and stars – we look for signs on earth
• 34“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, 35like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
• Acts: example of how to live
• Written by same author as Luke
• Vs. 1:1
• Examples of mutuality and unity
• Wealthy vs. poor
• Barnabas – “Son of Prophet” – Luke adds “means son of consolation” – religious elite and those who act in mission
• Levite, native of Cyprus – Cyprus was in “diaspora” – it was in the country – yet he was in a Jerusalem community
• Anania and Sapphira – 1st story in Acts where a particular woman is prominent – mutuality between man and woman
• Satan in the heart – unity between heaven and earth
• Advent – unity of heaven and earth
• Look forward to the coming of Jesus
• Just as in the story from Luke, we are looking forward to Jesus’ return
• Yet, as Christmas is around the corner, we are looking forward to the celebration of Jesus’ birth
Sermon notes
Luk 21:26 NRSV People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
• “world” is not the earth, but it refers to the Roman Empire
• Luke is not concerned with the end times, but rather to dispel those fears and focus on “proper dissipation” – be not discouraged by the persecutions going on but instead stay strong
• Luke tries to shift the focus away from “return of Jesus”
• We still struggle with waiting
• Wait for end of war
• For economic recovery
• End of global warming
• Results from biopsy
• Letter from estranged child
• Safe return of a love from active duty
• We live between 2 poles: coming of Christ in flesh and his triumph over death
Acts 4:32-5:6
• Problem: not a loving or forgiving God
• Not a community that we see today
• Foreign and strange world
Sermon Outline
• Advent – beginning is the end; end is the beginning
• Luke text as “end-times” text
• Problem: Luke’s text is all about end times and yet the end times still aren’t here
• Said “this generation shall not pass away”
• What is a “generation”? What is an “age”?
• Solution: not about end-times, but about how to live
• Signs will come – but will be in the sun and moons and stars – we look for signs on earth
• 34“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, 35like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
• Acts: example of how to live
• Written by same author as Luke
• Vs. 1:1
• Examples of mutuality and unity
• Wealthy vs. poor
• Barnabas – “Son of Prophet” – Luke adds “means son of consolation” – religious elite and those who act in mission
• Levite, native of Cyprus – Cyprus was in “diaspora” – it was in the country – yet he was in a Jerusalem community
• Anania and Sapphira – 1st story in Acts where a particular woman is prominent – mutuality between man and woman
• Satan in the heart – unity between heaven and earth
• Advent – unity of heaven and earth