Sermon Tone Analysis

On Mission for Our Master

Acts 13:1-5

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - March 3, 2013

*In August of 2002, Adelina Dominguez went home to be with the Lord.

At the time, Adelina was living in a nursing home in San Diego, California.

And she was in the Guinness Book of Records when she died, because Adelina was the oldest person living in the United States.

She was 114 years old!

*When a reporter asked Adelina the secret of her long life, she gave all the credit to God and His plan for her life.

Adelina said, “I knew God had a purpose for my life.”

(1)

*God had a purpose for her.

And God’s got a purpose for us, too!

-Whether we are 14 or 114, God’s got a mission for us.

1.

And the first step is our salvation.

God wants us to have salvation.

*I am sure that the Lord is able to use lost people to advance His Kingdom.

But in order for us to really be on mission for the Master, we must be saved.

We must be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.

*In vs. 1 we see some saved men.

-- God’s Word says:

1.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul (who we know as the Apostle Paul).

*These men in vs. 1 helped take the good news of Jesus Christ all over the Roman Empire.

They were willing to go through incredible hardship.

They saw the Hand of God at work in amazing ways.

And all of that happened because they were saved.

*Verse 1 tells us that these men were “in the church.”

Well, aren’t we in the church today?

-- Not necessarily.

*When vs. 1 says they were “in the church,” it wasn’t talking about a building like this.

God’s Word wasn’t talking about a building at all.

It is talking about the spiritual church: The Body of Christ made up of everyone who has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

*But how do we get in the church?

-- There is only one way, and we find it in vs. 5, which says: “When they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

They also had John as their assistant.”

*“They preached the Word of God.” -- To get in God’s church you must hear and believe the good news in the Word of God.

*Here’s part of Paul’s message in a Jewish synagogue on that first mission trip.

You can see it starting down in vs. 32, where Paul said:

32.

“And we declare to you glad tidings that promise which was made to the fathers.

33.

God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus.

As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’

34.

And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’

35.

Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’

36.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;

37. but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.

38.

Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins;

39. and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

*Here’s the good news in the Word of God for us: God created you and loves you beyond measure.

He loves us even though all of us have broken His laws and been selfish in our lives.

He loved us enough to send His only Son into the world to die for our sins.

That’s what Jesus Christ did when He died on the cross.

But God the Father raised Him from the dead.

And now Jesus offers eternal life to everyone who will believe in Him and receive Him as Lord and Savior.

*About 30 years ago, Andrew Parker and his family were trapped on a ferry that was sinking in the choppy waters of the English Channel.

There was panic and confusion.

People were screaming.

It was a horrific situation.

*By the grace of God, there was large metal buoy floating close to the ship, close, but just out of reach.

It was too far to jump, except for Andrew.

He was big enough and strong enough to stretch his body out across the gap.

Andrew turned his body into a human bridge and 20 people crossed over to safety.

(2)

*That’s what Jesus Christ did for us! -- None of us is big enough or strong enough or smart enough or good enough to get to Heaven on our own.

*But Jesus Christ will be your bridge.

He even died on the cross to be your bridge to Heaven.

Jesus is the way, but you have to trust Him.

And when you do you, He will give you salvation.

Then you will really be in the church.

*God’s got a mission for us.

-- So He wants us to have salvation.

2. And He wants us to have a transformation.

*God wants to give us the kind of transformation that had happened in vs. 1.

Please listen to this verse again:

1.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

*When these men started out in life, they had absolutely nothing in common.

-Niger was most probably a black man from Africa.

His name means “black”.

Lucius was also from Africa.

*And Manaen was brought up as Herod the tetrarch’s foster brother.

His foster brother was the ruler of Galilee.

So Manaen had lived in the lap of luxury, and in a flood of corruption.

*Manaen’s foster father was King Herod.

He was the monster of a man who wanted to murder Jesus, when the Lord was just a toddler.

Of course, Jesus escaped.

But Manaen’s foster father murdered all the boys in Bethlehem up to age 2. And Manaen’s foster brother was the man who had John the Baptist beheaded.

That was the atmosphere where Manaen grew up.

*Then there was Saul or Paul.

He had been brought up as the strictest Pharisee.

The Pharisees hated Herodians like Manaen.

Plus remember how much Paul hated Christians.

He went out of his way to persecute believers, put them in prison, and even put them to death.

*These men had nothing in common.

-What happened to them?

-What in the world brought these men together?

*Only one thing: They were radically transformed by the power of the cross.

They were radically changed by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Jesus broke down all of the old barriers and turned these men into spiritual brothers.

*They were brothers in Christ!

-Ready to work together.

-Growing stronger in the Lord.

-Getting ready to go on mission for the Lord.

*Their lives had been radically transformed by Jesus Christ.