Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #26

Back to the Beginning:

When Church was Church

*Christ Alone is Enough?*

*Acts 15:1-6*

 

The World is full of people who will tell you what you need.

If you have a problem if you want their opinion, they will give it to you.

If you DO NOT want their opinion they will give it to you.

If you cough in public or sneeze someone will probably be there to tell you what you need to do to get rid of that.

You might say "I've been to the Dr. and I've got my medicine, he said "this or that" and they will come back and say, "well that's all well and good, but you need to do this too.

You know, 'the dr.

doesn't know everything'"

"Oh … I don't trust dr.s they will say"

 

I heard of a guy who heard he only had six months to live and they recommended his treatment and course of action and he went for a 2nd opinion … this one said "Move to Arkansas, buy a Hog Farm and marry a woman with 15 children".

The guy asked is that going to make me better, or increase the quality of the time I have left?"

"No," the dr.

replied "but it will be the longest six months you have ever lived!"

Well … people out there are sure like that aren't they?

But we are different here in the church aren't we?

 

Are you kidding … go to any gathering of Christians and tell them your life story and people are going to give you a whole series of prescriptions for what spiritually ails you.

"Well, yes you need to receive Jesus, AND

- - You need to be in Sunday School

- - You need to memorize scripture

- - You need to be here on Wednesday Night

- - You need to serve in a ministry

- - You need to stop watching television and movies

- - you need to stop … this … that

 

And THEN Christ can work in your life … Then you will truly be a Christian … Then Jesus Can Change your life

 

That brings us to the question that they were faced with in this early church …

 

IS JESUS ENOUGH?

 

*READ 15:1-6*

* *

IS CHRIST ALONE … ENOUGH?

They were saying that he was enough in their preaching but NOT in this teaching.

There will always be someone in every church that is a full-on legalist.

Usually they are GOOD people

Usually they are GODLY people

Usually they are Strong GIVERS and Generous with their money and possessions

And they are Faithful to the Church

They are Faithful to the Things of God

 

That's what we have here … these men were Pharisees, who had come to faith in Christ … and were still bound to the Old Covenant Teaching … It was precious to them, special to them, it was powerful for them and they wanted to make sure that EVERYONE followed what they followed.

Is Jesus Enough?

REALLY?

Do we Believe That?  REALLY?

Well there are two sides to this and both work together beautifully

 

If Jesus is Enough … Where should we be telling people to Look?

To Jesus … not to the Church Covenant or to your Neighbor, to your Sunday School Teacher, to the Pastor,

 

Look to Jesus

 

 

*1.

Behold*

* *

Behold - I love that word … It means LOOK …

 

it means "Check this Out"

it means Stop looking at THAT and Look at This

it means This is what You Need

 

Paul had the audacity to go out into the world, the Gentile, Pagan world mind you, and simply say …

 

Look to Jesus

Come to Jesus

Believe in Jesus

Receive Jesus

And word got back to Jerusalem

 

What was Paul thinking?

He Obviously didn't go to seminary,  hey wait a minute Paul IS a Pharisee, trained by the best, Gamaliel, well we need to just talk with him.

So first they decided to go UP to Antioch … we would say UP because it is North and West, THEY would say DOWN because EVERYTHING was DOWN from Jerusalem because Jerusalem was on a Mountain AND because Jerusalem was the Height of everything, religiously and in life so they went DOWN, to anywhere else, they condescended to travel anywhere else and anyone else would go UP to Jerusalem.

That in itself gives you an idea where these people were coming from.

When they came to Antioch and started teaching that "Unless they be circumcised you can't be saved" -

 

lets say that got Paul and Barnabas riled up

 

NIV says "sharp dispute and debate" the KJV says "no small dissension ~/ disputation"

 

 

And verse 6 says that back in Jerusalem, they met to consider the question.

What question?

Is Jesus ENOUGH

 

Yet throughout Scripture God's call has always been

 

  *A*.

*Behold *…

Look At Me …

Turn to Me …

Repent … means exactly that turn around and Look at me

 

Behold -

Isaiah 12:2 - /Behold, God IS my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid … the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation/

 

Remember the Angel said

Luke 10:2 /behold, I bring you tidings of great joy/  /which shall be for all people /--- LOOK

 

John the Baptist saw Jesus and said /Behold the Lamb of God who takes way the sin of the world/

 

Isaiah 45:22-24 /Turn (look) to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

23 By Myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked:  Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

24 they will say of me, ín the Lord alone are righteousness and strength."/

But WHY?

Why Christ Alone?

Won't all those other things help?

Was their a time, is there a picture in the OT of turning away from the traditional and the God commanded law to be saved alone?

I'm glad you asked me that

 

*  B.

Why?* - A *Picture* of Why

In John 3:14 - Jesus is speaking to another Pharisee named Nicodemus and Jesus said … /Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted /up … What did Jesus Mean?

 

Do you know this story?

Turn with me if you'd like to Numbers 21:4-9 READ

 

What do we Do about the Snakes?

---

You can be sure they had tried everything … shooing them away, beating them, running, moving away from, ask God to take them away … but God says

 

Make a Snake … Put it on a pole … Look to the Snake on the Pole.

HUH?

You aren't going to take them away

 

But those who in their sin looked to the image of their oppressor, found LIFE

 

WHY?

Because God said that this was the only way