Sermon Tone Analysis

I Can See!

What do you have in common with a Chinese farmer and a rope?

A Chinese farmer, after having cataracts removed from his eyes, made his way from the Christian compound to the far interior of China.

Only a few days elapsed, however, before the missionary doctor looked out his bamboo window and noticed the formerly blind man holding the front end of a long rope.

In a single file and holding to the rope behind him came several blind Chinese whom the farmer had told about his operation.

They all knew the farmer had been blind, but now he could see.

He told them of the doctor who had cured him; naturally, all these other blind people wanted to meet the doctor who cured the blind man.

The cured man could not explain the physiology of the eye or the technique of the operation.

He could tell others he had been blind, the doctor had operated on him, and now he could see.

That was all the others needed to hear.

They came to the doctor.

This Chinese farmer was on a mission trip.

He had a mission to give witness of the doctor’s ability to give people sight when they were blind.

He didn’t go away to medical school to learn what he did not know about the eye or the operation.

He did not depend on the doctor to make his way to the blind people.

He began with who he knew, the doctor, told what he knew, the doctor can give sight to blind people, how it knew it, because he was blind but now could see because the doctor gave him sight, going where he knew others needed to know it, everywhere there were blind people, and why he wanted them to know it, because he was so grateful and appreciative for what the doctor did for him.

Imagine what these others who came and received sight had to say when they returned home and encountered anyone with a sight problem.

They became witnesses of the truth they now knew.

That’s what missions is.

That’s what it means for you a Christian to live on mission.

That’s what we find Jesus telling the disciples to do in Acts chapter 1.

Because God is a Holy and Forgiving God and we are the ones He has forgiven let’s honor Him in standing to read His Holy Word.

“Look the Right Way”

We find how in our text for today.

Because God is a Holy and Forgiving God and we are the ones He has forgiven let’s honor Him in standing to read His Holy Word.

PRAYER

I have preached the past two Sundays about the need for us to be a missions central church.

I preached about how God is a God of mission.

I have preached the past two Sundays about the need for us to be a missions central church.

I preached about how God is a God of mission.

Mission is the Narrative of God’s Word the Bible

God’s mission is one of the central themes that propels the narrative of Scripture.

It begins with God at Creation (to have a relationship with Mankind).

After mankind, through sin, moves itself away from God, the mission is propelled toward a particular chosen people with a particular purpose of living on mission as a blessing to other nations by pointing them toward a relationship with God.

Series Text is just one of many passages giving that command.

We read here in Acts that after Jesus lived, died and rose again, to fulfill the mission, he passes this mission on to His followers.

The rest of Acts, chapters 2-28, is Luke’s narrative of how God’s people faithfully lived out what He gave them to do here in chapter 1.

This same Mission is God’s Calling to Us

We find in scripture the repeated rebellion of God’s people against their God given mission.

The climax of God’s missional activity is the incarnation - God putting skin on as the man Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

Jesus’ death became the atonement for the sins of all who believe on Him, removing for Christians what separates us from God.

As he ascended and the church began, Jesus passed on the mission to all who are His followers to live as a blessing of reconciliation to the lost world, leaving behind the Holy Spirit to empower the accomplishment of the mission.

This Mission is God’s Calling to Us

“In our own time—standing as we do between Pentecost () and the return of Christ—our central task as God’s people is to live united in the love of other people and God, through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God’s mission is about salvation; it is about reconciliation with God, one another, and all creation—through Christ.

Mission is about God’s will being fully realized.

God graciously invites us to actively participate in this realization.”

- Faithlife Study Bible

Our church, us, we can be just as authentic, just as believable, just as trustworthy, and just as committed as Peter, James, John, Mary, Stephen, Phillip, Paul, Silas, Barnabas or any other Christian we read about it the book of Acts.

We won’t be, however, until we look the right way.

Our church, us, we can be just as authentic, just as believable, just as trustworthy, and just as committed as Peter, James, John, Mary, Stephen, Phillip, Paul, Silas, Barnabas or any other Christian we read about it the book of Acts.

We won’t be, however, until we look the right way.

“Look the Right Way”

No, I am not talking about how what kind of haircut you have, whether or not you have tattoos or body piercings, people with hair over their eyes or their body covered in tattoos can be a witness if they have been forgiven and saved by Jesus Christ.

I am not talking about if you wear high dollar, high class clothes or clothes from the local thrift store.

Being a Christian is about who you have in your heart - Jesus Christ through the presence of the HS.

I am not even talking about whether you are blind in both eyes or have 20/20 vision.

When I say “Look the Right Way”, its about something else.

I am talking about the spiritual vision we need to have that Luke outlines here in these few verses we just read a few minutes ago.

In these verse we can find the vision necessary for our missions involvement, and until we perceive it clearly and follow it zealously, we will not be authentic, believable, trustworthy or committed.

Normally I develop my outline from the first verse of a text and follow through to the end, but in our current context it the opposite is necessary here.

Jesus has called and commanded us to be a missions central church.

But, if Jonesboro First Baptist is to ever live and be a Missions Central Church, we must first begin with a vision of Oneness.

We must have a vision of Oneness.

We find in v.13 - They didn’t depart to their own homes.

They didn’t go hang out at the local restaurant or coffeehouse.

Here now in this room we find they had a vision of Oneness.

We know this by what Luke tells us in v.14 - emphatic Greek - Homothymadon - meaning unanimous, they were without dissent; often translated as “together” - The point is they all were in One place for One purpose.

They were all One-minded with One focus - receiving the Holy Spirit and being witnesses to the world of Jesus Christ.

It began with prayer.

10 days of concerted and concentrated prayer.

Here now in this room we find they had a vision of Oneness.

We know this by what Luke tells us in v.14 - emphatic Greek - Homothymadon - meaning unanimous, they were without dissent; often translated as “together” - The point is they all were in One place for One purpose.

They were all One-minded with One focus - receiving the Holy Spirit and being witnesses to the world of Jesus Christ.

It began with prayer.

10 days of concerted and concentrated prayer.

As you read through Acts, you will find how Luke many times emphasizes the fact that God uses prayer to work in and through His church to accomplish His mission.

I imagine this was not the normal prayer meeting like in most churches were most folks pray with their minds on hold and their mouths on automatic.

Luke emphasizes the time was spent in united and continuous prayer, which mean they were continuously diligent in prayer.

10 days of concerted and concentrated prayer.

As you read through Acts, you will find how Luke many times emphasizes the fact that God uses prayer to work in and through His church to accomplish His mission.

Prayer is the only omnipotence God grants us.

Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.

(1500 Illustrations)

We will never be a missions central Church until we are a unified church.

Unity in prayer is God’s intended foundation for our mission.

Remember the traits of such a church - #4 is they spend time together on their knees praying about and for missions.

We will never be a missions central Church until we are a unified church.

Unity in prayer is God’s intended foundation for our mission.

Remember the traits of such a church - #4 is they spend time together on their knees praying about and for missions.

When we are a unified Church around the single mission of the GC - we will see ourselves having again and doing again what we see here and in

They had united prayers and we will too.

We see the rest of chapter 1 and in

They had united decisions and we will too.

The truth from the Bible is this: when a church loses sight of the mission for which they were called, being witnesses to the world here and everywhere, that church becomes a divided house that will not stand because it is not standing for what it was designed to stand.

Nate Adams, our executive director of the Baptist State Association, has an unusual pair of eyes: his right eye is nearsighted and his left eye is farsighted.

He said for years he didn’t know it because each eye compensated for the other: his right eye was on duty while reading, and his left eye did all the work while driving or at the movies.

However, therein developed the problem, in that because his eyes were not working together as one in the messages they sent to his brain, his near-sighted right eye began to dominate what his brain saw.

His left eye began to give up gradually making his distance vision fuzzier and fuzzier.

Conclusion: The NT Christians in Acts realized Jesus saved them to see perfectly.