Sermon Tone Analysis

Belief in 3D

18th century, George Whitfield, one of the preachers f the Great Awakening, from England, missionary to New colony "Georgia"

George Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England.

He asked one man, “What do you believe?”

George Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England.

He asked one man, “What do you believe?”

“Well, I believe the same as the church.”

“Well, I believe the same as the church.”

“And what does the church believe?” “Well, they believe the same as me.”

“And what does the church believe?” “Well, they believe the same as me.”

Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, “And what is it that you both believe?”

Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, “And what is it that you both believe?”

“Well, I suppose the same thing.”

“Well, I suppose the same thing.”

If the same question was asked of you - "What do you believe?"

If the same question was asked of you - "What do you believe?"

Would your response be similar?

Would your response be similar?

Would you know what to say?

Would you know what to say?

- but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence

1Peter 3:15 - but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence

Peter was right.

Peter was right.

To be an effective Christian, is to be a person who can go into their world with the gospel, who is able to share it and live it out, is the one who can give a reason to why he believes what he believes

The effective Christian, the Christian who really meets the world with the gospel and who is able to communicates and make an impression is the one who can give to every man who asks reasons for what he believes.

Unfortunately there are those who profess to believe in the gospel but haven't got the faintest idea why they believe in the gospel.

They may have a knowledge in their head but it never reaches their heart

Or they may have a knowledge but find themselves doubting what they believe from time to time.

And when this is the case, the good news of the gospel never gets proclaimed from their lips because while they say they believe, they have no idea what they believe

And while it's true that we all start out on the ground level, we're not meant to stay there

No one stays a baby forever

We all learn to crawl, walk and then run

Some quicker than others but we all grow

But for some reason, it has become acceptable to call yourself a follower of Christ and not know what it means to be a follower of Christ

We have multitudes of people who have made a profession of faith but they have never advanced beyond the initial new birth.

Just as we don't stay as babies in our physical lives we're not meant to stay as babies in our spiritual lives

We're meant to grow

We're called to believe

Belief is not belief unless it produces action

George Whitfield would travel the colonies of early America preaching the good news of the gospel and as a result thousands of people made professions of faith in Christ

Concerned about the amount of people who were responding to Whitfield's messages the question was asked to him

"How many of these conversions do you think are genuine?"

Whitfield responded with this answer

"We'll know in five years"

Whitefield's response reveals an important truth

Conversion is only conversion if it produces change

Belief is not belief unless it produces action

I want us to keep that in mind as we look at one of the heroes of our faith

A person you may be familiar with, especially if you’re following along in our daily readings through the New Testament or you may not be

Stephen, - one of the first deacons (servant) in the church but also known as the first Christian martyr

is where we first read of Him

The church is young and a problem arises in the church

Hellenistic greeks - converts - not jewish complaining that they are being overlooked

The 12 in Godly wisdom address the issue - no division

The solution - delegate responsibility - deacons are born

7 men - full of Spirit and wisdom - so they can handle logistics - so they can serve the church

The first in the list is a man named Stephen

If you look at vs. 8 you begin to get a snapshot of who he is

Full of grace and power doing great wonders

A layman - a deacon - who has taken his faith beyond the beginning stages of belief

But the true test of Stephen's belief is about to come full circle

He is approached by a group of men, religious men who made accusations against his beliefs

But because they couldn't fathom his wisdom , because Stephen was filled with the Spirit of God

They couldn't find any charges against him so they made up their own and accused him of Blasphemy against the law of Moses and the temple of God

Which really meant the law of Moses and the temple of God

Two actions that were punishable by death

And thrown into this situation Stephen is given a brief moment to defend himself

His feet are to the fire, He's facing death

He can shrink back deny His faith and live or he can believe in what he knows

He can trust in what He's heard from the word of God

And he can speak with boldness the truth of the gospel

And he does

And he can do these things because he wasn't just a Believer in Jesus Christ in name only

He was living it out

He was putting action to his belief

And What Stephen does in chapter 7 is reveal his three dimensional (3-D) faith

And I say 3D because his faith isn’t just rhetoric (a title or figure of speech)

Just as when you go to a 3D movie and the images on the flat screen come to life and you can see all sides of an image

Stephen’s faith isn’t just on the surface

There is a depth to it.

And we see this in the message that he proclaims to the ones who weren’t used to being preached to.

Looking at his message we see:

That not only does he have a knowledge of the gospel(information), but he has a faith (trust) in it’s authority and authenticity (transforming) and because of that he preaches with boldness ( proclamation)the good news that all men, even these religious idiots, have the opportunity to receive God's grace.

So as we look at Stephen's sermon what I want us to see is that we too are called to give a response of the hope that we have to all men

That the Word of God is more than just for preachers and bible scholars

It's important to not just believe but to put that belief into action and let the Word of God affect every aspect of who we are.

To be a Christian means that we not only have the right information but that there has been a change (transformation) and then we are to share (proclaim) it with (to) others

So this morning when it comes to our belief I want us to see what it looks like to have this same kind of 3-D faith

What it looks like to have this 3-D faith

The first dimension that we need to our faith is...

We Know God's Word ()

If I were to ask you to quote Scripture from memory, how much could you quote?

What about the story of the Bible?

Could you walk me through the Bible, book by book and give me a synopsis ( overview ) of what the Bible is about?

Scripture memory is important but do you know the big picture of the Bible

Knowing the big picture of the Bible helps us see our world through God's eyes

Knowing who God is, and why He sent His Son , to pay a debt that we owed, transforms how we see not only ourselves but also others around us

Knowing the truth of God's Word should affect every aspect of our lives

Not just knowing it to know it but knowing it to live it out