Sermon Tone Analysis

Text

Main Point

All Christians are called to spend their lives turning to Jesus, to truly know Him and to make Him truly known.

Introduction

Paul’s 2nd missionary journey continues

Silas and Timothy with him

In Chapter 16 - Three conversions that show that Jesus saves from all backgrounds

Lydia, the religious seeker

The slave girl, enslaved to the dark side

The jailor, somewhere in between

In Chapter 17, we follow Paul, Timothy and Silas as they make stops in Thessalonica, Berea and Athens

Again, we see many of the same themes:

Paul proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ

The gospel is preached to both Jew and Gentile

Both Jews and Gentiles believe

Again, some respond in anger and persecution continues to follow them

Reading and studying the ministries of these men and women in Acts is always inspiring

And there is always something to learn

As always, we learn in Chapter 17 that Jesus continues to act in the world through the Church, growing his kingdom every time one of His disciples does what Jesus empowers us to do - be his witnesses

The lesson I want us to take away from this chapter, is that all disciples of Jesus are not here on holiday...

But we are called to action with certain responsibilities

If there is one thing I want you to remember from today’s sermon it is this:

All Christians are called to spend their lives turning to Jesus, to truly know Him and to make Him truly known.

We see this coming through in Paul and company’s travels, beginning in Thessalonica

1.

The Call to Proclaim - Even in the Face of Hostility

Paul & Silas in Thessalonica

Luke says Paul, Silas and Timothy passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, but they stayed and preached in Thessalonica (the apostles planted churches in the major cities, but it was assumed that there would be multiplication through their converts and disciples and that through them, the smaller cities would be reached)

There are 2 probable reasons for this:

Thessalonica was the principle city of Macedonia - and ideal place to preach

Luke says there was a synagogue of the Jews.

(Paul always started in the synagogues)

As was Paul’s habit, he went to the synagogues and reasoned with them from the scriptures

Take note of Paul’s approach when preaching to Jews

He meets them where they are at

He speaks in language they understand

They know the OT, so he speaks from the OT

He knows that they know the OT speaks of a coming Messiah

Expounding on the OT scriptures, Paul “explained and proved that it was necessary for the Christ (Messiah) to suffer and to rise from the dead”

He quotes the OT Scriptures (like ), showing that the scriptures predicted that when the Messiah comes, he will suffer and then rise from the dead

And then he brings forward all the facts of Jesus death and resurrection as evidence that those OT Scriptures were fulfilled in Jesus…

…proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

“This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ”

Jesus Christ

What is the main goal of his preaching?

That his hearers would believe in Jesus Christ,

believe in his death & resurrection,

believe that his death & resurrection was for our salvation

and that they would turn to God in faith and repentance

and surrender themselves to Jesus as their Lord and Saviour

If you go back and examine all of the sermons we have seen and studied so far in Acts, this is always the case

the goal of the preacher is always to glorify Jesus and proclaim the gospel

that is what you should look for in a preacher

not somebody who can give you 3 ways to live a happy life

or lists of do’s and don’ts

Because the only way to enjoy a truly happy life is to know Jesus

and doing all the do’s and not doing all the don’ts can never save you

You need to hear the gospel

We all need to hear the gospel

We need to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen, and what it means for us

and so do the people that we are trying to reach

Paul knows this.

So Paul goes into the synagogue 3 sabbaths in a row, to do nothing other than what he has been called to do: to proclaim Jesus Christ

To be a witness for Jesus Christ

And isn’t that what we have all been called to do?

What was the outcome of Paul’s preaching?

Do you think if Paul preached that kind of

The same as most times that he preached:

Some responded with faith and believed

As was the case here again - as we see in verse 4: some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas

Others responded with anger and formed a mob to find Paul and Silas and drag them to the city authorities

Here’s the truth:

We are called to be Jesus’ witnesses here on this earth

The story of Acts is that Jesus is alive, and through His Church - who he has called and given power to be His witnesses - Jesus is growing His kingdom until He comes again

Sometimes when we are witnessing about Jesus, Jesus stirs the hearts of the hearers so that they believe the gospel and are saved

Sometimes, the hearts of the hearers are hardened and they chase us away

But even when this happens, God is in control

As we have seen so many times in Acts, God uses the wickedness of men and persecution to spread the gospel further

Even as he does now, because Paul and Silas escape Thessalonica now to go to Berea and preach the gospel there

Sometimes when we share the gospel, people are going to believe and be saved

Other times, people are going to laugh at us, mock us, get angry with us

What matters is that we don’t stop proclaiming the gospel

We are called to proclaim - even in the face of hostility

We are called to make Jesus truly known

And don’t think of this as a duty that must be fulfilled with good motivations… think of it as it really is - it is a privilege

We don’t HAVE TO proclaim Jesus, we GET TO proclaim Jesus

And we get to be first hand witnesses of how Jesus changes the world through the preaching of the gospel

Look at the complaint of the crowd about Paul and Silas to the authorities:

“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also...”

They didn’t have internet or blogs

They didn’t have radio or TV

They didn’t have fancy church buildings and big budgets

They didn’t have smoke machines or entertaining worship bands

But this small group of Christians turned the world upside down

By proclaiming Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen for the justification and salvation of sinners

Would you like to see Jesus turn our world upside down?

Proclaim the gospel!

2. The Call to Examine - Even Our Long-held Traditions & Beliefs

There isn’t just a call to Jesus’ church to proclaim - there is also a call to examine

There isn’t just a call to Jesus’ church to proclaim - there is also a call to examine

Just as there is a responsibility for the preacher to preach the true gospel,