Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Let me tell you a story.

This is a story that has been pieced together by reading letters from two Russian teenagers in 1960s Soviet Russia.

Their names are Maria and Varia

The two Russian teenagers had once been schoolmates in a Communist boarding school.

Varia, a member of the Communist Youth Organization, had constantly teased and tormented Maria, who was a Christian.

In response, Maria prayed for the young Communist with special concern.

One day Varia said, “I cannot understand what a being you are.

Here so many insult and hurt you, and yet you love everyone."

Maria said, “God has taught us to love everyone, not only friends, but also enemies."

“Can you love me, too?" Varia asked.

Maria hugged her, and they both began to weep.

Not long afterward, Varia received Jesus Christ and witnessed openly to everyone about it.

Maria once wrote in a letter: “We went together to the assembly of the godless [the school’s Communist Youth Club meeting].

I warned her to be reserved, but it was useless.

I went with her to see what would happen.

After the Communist hymn, Varia came forward before the whole assembly.

Courageously and with much feeling, she witnessed to those gathered about Jesus her Savior.

She implored all to give up the way of sin and to come to Christ.

All became silent and no one interrupted her.

When she finished speaking, she sang with her splendid voice the whole Christian hymn: “I am not ashamed to proclaim the Christ who died to defend His commandments and the power of His cross.’

They took her away and imprisoned her.

Later Maria visited at the prison.

Maria asked through the iron bars, “Varia, don't you regret what you did? "No," she answered.

"And if they would free me, I would do it again and would tell them about the great love of Jesus.

Don’t think that I suffer.

I am very glad that the Lord loves me so much and gives me the joy to endure for His name."

This was the first time Maria had been able to visit Varia in prison.

Her friend was thin, pale, and beaten, but her eyes shone with the peace of God and an unearthly joy.

Months passed after their single visit in prison.

Then Maria received a letter from her friend who was in a Siberian labor camp.

Varia wrote:

My heart praises and thanks God that, through you, He showed me the way to salvation.

Now, being on this way.

my Iife has a purpose and I know where to go and for whom I suffer.

I feel the desire to tell and to witness to everybody about the great joy of salvation that l have in my heart.

Who can separate us from the love of God in Christ?

Nobody and nothing.

Neither prison nor suffering.

The sufferings that God sends us only strengthens us more and more in the faith in Him.

My heart ts so full that the grace of God overflows.

At work, they curse and punish me, giving me extra work because I cannot be silent.

I must tell everyone what the Lord has done for me.

He has made me a new being, a new creation, of me who was on the way of perdition.

Can I be silent after this?

No, never!

As long as my lips can speak I will witness to every one about His great love.

Here there are many who believe in Christ as their personal Savior.

More than half the prisoners are believers.

We have among us great singers and good preachers of the Gospel.

In the evening, when we all gather after heavy work, how wonderful it is to pass at least some time together in prayer at the feet of our Savior.

With Christ there is freedom everywhere.

I learned here many beautiful hymns and every day God gives me more and more of His Word.

All our brethren greet you and are glad that your faith in God is so powerful and that you praise Him in your sufferings unceasingly.

Yours.

Varia

What a beautiful, powerful story.

That the tormentor of Christians becomes a Christian, and even suffers greater torment herself in Jesus name.

What is it that makes someone go against the grain of their friends, family and colleagues?

To turn their back on the hierarchy?

To risk everything to proclaim Jesus?

What is it that changes the attackers of religion into defenders of the faith?

This girl was so radically changed.

She said “they curse and punish me, giving me extra work because I cannot be silent.

I must tell everyone what the Lord has done.”

This story is one of countless stories from the past couple thousand years of what happens when regular people encounter Jesus.

It is a familiar and repetitive pattern from the Apostles time to today, that when you receive Christ, you are compelled to speak in His Name, come what may.

Jesus makes Roman soldiers stand up to the emperor, he makes Bible smugglers out of traveling Chinese folks, secret missionaries out of Filipino maids, he makes martyrs out of princes and paupers alike.

Jesus turns the ordinary upside down, transforming all kinds of people into Announcers of Good News and bringers of God’s grace.

In the case of our passage in Acts today, He causes low class fishermen to stand up to the political and religious elite.

Not in the arrogant and revolutionary way that we often see on the news with riots and protests, but with the calm boldness of Holy Spirit powered Gospel preaching.

They’re not there to make a political statement, or to undermine the establishment; they are there to proclaim the good news about Jesus and his resurrection.

They could not help but share it to all who would listen!

This is the second part of the story we started last week, where Peter and John healed a well-known beggar who had been disabled since birth.

When people saw what had happened Peter took the opportunity to preach.

He said that the disabled man had been healed in Jesus name!

That’s where we left it last week, with Peter’s preaching, and now we pick up the story in Acts 4 when the authorities get involved.

We’re just going to look at the story in four parts, seeing how these apostles are

Arrested

Questioned

Deliberations

Released

All along however, we can see that the name of Jesus must be proclaimed!

The name of Jesus must be proclaimed!

Arrested

So while Peter and John were still preaching to the crowd that had gathered at the temple, some of the religious folks get a bit irritated!

Look at v1 and 2 with me:

I’m sure you can imagine the scene, there’s a big crowd of people around a preacher in the temple courts, but it’s not a priest teaching, rather it’s some random dude who’s talking about the heretic they had executed a few weeks ago, and how he was the promised messiah!

A concerned citizen speaks to one of the priests, who is very concerned about the whole affair, he then collects the temple guard and calls his boss to come down and put a stop to it!

Soon enough there is a bunch of temple staff and the security team descending on this unsanctioned preacher who prattling dangerous doctrine.

You see the Sadducees who are mentioned in this story are the religio-political group who are in power at this time.

They’re different from the Pharisees, who also get a bad wrap in the Bible.

They’re kind of like Labour vs the LNP, sometimes they appear somewhat similar, but there are some key areas where they are very different.

Two key issues that set the Sadducees apart from the Pharisees are the Messiah and the resurrection.

The Sadducees weren’t really looking for the messiah, and they didn’t believe in the resurrection.

This makes Peter’s preaching twice as concerning because he is teaching about the Messiah who rose from the dead!

That’s what got them riled up, or “greatly annoyed” as we read.

So they chuck ‘em in the lockup overnight because it was getting a bit late.

Wasn’t enough time to get the Jewish council together to sort this mess out.

It was too late though, the “damage” had already been done.