Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Many of you in here were like me and my family back in February.

You were altogether glad to contribute to the over $1B box office ticket sales for Black Panther.

You have learned a new way of greeting your friends.

You may have even convinced yourself by now that, since it’s hidden anyway, Wakanda could potentially be a real place.

It just hasn’t been found yet.

A major event for every anticipated blockbuster movie is the Red Carpet Premier.

That’s the big event for the first showing of the movie.

All of the stars come out, and you’ve got to be somebody to get a ticket.

On either side of the red carpet are ropes keeping back the hordes of people who are somewhat less than patiently waiting for their favorite star to make their entrance.

I don’t typically care about red carpet events, but this was the Black Panther.

That’s the big event for the first showing of the movie.

All of the stars come out, and you’ve got to be somebody to get a ticket.

On either side of the red carpet are ropes keeping back the hordes of people who are somewhat less than patiently waiting for their favorite star to make their entrance.

I watched as folk began to make their entrance.

One of the best parts was when John Kani made his way down the carpet.

John Kani played King T’Chaka, T’Challa’s father.

King T’Chaka made his first appearance in the movie Captain America, Civil War.

The reporter asked John Kani about that and said,

You really established the accent and the language for Wakanda.

How does that feel, to know that it’s now spurred into this whole movie?

John Kani replied,

Yes indeed.

You know, we’ve watched too many movies of Tarzan in Africa, and we haven’t found this legend.

When our grandfathers tell us stories, there was no white man living with apes.

So when I was talking to my son in Captain America, I asked the director, ‘Why are we speaking English.

We’re from Wakanda.”

And that’s how I introduced isiXhosa.

I can’t do the clicks, but isiXhosa is a real dialect.

John Kani said that when Africa heard him speak that language in the movie, they celebrated from Cape to Cairo.

The interviews and the regal African clothing that the stars were wearing made this a Red Carpet event like none other.

And when the king show up… When T’Challa, Chadwick Boseman came on the scene, you can imagine the adulation and praise!

He said, “This is an epic experience.

Streets blocked off.

People dressed in African garb.

It’s an amazing experience.”

It was hard for him to put into words how “out of this world” the Black Panther Red Carpet Premier was.

Whether you’re a comic book nerd like me or not, we can all relate to the response of adulation and praise when someone people consider to be important makes a grand entrance.

Think about a concert after all of the preliminary, set-up acts have already performed, and now the stage is set for the band or singer that everyone’s paid to see.

If you’ve never participated in something like that yourself, you’ve at least seen it.

The response to the grand entrance of the star of the show is always praise and adulation.

Whether you’re a comic book nerd like me or not, we can all relate to the response of adulation and praise when someone people consider to be important makes a grand entrance.

Think about a concert after all of the preliminary, set-up acts have already performed, and now the stage is set for the band or singer that everyone’s paid to see.

If you’ve never participated in something like that yourself, you’ve at least seen it.

The response to the grand entrance of the star of the show is always praise and adulation.

Well no one can make an entrance the way God can.

No one can impress upon people the significance of his presence the way God can.

The Bible is full grand entrances and appearances of God.

But the grandeur and magnificence of the Holy Spirit’s entrance on Pentecost is like none other in that it marks the fulfillment of Jesus’ declaration that the kingdom of God has broken into this world as a permanent reality.

Unlike the Black Panther Red Carpet Premier, or a Beyonce concert, there weren’t thousands upon thousands of people waiting for the Holy Spirit to show up.

There were only 120 men and women gathered together in a house, devoting themselves to prayer as they waited.

But when God showed up, the adulation and exuberant praise spilled out into the streets for the world to see.

The grand entrance of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is a one time event.

We’re not looking for a repeat performance or an encore.

What we are looking for is to be people who still respond to his presence with an overflow of praise because the kingdom of God has come upon, among, and in us.

So as we take a look back on that Grand Entrance I want to talk about three things; The Promise, The Praise, and The Perplexity.

The Promise

Chapter 1 ends with the restoration of the number the apostles back to 12. Matthias is chosen to replace Judas Iscariot.

Luke now transitions to the day of Pentecost.

But even in the transition he is continuing to press the theme of the necessity for the Scripture to be fulfilled.

Luke tells us in 1:15-16,

ACTS1.1

Peter declared that what happened with Judas, his betrayal and treachery was not an accident of history.

What he did was foretold in Scripture, and the Scripture had to be fulfilled.

And that same theme of fulfillment dominates the first four verses of chapter 2. What is being fulfilled now is the promise that Jesus repeatedly made to his disciples.

God is now acting to fulfill the promise given in when Jesus said,

And

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.

But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

So the “not many days” have now come.

Pentecost.

Ten days after Jesus’ ascension and 50 days after the end of Passover.

Luke says…

And in 1:4-5, And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So the “not many days” have now come.

Pentecost.

Ten days after Jesus’ ascension and 50 days after the end of Passover.

Luke says…(rd.

1-4)

I mentioned this last week, and I’ll say it again.

What we see happening in Acts is connected to what came before in Luke’s first volume, his gospel.

This promise of the coming and baptism of the Holy Spirit didn’t just show up at the end of Luke’s gospel, but he has been preparing us for this day from the beginning of his message.

In , the word of God comes to John the son of Zechariah, John the Baptist, and he begins to preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

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John started the deal off by saying to the people, “this baptism ain’t nothing, you just wait until the one who is mightier than I comes.

I’m not worthy to untie his sandals.

He’s got a baptism that will blow your mind.”

Luke started off his gospel by saying, “something serious is coming.”

I want you to notice this with me.

Notice the parallel line Luke is drawing at the beginning of Acts with the beginning of his gospel.

In the next paragraph of , after John the Baptist makes that statement, what happens?

Jesus is baptized.

Then as he is praying the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descends upon him in bodily form like a dove.

And what is the Holy Spirit doing?

He is empowering Jesus for his ministry.

Because right after that Jesus begins his ministry.

There is a direct line between the Holy Spirit’s coming upon Jesus and empowering him for his kingdom of God ministry and his coming upon the disciples to empower them for their kingdom of God mission.

The disciples, we’ve already been told, are devoting themselves to prayer.

They are Christ’s followers and are being like him.

And in their Christlike devotion the Spirit comes to empower them.