Sermon Tone Analysis

Why should we share the gospel?

Sharing the gospel is something we are commanded to do, making disciples is not a suggestion but a command Jesus gave His disciples and this same command falls to us today.

As I have been thinking and preaching through the book of Acts and thinking about the spread of the church and the growth of the church, a question has arisen.

If this is something the church must be doing why did Jesus have to command it.

Well that is simple, because its not natural for us to do this.

We are just like our ancestor Adam, we are very good at making excuses why we can't or shouldn't go out and make disciples.

The thing is Jesus commanded this, "make disciples" is an imperative.

So, when we come up with excuses or attribute blame to others for us not giving the gospel we are shirking our responsibility that was command to us by Jesus Himself.

I know how hard it is for those who aren't gifted to make disciples, that is why when we look at the Scripture we find that God didn't leave us to just figure things out on our own.

After Jesus' ascension, we have the birth and growth of the church in the book of Acts.

Through this book we find time and again some helpful tools as to going out and sharing the gospel.

Now I know what you're thinking, Mike you don't know how tough it is to go to my neighbor and share the gospel with them.

You don't know how tough people can be and how much other people influence them, they have so many good excuses and there is so much opposition out there.

Well your right there is so much opposition out there but God has provided some helpful tools on how to handle opposition, especially those who are of the world and want to turn people from God.

We looked at two of these components last week, two of these tools.

We are looking at “Five components to combating Opposition.

Five Components to Combating Opposition

The first component we looked at was prayer

Prayer

The Antioch church was thriving and very diverse, from different races, to different social economic class, to different religious backgrounds and even different languages.

All come together and serve God in God's growing church.

Now we found the leadership of the church was very reliant on God.

In verses two and three we find that they are fasting and praying.

They are devoting themselves to God and seeking God's guidance in what to do.

We have established that they are seeking His guidance by the response, the Holy Spirit speaks to them and tells them to, “set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

So there is a specific task for these two men, and this task is spelled out by God through the work and power of the Holy Spirit.

They only knew where God was leading them because they made prayer a priority in their lives.

They spent time in prayer.

They spent time in fasting which is a letting go of the worldly sustenance like food to focus your mind and strength on God alone.

This was an important task they were seeking.

They weren't seeking their own desire, they were trying to be in the will of God.

This is the first tool to any kind of guidance from the Lord and I believe we take it for granted.

We don’t make prayer enough of a priority and most of the time instead of seeking God's will in prayer we are trying to impose our will on Him.

Prayer in all honesty is the first tool to anything, when it come to our salvation, what was the first thing you did.

I know for me it was pray and asking for forgiveness of my sins.

I prayed and acknowledged that I was a sinner and needed to be Saved.

The first initial prayer of a follower of Christ is reliance on God and in essence a now what.

Now that I am saved what do I do?

Prayer does this for you, it is letting go of all that you have ever thought was reality and grabbing on to the reality of Jesus Christ as the God/Man, Judge and King.

Now as I walk through this life when it comes to big decisions it is saturated in prayer.

So when it comes to giving the gospel in a world that is filled with opposition your first tool is prayer.

The second component is Willingness

Willingness

The second tool we have is willingness.

Remember this isn't just answering a call.

We discussed on Wednesday night how for the most part when we have gone to Founder's Day, we were only answering a call not really having the willingness.

Most of us as I thought about it sat under the canopy and we fellowship more so then willingly go out and gave the gospel.

There is nothing wrong with a little bit of time to fellowship but we need to be out there more, this is the thing we need to be willing not just answering a call.

Barnabas and Saul weren't just answering a call, they were willing to go out of their comfort zone and give the gospel.

They didn't care what the opposition was they knew what was at stake and they went and followed the prompting of God's guidance and they willingly went out to tell people the good news, which is they are dead in their sins, but Jesus has provided a means for them to come alive.

This is what we need to be willing to do, tell people about the life they can have in Christ.

That is what Barnabas and Saul were willing to do.

Remember they went from Antioch to Cyprus.

This was not an easy trek.

They didn't have padded seats, they weren't on a luxury liner and when they arrived at the island they didn't rent the nicest fast most comfortable car they could find.

No they walked from town to town, with no Holiday Inn with a continental breakfast.

They just moved about with one cause on their minds, the gospel.

They were willing to go across this little island to be sure the people heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

They had willingness.

Now we move to the third component to combating opposition, the third is humility.

The third is humility.

Humility

Let's pick up in verse 6, "When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence.

This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God"

Here we meet the antagonist who is by no means humble.

He is the epitome of pride.

Look at the description of this man.

He is a "magician," which more then likely means he was trained in the east.

We have encountered a magician earlier in the book of Acts, Simon Magus, in Acts 8:9.

These "magicians" had knowledge of science and were able to use this knowledge to in essence con people into thinking they were greater then they were.

Simon Magus did this and so did Bar-Jesus.

To the point that he was given a Greek name "Elymas" which means "magic."

For the Romans, who were superstitious this was something that enticed them.

We are not really sure what this magic entailed but knowing is not that important.

What is important is that he is a false prophet.

What is important is that this man used what he knew to sway people away from God. He, as far as Jewish religion and culture is concerned is no Jew.

This man Bar-Jesus was not interested in truth but power.

He only wanted to control and as we see he even worked his magic so well that he was able to sway Sergius Paulus.

Luke writes that Sergius Paulus is an intelligent man meaning he is not a weak minded individual who falls for all kinds of con men.

The word here for intelligent also means he is a "man of understanding."

He is someone who seeks out knowledge for the sake of processing it so that he can apply it to life.

Bar-Jesus had a lot to offer Sergius Paulus in the way of knowledge.

So Sergius Paulus brought him into his cabinet.

Sergius was a proconsul.

A proconsul was a governor of a territory in the Roman Empire.

They were generally selected for a temporary stay in an area were they didn't need an army.

Cyprus was peaceful and they didn't need to use a show of force in order to keep order.

So the Roman government would assign a proconsul to the area.

Sergius Paulus was this proconsul and Paphos by the way was the capital of Cyprus.

Even though he was a ruler he was a man who had a sense of humility.

He was intelligent, this doesn't mean he was the smartest guy in the world but surrounded himself with those who had a lot of knowledge about different things.

That is why he had Bar-Jesus in his cabinet.

Bar-Jesus on the other hand worked his way into his cabinet for the purpose of having power.

Bar-Jesus wasn't going to be a ruler but if he had the ear of a ruler he could influence the rulers decisions making Bar-Jesus a very powerful man.

This fed his ego but on the flip-side it shows the humility of Sergius Paulus.

He is the ruler yet he surrounds himself with people who have knowledge.

This specific word for intelligent is used three other times in Scripture, twice by Jesus and once by Paul.

Look at what Jesus says in Matthews Gospel

Jesus is praising God the Father that the religious leaders of the day had the truth hidden from them, because they were so puffed up on their own intellect, they knew it all.

They understood everything.