Sermon Tone Analysis

What type of people or events tend to draw large crowds?

Politicians, actors, musicians, athletes, are known to pack venues.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City draws streets full of people.

Black Friday sales the next day fills the stores with eager shoppers.

College football games on that Saturday are filled to capacity.

Church attendance the next day is often sparse at best.

A common lament among members of long established congregations is that attendance is nowhere near what it was a generation or two ago.

When was the last time extra chairs needed to be set up or you had to sit in the front pew because you were the last one to arrive?

It just doesn’t seem to be a part of our culture anymore.

Sadly, the last time I was at a worship service which was so full that over a hundred people had to sit in the basement and watch the service on close circuit TV was at the funeral of a friend of mine in Merrill last year — Pastor James Weiland.

I doubt he ever had that many people come to listen to him during his ministry.

And yet, at the beginning of our text we hear about an extremely large crowd that came to church to hear a preacher who was well known — and controversial.

Let’s see why they were so interested and what was the result.

Our text is a continuation of our reading from Acts last week so let’s briefly get up to speed.

(summarize)

St. Paul taught the same message that Jesus verified in our gospel lesson last week.

Jesus is the Christ who was anointed to be our prophet, priest, and king.

In last week’s sermon Jesus proclaimed this before his work was done.

St. Paul confirms that Jesus had carried out his mission and that there were still different reactions to this truth.

He warns the people not to reject the Gospel.

We don’t know what the attendance was during St. Paul’s first visit to this synagogue but his message was so provocative that by the time he returned the next Sabbath, the place was packed.

This had to be advertised by word of mouth in a time before media.

(Word of mouth advertising can still be very effective even today but we are not limited to it.)

Unfortunately, not everyone was there to listen and believe.

I would assume that St. Paul repeated much of what he said the week before because he had new people in his audience.

The key point today is on several items:

1.The Gospel is reacted to in several different ways.

2.The rejection of the Gospel by the Jews is the impetus for the decision to focus on the Gentiles.

This is a major shift in the spread of the Gospel.

Paul tells how the Jewish leaders had Jesus executed, but God raised him to life.

He explains how Jesus is a Saviour—not a military leader defeating their enemies, but a perfect sacrifice paying for their sins.

Paul ends his sermon.

He urges his hearers to receive the forgiveness that Jesus offers.

Or will they laugh at this good news and reject God’s saving love?

Paul’s message excites great interest.

Some want to hear him again, while others are hostile.

On the following sabbath, the leading Jews publicly reject Paul.

As a result, Paul and Barnabas resolve to take their message to the Gentiles.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is to be preached to the Jews first.

Paul sees that this message must start with the Jews, but it mustn’t end with them.

The gospel is good news for all nations.

As Paul and Barnabas are expelled from the region, they shake its dust from their feet.

This is what Jews used to do after crossing Samaria on their way from Galilee to Jerusalem.

To shake the dust from your feet and clothes is to reject a place and its people (Luke 9:5).

If the people want nothing to do with God, so be it.

It’s their choice.

The second opportunity arises on the next Sabbath when most of the city comes to listen to Paul.

The unbelieving Jews are aroused to jealousy, however, and another pattern is set for the rest of Paul’s ministry: persecution by Jews (see 1 Thess.

2:14–16).

This pattern also includes a turning away from the synagogue to a ministry exclusively to the Gentiles (vv.

46–48).

One further observation about this sermon as well as all evangelism in Acts is important: the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit permeates it all.

If one stops to think about it long enough, he realizes how remarkable it is that in such a relatively brief time and with such little information many come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Undoubtedly this is the result of long preparation by the Holy Spirit prior to the coming of the missionary, and goes even further back to the eternal counsels of God in which his chosen ones “were appointed for eternal life” and finally believed (v.

48) as the message was preached.

Luke offers a postscript to the Antioch ministry by describing the spreading of the gospel through the whole region (v.

49), very likely through the efforts of the new converts themselves, for Paul and Barnabas are soon “expelled … from [the] region,” shaking “the dust from their feet in protest against them” (v.

51), a Jewish gesture of scorn commanded by Jesus himself (Matt.

10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5).

“We now turn to the Gentiles.”

Here was the second consequence of their blaspheming unbelief.

For turning to the Gentiles implies turning away from these Jews who had turned their backs on the gospel and eternal life.

Paul, of course, was not expressing his personal judgment.

Yes, the God of unlimited, ever-so-patient grace at last turns his back on those who persistently, adamantly spurn his grace and recklessly, endlessly challenge his patience.

Paul justifies the action of turning to the Gentiles by quoting Isaiah 49:6.

We should note well that here the Lord (= the covenant God, the God of changeless grace) is addressing the Messiah.

Through him the Lord would bring the light of salvation to the Gentiles everywhere (“to the ends of the earth”).

(Compare Luke 2:31, 32.)

So this had always been God’s plan: The Gentiles were to share in the redemption and salvation purchased and won entirely by the divine Christ.

Realizing this, we have no problem with Paul’s words: “For this is what the Lord has commanded us.”

He and Barnabas knew God’s will regarding the Messiah and his salvation.

They knew as well that those who had come to the light of salvation found in him were to bring it to all in this dark, lost world.

This gracious will of God they regarded as a command they would carry out with a joyous zeal.

“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored [or: glorified] the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

Realize what Paul’s pronouncement meant for these Gentiles.

They realized that they were to be admitted into the ranks of the redeemed and the saved without first fulfilling certain conditions.

They did not have to submit to circumcision or obligate themselves to the Jewish ceremonial law with its endless prescriptions (many of them man-made).

The Christ of God with his redeeming work, received by a faith worked in them by God—this alone was the open sesame for entrance into God’s kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, for membership in God’s blessed family.

• The departure from the Jews.

“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold … lo, we turn to the Gentiles … for so hath the Lord commanded us” (Acts 13:46,47).

The opposition of the Jews to the Gospel resulted in their losing the privilege to hear Gospel message.

The principle here, which is true in every age, is—spiritual privilege must be respected or you will lose it—so if you refuse the Gospel message, God just may take it away from you, and you will lose your opportunity to be saved.

Application: In some inner city churches once proud landmarks and bastions of Christianity stand almost vacant on Sunday mornings even though the neighborhood population has increased.

One reason is that the congregation continued to focus on their type of people.

In other cases the congregation did not compromise its message but it intentionally reached out to the culture that surrounded them.

What lesson can we learn?

It is wise to be aware of the culture that is receptive and focus on them instead of limiting the Gospel to one select demographic.