Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray — SIS

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He spent 40 days appearing to his disciples teaching them about the kingdom of God.

(two on road to Emmaus —

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So they asked him if he was going to rebuild and restore the kingdom of Israel?

They were under the impression, as I’m sure I would have been, that when the Messiah came that he would establish the kingdom immediately.

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Power, not to spread an earthly kingdom, but to spread the Kingdom of God, not physically, but spiritually.

God will establish it physically one day Himself.

When we receive the Holy Spirit of God, we receive Power!

What kind of power?

The Power of God Himself!

So do we become God?

Of course not!

Do we get the ability to use God’s power to do whatever He can do?

Not a chance!

The Holy Spirit is not a genie that you get to command.

The Holy Spirit is not the force that you learn to control and do whatever you want.

But…The Holy Spirit, being God, can do anything He wants “through” you!

God can walk on water, we can’t.

But God caused Peter to walk on water.

God can disappear and reappear instantly anywhere He wants, we can’t.

But God instantly transported Philip about 30 miles from the road going to Gaza to the city of Azotus.

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A quick note on tongues — You’ve heard me talk about the word Lord — Common word in 1611, everyone used it already, everyone knew what it meant, the authors of the KJV used common words to make their english version of the Bible so that everyone would be able to read it and understand it themselves.

Tongue was a commonly used word for language.

I tried to look up a dictionary from around 1611 when the KJV was written and I was surprised at how many different lexicons I was able to find.

https://leme.library.utoronto.ca/lexicons/

LEME stands for Lexicons of Early Modern English

In the same year that the King James was printed, 1611, I found two other foreign language grammars.

An Entrance to the Spanish Tongue by James Sandford

A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues by Randle Cotgrave

Now I need to say that the word language did exist, but the word tongue was commonly used the way we would only use the word language today.

When we say tongue today, we only mean the organ in your mouth, but in the 16, 17, and even 1800s the word tongue was commonly used to mean languages.

I found 53 different lexicons between 1550 and 1726 with “tongue” in the title meaning language.

So when we read that the apostles spoke in different tongues, it absolutely meant that they spoke in different languages.

The HCSB actually translated these verse to say languages.

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But they received a ton of criticism for doing so and so they returned to using the word tongues in the CSB.

I think they should have left it as language because I think the Bible should be translated into understandable english so that the reader can easily understand what God’s word says, because that is what’s most important.

To tell people the gospel message in a way that they understand it clearly.

The Translators of the King James Bible in 1611 said this in their notes to the Readers in the introduction in the front of the Bible:

“Happie is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and thrise happie that meditateth in it day and night.

But how shall men meditate in that, which they cannot understand?

How shall they understand that which is kept close in an unknowen tongue?

… Indeede without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacobs well (which was deepe) without a bucket or some thing to draw with.”

— https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/1611-King-James-Bible-Introduction.php

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Vulgar, by the way, according to the 1623 English Dictionary by Henry Cockeram, meant Common, or much used.

Henry Cockeram, English Dictionary(1623)

Vulgar.Common, much vsed.

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[Go on to the next slide — talk about translation into the vulgar tongue]

“Happie is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and thrise happie that meditateth in it day and night.

But how shall men meditate in that, which they cannot understand?

How shall they understand that which is kept close in an unknowen tongue?

… Indeede without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacobs well (which was deepe) without a bucket or some thing to draw with.”

— https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/1611-King-James-Bible-Introduction.php

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So what does all of this have to do with the Apostles and the book of Acts?

What the translators of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 knew, is still true today.

That God’s word must be given to the people in their own commonly used language.

Because it is the gospel, the good news about Jesus that has the power to save people.

The message about Christ is what actually saves people

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God has a mission!

And He not only has a mission, He has a plan.

He has a method.

God has given us a mission and a method.

He wants all people everywhere to love Him.

And He wants us to love each other.

He has done all of the work to make it possible.

Therefore all we are left with is the message.

The good news.

The gospel.

And we don’t just have a man made message.

We don’t just have a natural message that we can give to others with a supernatural power.

You see when you start talking to someone about your favorite food, they may get hungry but that’s about it.

If you start talking to them about your favorite political party they may get heated but that’s about it.

But when you talk to them about God and their sinfulness, and the coming judgment of God, and His call for them to repent of sin and trust in Him and His love for them that He died for them so that they would not have to perish.

They don’t just get angry or humbled, which many do, they get drawn by the Holy Spirit.

They get convicted by their sin.

They feel it.

Their body reacts in a way that it doesn’t to any other topic.

Because the Holy Spirit isn’t convicting people about their favorite sports team, or their favorite color.

But He is about their favorite sin.

When you share the gospel message with someone clearly, then The Holy Spirit will convict them of their sin and will draw them to repentance.

They have the free will to refuse to repent, and they have the free will to choose to repent, but they know that when people start talking to them about God and salvation, they feel something inside of them that they can’t ignore, no matter how hard they try.

The Holy Spirit is real, and He is power.

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And when The Holy Spirit fell on each of the apostles, He didn’t give them the power to go out and defeat the Romans that were occupying Jerusalem, He gave them the power to go out and speak His message in everyone’s native language.

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He went out to share a clear gospel message and when he got done, it says this:

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Then it says:

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Robby Gallaty in his book “Bearing Fruit.”

tells the story of a doctor in the early 1900s named Walter Lewis Wilson who was asked by a visiting missionary this question.

Who is the Holy Spirit to you?

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After giving him an answer similar to what you would have probably said along the lines of He’s the third person of the trinity… the missionary said, “No, who is the Holy Spirit “to YOU?”

Wilson responded honestly: “He is nothing to me.

I have no contact with Him and could get along quite well without Him.”

the next year while the doctor was listening to a message given by James M. Gray on Romans 12:1.

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Gray said: “Have you noticed that this verse does not tell us “to whom” we should give our bodies?

It is not the Lord Jesus; He has His own body.

It is not the Father; He remains on His throne.

Another has come to earth without a body.

God gives you the indescribable honor of presenting your bodies to the Holy Spirit, to be His dwelling place on earth.”

Robby said that “Wilson returned to his house and lay prostrate on the carpet.

There in the late hours of night, he said, “My Lord, I have treated You like a servant.

When I wanted You I called for You.

Now I give You this body from my head to my feet.