Sermon Tone Analysis

“Church on the Move”

“The Promise of Power”

Acts 1:4-8

I think we can all agree that Life is a pretty incredible journey!

It starts out with complete and total reliance on someone else for our every need…LITERALLY!

Short of breathing, our EVERY NEED is dependent on someone else.

As we grow older we learn to move on our own.

It starts small by rolling over in our sleep.

We learn to crawl and then walk, meanwhile our parents lose their minds thinking we will get into something that will hurt us.

We start talking, and those around us wonder if we’ll ever shut up.

We learn to feed ourselves and everything around us becomes a choking hazard.

As time goes on and we mature we get to a place where we go to school and start learning some of the basic knowledge set we need for life… the 3 R’s.

It seems to take years to gain the BASIC knowledge we need to make it through life.

But then we get into Jr.

High and High School.

WE get into more advanced classes, and we start applying the basics we had been learning for years.

We get into classes that have labs and real-life exercises.

We graduate high school and go on to college, trade school, or some job where we get On The Job Training.

…Then we go on about our lives trying to do the best we can and replicate the process.

We get married, have kids of our own, and try to raise them to do what we did…only better.

You hear all that and you’re asking yourself “where is he going with all of this?”

“What point is he trying to make?”

Well, if you think about it, doesn’t this all sum up the Christian walk?

Isn’t this how it starts and progresses?

In John 3:3 Jesus is having a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus.

In verse 3 He tells Nicodemus,

That kinda sums it up.

We have to die to our old selves and start over relearning life.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says,

It all starts with a regeneration.

I would go so far as to say that this isn’t a one time event, but a daily ritual… Actually, I wouldn’t say that, the BIBLE DOES!

1 Corinthians 15:31 “I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!”

BUT Regeneration or being born again isn’t the end of the story.

Sure, being an infant is easy.

Someone feeds you, bathes you, changes your diaper…all you have to do is lay there and exist, BUT AT SOME POINT YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO CRAWL, WALK, AND RUN.

YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO FEED YOURSELF, BATHE YOURSELF, CLOTHE YOURSELF.

In the same manner there is a point where we have to move beyond just being infants in the faith and feasting on spiritual milk.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.”

CHURCH, It’s time to become Meat Eaters!!!

Listen, I am not opposed to feeding spiritual milk.

The problem is when you have to part someone’s mustache to give them the bottle.

The problem is when we don’t move beyond infancy to maturity!

SO WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MOVE TOWARDS BEING A MORE SPIRTUALLY MATURE CHRISTIAN?

It can be largely summed up in 7 words…

“TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”

For a year we went through elementary school and Jr. High.

We read through and studied the Sermon on the Mount.

We went through a basic education of how a follower of Christ should THINK, FEEL, AND ACT!

Far a couple weeks we looked at the Sermon on the Move.

We looked at just a couple examples of how Jesus acted out the mission and compassion of the Father.

I’ll be honest.

I could preach the rest of the year just looking at the miracles of Jesus and not even get close to covering it.

John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

Just if we looked at what was recorded it would take A LONG TIME!

The point of ALL of it is to get us to recognize His Lordship over everything.

The crux of the issue can be summed up in a paragraph I read recently in a book titled, “The Key to triumphant Living: An Adventure in Personal Discovery.”

The author was talking about this very thing, the Lordship of Christ over every part of our lives.

If we go back to the elementary education that we learned in the Sermon on the Mount we know that our only righteousness comes from Jesus.

It is in making Him Lord of our lives that our righteousness can exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

So the Sermon on the move would include observations of Jesus exercising and demonstrating His Lordship!

Jack Taylor wrote…

Every time He manifested His Lordship, it must have been like coming to know Him all over again.

They forgot quickly, but He continued to forge a chain of evidence, link by link, around His Lordship.

He proved Himself Lord of the elements as He arose to rebuke the wind.

He demonstrated His Lordship over death as He called the dead back to life.

He asserted His Lordship over disease as He healed all sorts of human maladies.

He had already proved Himself “mighty in battle” as He met the highest motivations Satan had to offer in the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of Life,” and soundly defeated the Subtle Saboteur.

We get saved, we learn the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, we get at least a basic grasp of the Lordship of Christ over our lives, but there is a point where we have to leave the classroom.

Even as we leave the “CLASSROOM” we have to find a way to continually remind ourselves of His Lordship over our lives and the things around us.

I spent the better part of 6 ½ years working on my associates and bachelors degrees.

I am currently considering going back to finish my masters degree.

I love being in school and learning, but there is a point where we have to JUST DO IT, but even as we are “DOING IT” we have to continue learning, reminding ourselves, and intentionally stay connected to a source of power, wisdom, and strength.

Jesus never intended for us to recluse ourselves from society.

He never intended for us to do nothing more than sit in the safety of a church building and hang out together.

Obviously, coming into this building, worshipping, and fellowshipping are important, but that is only a SMALL part of it.

If you were here last Sunday, you heard me tell you that we were going to start a new series this week called “The Church on the Move,” and we would be getting into the book of Acts.

But to get there, I want to back up to where the church was first mentioned.

I.

The Promised Church

a. Matthew 16:13-19

i.

What was the Church going to be founded on?

1. “Revelation” Matthew 16:17

2. “Worship” The Cave to the god Pan

3. Peter and the Apostles

a. Ephesians 2:20

b.

Revelation 21:14

c.

The Acts of the Apostles more appropriately “The Acts of the Holy Spirit”

4. “The Holy Spirit” (Simon Bar-Jonah)

a. Son of Dove

i. Matthew 3:16 “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;”

ii.

Mark 1:10 “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”

iii.

Luke 3:22 “and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””

iv.