Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Emotion
Anger
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Analytical
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Openness
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Anger
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*Encountering Jesus*
*Acts 9:1-31*
Big Idea:  Jesus will grow His church by sovereignly choosing those who are saved, and using those He chooses.
I.
Introduction
A.    Secular – said that God works in mysterious ways
B.     Biblical
1.      Examples:
a.       Moses – murderer, fearful, poor speaker = deliverer
b.      Rahab – prostitute = lineage of Jesus
c.       David – adulterer, murderer = chosen seed
d.      Amos – fig-slitter; country bumpkin = prophet to kings
e.       Mary – unmarried virgin = mother of Jesus
C.     Personal - Testimony
1.      Outside OK, but inside a mess.
2.      Proud, ego, unable to open up with people, so no close friends and went from girlfriend to girlfriend; by his mid-twenties he had broken all of the 10 Commandments; lost but didn’t know it.
3.      Can God use a guy like this?
4.      What’s your story?
Have you ever asked God if He would be able to use you?
a.       Maybe you’re ashamed of your past.
Maybe you’re ashamed of your present.
b.
Maybe you’ve tried to plug in in different places or at different churches, but nothing fit.
c.
Maybe you’re here asking God for the last time: Am I good enough?
Can you use me?
Do you love me?
D.    Textual
1.      We’re going to meet a man who was certainly not good enough.
2.      Have seen the earliest beginnings of the church
a.       Has included attacks both from without and within.
1.)    Chapter 7 was the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
2.)    Chapter 8 showed the result of that as people began to scatter to avoid the increasing persecution.
3.)
Last week we saw one of the benefits of that scattering was that people outside of Jerusalem, both Samaritans and a man from Ethiopia, were hearing the gospel and believing in Christ.
b.
So that even through attacks and persecution, God is working it out for good and growing His church.
3.       Two weeks ago we were introduced to Saul, who participated in the stoning of Stephen.
a.       How did that affect him?
b.
We pick up his story here in Acts 9.
II.
Exposition
A.    *Scene 1* – On the Road to Damascus:  Saul Encounters Jesus
1.      Read Acts 9:1-9
2.      Stephen’s stoning galvanized Saul against the church (9:1-2)
a.       Breathing threats and murder = his oxygen; the very stuff that made him live was to make people die.
1.)    Verb has to do with breathing in not out.
2.)    Threats and murders where his oxygen.
b.
What made him so angry at the disciples of the Lord?
1.)    Saul was zealous for God’s righteousness and His law.
2.)    He believed that people who claimed that God died as a criminal on a cross not only blasphemed the Name and righteousness of God, but also, as a Pharisee (Php.
3:5), they blasphemed the law of God by saying it was irrelevant.
3.)    As a Pharisee he saw himself as the protector of God’s righteousness and the law’s righteousness.
c.
Not only this, but it would have been a blasphemous lie to contend that Jesus was risen from the dead and now was at the Father’s right hand in glory.
d.
This is why he felt so strongly about these heretics and believed they needed to be dealt with so severely.
e.       Got letters from high priest (9:2)
1.)    Probably letters of introduction for the synagogues
2.)    Also letters of extradition for native Jerusalemites who had fled from the persecution in Acts 8 to bring them back for trial.
3.      As he was approaching he was struck by a supernatural force (9:3-6)
a.
As the group was approaching, tired and weary from a week of traveling on foot, an intense burst of light came around Saul and knocked him to the ground.
1.)
It is here that he both saw the face and heard the voice of the risen Jesus.
2.)    This point is essential so we can understand later in many of his epistles that Paul claimed to have seen Jesus as his basis for being an apostle (1 Cor.
9:1, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”).
b.      Textual discrepancy in vv.
5-6
1.)    KJV, NKJV adds “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
2.)    These words are not in the best Greek manuscripts of this account, but they are in Paul’s other accounts of his conversion in Acts 22 & 26.
Therefore, they did happen, just in Luke’s account here in Ch. 9.
c.       Jesus then tells Saul to continue his journey and await further instructions.
4.      Saul was in a state of shock (9:7-9)
a.       Shock of the divine epiphany
1.)    Examples of other people encountering God:  Ezekiel, Daniel, John (Rev.
1:17).
2.)    This left him blind as a result.
a.)    Reminiscent of how God struck the men of Sodom who were in the middle of intending to carry out a desperately evil act with blindness in Gen. 19.
b.)
This humiliation of being blinded was compounded by the fact that now he had to be led about by the hand like a toddler.
b.      Shock of the news
1.)    Jesus was alive.
2.)    Jesus identified Himself with His disciples.
c.       Spends the next three days fasting and praying, and trying to figure out what just happened to him.
B.     *Scene 2* – In a House in Damascus:  Saul Encounters Ananias
1.      Read Acts 9:10-19a
2.      Jesus calls Ananias (9:10-16)
a.       Background of Ananias
1.)    Probably a native of Damascus and Jewish follower of Christ.
2.)    Unclear how the gospel got out there, but perhaps he had visited Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and was one of the thousands of people from around the world that heard Peter’s speech and witnessed the Holy Spirit’s descent.
3.)    In Acts 22 Paul calls him a pious man with a good reputation in the community.
b.      Jesus appears in a vision.
1.)    Different than what happened to Saul, which was an appearance (cf.
9:17).
Also don’t see same physical response from Ananias.
2.)    Jesus gave specific instructions with confirmation that Ananias would be received.
Anticipates Ananias’ objection.
a.)    Ananias probably wasn’t in danger himself, but had good reason to fear.
b.)    News of Saul coming traveled ahead of him.
3.)    Jesus gave Saul his identity, his purpose and his future
a.)    “He is a chosen instrument of Mine” – he is a vessel picked out specifically by Me for Me.
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