Sermon Tone Analysis

“Church on the Move”

“The Necessity of Servanthood”

As we read through the book of Acts it feels like an emotional roller coaster.

As we watch the early Church on the Move, there are times when it seems like the movement is steamrolled by massive momentum.

At the day of Pentecost it says that 3000 souls were saved.

The last verse of chapter 2 says that the Lord added to their number day by day those that were being saved.

In Acts 4:4 it says that the number grew to 5000 men.

The momentum and the growth had to have been exciting to say the absolute least.

But, even in all of the growth and the movement, there were obstacles.

There were speed bumps, and to say the least they had to have been extremely difficult and discouraging.

Some of you know that we have a golf cart, and that is one of the primary methods we use to exercise Maverick (our dog.)

A lot of times while I am running him with the Golf Cart I will make a loop around the square, and let me tell you, the suspension on that golf cart is not good…AT ALL…maybe nonexistent!

It never fails that we will be going real good, and I’ll come around the corner headed south on the west side of the square, and I will nail that speed bump going far faster than a golf cart should be going when it hits a speed bump.

And all of you know what I am talking about.

Maybe not that specific situation, but you know what it’s like to hit something like that going too fast.

So for a minute, imagine what it was like for Peter and John, when they were thrown in jail for healing the lame man at the gate beautiful.

I imagine it was a massive metaphorical speed bump!

It was likely a good jarring for the church to see their leaders persecuted for doing good.

What they would continue to find is that Persecution and Growth go hand in hand!

Unfortunately, the devil will get his hands in it whenever the church starts to flourish.

When souls are being saved and lives are being changed, The devil gets angry to say the least.

Often times the enemy of our souls will use religious organizations to come at us the hardest.

It was the temple leaders: the scribes, pharisees, and priests that arrested Peter and John for the healing of the lame man.

Of Course they didn’t outright come at them for a healing or for talking about Jesus…instead they brought them in on something like “Disturbing the peace.”

They brought them in to try to scare them, and stop something that was a definite threat to their religious system.

Even in saying all of that, let me also say that we have to be careful about accepting or instantly dismissing new ideas!

We MUST weigh EVERYTHING against or BY Scripture!!!

So, Peter and John are arrested, questioned, warned not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, AND THEY ARE RELEASED, but even in their release they are apprehensive.

Going forward, they could face some real jail time.

BUT THEY KNOW THEY HAVE A MANDATE TO BE WITNESSES.

THEY HAVE BEEN FILLED WITH THE VERY SPIRIT OF GOD

THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED POWER!!!

They return to the other believers knowing that they have to continue doing what God instructed, but they also know that they need to be refueled and refilled!!!

They pray TOGETHER, they are refilled, and directly following we are introduced to Barnabas, and the need for encouragement.

IT’S ALWAYS IN THOSE DOWN TIMES THAT WE NEED SOMEONE TO REMIND US OF GOD’S GOODNESS.

TO REMIND US THAT PAIN AND DISTRESS ARE TEMPORARY.

EVEN IF THE REST OF THIS LIFE WILL INVOLVE PAIN AND DIFFICULTY, WE FACE AN ETERNITY OF GRANDEUR AND PERFECT PEACE!!!

Continuing through the story of the early church we get to chapter 5 and see more bumps in the road.

More issues and situations that could potentially slow down the progress of Church Growth.

Another situation that makes us scratch our heads and say,.

WHY.

The situation follows the story of Barnabas and it seems that there is another couple, Ananias and Sapphira, who have decided to sell property and bring the proceeds to the apostles.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this this morning, but long story short, they didn’t have to sell it, and even after they did, they didn’t have to bring all…OR ANY…of the proceeds to the church.

The problem was they lied…not only to the humans around them, BUT THEY LIED TO GOD!!!

The results were that “great fear came upon the whole church…”

The results were that the apostles continued doing apostolic things!

They continued being used by the Holy Spirit to do signs and wonders.

They continued to see people saved, healed, and delivered.

They continued seeing the Church on the Move.

BUT AGAIN, the enemy hates to see these things happening.

SO AGAIN, The Apostles are arrested and thrown in jail, BUT THIS TIME THEIR FREEDOM COMES SUPERNATURALLY.

THIS TIME AN ANGEL OF THE LORD OPENED THE DOOR OF THE PRISON.

AND AGAIN, THEY ARE REMINDED THAT THEY HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY AND AN HONOR TO SHARE THE WORDS OF LIFE.

THROUGH THE UPS AND DOWNS, THE HIGHS AND THE LOWS, THROUGH THE TIMES OF ACCELERATION AND THE TIMES WHEN THEY DIDN’T THINK THEY WOULD MAKE IT OUT OF JAIL…THEY KEPT GOING!

THEY KEPT MOVING THE CHURCH FORWARD THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

In spite of the warning to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, Acts 5:41-42 …

BUT, in all of the growth and all of the movement, they continued hitting speed bumps.

They continued to realize that they needed to streamline some processes.

They needed to get more people involved!

They needed people to see the value in serving others!

When I read Acts 6:1-8 I am reminded of a story I read about a church in Dallas.

The situation led to 2 groups from the same church in court arguing over rightful ownership of the church property.

The judge, feeling he had no jurisdiction in the case referred the matter up the chain to the denominations leadership.

When all was said and done, one group was awarded the property, while the other group left and formed another church.

Not completely satisfied, the denominational leadership continued investigating the root cause of the problem.

What led to such an ugly, bitter, conflict that would be shared with all that cared to read about it in the newspapers?

HAM!

A slice of stinking ham!!!

The entire conflict started at a church dinner when a church elder noticed that a child had been given a bigger slice of ham than he received!!!

As we have gone through Acts 2, 3, 4, and 5 we see that in each of those chapters, there are outside forces trying to stop the church.

The religious, and civil leaders have tried to stop the gospel from being preached.

Other Jews have mocked the power of God in the lives of the believers.

And I briefly talked this morning about the story of Ananias and Saphira lying to God…trouble was already evident within the church.

AS LONG AS PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED THERE WILL BE SOME LEVEL OF TROUBLE!!!

We are all flawed humans.

I told someone one time, If you ever find the perfect church, don’t go there, you’ll mess it up!

But we can avoid many of these problems.

AND EVEN IF THEY SHOW UP, WE CAN CHOOSE TO NOT LET THEM DEFINE US!!!

The First Church of the Ham Slice in Dallas TX allowed a problem to define it!

EVEN BETTER YET, WE SHOULD LET THE PROBLEM DEFINE US, BUT WE SHOULD DO SO ACCORDING TO THE EXAMPLES OF JESUS!!!

The first thing we need to understand is that this was a legitimate complaint.

Too often we have a tendency to dismiss people’s concerns as complaints and never really deal with them.

These were real people that had real needs.

Why were they being neglected?

It could have been a type of class discrimination.

The early church was made primarily up of Jews.

This fulfills the desire of God from thousands of years ago to create a nation of priests through the seed of Abraham.

Later in 1 Peter 2:9 Peter would describe us as a…

But it started with the Jewish People…

But there were 2 kinds of Jewish people…

Hebrews and Hellenists.

The Hebrews were like the pure bread stallions.

They didn’t cave to the culture.

They had stayed close to Jerusalem, and close to God.

The Hellenists were, as their name describes, more akin to change with culture.

They spoke Greek, they likely lived away from Jerusalem and possibly outside of Israel.

They had accepted more of the Greek and Roman culture.

Looking back through Acts we have to remember what was happening…

People were selling their possessions and bringing the proceeds to help the needy.

So there was a daily, where food and money would be given to those in need.