Everyone Who Believes
The gospel and the community it creates, called the church, are on the move, beginning at Ground Zero in Jerusalem, but not staying there.
The Conversion of Paul and the Collision of Stories
One of our goals in reading the Bible is to train our minds to run in biblical ruts. We want to learn to read the story we’re in by immersing ourselves in the stories God likes to tell.
To the Ends of the Earth
Luke wants us to make the connection to Isaiah 56 and know that the gospel has now advanced, and is advancing, to the ends of the earth.
Persecution, the Outcasts, and the Famous
Acts 8 is a transitional chapter in the book of Acts. We move away from a Jerusalem-focus to a wider vision of the church’s growth.
The Inheritance of Persecution
The point of Stephen’s sermon is the repeated rejection of God’s will by God’s people; he cashes it all in (verses 51–53) with their rejection of the Messiah.
The Fear of Death and the Pursuit of Joy: Why the Resurrection Is Good News
This is Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday. And on this Resurrection Sunday, we’re going to talk about death: what is death? What happens when you die?
The Gift of Good Leaders
As the word of God grows, and the church increases, the practical dynamics of church life inevitably change.
God’s Rhythm of Growth and Opposition
One of our tasks as Christians is to learn to read the story that we’re in. As individuals, we have a past and a future. As families, communities, and as a nation, we have pasts and futures. And we tell ourselves stories in order to make sense of where we’ve come from and where we’re going and what our role in the story is.
Great Power, Great Grace, Great Fear
We all know that there are passages in the Bible that make us uncomfortable. Often it’s when God does something that we don’t expect or don’t understand, usually something frightening. The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is one of those.
Bold for the Cities
What we find in the last section of Acts 4 is not an isolated event, but starting here, we discover a theme that is repeated throughout the rest of the book. And that theme is a vision for how the church lives in this world.
The Name of Jesus
In Acts 4:1–12, we see the controversy surrounding the name of Jesus, and what that name represents — the real person who lived and died and rose again and has fundamentally changed the world and time.
Repentance
What is repentance? In this sermon, we take a look at repentance as a response to what God has done, as a means to a greater end, and as an affectional embrace of who Jesus is.
According to Plan
The reason the Spirit is poured out is because Jesus has been raised from the dead according to the sovereign plan of God. But what does the resurrection of Jesus and the sovereignty of God have to do with one another?
The Holy Spirit Is Poured Out
The Book of Acts is a good, true story. It is full of events and dialogue, rising action, falling action, conflict, resolution, protagonists, antagonists, setbacks, suspense — it has it all. It is a good, true story. And that is actually perfect for us, because we as humans are what you might call “story animals.”