This week we take a look back across sixty-three sermons and our study of the book of Acts to identify major themes and what they mean for us today. In particular, the conversation focuses on the expansive and inclusive nature of the Gospel, the Kingdom… Read More »Acts in Retrospect
Luke ends the book of Acts with Paul in Rome, imprisoned, meeting with a group of Jewish people. He shares the Gospel with them, proclaiming the ways the Old Testament foretold Jesus as Israel’s true Messiah and prophesied that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the… Read More »The Invitation of Acts
Sometimes we’re so convinced we’re right about a particular belief, a specific way of seeing or understanding the world, or, even, a way of interprepting a particular portion of Scripture that we tell ourselves it’s more Jesus-like to remove ourselves from relationship with people who… Read More »Relationship vs. Rightness
What happens when things start feeling out of control and chaotic? When it feels like the ship of your life is caught in the midst of a storm? How do you respond? How do you find and remain in Jesus throughout the storm? What happens… Read More »Tossed by the Storm
This week, Julia Allan walks through Paul’s story, just before he’s shipwrecked on his way to Rome in Acts 27. Paul, who first heard Jesus’ voice along the Damascus Road, heard from the Lord that everyone on the ship would survive the storm. Paul said… Read More »Peace in the Storm
This week, Pastor Shaq walks through Acts 25:1-12. Paul is now on trial for the third time, now before Festus. The Jewish leaders ask a “favor” of Festus – they want Paul transferred from Caesarea to Jerusalem because they’ve designed a plot to kill Paul.… Read More »God’s Will Never Fails
The legal system exists to maintain the status quo; it almost always has. It is often controlled by self-serving, powerful, rich individuals and corporate interests who like how things are and want to keep them that way. When prophets come who point out flaws in… Read More »Break Every Chain: Every Knee Must Bow
This week Carrie Buckner continues our series on Acts, talking through Acts 23:12-22. It’s the story of a plan concoted by a group of Jewish religious zealots (or, Jewish nationalists) that reached to the highest levels of the Jewish religious system. The people to whom… Read More »Love is the Antidote
Jesus instructed His disciples to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. In Acts 22:22-29 (NIV) the apostle Paul is living these words. He was lynched in the Temple and then arrested and at no point did he fight back or physically defend himself.… Read More »Serpents and Doves
Paul knows the Gospel crosses every boundary and eradicates racial and ethnic hatred. He’s given his life to proclaiming a Gospel that knits Jews and Gentiles into a new “family” rooted in Jesus. And yet, in Acts 21:37-22:22, when Paul tells a crowd of Jews… Read More »An Elusive Dream