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
This week, Pastor Dennis walks through Acts 21:26-36. Paul is in Jerusalem, trying to prove to the Jewish Christians who are “zealous for the law” that he isn’t trying to abolish the law. In fact, while Paul is actively observing and upholding the law he’s… Read More »When Religion and Politics Collide
This week Benjamin Chua walked through the story of Paul’s return to Jerusalem in Acts 21:17-25. Almost immediately after entering Jerusalem, Paul learns the church there is fiercely enthusiastic for the law, not Jesus. For the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem their belief wasn’t rooted in… Read More »What Kind of Christian Are You?
In Acts 21:1-16 Paul is en route to Jerusalem. He’s resolved in his heart after discerning through the Spirit this is where he’s supposed to go, even though he knows suffering and imprisonment likely await him there. In these sixteen verses we see people who… Read More »God’s Will for Your Life
Pastor Shaq Hager continued our Acts series by discussing Acts 20:28-38, the second half of Paul’s speech to the Ephesian Elders. Paul believes this is the last time he’ll see these leaders he loves so much. It’s heartfelt and emotional. Paul knows these leaders will… Read More »Our First Love
The apostle Paul endured great suffering. A kind of suffering that works like a crucible, forging his soul more into the shape of Jesus.* This week, Pastor Dennis walks us through the end of Acts 19 and into Acts 20 exploring the end of Paul’s… Read More »Hope in Suffering
This week Pastor Dennis lead a conversation focused on Acts 19:23-41, a story about people in Ephesus rioting because they believed Jesus’ followers were actively seeking to undermine the financial, economic, and religious systems that shaped the city. It’s a story that makes clear Jesus’… Read More »The Narrow Road