Change and Wait: Our Sovereign God
Acts 24:24—25:12. Change and wait brings us face-to-face with a sovereign God who is in control of our lives in ways we don’t always understand. We should take courage that God cares so much about us that he has a plan for each one of us. He knows us so well that he knows what we will do even before we do it and what would be the best path to encourage us to know him and to walk in righteousness. But when we struggle to believe that, to see that, to accept it, our best choice is to remind ourselves and others—in the midst change and in the waiting—of what God has done.
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Fervent Partnership in the Gospel
Acts 18:24–28; 20:17–38 As we look at Acts 18 and Acts 20, I pray that you will see that God has called us to be Fervent Partners for the Gospel of Jesus. Fervent in our pursuit of him and others, and partners in that endeavor with one another.
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God Is Always Working
Acts 15:36–41, 16:6–10. You probably know the experience well: You begin to live out what you thought God’s will was and you realize, “I don't think I had this all right.” As we look at this passage, we will see that even when we don’t get all the details of God’s will correct, he is still working. This text’s main point is that God is always working whether we feel he is far away or near at bay. God is always working.
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Saved Through the Grace of the Lord Jesus
Acts 15:1–21. The main point of our text this morning comes from verse 11: Christians are “saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus”. There are three main parts to this—1) The Debate (vv. 1–6): Does circumcision save?; 2) Peter’s Argument (vv. 7–12): Salvation by Grace; and 3) James’s Resolution (vv. 13–21): A Way Forward for Jew and Gentile Harmony.
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The First Missionary Journey, Opposition from Within and Without
Acts 13:1–12; 13:43–52. The events in this text are incredibly important in the history of the church. But though there are sweet successes in the stories that we're studying, don't miss that both are preceded by opposition. As we look at this first missionary journey, we're going to have two significant meetings, and we are going to see this main point: opposition is an opportunity for boldness, not bashfulness, because God is working.
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The Gospel to the Gentiles: Who Has Been Saved?
Acts 10:1–48. As we have been studying through the book of Acts, we’ve been saying: the book of Acts is about the Holy Spirit empowering his people to proclaim the gospel to all people with all boldness and without hindrance. Today, we're talking about all people. I would summarize where we are going with this one sentence: No one is excluded from the gospel, for all are included if they come to Christ.
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Persecution and Expansion: Saul/Paul, Instrument of God
Acts 9:1–20. There is a persecution that Scripture says we should expect and accept. It is a persecution that comes from the righteousness of Christ at work in us. We see this kind of persecution throughout Acts where those who are Christians on mission for the gospel of Jesus are attacked in different ways. We don’t always get to know what God is doing in persecution, but here in Acts 9, we see one thing God wanted to do in the midst of this persecution: save one of the most prolific evangelists and pastors our world has ever seen—Paul.
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God's Promise, Power, and People
Acts 8:4–40. We say that God’s Promise is his Pleasure in Peoples on purpose because God is after the multifaceted display of his glory through many different people groups. And he does this by keeping his promise through the power of his Holy Spirit.
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Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 12:1–11. 1) The Holy Spirit: THE Gift from God. 2) Spiritual Gifts: Unique Expressions through Unique People. 3) Expressions: Glory to God and grace to us. 3) Pursue: All these expressions!
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Being a Faithful Witness
Acts 6:7–15, Acts 7:1–2a, 51–60, and Acts 8:1–4. The help we need to be a faithful witness is found in the Holy Spirit. He will help us bear witness to Jesus, to proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection, our only hope for salvation! As we seek to be faithful witnesses, we are not ultimately responsible for how others respond to the gospel. Jesus is judge.
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Establishing the Church: Pentecost and the Promised Messiah
Acts 2:1–41. The Holy Spirit descends onto the people at Pentecost, and as Peter explains what is happening, he turns the spotlight to Christ. And the reason that Peter turns there is because Christ is what makes the coming of the Holy Spirit so different this time. Now the Messiah has come. He has died and rose again. And now he has ascended and is seated at the right hand of God. The Holy Spirit’s job is to point to this now risen Lord.
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Prepared to Witness to the Ends of the Earth
Acts 1:1–11. The book of Acts is about the Holy Spirit empowering his people to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people with all boldness and without hindrance. The gospel will go forth to the ends of the earth, and we play a part in that through our helper, the Holy Spirit.
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Growing into Christ
Ephesians 4:11–16. Discipleship is essentially this, “I’m just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” Discipling someone else means that I’m trying to help them grow in their faith and to move a bit further down the road toward living a life that points to Jesus.
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Necessary and Unimaginable: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Luke 24:1–10. There is no middle ground. Christians are not just weird. We are either to be pitied, or we are right.
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Jesus to Jerusalem: The Son of Man Crucified
Luke 23:26–49. Don’t run past the death of Jesus. Don’t miss Jesus’s mission. See the grotesqueness of our sin in light of a Savior on the cross. Know that Jesus is for you, even to your end. And come wanting more—for his death leaves us wanting and needing hope.
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Set Toward Jerusalem: The End of the Long Journey
Luke 9:51; 19:28–41. Jesus knew where his ministry was going to end up, and what it would look like. There was no happenstance, no mistakes, no moments where Jesus was taken aback by what occurred. He knew where he was headed, the path it would take, and the cost of that moment.
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A Disciple's Identity: Simple Faith
Luke 18:15–19:10. Have you made your receiving of the kingdom of God too complicated? Do you think there are countless books to read, confessions to memorize, nuanced theological points that you need to have settled before you can have faith in Jesus?
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Christ Is Coming
Luke 17:20–37. Jesus will be returning, and his return will be much different than his first coming. Jesus will come back in a spectacular way, suddenly, and bring separation.
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Dependent on Grace
Luke 17:1–10, 11–19. As we have been preaching through Luke, we have talked a lot about who Jesus is, and we have said that Jesus is the Son of God who came in power and authority to empower his people through the cross. Today, we're going to see what it means to be a follower of this man, to follow the Son of God. We are going to see, as followers of Jesus, we are dependent on grace.
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Jesus’ Identity: The Son of God Through the Cross
Luke 9:28–45. We’ve been asking the question in our Luke series, “Who is this Jesus?” And we’ve found that Jesus is the Son of God come in authority and power to save his people through the cross. In this section of Luke 9, God gives a complete understanding and demonstration of who Jesus is and commands the disciples appropriately.
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