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In response to the Gentile-Explosion of the church in Acts 10-11, the enemies of God react with violence. James is dead; Peter’s next. What will happen?
We know Jesus can save; we know He will win. But we can’t imagine it…not this time. It’s too much.
Oh, of course it isn’t. But we have a hard time feeling that Jesus can save us.
We all wonder, deep, deep down: is it real?
Sermon Audio: Acts 12.1-24.
Friends, good news and bad news. Sermon was recorded…through my pants pocket! The audio is pretty fuzzy (ha!) but can be detected. You’ll have to listen to it at volumes that will make you wonder whether it’s worth it or not. You’ll have to let me know if it was.
Acts 11:1-30, the stories of the “Circumcision Party” reaction to Peter and Barnabas’s reaction to the Gentile believers in Antioch.
In other words, the age old, human-created, tension between Purity and Mission.
Point: Purity either serves God’s Mission, or stands in the way of God’s Mission.
Sermon Audio: Acts 11.
Today we looked at Luke 9:32-10:48 and one of the most important events in the history of the UNIVERSE! That is, when the Kingdom of God cracked open and non-Jews could begin to enter, as non-Jews, without becoming Jews. Huge, unbelievable stuff. Unbelievable: which is why Luke has to warm us up to the idea by introducing it with a healing story and a resurrection story. We have to be reminded what God can do.
Sermon Audio: Acts 9.32-10:48.
This morning we looked at the story of the call and conversion of Saul (apostle Paul). Specifically, we tried to see what this story is really about: how great Jesus is.
Sermon Audio: Acts 9:1-31.
Acts 8:1-40.
Jerusalem? Samaria? The ends of the earth? Check.Check.Check. The mission of God, the kingdom of Jesus, is succeeding; spreading throughout the world. And that’s just by Acts 8!
How does God’s glory spread? By the Holy Spirit.
What do we learn about the Holy Spirit here? We want the Spirit to bring God’s goodness into our lives, so how does that happen?
The Spirit, we learn, can only be received. The Spirit cannot be earned, worked for, traded for. The Spirit is the gift of God, the life of God purchased by the death of God. There is nothing that must be done by us to receive it, nor that can be done by us to earn it. It is Gift.
The Spirit, also, can only be related to. That is, we must treat the Spirit as a person. And only by relating to the Spirit do we truly receive the Spirit. The Spirit is not an insurance policy, or a jar of miracle ointment, or a double-barrel shotgun hung over the fireplace, or a special sauce. The Spirit is a person; the third person of God, to be exact. And so we must relate to the Spirit. If we are not relating to the Spirit, then in what sense have we received this Person and the relationship receiving a person implies?
Sermon Audio: Acts 8:1-40.
Acts 6:8-7:60.
A sermon in three parts:
1. Stephen’s Story. Point: God’s Spirit lives in God’s Man. You can ONLY get God’s life from Jesus.
2. Story about Stephen. Point: Fearlessness and Power come from knowing the story about Jesus.
3. Story of Stephen. Point: As the Holy Spirit’s work increases, so too does resistance to the Spirit’s work.
Wrapped-Together: Want Life? Get Spirit…Only Place: Jesus. Want Jesus? Know Him and His doings in His Story/Bible. Got Life and sense of Jesus-With-You? Fear nothing and Feel power. And expect Resistance. Then what?
Point: We meet resistance by returning to Jesus.
RETURN TO JESUS. re- re- reTURN.
Sermon Audio: Acts 6:8-7:60.
How the Holy Spirit wants to bring the life/love/light of God in Jesus to THOSE PLACES in our lives. You know what I’m talking about. The mess. The pain. The anger. Those places.
The Holy Spirit will change them from sources of complaint, from objects of neglect, into places of beauty and life.
Let the Spirit work.
Let the Spirit put up a Holy Spirit Structure.
Sermon Audio: Acts 6:1-7.
Happy New Year!!
…or not…
You down? Up? Down/Up? Up/Down?
Acts 5 gives us good news: up or down, listen: God is Working!
And because God is working, we can have joy (even when we’ve been beat down) and we can get to work with confidence.
God is Working!
Sermon Audio: Acts 5:12-42.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks to everyone who showed up this morning. We had a great time singing praise to Jesus and meditating on the Gift of God.
Paul tells us in Philippians 2:16b-18 to join him in pouring ourselves out and entering the Joy of God.
The problem with this–beside the fact that it’s crazy–is that we’re already exhausted. What’s going wrong?
Like Christmas tells us: first, we need to RECEIVE.
From Fellowship Bible Church to you: Merry Christmas; may your life crack open and make space for the Gift of God so that you may enter and enjoy the love/life/joy/peace He is and always has been trying to give you.
Sermon Audio: Philippians 2:16b-18.
Philippians 2:14-16a.
Sermon Audio: Philippians 2:14-16a.
