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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.
From Acts 4:23-31.
The Apostle’s Response to the threat: Prayer…for courage to continue speaking the Word of God boldly! (Crazy on sooo many levels.)
Why would you pray? That way?
Because: they knew the Lord; therefore the prayed instead of getting upset, and they prayed for faith, not for fixes.
Sermon Audio: Acts 4:23-31.
Acts 4:1-22.
Why were the authorities so angry and afraid?
Why were the apostles so courageous and free?
[Idea of Salvation/The Good Life] + [Stuff/god(s) it depends on] = [Way we live our lives/"Worship"]
So, insert a Threat to the “god” and out comes the nasty! The apostles had imperiled the authorities “salvation/good life.”
But the apostles, on the other hand, have a God in Jesus who has gotten perfect salvation already and wants to give it to them. Nothing could threaten their God or the Salvation He bought! So they could be free and courageous.
And so can we who believe in Jesus.
Be with Jesus (4:13), and feel that courage grow.
Sermon Audio: Acts 4:1-22.
