The (Continuing) Adventures of Jesus
A sermon series by Toby Sumpter for King's Cross Church
Anxiety and Idols (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #30)
May 26, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 17:16–23
Human beings are inherently religious. We are homo adorans – worshiping man. We will either worship the Creator or some part of creation. Basing your life on some part of creation (reason, experience, science, health, pleasure) ultimately results in despair, anger, and anxiety because all of them are ultimately dependent on you and self-esteem, self-awareness, self-determination, and self-care are a backpack of bricks too heavy to bear. The weight of “self” is too heavy for any of us to carry. Paul saw this phenomenon in Athens, and our culture is currently at “crush depth” with these mantras. But the gospel is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to carry us, and He is risen from the dead.
Nobility and Envy (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #29)
May 19, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 17:1–15
After the Fall, there are really only two kinds of community in the world: the fellowship of nobility and the fellowship of envy. Cain envied his brother, murdered him, and was exiled and built a city; Seth was the father of noble generations who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The word “noble” literally means “good generation” (high-born). Envy is the gangrene of bitter zeal. It is murderously destructive, while claiming to be concerned about truth and justice. Paul and Silas found examples of both nobility and envy in Thessalonica and Berea.
Real Roman Trouble (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #28)
May 12, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 16:16–40
In 42 B.C. in the fields of Philippi in Macedonia, Greece, the armies of Brutus and Cassius collided with the armies of Mark Anthony and Octavian, and the latter soundly defeated the former. Octavian would become the emperor of the Roman Empire, taking the name Caesar Augustus and eventually lavish a great deal of prominence on the colony of Philippi as the site of that historic battle. Around 80 years later, in that same city, Paul and Silas began proclaiming the reign of another King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and a new way of being Roman. And as is the case wherever this gospel goes, it caused trouble – trouble that sets prisoners free.
The Wisdom of God (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #27)
May 5, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 16:1–5
The wisdom of God is foolishness to man, and we must understand deep in our bones that one of the central missions of God in the history of the world is to destroy the wisdom of man (1 Cor. 1:19). This doesn’t mean that we cannot grow in God’s wisdom, but it means that we must be incredibly skeptical of human wisdom. The goal of the history of the world is that no flesh would glory in His presence but that all would glory in Him (1 Cor. 1:29-31). This wisdom is on display in Paul’s circumcision of Timothy, and in his obedience to the Holy Spirit leading him to the Philippian riverside to preach to a few Jewish women.
Convulsions & Antifragile Maturity (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #26)
April 28, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 15:36–41
We live in world full of petty divisions and many foolish alliances. Maturity means growing up into a deep commitment to the truth as well as being able to tell the difference between gnats and camels. Unity at all costs will always lead to compromise, and certain wooden ideologies create brittle men and communities. We are seeking to build an anti-fragile like-mindedness, full of resilient, joyful saints, loyal to Christ and their people.
What Grace Looks Like (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #25)
April 14, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 15:13–35
The decision of the Jerusalem Council illustrates a principle that Christians have always struggled with: grace has a backbone. True grace really is radically free, and because it is so free, it is potent and transformative. Grace welcomes and instructs. Grace rests and works.
God the Heart-Knower (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #24)
April 7, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 15:1–12
Christian warfare always consists of multiple fronts: external, domestic, and internal. The fact that we see this in the first century should give us hope and reassurance that we are not facing something profoundly new or different. This dynamic is also part of the ‘continuing adventures of Jesus.’ Our task is to walk by faith before God, the ‘Knower of Hearts, in obedience, trusting His grace.
God’s Open Doors
November 12, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 14:8–28
Acts is about the continuing work of Jesus through His Spirit bringing the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Not only is Jesus doing this, but what we find is that He has also prepared the world for this: synagogues functioned as open doors for the gospel, but the Gentiles were also being prepared for faith. And Jesus continues to work this way, going ahead of His people, preparing the way, turning everything, even trouble and tribulation, into a door that leads to the Kingdom.
What Conquest Looks Like
October 22, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 13:44—14:7
God’s way of conquest is not what we would have thought up. One of His central plays is provoking people to jealousy through His extravagant blessings. Sometimes this provocation turns angry and violent, but ultimately, the plan is for the ends of the earth to be saved.
The Sure Mercies of David
October 8, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 13:14–43
We commonly sing and repeat that glorious refrain from https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/presearch.cfm?criteria=psalm+136&t=nkjv (and others) that the mercies of the Lord endure forever, and this is certainly true in a general way. But as we see here in Paul’s first recorded sermon, there is a particular meaning of that phrase and application in the covenant that God made with King David that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and all who believe in Him. In other words, there’s a specific reason why David sung about it so much.
The Holy Spirit Leads, Rebukes, & Saves
October 1, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 13:1–13
The Holy Spirit is the personal Spirit of the Father and the Son. He is not an impersonal force. He leads the Church in fierce and zealous obedience. He is God’s fiery love and fellowship, and the center of His power is in the Word.
Angels and a Prison Break
September 24, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 12
When we began this series, we said that Acts is the continuing adventures of Jesus, that Acts is a book of action and adventure driven by the Spirit of God, and here we see that point in high relief. Walking with God is the greatest adventure.
The King’s People
September 17, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 11
After the resurrection, Jesus said that since all authority had been given to Him, the apostles were to “therefore, go” disciple all the nations of the world. The center and most essential point of this mission is the regeneration of individual hearts. But the Bible teaches that this ordinarily happens through public and private, national and individual, external and internal means, all of which is not neat and tidy. The story of Peter and Cornelius demonstrates this, as does the controversy following. Jesus is at work by His Spirit ruling through the challenges and opportunities of making a new people and saving the nations of the world.
He is Lord of All
September 10, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 10:21–48
One of the great lies of the Devil, embraced by modernity, is the inevitability of history – that time is like a stream, and you can’t stop it, you can’t reverse it, and everything that has come before is rushing down upon us. We see this in the victim-mentality of many: blaming childhood, parents, income level, minority status, abuse, addictions, or their oppressors, their governments, their bosses, or their persecutors. But the Bible reveals to us a God who is before and outside of time and therefore not bound by time. He is Lord of time. And while there are many patterns and repeated themes (so learning from history is valuable), there is also true innovation, creativity, Reformation, and repentance (so freedom, responsibility, and surprising change are also possible). One of the great twists in human history was the gospel going to Gentile nations directly, tearing down the middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, destroying the enmity, and sanctifying them that they may all come to God in worship directly through faith and repentance in Jesus Christ.
Christ for the Cults & Prodigals
July 16, 2023 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 8:1–25
Here we see the continuing conquest of Christ extending to the Samaritans. Colliding with their centuries of idolatry and syncretism, the Holy Spirit gets the victory and the Word goes forth with power. The message for us is to trust Him, trust His word, and not lose heart.