The Acts of the Apostles: Judea/Samaria
Freedom in Christ
June 25, 2023 • Noah Soistmann
Acts 16:11-40 | Noah Soistmann | This passage is a beautiful reminder for us to slow down and look for where the Lord is working. Instead of rushing from one thing to the next, constantly distracting ourselves, what would it cost to slow down, to look others in the eyes, and pray for the Lord’s leading? Who could the Lord lead you to this week?
The Builder
June 18, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 16:1-10 | Andrew Murch | Have you ever taken a moment to look back through your family line and trace the impact of the gospel? Do you know who was the first person in your family to follow Jesus? For some of us it’s parents, or grandparents, or even great-grandparents who passed on the faith. For many, it’s starting with you right now! You are beginning a culture of passing on the faith to your family. For both we praise God! The Lord is creating His family and He often does it within the context of our individual families.
Break Point
June 11, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 15:36-41 Andrew Murch | After being a fly on the wall at a moment of division and clarity for the church, we now are let into a conversation that seems like another very small debate. Two friends, Paul and Barnabas, co-laborers in the gospel, have a disagreement. This is the Barnabas who was the only one to welcome Paul into the faith. These two men have journeyed in missions together, preached the Good News together, and have faced harsh persecution and near death together. They are bonded in Christ, and yet when it comes to deciding the next step in their ministry, the two men debate. Apparently, it’s also a big enough argument to lead to them going their separate ways as they continue to preach the gospel and baptize new Christians.
The Jerusalem Council
June 4, 2023 • Jake Gamble
Acts 15:1-35 | Jake Gamble | There’s only one reason people enjoy watching reality TV: the drama! With clashing people, opinions, and decisions come conflicts, debates, and arguments. The cliffhanger is always if conflict will tear the people apart, or if they’ll work it out. We’re about to enter a religious reality TV show episode. Acts 15 is a crucial point in the story of the early church where division on correct behavior for a Christian is being debated. The result of this argument will determine the outcome of what’s to come next for all believers. We have seen great unity in the Church up to this point, will this be the dividing factor?
Open Doors and Dividing Walls
May 28, 2023 • Josh Lane
Acts 14:1-28 | Josh Lane | Imagine being worshipped as a God and then chased down for murder all in the same day. Welcome to a day in the life of Paul the missionary. Paul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey together after having been driven out of Antioch and Pisidia. By the power of the Holy Spirit, they begin to “speak boldly” for the Lord (Luke 14:3) and a whole number of things happen. There is awe, amazement, and belief from both Jews and Gentiles in response to the word preached and the proof signs that the Lord worked through these men. However, in opposition to this there are Jews who begin to create division and stir up strife amongst those being preached to. On top of that, there are people who misinterpret the signs given by God through Paul and Barnabas, and they then begin to worship these men as gods! This is so shocking, appalling, and not the fruit they are seeking from their ministry. Not only could they not convince the crowds of the truth, more dissenters come and stir up enough hatred in the crowd that Paul is stoned nearly to death. What happened over the course of these days is jarring to the senses and may even strike fear in the hearts of the disciples.
Two Sabbaths in the Synagogue
May 21, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 13:13-52 | Andrew Murch | Anyone who has children or have interacted with children knows the meaning of “selective hearing.” However, it’s not isolated only to kids. We all have a propensity to hear what we want to hear and to ignore what we’re not willing to here. Throughout Jesus’ ministry and here in the book of Acts we have seen two kinds of people, people who will hear and receive the word of the Lord and people who refuse to hear the gospel. The great contrast is that those to whom the message should have been received, the Jews who were promised this messiah, rejected the message. Yet, those who have absolutely no reason to know Yahweh—the God of the universe—receive this message with joy. This pattern is seen again here in Paul’s sermon to the synagogue in Antioch.
The Genuine Article
May 14, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 13:1-12 | Andrew Murch | There are several stories in the book of Acts that amaze, make you scratch your head, or simply reveal the wonder of God’s work. This text is one of those. What opens as a seemingly average “role call” already blows the mind (tip: “role calls” in the Bible are never random). Just verses ago we saw the raging of a Herod, and in this list we see a lifelong friend of Herod. Though this friendship is likely with the Herod we see in the early days of Jesus (Luke 3:1), the placement of this story cannot be accidental. It is in alignment with all of Acts where we see people and circumstances that were meant to stop the plan of God being redeemed to propel it! These list of names include a diversity of backgrounds and yet a unity in mission of Christ.
Opposition to the Mission
May 7, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 12:1-25 | Andrew Murch | The camera shifts, the scene changes, and we’re once again back in Jerusalem seeing what is happening to the church and the Apostles there. As we look back at the epicenter of the early church, we also see the heart of the persecution of Christians. Herod is ramping up his ongoing attempts to silence and suppress the Church’s influence. He rounds up Christian leaders, kills James, and imprisons Peter during the celebration of the Passover when the people of Israel commemorate their deliverance from Egypt. Not only is this a significant date in the Jewish calendar, but not many years prior, on this same day, Jesus himself was betrayed by Judas and delivered up to death (Luke 22:1). During these dark days for the early church, believers are reminded of the dark hours of Christ’s death. However, in both instances, death would not be the end of the story.
Behind the Scenes
April 30, 2023 • Mike Clarensau
Acts 11:19-30 | Mike Clarensau | The map keeps stretching farther and farther away from Jerusalem. From Joppa to Cyprus to Antioch the church is expanding over land and water to reach people with the gospel of Jesus. Though Jews fled the persecution in Jerusalem, they couldn’t shut up about Jesus! Wherever they went they would tell people about Jesus and how he is the messiah of the Jews. However, there were those who went even farther. Speaking to more than Jews, they began to speak to those with no Jewish culture. In Antioch there were many Greek-Speaking Gentiles called Hellenists and some of the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians who settled in Antioch began witnessing to them. These disciples likely had no idea what just happened to Peter in Joppa with Cornelius and yet they are aligned with the Spirit’s work to reach over cultural boundaries.
Hinge Point
April 23, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 10:1-11:18 | Andrew Murch | Visions of a heavenly dinner coming from the sky, still “oinking”, “caw-ing”, and slithering. May not be the kind of dinner you’d hope for, and it’s certainly not something you’d expect as instrumental to the spread of the gospel. Yet, this chapter serves as a very significant turning point in the book. As we remember, Jesus called the disciples to be witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). In Peter’s vision, the ‘ends of the earth’ are before him and many animals that were ‘off limits’ to him as a Jew are put back on the menu by God. Sure, this scene may be addressing the Jewish food laws marked out in Leviticus, but something greater is happening here; God is opening up the definition of what it means to be ‘clean’ and therefore who can be a part of His family.
The Fixer
April 16, 2023 • Gavin Hesse
Acts 9:31-43 | Gavin Hesse | For a brief moment the turmoil in the early church has been quieted. God has taken an instrument of persecution, Saul, and has made him an instrument for the gospel. At least for a moment, the church is not being hunted by Saul but is being built up. The church continues forward, following the Lord and seeing the Spirit multiply believers. The gospel has gone forth to Judea and Samaria. Next stop, the ends of the earth.
Meeting Jesus
April 9, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 9:1-30 | Andrew Murch | On the stage of our narrative, a lurking dark shadow approaches the foreground this week and will himself be blinded by the light. It’s a character who so far has been seen very little but will become one of the greatest influences of the early church and today. You’ve heard his name; you’ve heard him “breathing murderous threats” against Christians; you’ve heard his applause at Stephen’s execution; and this week, we will hear his conversation with the risen Christ.
Gospel Without Borders
April 2, 2023 • Andrew Murch
Acts 8:26-40 | Andrew Murch | On the heels of his account of the Church's mixed experience of suffering and faithful gospel proclamation, Luke shares a very interesting story. An Ethiopian eunuch is riding along in a chariot on his return trip from Jerusalem when Philip is prompted by the Holy Spirit to meet him. In this remarkable scene, Philip shares the message of Christ with the Ethiopian from the pages—or, more likely, from the scroll—of Isaiah. Here, we see the only message that leads to salvation and the only right response to salvation.
Transformed by The Gospel
March 26, 2023 • Noah Soistmann
Acts 8:4-25 | Noah Soistmann | It is in the shadow of the stoning of Stephen that we resume our journey through the book of the Acts of the Apostles. As Stephen is buried and the Church is ruthlessly oppressed, one naturally wonders how these Christians will move forward. And to make matters worse, Acts 8 fully introduces us to a new character: Saul, the ravager of the Church. Here, we see that God is not done working in and through his Church, and he has only begun working in and through Saul.