We live in a day and age when it seems like everything is being questioned. There is a rapidly growing belief that whatever we’ve been told about this or that is probably wrong, that there is a dark “other side” to the story that’s been kept from us.
Sadly, this is sometimes true and as people of the truth, we need to acknowledge this. For instance, if you’re familiar with Church history, right alongside the stories of heroic and self-sacrificing saints are horrific stories of abuse and mistreatment of non-Christian people. This is one reason why many people today are rethinking the faith.
But this is not how it all began. The advancement of the way of Jesus was done precisely according to the way of Jesus – courageously sharing the truth of the gospel from a posture of self-sacrificing humility and relentless love. And when there was suffering, it was Jesus’ followers who were enduring the beatings and death (not the other way around).
Why? Because God loves all people and wants all people to be a part of his family. Jesus’ earliest followers got this. It was the gravitational center of their lives as it should be for all who have surrendered to our Lord.
This Sunday we begin the Apostle Paul’s second journey into the unbelieving, pagan Roman world. Let’s watch him and his small band of colleagues exude the love of God. Maybe we can learn a few things.
The Incarnation of Love
08/01/2021
August 1, 2021 • Acts 16:1–5
Righteousness, Self-control & Judgment, Part 3
November 14, 2021 • Acts 28
Week 37: Unstoppable Kingdom - A Journey Through Acts November 14 - Acts 28 Over the last couple of weeks in our series on the Book of Acts, we’ve slowed down a bit to sharpen our focus on transformation. Specifically, we acknowledge that God loves us, and out of that love, calls us to repent (aka a change of mind/heart ultimately leading to a change in our behavior). He does this because he doesn’t want to leave us where we are – in our sin, our addiction, our selfishness, our paranoia, and our pain. But there’s another reason he calls us to repent. He desires to use us – in our gradually transforming state – to bring healing to those around us… because he loves them, too! So there’s a lot at stake. The million-dollar question, of course, is how to engage this transformation. And that’s what we’re talking about this Sunday in our final session on the Book of Acts.
Righteousness, Self-control & Judgment, Part 2
November 7, 2021 • Galatians 5:19–25
Week 36: Unstoppable Kingdom - A Journey Through Acts Nov 7, 2021 - Galatians 5:19-25 As we’ve studied the Book of Acts this year, many of us have noticed a contrast between the early church and our own. This has led to a longing for God to do among us what he did so many centuries ago — the manifestation of his power, his deliverance, the transformation of our world, and a church singularly devoted to the glory of Jesus and the good of all people. Curiously, these primitive believers didn’t have all the advantages we have today: countless bible studies and curricula, conferences, worship music, and the like. What they did have was a sincere faith and simple (not shallow) practices that guided their lives. What if we who have been rescued by Jesus adopted those same practices?