As Christians, we sometimes struggle to understand our purpose: What are our standing orders? What are we supposed to be doing as members of the Church? And do we have any special orders: something that the Lord has specifically called us to as individuals or as individual families? Today’s passage helps us make sense of all that: how to understand our standing orders as well as how to receive and respond to any special orders from the Holy Spirit. Every Christian receives orders from Christ, which means we must understand those orders in order to obey them.
Acts 12:1-25 - "Life & Death"
At the end of the day, we don’t know why God allows some people to live longer than others, or why He allows some people to go on living at all. Our very human tendency is to see such things in light of our desire for immediate justice (at least, in the case of others). Long life seems a fitting reward for the seemingly righteous, and sudden death for the really wicked. But our ways are not God’s ways, and our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. The big idea for today is that God has an eternal, purposeful perspective, and so we must trust Him with issues of life and death. In Acts 12, we have three stories of life and death that are presented in the context of God’s eternal, purposeful perspective: 1. The death of James; 2. The near-death experience of Peter; and 3. The death of Herod Agrippa.
"Proof of Payment" (Easter 2022)
The crucifixion constituted a once-and-for-all payment for sin. But the resurrection is and always will be our proof of payment. Without Easter Sunday, Good Friday would be no good at all. But the resurrected Christ did indeed conquer sin and death, so we can live with peace and hope by trusting in Him. Otherwise, we would have no basis for peace with God and the hope of eternal life.
Acts 11:19-30 - "Collaborative Efforts"
The Great Commission is a great collaboration between Christ and Christians, so we all have a part to play. Today’s passage is a turning point where the Gospel begins to go out to the nations. And it shows us how the Lord works through many different people to build up His Church and to bring more and more people into His kingdom. This morning, we are going to look at four different roles played by different Christians, who work together to build up the Church. In Acts 11:19-30, we see people evangelizing non-Christians, and also encouraging, equipping and exhorting new Christians.
Acts 11:1-18 - "The Bigger Picture"
We can’t always anticipate what God is going to do, so we must always hold loosely to our expectations and traditions. Today’s passage begins with a very human response to doing something “new” in light of tradition, but thankfully it ends with a worshipful acknowledgement of the bigger picture of what God was doing in terms of salvation and the expansion of the Church.
Acts 10:34-48 - "Good News For Everyone"
God’s ordinary means of leading people to faith in Christ is to send a person to share the good news of Jesus with someone whose heart has been prepared to hear it and to respond. And this is exactly what we see in the conversion of Cornelius. The really extraordinary thing about this story is that the person who responded to the good news of the Jewish Messiah wasn’t Jewish. Today’s big idea is that the Gospel is good news for everyone, so anyone can be saved through faith in Jesus.
Acts 10:23-33 - "Gospel Preparedness"
When we fail to trust that God is at work in our lives and in the lives of others, we tend to put too much pressure on ourselves to present the Gospel perfectly and we put too much pressure on others to immediately understand and accept it. We can’t afford to forget that God is at work on both sides of evangelism. God prepares people’s hearts for the Gospel, both to share it and to believe it. Today’s passage shows how God was simultaneously working with both Peter and Cornelius to bring about the fruit of salvation.
Acts 10:1-23 - "Divine Directions"
As Christians, we will lack usefulness if we lack prayerfulness. Turning to God in prayer prepares us to be useful instruments in the hands of our Redeemer. And God delights in choosing humans, like us, to accomplish His redemptive plans. As we see in today’s passage, God connects humble seekers with human speakers, so let’s pray for humble hearts and bold tongues.
Acts 9:32-43 - "New Life In Christ"
Today’s big idea is that we have new life in Christ, so let’s show that newness as we share the good news. In our passage, we see the “accelerant” of apostolic signs and wonders pointing to the power of Christ to save. Peter’s two miracles point to two important realities for every Christian man or woman: restoration for our spiritual disabilities and being raised to new life in Christ.
Acts 9:1-31 - "Unstoppable"
In philosophical circles, the “irresistible (or unstoppable) force paradox” asks the question: “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” The Bible resolves this issue by revealing that there is no such thing as an irresistible or unstoppable force, outside of God Himself. Today’s passage reiterates this point by showing us that Jesus alone is both immovable and unstoppable.
Acts 8:26-40 - "The Gospel Is For Everyone"
If we have a personal relationship with Jesus, then we have a knowledge and experience of Him that is worthy of being shared. To be a Christian is to be a witness for Christ, so let’s be effective witnesses. Ultimately, this requires the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:8), but as we see in today’s passage, we definitely have a role to play. However, we must be sensitive and obedient to God’s Spirit. If we are, then we will know where to go, who to reach, and how to share Christ with them.
Acts 8:5-25 - "Directions To Christ"
In today’s passage, most of the Samaritans receive the gospel with joy, but Simon witnesses the signs of the power of the Holy Spirit and is so distracted by them that he misses the true glory of the Gospel. Just like the Samaritans, we can respond to signs of the gospel’s power by allowing them to direct us to Christ, leading to saving faith and glorifying God; or we can allow them to distract us from Christ, leading to an empty faith and glorifying ourselves.
Acts 8:1-4 - "Living On Mission"
As we cling to what is fast, easy and comfortable in our daily life, this can seep into how we live out our faith in both our expectations and our actions. Like the early church, we must learn that living on mission for Christ requires us to trust God even when our life doesn’t go as we planned. Even when it’s not fast, easy and comfortable. In our passage, we’ll see how the lives of early Christians were disrupted in virtually every way and how this helped them grow in trusting in God’s provision and God’s plan.
Acts 6:8-7:60 - "Boldness In Christ"
When we focus on ourselves, we tend to be timid about our faith. Or, we try to look brazen and daring to compensate for our unsettled, insecure beliefs about God. But if we would only look to God Himself, we would become bold in the biblical sense. Boldness comes from better understanding God: His power, His purposes, and His promises. In our passage, Stephen understood God in these ways, and that’s why we see him speaking boldly about God in the face of persecution.
Acts 6:1-7 - "Solving For Unity"
All people, even Christians, are attracted to similarity and familiarity. In a diverse body of believers, this tendency can create fissures and fault lines in the congregation. And that’s exactly what we see in today’s passage. Diversity can lead to division, which means we must be constantly solving for unity, even as we resist uniformity. In our passage, we see how this whole process plays out in the early church in just seven verses: 1. Diversity leads to division (v. 1); 2. Division leads to addition (vv. 2-6); and 3. Addition leads to multiplication (v. 7).
Acts 5:12-42 - "Power & Persecution"
When we forget Jesus’ promises to His followers, we tend to think that we won’t ever see the power of God, or be persecuted for our beliefs in God. But actually the opposite is true in both cases. Jesus promised us that true Christian ministry would evidence the power of God and elicit persecution from worldly people. Consider the words of Jesus from the night of His own arrest:
"Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater [works] than these he will do; because I am going to the Father.” - John 14:12 (NASB20)
"If you were of the world, the world would love [you as] its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.” - John 15:19-20 (NASB20)
Jesus promised us power and persecution, so we should expect both. Today’s passage reveals these realities in the early church.
Acts 5:1-11 - "Taking Sin Seriously"
For many Americans, the biblical concept of sin as a grave offense against an infinitely holy and just God is passe. This is exactly why today’s passage is, for many modern readers, one of the most difficult passages in the Book of Acts. Here we see God judging what some of us might consider a small sin, and He does so directly and immediately with grave consequences. The main point of today’s passage is that sin is always serious, and so we must take it seriously. The way we do this in the church is by confronting sin and correcting sinners. And that’s exactly what we see in the first and second halves of our passage.
Acts 4:23-37 - "Unity For Adversity"
The Christian life leads to adversity, but it also leads through adversity. God gives us Christian unity to face adversity together, so we must remain unified in our hearts and minds. Today’s passage shows us how the early church faced adversity with unity, through single-minded prayer amidst threatening opposition and whole-hearted provision to meet the needs of fellow Christians facing adversity.
Acts 4:1-22 - "Gospel Likes & Dislikes"
Some would give anything to stop the influence of Christ, but others would lose everything to have Him. That’s how it is all around the world, and that’s how it’s been for 2,000 years. So how should that frame our understanding of our mission to bring the good news to the ends of the earth? The gospel demands a response, and we should anticipate both acceptance and resistance. First we’ll see the different responses, and then we’ll double click on rejection and how that can lead to active resistance to the Gospel.
Acts 3:1-26 - "The Power Of Christ"
Christ empowers His people so that we can experience and explain His power. In other words, Christians are meant to showcase His power for an unbelieving world. And today’s passage helps us to explain our Christian experience in a way that draws others to Christ.
