Archives for July 2022

Overview of the Sermon:Luke delivers to us in Acts 6:8-8:4, the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and how God begins to send His gospel to the gentiles. Stephen was a man who was full of faith and the Holy Spirit (6:5) and grace and power (6:8), passionate about teaching how all of the scriptures point to Jesus. In the temple, he comes under trial from the prie...

"There are certain facts in history which the world tries hard to forget and ignore. These facts get in the way of some of the world's favorite theories, and are highly inconvenient. The consequence is that the world shuts its eyes against them. Little by little they sink out of sight of the students of history, like ships in a distant horizon. Of such facts the subject of...

Overview of Sermon:As the Church in Acts continued to expand, so did the needs. In fact, complaints aboutneglected Greek-speaking widows came to the Apostles attention. They knew that these needs must be attended to. However, they also knew that if they were to care for the widows personally, then they would lose focus on their God given responsibility to minister the Word...

Having failed to overcome the church by either persecution or corruption, [Satan] now tried distraction. If he could preoccupy the apostles with social administration, which though essential was not their calling, they would neglect their God-given responsibilities to pray and to preach, and so leave the church without any defense against false doctrine. John Stott In thi...

OVERVIEW OF SERMON:Acts 5:12-42 follows a familiar patternthe apostles do signs and wonders, then courageously face up to persecution from the religious leaders. We learn from this text that the gospel picks up opposition as it picks up momentum. We see how those without the Spirit oppose the gospel with jealousy and rage. In contrast, those with the Spirit suffer for the ...

"[Envy is] resentment that it's going well for the other person and not for you." John Piper "What an envier wants is not, first of all, what another has; what an envier wants is for another not to have itThe envier has empty hands and therefore wants to empty the hands of the envied. Envy, moreover, carries overtones of personal resentment; an envier resents not only som...

OVERVIEW OF SERMON:Luke helps us see how both the goodness of God and the severity of God are necessary for understanding the character of God's revealed nature. First, we observe the unity, care, and generosity of the church through the example of Barnabas' sacrificial giving in response to the gospel. This contrasted with the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who experience...

"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God' writes Paulin Romans 11:22. The crucial word here is and. The apostle isexplaining the relation between Jew and Gentile in the plan ofGod. He has just reminded the Gentile readers that God rejectedthe great mass of their Jewish contemporaries for unbelief, whileat the same time bringing many pagans like themselves to savi...