From your Pastors

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...

"When he toured friends and guests through the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he would take them to the prayer room in the basement, where people could be found on their knees, offering up intercessory petitions to God. Spurgeon would tell his visitors, 'Here is the powerhouse of this church.' And in his sermons, Spurgeon pleaded often for his congregation to uphold him and the ...

Overview of Sermon:The Jewish leaders were greatly annoyed when they found Peter and John proclaiming the gospel and teaching the people. They arrested and questioned Peter and John. As this court room drama unfolds, the Jewish leaders oppose Peter and John and try to suppress the spread of the gospel. However, Peter and John respond with Spirit-filled courage and clarity....

"Luke assures his readers immediately that the opposition of men did not hinder the Word of God. The Sadducees could arrest the apostles, but not the gospel." John Stott "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is t...

OVERVIEW OF THE SERMON: As Peter and John return to the temple in the third chapter of Acts, they meet a man who has been lame and begging his whole life. In his destitution, he asks for a financial donation, but instead receives a miracle of God when he is healed and delivered the gospel of Jesus Christ! Peter takes advantage of the crowd's wonder to inform everyone of t...

"For a full understanding of the early church we need to read TheActs of the Apostles and The Book of Revelation side by side.Both tell much the same tale of the church and its experience ofconflict, but from a different perspective. Luke in the Actschronicles what unfolded on the stage of history before the eyesof observers, John in the Revelation enables us to see the hi...

OVERVIEW OF THE SERMON:Through this passage we see the unveiling of Jesus' identity exposes every heart. First, we see the leaders of Israel question Jesus' authority only to have Jesus reveal their hearts as ones who fear man rather than God. Jesus then tells a parable in which he condemns the leaders for rebelling against God's authority and persecuting God's prophets an...