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God’s Violence Against Our Idols
March 05, 2021
As world continues to change by becoming more post-Christian and adapting to a post-pandemic world, the church finds itself in a period where change is the new normal. For this season, we are looking at the book of Acts to remind ourselves how the early church followed God as God led the church into the future that was unfolding before them.
The violence in Acts 5:1-11 is unsettling. In many ways, God comes across as petty or overly vindictive. When faced with difficult texts, our tendency is to rush past them to get past our discomfort. But if we are willing to sit with the texts and wrestle through them, we often find that the violence of the text reveals our own violence towards God, others, and ourselves. In this week’s sermon, we find three ways the violence in this text reveals and undermines idols in our lives.
Judges and the Judged
February 26, 2021
As world continues to change by becoming more post-Christian and adapting to a post-pandemic world, the church finds itself in a period where change is the new normal. For this season, we are looking at the book of Acts to remind ourselves how the early church followed God as God led the church into the future that was unfolding before them. In Acts 4:1-31, Peter and John find themselves jailed and standing trial for an act of compassion. As strange as it sounds, this is relatively common. Those who upset the dominant order of the day, even through an act of kindness, are called into question. Those with authority take the role of judges, and those out of line are the judged. But Jesus flips all of this upside down by assuming the role as both the judge and the judged.
Our Collective Responsibility
February 22, 2021
As world continues to change by becoming more post-Christian and adapting to a post-pandemic world, the church finds itself in a period where change is the new normal. For this season, we are looking at the book of Acts to remind ourselves how the early church followed God as God led the church into the future that was unfolding before them.
This week, we explore Acts 3:11-26 and what it means to take collective responsibility for the impact of sin on the world. Inherent in human nature is a tendency to reject responsibility for things we are not explicitly involved in. But what if, by our sin, we are responsible? What does the gospel have to say to our complicity? How might the gospel free us up to have the difficult conversations plaguing our society?
To Be Seen
February 22, 2021
As world continues to change by becoming more post-Christian and adapting to a post-pandemic world, the church finds itself in a period where change is the new normal. For this season, we are looking at the book of Acts to remind ourselves how the early church followed God as God led the church into the future that was unfolding before them.
In Acts 3:1-10, Peter and John come upon a beggar as they are entering the temple to worship. In seeing the man—not just his situation, but his humanity—Peter and John find compassion to offer him healing. How can we be the kind of people who see the humanity of others? And what if our ability to see others is directly connected to our willingness to be seen ourselves? This week, we will explore these questions in our sermon.
Pentecost Fulfilled
February 22, 2021
As world continues to change by becoming more post-Christian and adapting to a post-pandemic world, the church finds itself in a period where change is the new normal. For this season, we are looking at the book of Acts to remind ourselves how the early church followed God as God led the church into the future that was unfolding before them.
Acts 2:42-47 is often lauded as the church in its most perfect form. What often get’s overlooked is that this portrait is a part of the story of Pentecost. Just as the tongues of fire and the speaking of tongues was a sign of the Holy Spirit among the disciples, so is the picture of the church holding all things together and being devoted to the apostles teaching, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Additionally, given the Old Testament references to Pentecost, the picture of the early church community is truly Pentecost fulfilled.
