Acts 3:1-26
The Powerful Name of Jesus Introduction: Acts 3 is linked to Acts 2 not only in their proximity to one another. They are also linked inseparably in regard to content. The gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, as witnessed so powerfully in the second chapter, is intended, in turn, to offer Spirit-filled people as a gift to the world, a world full of lame, paralyzed, hurting people. The evidence of the Spirit’s filling will never be confined to the believer’s personal life,…
Acts 4:1-35
No Other Name Introduction: We have a hard time relating to persecution, don’t we? Most of us have never known significant opposition to our faith in Christ. The worst we can claim is that we were once the butt of a religious joke or that a relative thinks we’re fanatical, or maybe a door was slammed in our face while canvassing our neighborhood on behalf of a Sunday School contest. Not everyone is so fortunate. This Wednesday, I understand, a verdict will be handed…
Acts 4:36-5:11
Opposition from Within Introduction: On September 10, 1813, Naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry dispatched a message to General William Henry Harrison, announcing his victory at the battle of Lake Erie. The message was short: “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.” Some 150 years later Pogo paraphrased Perry, saying, “We have met the enemy and they are us.” Perry’s original version is applicable to chapter 4 of Acts, where we saw last week that the Apostles faced the opposition of the Jewish…
Acts 5:12-42
The Christian and Civil Disobedience Introduction: I am going to do something quite out of the ordinary this morning. Those of you who are regulars with us know that our standard procedure is to take a portion of Scripture and to expound it, i.e., to show its structure, its meaning, and its application. Rarely do I depart from the text of the day, except to use parallel passages of Scripture. However, this morning I would like to preach a topical sermon. The instigation for…
Acts 6:1-7
Growing Pains in the Church Introduction: There’s something nice about a small church. When the fellowship involves only 50-150 people, it is possible to know nearly everyone in the group, everyone is, almost of necessity, involved in ministry in one way or another, facilities and equipment needs are minimal, and there’s a closeness that’s hard to beat. But when a church begins to experience rapid growth, some inevitable changes take place. For one thing it is easy in a growing church for people…
Acts 6:8-8:4
The First Christian Martyr Introduction: Quintus Septimius Tertullian, the great second century apologist of the Christian faith, once said to the enemies of the Church, “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.” Later his statement was put into a motto and a rallying cry for the early church: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” That was true in the first century and it is still true in ours. Some of…
Acts 8
Spreading the Flame Introduction: The Scripture text before us today, Acts chapter 8, can be studied biographically or geographically. If we take a biographical focus we discover there are 4 main characters—two positive and two negative: there is Saul the Persecutor, Philip the Evangelist, Simon the Magician, and the Ethiopian eunuch. But there is also a strong geographical focus in the chapter, as it describes the spread of the Gospel beyond Jerusalem and Judea to two unlikely places—Samaria and Africa. The importance of this is…
Acts 9:1-31
Divine Photography: The Miracle of Conversion Introduction: In your estimation who is the most unlikely candidate for salvation? Is it some detestable political leader like Castro or Pinochet or Idi Amin? Or is it a militant atheist like Madelyn Murray O’Hair or Carl Sagan or Gore Vidal? Or could it be someone on the raunchier side of the entertainment business, like Billy Crystal, Joan Rivers, or Boy George? Or perhaps even some notorious criminal like Charles Manson or Mike Trupiano. Or maybe a false religious leader,…
Acts 9:32-43
The Healing Power of God Introduction: In our journey through the Book of Acts we come today to a text where we find the Apostle Peter in an itinerant ministry in the areas lying outside the city of Jerusalem. He preaches the Gospel and performs two remarkable miracles: in Lydda he heals a man who had been paralyzed for eight years, and in Joppa he raises a woman from the dead. We are going to look briefly at both of these miracles, but rather than…
Acts 9, 32-43 B
When God Does Not Heal Introduction: Several years ago, a middle-aged woman stood up in a church service and gave her testimony as to how she had been afflicted with back pain during the preceding week. It interfered with her work and her sleep and made her life generally miserable. She made the problem a matter of prayer and the pain disappeared. The Lord had wonderfully healed her. In the same congregation another woman, a little younger, had been troubled for years with her back. As she…
Acts 10, 1-11, 18
The Evil of Spiritual Apartheid Introduction: South Africa has been much in the news for the past several years. Lately Congress and the executive branch of our government have been regularly consumed by debate over questions of human rights, sanctions, divestiture, and other such matters as they relate to the government in Pretoria. The social conscience of many in our country has been aroused by the practice of institutional apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid is, of course, a legalized system of racial discrimination which…
Acts 11:19-30
The Crumbling Wall of Partition Introduction: In Ephesians 2:12-14 the Apostle Paul speaks to Gentile believers and urges them to “remember that you were at one time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one,…