Acts
Acts 1:1-14
From Small Beginnings Introduction: The opening verses of the book of Acts pick up right where we left off last Sunday. On Easter Sunday we found Jesus walking with two of His disciples on the Road to Emmaus and dispelling their spiritual depression by revealing Himself to them as the living, risen Christ. Now in the early verses of Acts the 40 days of Christ’s post-resurrection ministry are summarized, climaxed by His ascension to Heaven. Let’s read Acts 1:1-11: The first account I composed, Theophilus,…
Acts 2:1-21
The Birthday of the Church Introduction: When my second son, Andrew, was born two and a half years ago I had the incredible privilege of watching the event. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, but the fact is that it was a time of many varied emotions. In addition to sheer awe at the miracle of birth, I experienced a mixture of fear, doubt, humor, exhaustion, pride, humility, and many other feelings. Birth is such an awesome event that I suppose most people…
Acts 2:22-41
The Lordship of Christ: A Borrowed Sermon TO HEAR THE ENTIRE SERMON CLICK ON THE LISTEN BUTTON ABOVE Introduction: Recently I had the privilege of performing a wedding for a couple in our church. Since our facilities are not quite adequate for such a special occasion, a church was rented by the bride’s family. This was a large, well-known church of a mainline denomination, and the personnel in that church were extremely cooperative; they could not have been more accommodating. There was,…
Acts 2:41-47
The Holy Spirit Builds Strong Bodies Introduction: When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Wonder Bread. It was so soft and white, and it made such excellent dough balls when it was wadded up. And when my mom hesitated to buy it, I made sure she knew that Wonder Bread builds strong bodies twelve ways, a truth I was privy to from watching Gene Autry and Howdy Doody, which only the geezers in our audience will relate to. I can’t recall what any…
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,…