Sermons from October 2022 (Page 8)
Acts 18
What You Can’t Learn in Seminary Introduction: The road to virtually any worthwhile goal is long and tough. To become a pilot in the U.S. Airforce you have to start with a college degree. If you make it through the brutal application procedure (over 95% washout) you spend three months in Officer Training School. Then comes a year of undergraduate pilot training, two years of operational training, and two more years of co-pilot training. The goal of becoming a captain in the Air Force from…
Acts 19
Satanic Devices to Hinder the Church Introduction: I’ve entitled my sermon today, “Satanic Devices to Hinder the Church.” Ever since Jesus Christ proclaimed to His disciples, “I will build my Church,” Satan has had as one of his principal goals to render the Church anemic and ineffective. We’re going to see today in Acts 19 how he pursued that goal with a vengeance. Now it’s interesting to me that the methodology Satan utilizes has some fascinating parallels to the methodology Communism has used to attempt…
Acts 20:6-12
On Being Alert Introduction: I was undecided for some time as to what to do with the first part of Acts 20. I didn’t want to skip it, for it has been said that the church service Paul conducted at Troas is one of the most encouraging incidents in the Bible for pastors, because it demonstrates that even when the great Apostle Paul spoke, people fell asleep. I suppose, however, that the average layman could read something sinister into a decision to…
Acts 20:17-38
Farewell to Ephesus Introduction: Our journey through the book of Acts brings us today to the Apostle Paul’s final stop in Asia on his third missionary journey. Having traveled thousands of miles over a timespan of some ten years, in the most primitive fashion imaginable, he was now heading for Jerusalem and what he hoped would be an opportunity to preach the Gospel to his fellow-countrymen at the very heart of Judaism. Paul had left the Greek mainland and sailed across the…
Acts 21:1-14
Finding the Will of God Note: I am not ashamed to acknowledge my debt to two authors from whom I have borrowed extensively in the preparation of this sermon. The book, Decision Making and the Will of God, by Garry Friessen and Robin Maxson, is one of the ten most influential books I have ever read. I purchased a copy in 1980, have read it many times, and have taught through it more than once. I encourage you to buy it and read it carefully. I…
Acts 21:15-23:5
When Falsely Accused Introduction: I am certain there is no one here who has not at some time suffered from the particularly damaging and hurtful experience of being falsely accused. I personally find false accusation one of the most difficult trials to handle with a proper Christian spirit. I can handle disagreement, I can handle disappointment, I can even handle suffering, but I do not deal with false accusations graciously. Therefore, I have found the account of Paul’s experience in Jerusalem in Acts 21…
Acts 22:30-24:27
Caught in the Crucible Note: This sermon was preached at First Free in Wichita in 2019. Introduction: I’ve entitled my sermon, Caught in the Crucible. When a craftsman wants to make a piece of gold jewelry from a mold, he first melts a bar of gold and burns all the impurities out of it. To do this he uses a crucible, which is a vessel for melting substances that require a high degree of heat. The term crucible has symbolically come to refer to a severe…
Acts 25-26
A Chosen Instrument Introduction: Have you ever thought that you were possibly destined for greatness? Lee Iacocca did, at a fairly young age. He writes in his autobiography, “When you’re young and you lose, you can react in one of two ways: You can pout and lick your wounds or you can tell yourself, ‘Wait a minute. I’m going to come back from the dead. They can’t keep me down, I’m indestructible.’” It’s that kind of self-confidence and ambition that took him to the presidency of Ford…
Acts 27
A Shipwreck, But Not of Faith Introduction: In the book of 1 Timothy the Apostle Paul writes to his young protege in the ministry and says, “Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.” Paul knew a lot about shipwrecks because he experienced at least four…
Acts 28
The End of the Beginning Introduction: My sermon title today is not original. I saw it first in a mimeographed book by Ray Stedman. Then I found the same title in Charles Swindoll’s study guide on the book of Acts. I don’t know which one of them borrowed from the other or whether both of them borrowed from someone else. Or maybe it’s just a fact that great minds run in similar channels. I do know that I like the title and have borrowed it this…
Acts 29, 2 Tim. 4:6-18
Postscript on Acts Introduction: I’ve enjoyed our study of Acts so much that this week I had withdrawal pains. So, I decided to preach a postscript to the Book today. We noted last Lord’s Day that Acts is an unfinished book and intentionally so, because every generation of the church has a chapter to write concerning the acts of the Holy Spirit in their day. What I didn’t say, however, is that the NT itself gives us further information about what happened to the…