GOSPEL :: FAMILY :: MISSION
When you survey this passage along with two other passages from the Apostle Paul located in Romans 1:16 – 17 as well as 1 Corinthians 15:1 – 6, you will quickly find out that the Apostle Paul was intensely devoted to the message of the gospel.
Continue readingThe opening lines of a letter can oftentimes be overlooked as a mere formality without any substance; we typically do not pay any attention to the greeting in a letter as we move on into what seems to be more substantial in the body of the letter. But I would argue that there is more substance in the first five verses of this letter to the Galatians than we might notice at first glance.
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As we come to the final chapter in the book of Acts, I am struck with the example of boldness we see in the apostle Paul. The final phrase of our passage says that Paul spent two years in Rome “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (v. 31).
Continue readingIt has been nearly eleven years since I last preached this passage in the early days of planting this church. While the last eleven years of ministry hold some miraculous memories – people being saved powerfully from the clutches of Satan, Sin, and Death, broken lives being restored, marriages being strengthened, sin being overcome, etc. – even amidst all that miraculous beauty, the last eleven years has also felt like I literally walked through hell and back sometimes.
Continue readingOur passage today, is a summary of the suffering that the Apostle Paul endured at the hands of his lying accusers and his wicked political captors. The people who should have been his friends were nothing more than slanderous back stabbers and the Roman officials who should have protected him from false accusations and freed him from any further harm, chose instead, to leave him in chains to win political favors.2
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It is Easter morning ya’ll! A few thousand years ago, Jesus woke up from spending three days in the grave and he walked out of that tomb in full victory over Satan, sin, and death! Three days ago, the cross was as bloody as the most frightening horror movie you have ever seen. But today, the tomb is as empty as a womb of a mother who just gave birth!
Continue readingWe have gathered here tonight to solemnly celebrate the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Though I use the word “celebration” it is not a celebration in the exciting sense that we typically use the word; Good Friday is meant to be a sober celebration as we are reminded in graphic detail of the horror of the cross of Christ and the depth of our sin that placed him there. We simply come to worship at the foot of a bloody cross tonight.
Continue readingAt some point, the repetition of the last few chapters of the book of Acts begins to feel well… repetitive! The apostle Paul is in the custody of his Roman captors and his enemies – the Law-Loving-Jews – keep following him around, leveling their accusations against him.
Continue readingThe passage in front of us today describes some of the events surrounding the apostle Paul’s journey towards Rome with the testimony of the gospel ready and waiting on his lips at every turn. Paul was a man who was called to testify.
Continue readingWhen I read this passage, I am struck with the power of love. I am not talking about love in the biblical sense of love as an action – in the sense that we are called to love God and love people in the same way we have been loved by Christ at the cross of Calvary – I am talking about love in the sense of what we deeply love, desire, want, obsess over, or long for.
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