• January 26, 2025 | Charley Dever
    Listen Here

    Two thousand years ago, Jesus didn't give his followers the Church, he gave them a mission: "Be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth." (Acts 1:8) 

    In the books of Acts, we see that the Church ends up being a natural product of a group of people living out that mission together. The problem is when we lose sight of the mission, we end up losing the Church. And we cease to be good news to the world around us. 

  • February 23, 2025 | Dawn Nichols
    Listen Here

    As we come to Acts 2, the small community of Jesus' disciples are in Jerusalem waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. Jesus left them saying that he would send the Holy Spirit who would fill and empower them to engage in the mission that he set before them. 

    In this passage, we learn that the Church must first wait on the Spirit, be filled by the Spirit, and then be propelled into the mission by the power of the the Spirit. 

  • March 9, 2025 | Erin Popova
    Listen Here

    At the end of Acts 2, we get a beautiful portrait of the shared life of the early church community. It is something that Christians have aspired to imitate ever since.

    But we miss the point if we treat this passage primarily as a model on how to do church. Instead, this is a picture of God's character embodied by God's people. It is a display of what God had been calling his people to do from the very beginning. In other words, this is what it looks like when the church cares about what God's cares about.

  • March 23, 2025 | Charley Dever
    Listen Here

    In the early pages of the book of Acts, things are going well for Jesus' church. The Spirit of God has filled the community and empowered them to fulfill the mission of Jesus in the world. But things take a disturbing turn in Acts 5, when a couple people in the community introduce something that could be the undoing of this faith family. 

    In this passage, we learn about the importance of trust and honesty in community, and the danger that deception poses to authentic connection and intimacy. 

  • April 6, 2025 | Charley Dever
    Listen Here

    For centuries, the church has been a community that unites people across social, economic, racial, and cultural barriers. Jesus has called his people to unite on him and him alone. Unfortunately, we tend to drift back into our old identities and affinities - prioritizing those who are like us and overlooking or neglecting those who are different. This tendency causes deep hurt and insurmountable fractures within a community. 

    In Acts 6:1-7, we see the leaders of the early church respond in a radical way to the hurt and fractures that were forming within the community. Instead of dismissing or simply placating the hurt, the apostles pursue healing by diversifying the leadership and sharing power with those who had experienced hurt.

  • May 4, 2025 | Dawn Nichols
    Listen Here

    One thing that is made very clear in the book of Acts: when you follow after Jesus, suffering is unavoidable. Jesus invites us to join him in his mission, but in doing so, we also join him in his suffering. 

    This reality is on full display in Acts 7 and 8, as Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr. In his final moments, Stephen reflects the story and the heart of Jesus to the world and to his murderers. Instead of destroying the Church, Stephen's suffering becomes the catalyst for its rapid spread across the world.

  • May 18, 2025 | Charley Dever
    Listen Here

    In Acts 8, we see a shift in the spread of the Jesus movement. The persecution, culminating in the martyrdom of Stephen, caused the Church to scatter, and the message to spread to surrounding nations and people groups. This is all because a small group of people listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and did what he asked them to do. 

    This is particularly on display in the life of Philip, who has the opportunity to tell people he never thought he'd meet all about Jesus. Through his interaction with a man from Ethiopia, we learn that when you are following the voice of the Spirit, he will take you to people and to places you never thought you'd go.