Sunday, December 8, 2024 - 9 a.m. Contemporary Service - The Acts of the Apostles

In one paragraph

Pastor Carl preached the previous week on Ananias and Sapphira, leaving the congregation with the warning that "great fear gripped them all." This week the pastor picked up immediately after that, working through Acts 5 and the apostles' continued witness before the Sanhedrin. The thread running through the whole message was simple: God's gospel will go forward, and nothing, not jealousy, not...

Read together

1. Acts 1 (the commission passage) quoted as Jesus telling disciples to wait in Jerusalem until empowered, then be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts
2. Acts 5 (Ananias and Sapphira section) closing verse 'great fear gripped them all' noted as what Carl preached the previous week, immediately preceding the passage being preached
3. Acts 5 (apostles in Solomon's Colonnade) believers gathering at Solomon's Column, no one else daring to join them though all had high regard for them
4. Acts 5 (Peter's shadow) sick people brought into streets so Peter's shadow might fall on them
5. Acts 5 (angel releases apostles) angel opens jail gates at night and tells the apostles to go to the temple and give the people the message of life
6. Acts 5 (Gamaliel's speech) Gamaliel references Theudas and Judas of Galilee, advises leaving the apostles alone lest they be found fighting against God
7. Acts 5 (apostles flogged and rejoicing) apostles left the council rejoicing that God counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus
8. Acts 5:42 summary statement: every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ
9. Acts 2 (summary statement) believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, sharing meals including the Lord's Supper, and prayer
10. Acts 3 (Peter before the council) Peter said God raised up his servant Jesus and sent him first to the people of Israel to bless them by turning each from their sinful ways
11. Acts 4 (exclusivity of the gospel) the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; there is salvation in no one else, no other name given under heaven by which people must be saved
12. Matthew 27 (crowd before Pilate) leaders got the crowd to yell crucify him and the crowd said let his blood be on us and on our children
13. Isaiah (prophecy of crucifixion) noted that Isaiah seven hundred years before described how Jesus would die, referenced in context of Roman crucifixion
14. 1 Peter 4:12-16 quoted from New Living Translation: do not be surprised at fiery trials, be glad as it makes you partners with Christ in his suffering; if insulted for bearing the name of Christ you will be blessed
15. 1 Peter 4:19 if suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep doing right and trust your lives to the God who created you for he will never fail you
16. John 14:6 (Jesus the way, truth, life) cited alongside Acts 4 exclusivity passage to affirm Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life just as he said he was

Talk about it

1. Pastor Carl had the difficult task of preaching Ananias and Sapphira last week. This sermon opened with the idea that periods of special blessing for a church or a believer tend to bring attack, not just rest. Where have you seen that pattern in your own life or in the life of this church?
2. The crowd at Solomon's Colonnade had high regard for the believers but no one else dared to join them. What do you make of that tension, where people respect what God is doing but hold back from it?
3. The high priest and the Sanhedrin responded to miraculous healings not with wonder or hope but with jealousy. What does that tell us about how a person's position or prior commitments can keep them from seeing what God is doing right in front of them?
4. Gamaliel's advice was essentially to wait and see whether this movement was from God or from men. He was right to urge caution, but the council still beat the apostles before letting them go. What do you think it takes to move from cautious wisdom like Gamaliel's all the way to genuine belief?
5. The apostles left the council rejoicing that God counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. What would it look like practically in your own daily life to carry the gospel forward in a way that is, as the sermon put it, so perplexing and so confusing that people have to do something about it?