Acts of the Apostles
The book of Acts can present as a collection of hyperboles. Fire from heaven, dramatic exorcisms, adventure on the high seas, earthquakes and arrests. In some ways this seems appropriate, because it’s the story of Jesus’ first followers after all. How they began to share the story of Jesus’ life and resurrection, with the Holy Spirit invariably appearing to add dramatic flair.
But, if we take time to look a little closer, we find that there are a bunch of stories here showcasing the haphazard, serendipitous, and mundane ways in which the first Christians went about trying to be faithful. The ways in which they encountered the divine. The ways in which they discovered, as N.T. Wright says, that the God of the Hebrew Scriptures was “doing a new thing in the whole world.”
Seeing this, we can affirm that while the Church’s genesis was marked by spectacular action, it was also expressed in ordinary human experience. That the Holy Spirit was at work in spectacular events and day-to-day monotony alike. And we can consider how the same might be true for us.
Acts ch2 - Jeremy Duncan
This week we are diving into a summer series on the book of Acts. The Acts of the Apostles is a collection of stories about how the followers of Jesus became what we know as the Church.
Acts ch4 - Devon Scott
This week’s texts are located in what is known as the Jerusalem passage, and they record some of the earliest persecution that the church experienced.
Acts ch5 - Bobbi Salkeld
This week we looked at two stories we find at the beginning of Acts— both these stories are intense and strange and full of drama. And these stories don’t wrap up nicely or end tidily — they are confusing, and we can be a bit uncomfortable with having them in our Bibles.
Acts ch10 - Jim Cresswell
It’s been a while since the feast of Pentecost, where this series started. The church in Acts has continued to grow, but with that growth has come serious and deadly persecution. The story of Jesus has started moving outward, and two main protagonists move this narrative forward— Paul and Peter. Today, we focus in on part of Peter’s story.
Acts ch16 - Maddie McBlain
This week, we look at part of Paul’s story. Acts 16 shows us what it looks like for people from vastly different walks of life to encounter the good news. We meet a wealthy business woman, a girl in slavery, and a man who works in a prison.
Acts ch17 - Yelena Pakhomova
In his speech at the Areopagus, Paul adapts the way he presents the story of Jesus— he puts this story of grace into a language that connects with those he is speaking to. In Athens, Paul finds that the God he worships has been at work in places he didn’t expect. While the city is filled with idols, it is also filled with the Holy Spirit, working through those who worship God.
Acts ch19 - Jeremy Duncan
Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen Paul in Philippi and Athens, and this week we follow him to Ephesus. These were the three major cities in the ancient world with their own flavour and customs. Each of the cities presented their own challenges to Paul and early Jesus story. One could tell a lot about the culture of each city based on that city’s particular temple to a particular god of the Greco-Roman pantheon around which the life of that city and its commerce was built. Philippi had Pan, Athens had Athena, and Ephesus was built around the temple of Artemis.
Acts ch27 - Bobbi Salkeld
We are nearing the finale of the book of Acts. This summer through the Acts sermons we’ve covered topics like the forward-facing journey in faith, the complicated struggles that come when you start something new, the serious business of being the temples of the Spirit, and so much more. Today, we come to the shorter, colder days for the Apostle Paul. Paul leaves prison after two years. And still as a prisoner, Paul is put on a ship for Rome.