Sermons About Early-church
Becoming the Missional Church
Acts 2:41-47 Missional? What does that mean? If you take a noun and add –al to the end you get an adjective! So you and your adversary have and adversarial relationship. So to be a missionary in your community means that you live missionally. We have spent 5 of the last 6 times I have had the privilege of speaking to you talking about what it means to be a missionary in our own town. For far too long the church in America has failed to think missionally. We have assumed that if they were interested in church they would attend. We have assumed that our neighbors had friends and relatives around better suited to meet their needs. We have assumed that our community knows where we are and will find us if they are in need. But when we look at our Missionary God we don’t see him waiting for us to reach out or waiting for our friends to serve us. We see him coming, sending, serving, reaching and pursuing. So what has been the big idea of these five sermons and what is the big idea behind Missiology (the study of missions) and missional thinking? For us this is the big idea : We are a community of servants sent by God to allow Jesus to pursue our neighbors, family, friends, and coworkers through us. Now let us look at what this looks like when an entire church is committed to being on mission with Jesus!
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The Model Church
Acts 2:42-47 provides a concise description of the first church. These verses include seven characteristics of a church that pleases and honors the Lord. Members of the early church were comprised totally of believers who were steadfast and worshiped in awe and wonder. They shared much and were unified such that they were stimulated immensely by the company of other believers. Finally, the early churched shined and grew in number by growing in edification and going forth to share the gospel with those outside the church. If today's church is faithful to this model, it will experience many blessings from the Lord.
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The Sequel
A look at what the sequel to Jesus' work here on earth is and who the actors in the Story are.
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Pick Up That Baton
Pick Up That Baton What matters most? ‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…’ Hebrews 12:2a ‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and than will the end come’ Matthew 24:4-14 I am struck with the realization that the timing of God’s purposes is at times contingent on people. God has a plan that is relying on you and me to carry out. We are members of the kingdom of God and to some degree responsible how it is administered on this earth during our lifetime. So while life may be looked at as a race that we as individuals run, as Paul described it, it is also a relay. We are an integral part of the whole. What we do or don’t do contributes to, or adversely affects the completion of God’s plan. We easily lose sight of the significance of the moment in the larger picture of what God has done, is doing, and will do. Some characteristics of the early church (first three centuries). 1. They were moved by a burning conviction Galatians 2:20 2. Persecution and the Christian’s response to it had a profound impact on those who witnessed and administered it.Hebrews 11:32-40 3. The gospel as presented filled a heartfelt need. It presented life change and grace. Ephesians 2:8, James 1:12 4. The practical expression of Christian love was one of the most powerful causes of early Christian success Matthew 25:35-40 We are on the team with them and are called to ‘Pick up the Baton’ and run our portion of the race. The video watched during the services can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXnT84Eu-oA
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shift : being the church in a strange new world
This week, Pastor Kevin looked at how the death of Christendom will affect the church, and how we must navigate the waters of this strange new world we are entering.
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Transformissional Leaders
Every week that we've been in the book of Acts, we've been asking the same question in a variety of ways, "What was going on in the midst of the early Church that made them so attractive to the world?" We've been asking this question so that as we read the book of Acts, we don't simply relegate it to a distant but pleasant historical read.
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This Beautiful Facade
Up to this point we have seen the incredible advancement and expansion of the Gospel as it breaks new ground in new ways. The Spirit promised by Jesus to the Church in Acts 1 has empowered the Church to be witnesses of Jesus starting in Jerusalem and moving into Judea, Samaria, and now we see this incredible news of what Christ has done spreading all the way to the Gentiles now in Antioch.
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God Inside Out: How It All Began
A look at how the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost enabled Christianity to “get legs†and spread rapidly throughout the middle-east despite the enormous challenges the movement faced in the beginning
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