In Acts 25, it’s increasingly clear that God is sovereign over the events taking place as he works out his purposes. Just as he is sovereign over our lives and the smaller details, so he is sovereign over the universe and the grand narrative of history.

Paul faces continued injustice and corruption, yet stands before kings with unshakeable peace. When we suffer, our anxiety often reveals we doubt God’s love, not His power—but Christ holds us fast, and our peace in suffering testifies to His reality.

Acts 24 exposes a choice we all face: the world’s way of self-protection, manipulation and compromise or Jesus’ way of truth, integrity, faith and surrender. Through Paul’s trial, he demonstrates that God’s way, though costly, is always better.

Through Paul’s trial before Felix, Acts 24 shows that the gospel is always at work preparing, provoking and producing in the lives of people.

Paul, in the face of extreme conflict walks with a good conscience before God and displays courage that is from God. Jesus offers us the same as we walk according to the Holy Spirit.

The core issue at the heart of not just Acts 23, but the whole narrative of the New Testament and of history is around the resurrection of Jesus and, therefore, his people. The truth of the resurrection changes everything about everything.

Why do some hearts receive the gospel whilst others reject it? Jesus teaches that it is down to the soil – the human heart. Pain and suffering is often God’s way of softening our hearts so the gospel can take root and produce an abundant harvest.

Suffering is more normal and more universal than we like to think in a modern world. Steve Petch, who planted Grace Church nearly 20 years ago, teaches from Romans 8 on the reality of suffering for all and the reality of future hope for all Christians.

Ever felt too broken for God to use you? Paul had Christian blood on his hands—yet became one of the church’s greatest missionaries. Discover how the gospel transforms rebels into witnesses, and why no past is too dark for God’s grace.

When Paul defends himself to the mob in Jerusalem, he doesn’t produce a legal argument, declare his innocence or even show contempt. Instead, he respectfully tells them his story about how Jesus changed his life. We should be prepared to do the same.