We're continuing to journey through Christmas for the Nations this week! As we'll hear from the passage in Acts: God doesn't want us to be be comfortable. That may go against everything we're taught to believe in our culture but it's true.

This week, Chad Sparks continues to lead us through the book of Acts — with a reminder that what we’re seeing in Acts is just the beginning and that the history of the church includes us! In other words, we have the opportunity to play a role in God’s epic story. Part of that role may involve waiting patiently for God's instruction but we should have absolute confidence in the power of the resurrection.

Missions minister Matt Giles explains how the earliest disciples were scattered by persecution, and how that scattering drove them to fulfill the next stage of Jesus' mission.

Picking up from where we left off last week, the Apostles have just elected seven new leaders to serve in the church. Stephen, one of those elected, “was doing great wonders and signs among the people” and it’s at this early point in his ministry that he decides to give a voice to that which needs to be heard and, for this, Stephen paid the ultimate price. This week, we explore Stephen’s martyrdom and we take a look at what it means to die for Christ and to truly live for Him.

This week, we see the Apostles come to an important realization about the needs and growth of their ministry. Centuries later, the action they take to develop leaders in order to effectively distribute responsibilities is a model for servant leadership in the Church. In this passage, we can clearly see that (a) the ministry of the word is important, (b) choosing good leaders in order to meet people’s needs is also important, and (c) there is a critical need for both qualitative *and* quantitative growth in the Church — and it’s through this discipleship model, and the strength of the Holy Spirit, that we’re able to do these things.

Last week, we began to explore ‘the death of feel-good church’ as the early church began to emerge. This week, we’re witness to a clear instance of persecution of the Apostles as they pursue their mission to proclaim the Gospel. But it’s the response of Peter and the other Apostles that may take you by surprise: “they left [after being jailed and questioned], rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” Let’s take a closer look at the passage from this week and try to figure out together just what exactly made them “rejoice” — and why that may just be the best response to persecution in our effort to be on offense, not offensive, for Christ.

Some of you grew up in a church that pressured people to give, equated giving with being spiritual, or even promised blessings in return from God. But, like with many things we’re seeing as the first church emerges in the book of Acts, this is isn’t what God had in mind for the concept of giving. Within these verses, Luke gives us two examples of giving amidst the people of the first church that Luke tells us “were of one heart and one soul.” (What a beautiful way to describe this unity!) Here, we see both a positive example and an example that we should avoid — in order to pursue a sincere, unpretentious, and honest faith.

As Christians, what do we define as persecution? It’s not when common bad things happen to you. (After all, the rain falls “on the just and the unjust.”) Nor is it when someone neglects to say “Merry Christmas” to you. Conversely, persecution doesn’t only come in the form of an attack on one’s life. Simply put: persecution is taking a personal hit because of Jesus. This week, we see the boldness of Peter and John as they faced persecution from the events we talked about last week — and we’ll hear about the different ways that we can handle persecution when it happens.

Sometimes God allows a spotlight to shine on us. This can certainly happen in a good way — like winning a big game or getting an academic award. In other times, though, you can find yourself in the spotlight for reasons that aren’t as good. In fact, those can be the biggest spotlights where people pay the most attention. The question is: what do you do with the spotlight? This week, in the third chapter of Acts, we see how God uses a bad thing (a disability), and a good thing (a miracle), for his glory.

This week, we’re wrapping up the second chapter of Acts (2:42-47) and Chad will be walking us through the properties of the very first church. Within this passage, we see that those who were part of this first church were devoted to teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. With that context, we’ll look at ways in which the version of church we have today might be different from — and similar to — what we see in these verses. Chad’s also got five challenges for your week ahead. Be ready to take notes!