Sermons from Christ Presbyterian Church in Burke, VA

This past Lord’s Day, Rev. Charles Garriott, Founder and Executive Director of the PCA’s Mission to North America’s Ministry to State, preached from Psalm 69:1–3 on the theme of pursuing peace in the midst of overwhelming distress. The psalmist’s cry from the deep waters is the cry of every believer who has known the weight of suffering and the silence that can accompany waiting on God. Yet the very act of crying out is itself an act of faith, a pursuit of peace that refuses to let go of the One who hears. The text reminds us that God is not absent in the flood, but present and worthy of our desperate, persistent trust.

On Ascension Sunday, Pastor Harlow preached through Acts 7:54–8:1, tracing three reactions to Stephen’s testimony and death: the fury of the crowd, the faith of Stephen, and the response of Jesus from heaven. As the stones fell, Stephen looked up and saw what his killers could not — the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, the ascended and reigning Lord. Stephen’s final words echo his Savior’s, as he commended his spirit to Christ and prayed forgiveness over those killing him. The passage invites us to consider where our own eyes are fixed, and to find our confidence in a Christ who receives His people and intercedes for them even now.

This past Lord’s Day, Pastor Harlow preached from Acts 7:1–54, where Stephen stands before the Sanhedrin and delivers one of the most sweeping surveys of redemptive history in all of Scripture. From Abraham to Joseph, Moses to David, Stephen traces a single thread through the centuries: every covenant, every deliverer, and every prophet pointed forward to Christ. The very council interrogating Stephen had inherited all of those promises, and had rejected the one to whom every promise pointed. The sermon presses on us the same question Stephen pressed on them: how do you read history, and how do you read the promises of your God?

This past Lord’s Day, Pastor Harlow preached from Acts 6:8–15, taking up the remarkable detail that those who looked at Stephen in the council saw his face “like the face of an angel.” Paired with the Old Testament reading from Exodus 34, where Moses descended from Sinai with his face shining from his encounter with God, the sermon explores what it means to behold the face of Jesus and be changed by that sight. Stephen’s radiance was not his own — it was the mark of one who had fixed his gaze on the Lord, full of grace and the Spirit. Those who look upon the face of Jesus find themselves transformed, even in the face of opposition and death.

This past Lord’s Day, Pastor Harlow continued the Acts series with a look at the early church’s first internal crisis. In Acts 6:1–7, a complaint arises among the Hellenists that their widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution, and the apostles respond not with defensiveness but with wisdom, identifying the problem, proposing a solution, and appointing seven qualified men to serve. What unfolds is a model of ordered, Spirit-led church life: leaders guarding the ministry of the Word and prayer, taking responsibility for the work of mercy, and the whole body moving together in faith. The result is striking, as the Word of God continued to increase and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

Pastor Harlow opened Acts 4:32–5:14 to show that the early church was made up of real people whose hearts were either being shaped by grace or hardened by deception. The generosity of Barnabas illustrated what it looks like when the Spirit of God forms a community around the needs of others, while Ananias and Sapphira’s lie to the Holy Spirit exposed the cost of performing surrender while quietly holding something back. Their deaths sent a holy fear through the church — not one that scattered people, but one that sobered the community and, remarkably, drew even more believers to the Lord. The passage is a reminder that God’s church grows not through polished appearances but through the genuine and sometimes severe work of His Spirit among imperfect people.

This past Lord’s Day, Pastor Mark Moore, Deputy Wing Chaplain at Joint Base Andrews, preached from Psalm 85, tracing the psalmist’s journey through three movements of faith. The Sons of Korah begin by remembering God’s past forgiveness – He covered their sin, withdrew His wrath, restored the fortunes of Jacob – and that memory becomes the ground for running back to Him in honest petition. For anyone feeling like they’re hanging on a thread, this psalm offers a searching word: the distance we feel from God is not a sign that Jesus has left us, but a call to recognize that we have wandered from Him. The psalmist resolves to wait for the Lord’s blessing, confident that the God who spoke peace to His people before will speak it again.

This past Resurrection Sunday, Pastor Harlow preached “The Empty Cell” from Acts 5:12–42, drawing a vivid parallel between the empty tomb and the empty prison the risen Christ left behind him. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead sent an angel to open locked doors and return the apostles to the temple courts, and no Sanhedrin, no threat, and no flogging could silence their witness. Peter’s declaration before the council — “We must obey God rather than men” — shows the resurrection is not simply a doctrine to confess but a power that reorders every loyalty. The apostles walked away from their beating rejoicing, and their example presses the same question on us: does the risen Christ hold that kind of authority over our lives?

On Maundy Thursday, Pastor Harlow preached from 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, returning the congregation to what Paul called “of first importance”: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sinners. These two verses are not a starting point to move past but the message the church must keep coming back to, the very foundation on which all else stands. On the night the church remembers Christ’s betrayal and the institution of the Supper, it was fitting to sit with this compact summary of the gospel. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day.

On Palm Sunday, Pastor Harlow preached from Acts 4:23–31 on the prayer of the early church following Peter and John’s release by the Jewish authorities. The congregation gathered, reported what had happened, and lifted their voices together to the Sovereign Lord, their prayer shaped at every point by the words of Psalm 146, Psalm 2, and Isaiah’s Servant Songs. Their petition was not for safety but for continued boldness to speak God’s word, and they received it: the place shook, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 4 gives the church a vision of prayer that is grounded in Scripture, oriented toward God’s glory, and met with his faithful response.