We light a candle, to remind ourselves on the darkest day of the year, that in the darkest moments of life, regardless of where they fall, we have a Savior who enters in that darkness and joins us, redeems us, and renews us.

This Christmas celebration is an announcement in the dark and cold of winter, that light and life are growing again and it is a symbol of what God can, and will do, in you.

We now come to Acts chapter 18 where the gospel continues to spread and be preached in new places to Jews and Gentiles alike. A new player comes on to the scene, Apollos, a Jew who spoke and taught accurately the things of Jesus but still himself needed to grow in his knowledge and understanding of the way of God. We can learn the things of Jesus from the most eloquent speakers, but until we dive into the Word of God ourselves, we will only go so deep in our personal spiritual maturity.

Athens, it was the intellectual and cultural capital of the world. Paul went to reason in the marketplaces and synagogues there, to bring the gospel to the people there. He comes up against two very distinct people groups with very resolved beliefs and accepted social structures. But Paul was bringing them something new, a REAL God, to them, an unknown God. Listen along as Brad teaches through the rest of Acts 17.

In Acts we have seen the beginnings of the church as they spread across the known world with new ones springing up in cities everywhere. We come to Acts chapter 17 where 2 of the apostles come to 2 cities, Berea and Thessalonica. "... the Jews there were more noble than the rest." Listen along to hear the unpacking of why they were more noble due to their great faith, submission, and humility.

The Romans didn't care about this 'Jesus' being another God that people worshipped. People everywhere worshipped all sorts of gods. Why would one more matter? But the Jews understand something in the language that the Romans do not. And this small nuance, this little detail, makes all the difference in the world. When Paul presents Jesus as the Christ, as the Messiah, he's presenting him as KING. That's what the Messiah is. That's who the Christ is. THE KING of all kings. So he's spreading this subversive message: "There is another king, regardless of who may be ruling this land at any given time, and THAT king is Jesus."

Looking at our text for the day out of Acts 16 has really solidified for Brad personally, WHY he is a Christian. We look at 3 different stories of people and how they encountered the power and grace of Jesus in their own individual way. The Gospel showed them a life that was more meaningful than the one they were living.

One of the often overlooked aspects of the gospel's increased popularity in the world was WHO the people became, the people who started following Jesus. It turns out that there was something about their lives - something about WHO they were, that drew people in. How can we daily become individuals and a community like this? It all starts with the gospel

There are several different types of blindness: physical, spiritual, mental, but all of them mean having a lack of sight. Jesus came to heal every part of us, including our ability to see ourselves and others as He does. Pastor Keith Jenkins from Beaverton Oregon taught an engaging and challenging message on the power of a touch of God healing all our forms of blindness.

From the beginning of this series we've been studying the book of Acts to learn the history and beginnings of the first church so we might duplicate it today. What if we lived like they did? Not just behaviorally, but with the sense of the gospel of Jesus Christ resting on our shoulders to carry to the world. In today's message Brad focuses on the culture then and the culture of our world today and how we can be a part of a story so much greater than the empty one our culture is telling us. Emptiness breeds emptiness, the gospel produces life change.

We all know we need change in areas of our lives, but we just can't seem to change ourselves. We can't seem to make ourselves into the person we want to be. The amazing thing is, not matter what we've done and will do, we will never "out-sin" God's grace. "Everyone who believes is freed from everything." Now that's a transformational message. Listen along to this message about 3 Dimensions of the Gospel of Jesus.