Sunday Sermons

Moving past Peter’s run in with Cornelius and his report to the church, Luke directs our attention northward to Antioch. Here, we are introduced to a growing local church made up of Jews and Gentiles that will prove to be a major player in the gospel going out to the nations. It was here that followers of Christ received a name that has now stuck for 2000 years.

Chapter 10 of Acts is a crucial chapter that serves as a gateway to the eventual movement of the gospel to the nations. Peter’s vision at Simon the Tanner’s house and the subsequent meeting with Cornelius revealed to the Church that God is bigger than ever imagined and the gospel’s reach goes further than previously dreamed.

In the end of Acts 9, we run across two instances in Peter’s personal ministry to people. These stories are unique because they serve as a pause between two major events in the book of Acts. In them, we get a peek at at Peter’s pastoral heart which has been molded by Christ.

Acts 9:1-31 is one of the most well known passages in the whole book of Acts. Saul’s conversion served as the first step toward that which would change the makeup of the church from that point forward. It is a testament to the power of the gospel in even the most unlikely of converts.

Now that the church has scattered into the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria, Luke zeroes in on a specific story of God using one man (Philip) to bring the gospel to another (the Ethiopian eunuch). In this passage, we see the power of one play out as God uses his willing servant to save an unlikely person in an obscure place.

With Advent behind us, we jump back into our series in Acts. Chapter 8 begins with the church scattering out from Jerusalem and throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. It is a passage that puts on display the unstoppable nature of the gospel message even in times of resistance.