The Gateway Church

The earliest believers were so united that no one claimed their possessions as their own, and there were no needy persons among them. Pastor Dominic Jackson takes up a subject Jesus addressed often but the church tends to avoid: our relationship with money and possessions. He considers whether this picture of radical sharing is a command for every age or simply a record of one moment. His suggestion is that it is neither so much as an invitation into formation. The specific practices belonged to the early church, but the posture of the heart beneath them remains. Every resource is entrusted to us by God, and generosity flows from trusting him. Dominic invites us to ask not only what we give, but what we are still holding on to.

Acts 2 closes with a portrait of the earliest church: a community marked by generosity, joy, and goodwill, to which the Lord added daily. Pastor Dominic Jackson asks whether this picture merely describes a distant moment in history or still shows God’s design for his church today. Tracing how the focus of Christian gatherings has shifted over the centuries, Dominic returns to the four things the first believers devoted themselves to: the teaching of Scripture, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. The word “devoted” means to hold on tightly. He invites us to consider whether we simply practice these things or truly cling to them, and what God might do through a church that does.

After the Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost, the crowd asks two questions: “What does this mean?” and “What shall we do?” Matt Crummy explores how Peter, the disciple who had denied Jesus only weeks before, answers both with one of the most consequential speeches in history. Drawing on the prophets and the Psalms, Peter reinterprets what his listeners already believed. He shows them that the crucified Jesus is the risen Messiah, raised because death itself could not hold him. When the crowd is “cut to the heart,” Peter calls them to repent and receive the gift of the Spirit, a promise extended to all who are far off. Matt reflects on how God chooses flawed messengers, why we so easily forget what he has done, and what it means to receive his life as a gift.

At Pentecost, the Spirit Jesus promised arrives with the sound of wind and the appearance of fire. Pastor Dominic Jackson explores what these signs would have meant to the first Jewish believers. Throughout Scripture, wind and fire marked God’s presence and the formation of a temple. Now they rest not on a mountain or a building but on ordinary people, making them the dwelling place of God. Dominic also considers how Pentecost reverses the scattering of Babel. Where human pride once divided people by language, the Spirit now brings them together, as people from many nations hear the gospel in their own tongue. The message of Pentecost is that the good news of Jesus is for every people and every culture, and that the same Spirit is given to us today.

Between the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the early church faced its first major decision: who would take the place left empty by Judas? Pastor Dominic Jackson walks through this often-overlooked passage, noting the costly faithfulness of the first apostles and the remarkable diversity of the community Jesus gathered. He also shows how the believers met betrayal and loss honestly, in the light of Scripture. Their process of discernment offers a model for our own decisions: grounding them in Scripture, saturating them in prayer, making them in community, and trusting God enough to act. Dominic also invites us to examine our prayer lives, asking whether we come to God mainly for what he can give or out of a desire for his presence.

Pastor Dominic Jackson opens the series on the book of Acts by looking at how Luke frames his second volume: not as a history of the apostles, but as the continuation of all that Jesus “began to do and to teach,” now carried forward by his Spirit-empowered followers. Dominic explores why the church needs both the teachings and the works of Jesus, why waiting on God is never wasted time, and how the disciples’ hope for political restoration gave way to a much larger mission. The ascension is not Jesus’ absence but his enthronement. From there he sends his church to be his witnesses, beginning not at the ends of the earth but right where they stand.

In Luke 8, a woman who has spent twelve years unclean, unhealed, and unseen reaches through a crowd to touch the edge of Jesus’ cloak. Pastor Dominic Jackson revisits this familiar story with fresh attention to the religious and cultural world around it. He shows that the woman’s act was not desperation alone but faith. Her touch recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah who would come “with healing in his wings.” Jesus answers not with condemnation but by calling her “daughter,” restoring her dignity and her place in the community. Dominic invites us to see ourselves in every part of the story: in the woman who needs healing, in the crowd that pushes others out, and in Jesus, who was never too busy to be interrupted by someone in need.

Closing out the summer series in the Psalms, Pastor Dominic Jackson turns to Psalm 130, a Song of Ascents sung by pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem. He explores what the Bible means by hope. Too often we treat hope as little more than a wish, which offers little strength when life becomes genuinely hard. Scripture offers a fuller picture: a hope rooted in God's faithfulness in the past, sustained by his presence now, and anchored in the promise of what is to come. Dominic also considers why we hesitate to bring our needs to God, especially when our troubles are of our own making, and how Psalm 130 models honest prayer from "the depths." The psalm points us beyond the gifts we want to the Giver himself, the God with whom there is forgiveness, unfailing love, and full redemption.

Matt Crummy explores Psalm 82, one of the more unusual and challenging passages in the Psalter, in which God stands in a heavenly assembly and judges other "gods" for their injustice. Drawing on the view that God created spiritual beings who share in his rule, Matt considers what this strange scene reveals about God's priorities. Defending the weak, the fatherless, and the oppressed is not a side concern but central to the right ordering of creation. He traces how Jesus takes up this psalm and fulfills its vision, and how the Spirit poured out at Pentecost extends that calling to ordinary people. The result is a reminder that the church is not merely an organization but a people on a shared pilgrimage, called to reflect God's justice and carry a living hope into the world.

Pastor Dominic Jackson turns to Psalm 90, the only psalm attributed to Moses, to explore its central prayer: "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Moses holds life and death side by side. The God who formed the mountains is the same God who returns us to dust. Dominic shows why that is ultimately good news: our bodies are temporary, but the breath of God within us is not. He also reframes the fear of the Lord. God's power is real and overwhelming, yet it is power for us. Rather than something to dread, the brevity of life becomes an invitation to live wisely, hold fast to the hope of eternity, and give our days to what truly matters.