Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Passage: Acts 15:14-21 & Amos 9
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 6 mins 28 secs
How did the early church use the Old Testament to settle disputes about the Gentiles' role in the body of Christ? James in Acts 15 goes to the book of Amos and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit uses a "fuller sense" of the text to apply to the Church Age. Listen to this lesson to learn how Christ now being seated at the right hand of God instead of on David's throne means the church does not replace God's promises to Israel. Find out how the Masoretes translated the scriptures in the early centuries to leave out any references to the Messiah.
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Passage: Acts 14:21-15:4
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 1 mins 24 secs
Paul's first missionary journey ignites an explosion of new believers in Jesus Christ across Asia Minor. Not willing to leave these converts in their "diapers", he and Barnabas face extreme danger as they go back and teach doctrine to start these "baby" believers on the road to maturity. Meanwhile, some Pharisee believers insist that the Gentile believers must be circumcised. Listen to this lesson to see how Paul demonstrates the role of a pastor and how circumcision was not just a religious ritual but was an act of patriotism to the Jews. Find out what the political landscape was like in the 1st century and follow the dynamic timeline of the early church.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Passage: Acts 14:1-7
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 7 mins 13 secs
As the church expands, we see a trend toward the future disconnect of Christian Jews as a sect meeting in the synagogue. The move is from a Jewish framework to a Gentile framework. Great multitudes of Jews and Gentiles in Iconium responded to Paul’s message in their synagogue. The Jews who were not obedient to the message of God’s grace stirred up a serious division. Paul and Barnabas had to flee to Lystra and Derbe where they continued to preach the gospel. Study all that is understood in the word believe. Is the word here for unbelieving the opposite of believing? How is this word translated in other passages?
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Passage: Acts 13 & Matthew 16:15-18
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 59 mins 1 sec
Acts is a transition, a historical narrative that is descriptive, not a prescriptive pattern of what happens in the Church today. The phenomena of the church growth movement in the late 60s based church growth on sociological issues and stressed experience as a validation of the Bible. As is often the case with Satan’s plan, this method seemed to work. But understand fully the instruction Jesus gives Peter to feed His lambs while He builds the church. Jesus doesn’t tell Peter to manage an organization through techniques in church growth, but instructs him to proclaim and teach. Review Paul’s journeys and allow instruction from his many discourses to teach us how we can maximize our approach with the message of God’s Word to people in our lives with differing backgrounds.Also includes John 21:15-17
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Passage: Acts 12:1-23
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 2 mins 45 secs
It is Christ who builds the church through the Holy Spirit. If the pastor and congregation are obedient, the Church is protected. This doesn’t mean horrific things won’t happen. Our role in God’s plan is crucial and our focus may not always be clear, though His is. Our walk is one of faith. Our God will take care to preserve and protect us in spite of men’s accomplishments, personalities, methods and false success. As opposition to the Church in Jerusalem moves into the arena of government, look into the genealogy of the Herods, and how, in spite of their despicable rule and degenerate character, God grows His Church. The Church didn’t escape suffering, but in that suffering God performed miracles that gave no doubt who was in charge and who would persevere in Truth.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Passage: Acts 10:9-43
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 5 mins 25 secs
Jewish religious practice at this time observed strict separation from Gentile culture, even though the Jews did have a level of missionary activity. To disrupt centuries of tradition was truly revolutionary. Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, carefully orchestrated and revealed by God, signals a complete change of direction from strict observance of the law exclusive to the Jew, to universal inclusion of the Gentile in Grace. Peter had to contemplate the enormity of this change, but lost no time in obeying God and going to Cornelius in Caesarea. Cornelius and his family responded to Peter’s revelation of Truth. See how Cornelius and his family acted to fulfill God’s sign to the Jew of a judgment to come for national rejection of their Messiah.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Passage: Acts 9:32-43
Series: Acts (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 3 mins 46 secs
This section of Acts shifts focus to Peter and his preparation to present salvation to the Gentiles. See how and where God leads Peter into Gentile territory armed with his apostolic credentials. In whose name does Peter use these credentials? Look at parallel passages where Jesus heals and why the Jews should have understood these miracles as signs revealing Jesus as Messiah. How does healing in the Old Testament become another link connecting the signs the Jews refused to see? How does Peter’s vision in chapter 10 reveal a new direction from Law to grace in an entirely new focus that reaches out to Gentiles who want to know God?
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Passage: Colossians 3:16 & Ephesians 5:18-20
Series: Colossians (2011)
Duration: 52 mins 54 secs
Anything other than God’s idea of worship by means of Spirit and Truth is a breakdown of standards. Within God’s creation, if all areas aren’t addressed by His righteousness and holiness, then no area is addressed. That must mean that God’s character is the issue when we worship through congregational music. What source do we use to evaluate music for worship so that it reflects intrinsic, objective, Godly beauty? Is our appreciation of beauty a measure of its worth? Learn some fallacies and truths in the worship wars involving church music in our culture.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Passage: Colossians 3:16
Series: Colossians (2011)
Duration: 48 mins 15 secs
God commands corporate worship. It is valuable as an encouragement, a response to what God has done and a display of our joy. At the beginning of the 18th century Isaac Watts added a dimension to congregational singing. How was that change different than the changes brought about by contemporary church music today? Christians knew that all beauty existed in the mind of God and that to know beauty, we first had to know God. The Enlightenment shifted the idea of beauty to an internal, relative standard separate from the absolute standards of God. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Which idea reflects joy in worship which is all about God?
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Passage: Colossians 2:2-4
Series: Colossians (2011)
Duration: 1 hr 8 mins 17 secs
What treasure are you seeking? Scripture tells us that spiritual assets and riches already exist in the believer's life. But how can we know that is true? How can we have that assurance?In this lesson we learn these riches are activated as we learn God's Word, creating confidence and the ability to apply the Word to real life situations. We acquire wisdom, a skillful execution of the knowledge we have. We learn the true meaning of Paul's reference to "mystery" and how it is related to the new entity - the body of Christ. We learn that all (not some) treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ and are ours. Here's the formula for our growth process: understanding = knowledge = wisdom.So what is bringing the most meaning and significance to your own personal life?
