The Central Moment

The Bible begins in a garden and ends in a city, the city of God. And with that ending comes an altar call for the spiritually thirsty, for all who would believe in Jesus for salvation. Until he comes again, that invitation is still open!

Streets of gold; endless light; healing life; the presence of God -- those pictures of heaven speak of great hope ahead for those who know Christ. Jesus will come again, but the story is only beginning for those who serve him!

Genesis 1 will be revisited. The God who makes all things new will not only evict evil's presence but recreate what was the domain of evil's activity. The new heavens and earth will be the culmination of what our transformation in Christ is beginning now.

Before the new can come, the old must be put away. One day evil will be dealt with, justice will prevail, and Satan himself will be thrown into hell. Be sure you don't end up on the wrong side and go with him!

We could use a HALLELUJAH! That word is used four times in the Bible, all of them during Heaven's celebration over Jesus' triumphant second coming. In the midst of trouble, hurt, and confusion until then, let's lift a HALLELUJAH even now!

There is no future event that is more important to a Christian than the second coming of Christ. He will bring justice, victory, and the kind of peace that the world has strived for but has been unable to achieve. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

The second coming of Jesus to the earth is known as the “blessed hope.” It is “blessed” because it will be the final triumph of Jesus' saving grace in the world. And it is “hope” because that future event strengthens our perseverance today with an anticipation of a better day tomorrow.

Things in this world will get worse before they get better. Satan will wield his power through the world-wide domination of the AntiChrist. But the true Christ who came once to save us is coming again to finish up what he started!

Some of us have been going to too many funerals. The pandemic has been taking an unprecedented toll on human life, not to mention accidents, violence, and sickness in general. Where do we look? Can anything help us to grieve and find hope?

Jesus is coming back, but he hasn't told us when. So how do we live until then? Alertness, watchfulness, and faithfulness to what the Lord has called us to do are the keys that Jesus gave.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how powerful our prayers are. We may get discouraged if we've prayed for someone and we didn't see the answer that we had hoped for, but James encourages us that we have the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of prayer on our side. God's word gives us permission to boldly believe for healing to come.

It's hard to never say anything that you shouldn't. So, we must be doubly careful about what we email, tweet, or post. Jesus said that what comes out of our mouths is actually an overflow of what's in our hearts. So we must guard our hearts.

As we've seen already this week, James is all about a faith that is accompanied by actions! No matter who you are and where you've come from, you can't escape the principle that true faith must be demonstrated by your actions… in today's language: “Put your money where your mouth is!”

In today's look at the book of James, we're once again confronted by his very direct teaching on how we should live. James reminds us that we have an opportunity and obligation to show compassion without favoritism to those in need… if we truly do believe in loving our neighbor as ourself, then we should live like that!

The book of James is a book of wisdom from the New Testament. In it, James gives very direct instruction on how to live our Christian lives. You might summarize it by saying "If you really believe it, you'd live it!"

The last letter that we have from the Apostle Paul was written to Timothy, his ‘son in the faith.' Paul is in a Roman prison and knows he will die soon. What he writes gives us all hope that we, too, can end well.

Power, love and self-discipline -- these are the big three that mark a courageous, Spirit-filled life. In spite of all the things that can ‘in-TIMID-ate' us these days, God's Spirit takes us in the opposite direction. No more being timid!

“Controversial speculations” that do not advance God's work continue to be a danger for the church today. Conspiracy theories, arguments over masks and vaccines and politics, social media battles -- they detract from God's work to reach a spiritually lost world.

Are you a trustworthy person? Can people count on you?  Has your character been tested and proven? Or do you sell out for self-interest and let people down? Meet a young person who passed the character test.

There is a little Timothy in all of us. We all have strikes against us. But our deficiencies don't need to limit our influence for Christ. Our deficiencies actually make room for God's sufficiency.

The feeling of being confined is a hard one to cope with. The pandemic certainly underscored that. But God's word and his work are never confined. Let him glorify himself wherever you find yourself today.

A storm, a shipwreck, and a snake -- the last two chapters of the book of Acts are among the most adventurous found anywhere in the Bible. Yet at the center of it all was a man of God who stayed on mission and depended on God.

When the Apostle Paul had private audiences with political leaders, what did he talk about? Would it have resembled contemporary preaching? Listen in--you may not have heard a sermon like this lately.

Our delays are not necessarily God's delays. The interruptions that frustrate us don't frustrate God. We may have our plans, but the Lord is always sovereignly working to position us for his purposes.

What is the primary passion of your life? What is the one thing you would never sell out for, no matter what? For Paul, that passion had others in mind and Jesus at the center!

Everything that God does sovereignly and miraculously in our lives should ultimately lead us to deeper intimacy with him. We are to have faith for the supernatural, but not in a way that makes us spiritual consumers with no heart for God beyond self-interest.

The ‘love Jesus, hate church' movement of the past few decades would have been incomprehensible to the Apostle Paul. The church is the community of those who belong to Jesus -- set apart to him and being made more like him.

Spiritual abuse by church leaders is antithetic to authentic New Testament pastoral leadership. However, the Apostle Paul modeled a different way that provides Christ-centered hope for every victim.

How suffering and joy can go together is one of the paradoxes of the Christians life. And yet Paul would later write to the church in a city where he had been severely beaten and encourage them to “rejoice.”

We can't put God in a box when it comes to how he leads us. Sometimes in Acts we see God using dreams and visions, or people running for their lives because of persecution. But there is also the closed door method -- for many, not a favorite!

It's always painful to watch Spirit-filled people experience disagreements so sharp that they eventually need to part ways. But Paul and Barnabas could not agree over ministry values and, indeed, went their own ways -- only to see the Lord use it for his purpose.

Discerning God's will is often a blending of the spiritual instincts that have been formed within us as we walk with the Lord with a sense of the leading of the Holy Spirit. May we all grow in our sensitivity to the Lord's leading!

In discerning truth, our experience must always line up with God's Word. That is what the early church did in resolving a potentially explosive issue. They took what God seemed to be doing and lined it up with the Scriptures before they came to a final conclusion.

Church councils throughout Christian history have helped to clarify foundational Biblical doctrines on issues such as the nature of Christ and the Trinity. But this very first church council in Acts 15 had the important task of clarifying the gospel itself.

Have you ever experienced conflict and disagreement with other believers? Have you been a part of a church that has been deeply divided and in danger of a split? Welcome to Acts 15!

The relationship between Paul and the original twelve apostles was a fascinating and sometimes complicated one. Here, however, Peter honors Paul while making us smile as the early church finds its footing and the New Testament Scriptures are being penned.

There is an experiential dimension to walking with Jesus, and there is an ethical one. Peter was used by God in many experientially supernatural ways to minister to people, but he was also concerned ethically about how people lived their ordinary lives.

Even the best of us can still miss it -- like Peter. But Paul stands up to him, intimidated by nothing. Let's keep calling each other on to true holiness and not hypocrisy.

It's amazing how we can pray with faith and yet not expect anything to change. This humorous moment in the life of the early church is a case in point. May God surprise us again!

It's amazing what God can do through flawed people, for the sake of His glory. Peter's failures, thankfully, were not the final word on his life. Jesus is the restorer; Jesus is the miracle worker; Jesus is the difference-maker!

If you were trying to explain the gospel to people who were religious but not followers of Jesus, what would you say? This glimpse into early first century preaching gives us the answer.

It was a church of “firsts.” So much of the pattern of the church that you might attend today traces back to this ground-breaking church. It is a church that still sets the bar for what our churches can be spiritually, racially, and missionally.

Have you ever been hungry for God but felt like an outsider to the church? There is hope -- the hope of a relational encounter, a truth encounter and a power encounter that will embrace and include you.

Denial, delusion, defiance -- they represent the barriers to change in our lives. But one of the greatest conversions in church history demonstrates that those barriers melt away when they come face to face with Jesus.

Could Jesus step into our reversals and use them for his glory? Could people who are running for their lives actually extend Christ's Kingdom? It happened early in the history of the church and it has not stopped!

Around the world today people are laying their lives down for the cause of Christ. The very first martyr in Christian history was Stephen. His story inspires us to pray again today for the persecuted church.

One of the keys to effective leadership is the ability to sort through priorities, discerning what to say ‘yes' to and what to say ‘no' to. Around the potentially reactive issue of discrimination, the leadership of the early church chose priorities wisely and strategically.

Come join a great prayer meeting going on in Acts 4! Corporate prayer in Jesus' name on the part of people who are united in faith is potent and consequential. See for yourself.

Christ's miraculous intervention in our lives has two purposes -- compassion for us and glory for him. Signs and wonders represent God's intervention in our lives and reinforce gospel proclamation in the marketplace.

If we were to take away church growth seminars, church buildings, and liturgical traditions, what would we have? The Bible gives us a snapshot of the very first church before any of those trappings -- and it is incredibly compelling!

So many of us are longing for a Jesus-centered spiritual renewal in the nation. With God's Spirit upon us, let's not give up or give out until it happens!