Sermons on Acts (Page 3)
As we venture into this next section of our passage, Paul is continuing to model obedience for us. Just as everyone predicted, Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem triggered a series of events that brought about his imprisonment and eventual death. Paul was one of the first missionaries that served the Lord in the face of danger, but he certainly was not the last. So as we look back to Acts 21 and see how Paul was faithful to obey God in the face of danger, I want us to evaluate our own lives to determine if we are willing to obey God when it doesn’t make sense, or even, in the face of danger.
The Book of Acts chronicles the empowerment, growth, persecution and expansion of the New Testament church; but the end of the book was not the end of the church! It was only just the beginning! The church has continued to grow and expand ever since the time that it was established by Jesus. We need to realize that the Book of Acts records less than 2% of the overall history of the church from its birth until now. We may be coming to the end of this book in the Bible, but it is only the beginning when it comes to the work of God through His church in this world.
We are excited to welcome to our services today the new Ministry Team Leader at the UA Association of Baptist Students—Stuart Estes.
Many of you may already know Stuart from church camp or other local association activities. He and his wife (Hanna) have been leading the student ministry at Round Mountain Baptist Church in Fayetteville for several years now. They are both recent graduates of the University of Arkansas. Stuart is currently working for Walmart in their corporate headquarters, and Hanna serves as a professor at the university. Stuart’s goal is to be able to serve full-time in the ministry; but he needs our help in order to make that happen!
Stuart will be speaking in both services today. He’ll be sharing more about his vision and ministry plans for the ABS ministry.
He will also be challenging us to consider supporting this ministry both with our prayers and our finances. I hope that you will prayerfully consider becoming a partner in this ministry to help reach the 27,000 students on campus that are from all over the world.
I can identify with Paul here in Acts 20 as he is saying goodbye to the leaders from Ephesus—a place where he had spent at least three years of his life pouring into these brothers and sisters. Paul knew that he could not take the time to see everyone again, but I assume that the emotional turmoil that it would cause would have been equally difficult. So Paul had the Ephesian church leadership come to Miletus to meet with him there. There is a great deal from this passage that could be our focus, but we will spend our time examining Paul’s final encouragement to them.
In Acts 20, Paul continues his travels on his third missionary journey. Very little information is given about these stops in his journey—save for one interesting story about a young man from Troas who fell asleep while the church members were having an all-night discussion with Paul about Scripture. In this study, we focus not…
Paul and the believers in Ephesus were experiencing true repentance and its effects. True repentance always has an effect—on both the life of the one repenting and to all those around that one. This morning, we hope to examine some of these effects of repentance with the goal of challenging ourselves to experience true repentance…
In our study together last week, Paul had just arrived in Ephesus on his third missionary endeavor. As was his custom, Paul began teaching and preaching Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah in the synagogue there in Ephesus. In our study today, we’re going to take some time to note the impact that Paul…
In our previous studies in the Book of Acts, Paul was in the midst of his second missionary journey when he arrived in Corinth and ended up staying for 18 months of fruitful ministry. But now the time had come for Paul to move on to be able to complete this journey and begin anew.…
As we come to the end of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey, we realize that Paul arrived in Corinth physically and emotionally spent—burned out—and he was in desperate need of rejuvenation. That is exactly what he received when he arrived in Corinth. In this study, we will spend some time examining all the ways that Paul received encouragement and instruction during this difficult time and try to apply some of these same principles to our lives as well.
How can we know God’s will for our lives? That is a question that believers have been asking for centuries! It is a question that I grappled with as a teenager; and a question that I still seek answers to today. We never outgrow the need for seeking God’s will. In this study, we find Paul and Barnabas ready to set sail on yet another missionary journey, but conflicted over some of the details of the journey. In spite of human failings, God’s will was accomplished in and through these men.