In defense of the gospel, Acts 22

Last time we looked at how Paul was bound for the sake of the gospel. You will remember that he considered himself a prisoner of the Lord, first and foremost. The chains of the Romans, being arrested by the Jews, being held in prison by the Romans, none of that superseded the fact that Paul first and foremost had given himself up to be bound by God. He was the prisoner of the Lord. He had renounced all that had been of benefit to him in the world, to become a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. So his

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Bound for the sake of the gospel, Acts 21

Acts has 28 chapters. We are in chapter 21. The last one-fourth of the book is devoted to Paul’s imprisonment, the occasion of it and then the details of it, and, finally, the last chapter deals with his reaching the city of Rome. These chapters, and chapter 21 in particular, are difficult to preach in that for the most part they present a narrative of the details of Paul’s imprisonment and travel to Rome and lack some of the doctrinal principles that are easier to form a message from. But in looking at this chapter as a whole, we see

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The power of the gospel is the life of the church, Acts 20

Over the last couple of months, we have been looking at many characteristics concerning the power of the gospel. I will not review all of those messages, but just to prod your memory I’ll remind you of some of the titles; the power of the gospel over demons, the power of the gospel over anxiety and depression, the power of the gospel over philosophy, the power of the gospel over lameness, and the power of the gospel to save. And today is perhaps the last one; the power of the gospel is the life of the church. Now if you

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Satan’s counterattack against the gospel, Acts 19:21-41

  If there are times in my life when I might wonder at the wisdom of attempting to be an expositional preacher, then today might be one of them. Today’s passage is not one that I think lends itself well to an expositional approach. It is primarily a narrative, and as such it doesn’t present an easy subject to get an outline from. But nevertheless, I firmly believe that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for rebuke, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so I want to try to understand with you why the Holy Spirit

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The power of the gospel over demons, Acts 19:8-20

If you have been attending regularly in our Sunday morning services this summer, then you will know that I have been preaching over the last few weeks about the power of the gospel. I believe that is what Luke, the human coauthor of Acts is attempting to show us about the gospel of Christ. Way back in chapter 1, the Lord tells His disciples that they should wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then they would receive power to preach the gospel and to be His witnesses to the whole world. So that is exactly what happened.

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The power of the gospel is the Holy Spirit, Acts 18:18- 19:7

In recent weeks, we have been looking at the power of the gospel. That the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to save from the penalty of sin, to deliver from the power of sin, is able to deliver from fear and anxiety, is able to overcome the wisdom and philosophies of man, and is able to defeat the schemes of the devil. And if you were not here for some of those messages, then I would encourage you to go on our website and read them when you get a chance. So I will not review all of

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The power of the gospel over anxiety and depression, Acts 18: 1-18

There comes different seasons in the life of every Christian of which some are harder to bear than others. And one such season is a time of weariness, of fearfulness, or even depression. Sometimes they are all of the above. Most often they come after an extended time of spiritual battle. Sometimes that may be compounded by physical trials such as sickness, or marital problems, or difficulties with children, or financial problems. I have known them all at one time or another. And chances are that if you are willing to admit it, if you are human and not some

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The power of the gospel over philosophy, Acts 17:16-34

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the power of the gospel to save, even to the uttermost regions of the world. We saw in chapter 14 the miraculous power of God to heal the lame man as an illustration of the power of the gospel to give life to that which was not. And we saw the power of the gospel in chapters 15 and 16 as it confronted demonic possession and idolatry in pagan societies, resulting in transformed lives and churches being formed in formerly dark cultures. Today, we will see the power of the

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The miraculous power of the gospel to save, Acts 16:11-40

For the last couple of weeks or so, we have been looking at the miraculous power of the gospel as illustrated in Acts. If you were here for those messages, you will remember that we highlighted Paul’s statement concerning that miraculous power in his epistle to the Romans, chapter 1 vs.16.   In it he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Paul was the apostle that was primarily sent to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

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The third element of the gospel, Acts 15: 1-34

Last week as we looked at the previous chapter, we talked about the miraculous power of the gospel to save. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” And the way I illustrated that power of God, if you will remember, was to say that God’s power is so great it is incomprehensible. God not only made the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but He also by His invisible

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