Last week, we saw Saul’s dramatic, extraordinary conversion to “The Way.” The scripture dealt with the importance of purpose, the inate human desire to have purpose, and what purpose means from a Biblical perspective. Today continues that message, showing us that walking in Christ’s purpose is hard. And today, we will see what it means to walk in our purpose, what we can expect, and what God does for us along the way.

Last week, we met Stephen for the first time. Along with other noble Christians, he was selected to serve the church. Clearly, he was a good man, well respected, trustworthy, and faithful. In today’s scripture, we see even more of his character on display, when he is falsely accused by the Jews, just for standing up for the truth of the Gospel (does that sound familiar to you?). And just like Jesus, Stephen tells the truth under tremendous fire, and he does not falter. Let’s take a deep dive into this man's life as we know it, and see what lessons we can learn and apply in our lives today.

This week, we pick up where we left off in Acts in 2024. Last year, we saw how the early church had everything in common. They sold their possessions and laid them at the apostle’s feet. They were sold out for Christ. Now we read the tragedy that is the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They saw what was happening in the church and they wanted in. To get in, they have to choose from two gates. One leads to life, and the other to death. Here we see what happens when we take the wide gate.

This week we take a break from Acts to take part in a youth-led Lord’s Table service. At the last supper, Jesus said to the disciples “Do this in remembrance of me” when He ate the bread and drank the cup. Remembering God is a powerful theme in the Bible. But how exactly do we remember God, and what does that mean for us? What are the implications? In this morning’s sermon, we will attempt to answer these questions, as we strive to live a life of Remembering Jesus.

Last week, we saw how the disciples came together to overcome adversity and to proclaim God’s glory. This is a blueprint not only for overcoming adversity, but also for Christian living. We need to come together to the point where we are of one heart and one soul. And this is what we see in the scripture for this week. The disciples were of one heart and soul and when they are in this state of unity, they have everything in common, including their assets. No one among them had need. As the universal church, it’s safe to say that we fall short of this standard. But why, what are we missing? Let’s take a closer look!

After the disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven, they went to Jerusalem and waited. And it was worth the wait. One Pentecost, a Jewish festival, God sent the Holy Spirit to empower the disciples to build the church. The event is extra-ordinary and the impact has been felt through the ages and is in effect in our lives right now. Today we learn the significance of the events at Pentecost, and what it means for us today.

We’ve been looking at how Jesus uses every opportunity to teach through everyday occurrences. Today, we look at the remarkable Last Supper. There is a lot we can learn from Jesus by the way He reacts to circumstances. But in this scripture, He uses the Last Supper to provide the disciples and us with some potent thoughts which we need to apply to our everyday lives. As we will see, the part we need to play is to take our place at the Lord’s Table.

This week, we take a break from Galatians to celebrate a family service, run by the youth. The theme is salt and light. In His sermon on the mount, in the Beatitudes, Jesus tells His people that they are to be the salt and light of the world. The message could never be more relevant, we are living in a dark, corrupt and decaying world. Christians need to be salt to stop the decay and light, to shine into the darkness and to bring God’s people into His light. Enjoy, as we take a look at what this means to be Christians and to bring Salt and Light into the world that desperately needs it.

In the last few weeks, Paul has been making various comparisons and analogies to show us how we are saved by faith alone. Today, he continues with his illustrations, to ensure that we get the message; we are saved by faith alone, not by works. And in today’s scripture, he does so by drawing an analogy to children. That before we come to understand Christ, we are like children, immature and enslaved by the law. For us to become mature, we need to embrace the truth of God’s grace, so that we can understand the blessings He has in store for us, so that we can be transformed into the image of His son.

Last week, we looked at the danger of trying to live according to works, because those kinds of works can only be measured by God’s standards, and there is no way we can live up to them, they are God’s perfection. Today, we look at the promises God made to the Israelites and whether or not any of the promises nullified another. It’s an important concept for us to grasp, because God makes thousands of promises in the Bible, and He keeps every one of them. But the Juaizers, like many in our time will try to nullify some of God’s promises with some of God’s other promises, for various reasons. In the end, we will learn that God’s promises all stand and they don’t nullify each other, they complement each other!

The Galatians were living the life… The Christian life! But the Judaizers came and told them that being saved by grace was not the end. Once you had accepted Jesus as your saviour, you had to follow the law of circumcision and of Moses to remain in good standing with God. When we say it out loud like that, it seems absurd! But is it? That’s very much what many churches today preach. “If your faith was stronger, you’d be well.” And of course, we all feel compelled to work for God in some way or another. In today’s scripture, Paul continues to make a resolute argument for Justification and Sanctification through Christ alone. It's such an important message in today’s world, so enjoy it!

Antioch was the epitome of the Gospel. Jews and Gentiles sharing meals together - meals formerly unclean, made clean by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Antioch was the leading pillar of Christianity, even sending Jewish believers out to preach to Gentiles. Peter fully embraces this culture and no doubt enjoyed it. But when the legalisers arrive from Jerusalem, he crumbles under the pressure of the law and undoes all the hard work done to get Antioch to where it was. Paul calls him out on it and we can learn from this incredible, unusual encounter!

Last week, we saw Paul speaking to the Galatians about the teaching of the false Gospel and how he wished curses on those who spread and practice the false Gospel. As part of the accusations against Paul, the Judaisers accuse Paul of preaching a Gospel that is pleasing to man. You can understand their contempt because they lived their lives legalistically, trying to earn God’s favour through rigorous rituals and traditions. But they missed the point entirely. The Gospel indeed is a Gospel of grace and there is nothing we can or need to do to earn salvation - apart from acknowledging our sins and our need for a saviour. Paul addresses these accusations by sharing his personal conversion circumstance and how those point to a God-revealed Gospel of grace.

Throughout the Bible, when we see people being chosen by God for big tasks, we see them hide away and come up with outlandish excuses as to why they cannot do what God calls them to do. Think of Moses and the burning bush, with Moses telling God he has a speech impediment and so cannot do what God calls him to do. Or Saul hiding in the supplies on the day of his anointing. Or Gideon hiding in the threshing floor. The list goes on. When Mary is given the largest task known to man, her response shows something that we have not seen in the Bible until now - an incredible heart. Today we will look at aspects of Mary’s life and learn what about her makes her an insider - someone we can learn from by their interactions and relationship with God.

So far, each part of the armour of God protects a certain part of our bodies, each with their own spiritual applications. Today, we take a look at the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, which like the shield and the helmet are to be taken up by us. The sword of the spirit protects us from the whole onslaught of the enemy, and when wielded correctly, we are able to parry his blows and push him back. Today we will look at the spiritual as well as practical applications of the sword of the Spirit and how we can weild it in our own lives, so that we can have an impact on this spiritual war we are engaged in.

We are at war whether we like it or not. When we are going through any form of conflict, our natural desire is to have to end so that we can experience peace. In today’s message, we learn that we need to take peace with us into the battle in order to win it. Like most of God’s wisdom, it is counter-cultural but profoundly accurate. When we seek peace before the battle, we are assured of victory. To prepare us for this peace, Paul tells us that we must put on the sandals of peace. In the ancient Meditteraen, the war sandals were a major advancement in modern warfare. They were studded with spikes to give them stability in battle. Yet they were light, allowing great mobility for the army. Let’s take a look at the spiritual implications of these two attributes of the sandals.

In our short “Being Human” miniseries, we have taken time out from Ephesians to consider what it means to be human. We live in times where we are flooded with information and that information is generally seen as knowledge. When we apply that knowledge, we are then considered wise in the ways of the world. The problem with this is that there can be no real wisdom apart from the knowledge of God and understanding that knowledge to a point where we can apply it in our everyday lives. That is true wisdom. In today’s sermon, we consider the wisdom of Jesus and what it means for us to be wise. Today we are focusing on verses 37 and 38.

Building on our theme from last week (where we learnt that humility leads to submission, and submission to obedience) another thing that we lack as modern, highly intelligent humans is compassion. Jesus tells us as the second of the two great commandments to love our neighbor as ourselves. But this is easier said than done. We live in times where people in general are getting more and more selfish and hurting others to get what they want. Our natural response is to dislike those people and to see revenge or justice when we are hard done by. What we will learn from Jesus today is how to love those who we struggle to, even those who hate us.

With all the exciting advances in technology and AI, it’s not uncommon for us to question our value as humans. In many cases, machines can do a better job than us. And as the world hurtles down this scary road, we’re already seeing signs of humanity becoming more and more artificial. We no longer need to think, the machines do that for us. Society tells us how to react to different situations and how to live in the world. While we’re breaking from Ephesians, we’re going to take a look at some of the things that make us human. What better way to do that than to study Jesus? We’ll start today to look at what Jesus implies is the cornerstone of our characters: humility. Humility is an elusive thing, just when you think you have it, you don’t! Today, we will be focusing only on verse 35.