Acts 12
In Acts 12, the church prays for Peter’s release from prison, of which God sends an angel to break him free. Just as the early church was bold enough in their faith to pray earnestly, John Michaelson challenges us to pray big, audacious prayers in our day and time.
John 6:1-14
Tim Zulker is a founder and director of the network New England Urban Church Planting that resides in Providence. Tim unpacks John 6, the story of Jesus feeding a crowd of over five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. This message reiterates that Jesus came not only to preach good news to the poor and feed the hungry, but to become good news for the poor, become the bread of life. The good news is not only for the materially poor but for the spiritually poor, which is everyone.
Mark 5
Dr. Mike Caparelli is an author, public speaker, and a leader of a nonprofit, Unmuted, that helps trauma victims recover on a path toward healing. While much psychological activity is biological, there is a facet of mental health that involves a battle of the soul. Mike’s message looks at the story of a man with a demon that was healed by Jesus (Mark 5) and discusses the interplay of mental health with demonic forces.
1 Kings 18:16-39
This message comes from Greg Johnson, a local ministry leader who is launching a church training initiative called Revive New England. Greg discusses the need for God’s fire, the manifestation of God’s presence, to see revival in New England today, looking at the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 as an illustration.
Acts 9
Acts 9 tells of the conversion of Saul who, on his way to persecute more Christians in Damascus, encounters Jesus on the path and goes blind from the Christ’s heavenly light. After this supernatural encounter, Saul begins to preach the very gospel he once persecuted others for believing in. Pastor Scott points out that just as it took a move of God’s power to change Saul’s heart, so we need today a move of God’s power to change the hearts of those around us. It takes more than “being nice”—we need to ask God for him to move powerfully.
Our youth director Nicole Waugh preaches on Acts 8 about the turn of events in the early Church when various evangelists disperse into different regions and share the good news of Jesus, receiving different heart responses to the news. While Simon the Sorcerer used God to make himself look good, the Ethiopian eunuch responds with joy. How do we respond when we hear about Jesus—with selfish gain, or with repentant joy? Nicole concludes by asking the listeners how we can respond to God with joy, and if we don’t, what is holding us back?
Acts 7
In Acts 7, when Stephen prophecies to the religious Jews in his day, calling out their hard-heartedness against the Holy Spirit, the Jewish leaders stone Stephen in response. Our youth director Chris Waugh delivers a relevant message to us about the parallels between the religious people in Stephen’s day to the self-righteous religious of our time and culture, where mob violence on social media runs rampant and modern-day prophets are shut out. How often do we neglect Cross-centered community in favor of “being right?” This message leaves the listener to face hard questions about our role and response in today’s hostile culture and how we might miss the voice of God.
Acts 6
Acts 6 continues the early church narrative of how they built community in the process of making disciples. The Hellenist widows were being neglected during “the daily distribution,” so the apostles delegated this task to other Spirit-led men in the community. Pastor Scott highlights in this message the goodness of a church sharing the load of caring for one another, in contrast with the folly of pastors shouldering all the tasks of the church, which is the trend in the modern, western church. Scott encourages us to think about the strength of a church when pastors, elders, and other “shepherds” of the church are able to devote more time to pray for you and minister to you and have the bandwidth to do so because the load of church care is being shared amongst the community.
2 Timothy 3:14 -17
In this sermon, guest speaker Jacob van Sickle, a church planter in Providence, helps us to think about God Himself: who He is, the kinds of things he likes, the sorts of things He does, and how we can know Him. Jacob walks us through 2 Timothy 3:18 to show how God reveals himself to us through His Word and uses the scriptures to teach and equip us every day of our lives.
Acts 5
John Michaelson unpacks chapter 5, which is twofold; first is the hard-to-swallow story about the death of Ananias and Sapphira, and second is of the persecution the apostles faced by the high priest in Jerusalem. The message challenges us to seek understanding of God’s character in difficult passages and to consider the true cost of following Jesus. At the end are two discussion questions: 1) why do you think the co-authors put in the story of Ananias and Sapphira? How does reading it make you feel? 2) Have you ever been persecuted, and what was that like?