2019-2024: River City celebrates five years as a church with a special service full of history, testimonials, and the gospel of Jesus
Peter leaves Jerusalem to check up on new believers, and along the way he has opportunities to see Jesus at work through him.
Now that he has met Jesus face to face, Saul's entire outlook on scripture and Jesus has changed. He now begins preaching Jesus as the Messiah to the very people he used to work with, and twice they try to kill him. He heads for the Jerusalem believers and they aren't so sure either. Only one guy, an encourager named Barnabas takes him in.
Persecution is taking place in and around Jerusalem with the aim of taking out the church and shutting down the name of Jesus. One of the leaders of the movement against the church is on his way to arrest believers 135 miles from home when all of a sudden his story is interrupted by the grace of Jesus.
Acts 8 opens with Philip heading into Samaria and seeing a revival of sorts taking place, and then suddenly an angel speaks to Philip and tells him to head South with no explanation. But what started out as an unknown directive ends up in a gospel interaction with a specific man that ended up being the first African to come to faith in Christ.
In Acts 8, two kingdoms collide as one kingdom’s representative (Philip) interacts with the other kingdom’s representative (Simon). In the verses that ensue, and Simon apparently switches teams, the question soon becomes, “Where does his allegiance really lie?” Does he actually want Jesus, or does he just want the power to do some cool things?
The church in Acts is taking off like a roller coaster, picking up speed as the number of disciples continues to grow. But not everything is going perfectly smoothly. As numbers rapidly increase, so does the opportunity for conflict. Sure enough, what started out as a good benevolence program has now become a place where certain people are getting overlooked. The apostles have a choice to make.
Guest Preacher Brooks Simpson (Grace Community Church, North Liberty, IA) joins us with a message from Mark 11 on how Jesus is not the king we all want, but he is the king we need.
Stephen is recognized publicly in the church as a man full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. He is put in a position of leadership, but becomes known more for the great wonders and signs he was doing among the people. He ends up on trial in front of the Sanhedrin, and this time they can't handle the truth, and he becomes the first Christian martyr.
Peter and the other apostles find themselves back in front of the Sanhedrin, this time as a full group, and they are in danger. The Sanhedrin has decided to kill all 12 of them because they continue to preach in Jesus’ name, even though they were told not to. The only thing that keeps them alive is a Pharisee named Gamaliel who has a better idea… do nothing.