A healthy human body is identified when every part is working properly, with all the internal and external parts doing exactly what they were designed to do. Paul reaches for that analogy when he talks about the Church in Ephesians 4. Pastor Nate presents our Spring Vision Sunday message of maturity – growing up as the body.
With every trial, Paul gets to bear witness in front of men more and more powerful than before. First the mob, then the religious leaders, then Governor Felix and Governor Festus, and in this passage, he is now in front of King Herod Agrippa and his wife Bernice. But Paul is staying rooted in saying the resurrection of Jesus is the reason he's on trial, and continuing to anchor himself in that truth.
What construction company sets out to build a building without first giving a bid? What king goes to war without first counting his troops? Jesus uses those to parables to say you shouldn’t be so fast to just raise your hand to follow him without first considering what it will mean.
We might think of love as a warm fuzzy feeling we get when we're with another person, or simply as the enjoyment we get from something we like. But God's love goes far deeper than that.
Now that you have this marvelous gift of grace, the good news of Jesus, how do you live as a newborn child of God?