Encouraging & Strengthening Others, Worshipping on the Lord’s Day! Acts 20:1-17

Posted on November 17, 2025 by eig

From the apostle Paul, the pastor and church planter we learn the value of encouraging one another to keep growing in the faith as we live in the world sharing the Good News of Jesus. We use the Word of God along with our times of gathering where we also share the Lord’s Supper and eat together as we are doing both today. The focus is on the purpose of the gathering not on the particulars of the event itself. Those are ancillary to help us encourage one another.

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The threat of the Way, the foolishness of idolatry and God’s mission – Acts 19:21-20:1

Posted on November 9, 2025 by eig

As we saw in our last section, people who were in bondage to the occult are freed and made whole. They leave these practices and idolatry to follow the living God. The Gospel transforms the way we live and those things that we thought were worthwhile become meaningless in light of the cross. When this transformation happens, it changes our culture and challenges the culture around us. It often goes head-to-head with the world’s culture. This is exactly what happens here. The Gospel has brought change to many people in Ephesus. But this is creating social change that is met with opposition. This passage helps us understand how God’s mission goes on regardless of opposition. We can learn from Paul’s resolution to carry it on but also in how he encourages believers to do the same. God’s mission of sharing the Good News is not just for Paul and the believers then, it is for us here now.

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How God Uses His Servants – Acts 19:1-20  

Posted on November 4, 2025 by eig

Here we see Paul used by the Lord in various ways. These serve as an example for us today. How can we who are also called servants of God serve Him? We may not do exactly like Paul did but we all can learn from him to do in our own context. These relate more with spiritual tasks than tangible ones.

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Affirming others in the Faith – Acts 18:18-28

Posted on October 21, 2025 by eig

Affirming (strengthening, supporting) others in faith is just as important as making sure our faith is steadfast. We have been called to encourage and build one another up in the Lord.

Why is it important? Because our faith is lived in the community of believers, that is, the church. We were not called to be God’s lone rangers, but God’s community, his church.

To affirm ourselves is to encourage us, to help us strengthen ourselves to remain faithful to the Lord. It’s like when a crutch helps by supporting an injured foot or leg. It helps you gain strength. This is how we affirm to others. This requires compassion and mercy. This is a way of showing love to one another.

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Keep talking, Don’t Stay Silent – Acts 18:1-17

Posted on October 12, 2025 by eig

Is there such a thing as silent believers? It is easy for us believers to be silent about our faith. We don’t want to offend people. We want to live quiet lives. But our calling is to proclaim the gospel in good times and bad. God is with us. It always will. We must not be silent; we must continue to speak.  This was the case with Paul in Corinth.

In this passage we look at how Paul continues to speak, continues to share the gospel in different ways and forms. The Lord uses him to plant a new church which in a short period of time. This church would be the one to which Paul wrote two letters (i.e. 1, 2 Corinthians).

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The God who is Close – Acts 17:16-34

Posted on October 6, 2025 by eig

In the passage we will study today, Paul shares the gospel with a totally different group than those he has shared at this time. Unlike those in Thessalonica, Berea, where he shared Scripture with them, these men are polytheists, religious philosophers who have no background to religious Jewry. Similar to Joseph in the story where they followed a religion. A religion that leaves them empty. Paul speaks to them of a God who exists, is, and expects something from them.

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Presenting the Gospel to an Upside Down World – Acts 17:1-15

Posted on September 24, 2025 by eig

The world is upside down. Our world in which we live is spiritually (as well as morally and in many other respects) upside down. What does this mean?   Since the fall into sin by our ancestor Adam and Eve, the result of mankind’s actions is the opposite of what God desires. The world does the opposite of what God commands us in His Word. Since then, things have been “turned upside down”. There is disorder, a spiritual, moral, and social chaos. It seems that we are going further and further than God commands us.   Isaiah 5:20 says: ” Woe to those who call evil good     and good evil, who put darkness for light     and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet     and sweet for bitter! How to solve this problem? God’s answer is the gospel.

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Living and Sharing the Gospel Even in Difficulties – Acts 16:16-34

Posted on September 16, 2025 by eig

We are not saved just to live our lives before the world by showing Christ. We must also preach, teach, share, talk about Christ in multiple ways and forms.   That is the topic of this morning. We want to see Paul’s example as an example, a model of what it is to live, to embody the gospel and in the same way to share it with others. We will see that his life, like Silas, lived the truth of the gospel, but at the same time preached the gospel. Both elements go together. Both are necessary.   Today we hear many who preach and do not live the truth of the gospel. We also know that Satan has false ministers, false brethren, and they preach a false gospel and don’t live the truth.   On the other hand, there are timid Christians who hide and feel sorry for them, afraid to share the gospel. This is not of God.   And then there are people who are example for us. This week we experienced a horrific assassination of a Christian who embodied the Gospel and was actively sharing it without fear. It cost Charlie Kirk his life. This young man has shared the Gospel with so many other young people and we are just beginning to see his impact. I had no idea how wide and far was his impact. But it is no surprise because God will use any of us when we are committed to living and sharing the Gospel even in difficult times.

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God Opens the Way and Opens hearts – Acts 15.36-16:15

Posted on September 9, 2025 by eig

In this passage we look at how God sovereignly guides Paul at the beginning of his second missionary journey to Philippi. In that city Paul preaches and God sovereignly transforms a woman named Lydia.   That is the topic of this morning. The sovereignty of God. God’s sovereignty over our plans involving God’s mission—sharing the gospel of salvation to others—how God touches the hearts of those who do not yet know Him. God’s sovereignty over our plans involving God’s mission—sharing the gospel of salvation to others—how God touches the hearts of those who do not yet know Him.

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Conflict in the church – Acts 15

Posted on August 26, 2025 by eig

Christ’s church has grown from being formed mainly from Jews to Gentiles of all walks of life.  Yet, the church has maintained is unity in the Gospel.  But it is not free from conflict especially with the cultural and religious backgrounds between Jews and Gentiles and how they relate to the Gospel of grace. Many Jews, especially Pharisees, who had believed in Christ continued to abide in the Law thus mixing grace and works of the Law. This led to legalism which we see happening here in Acts 15. Thus it was necessary for the mother church in Jerusalem, the Apostles and elders to deal with this matter. This happened around A.D. 49

This event is also important because it sets the mid point of Acts both structurally and theologically. After this event, Acts will focus on Paul and on the church, apart from any relationship with the Jerusalem church.

 

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