The Gospel Won’t be Muzzled
As the church continues to grow the disciples of Jesus continue their daily custom of heading the the temple to pray. It is here that they meet a man born lame and God does an amazing act of supernatural power. This draws a crowd who hear the gospel and many respond. It also draws the attention of the authorities who haul Peter and John before their tribunal. It is here on this ominous stage, with the most influential people of the…
The Essential Church
Last week we saw that God powerfully fulfilled His promise to pour out His Spirit on His people… and 3000 people received the reality of the gospel and repented of their sin and were baptised into Jesus. Last week we heard that this repentance and baptism was effectively the people rejecting their own pride-filled leadership of their lives and embracing the perfect reign of Christ… well this week Pastor Joe unpacks what kind of community this new people would form…
The New Pentecost
Last week we saw the church was told to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. This week we see the stunning reality of what the outpouring of this Spirit actually meant; what it meant for the small congregation of Jesus followers and what it meant for the world. Join us as Pastor Joe unpacks the Pentecost experience and the first sermon of the church of Jesus Christ.
The Church in Waiting
The disciples of Jesus had ridden a roller-coaster ride of emotions over the last few weeks. Their hopes had seemingly been crushed with the death of Jesus and then suddenly birthed back into life through His resurrection. Now they had spent 40 days hanging with this resurrected Jesus. Everything inside them would have been wanting to burst out and tell the world everything that had happened… and yet Jesus tells them to wait. But it is in this waiting we…
Jesus & Zacchaeus
Luke 19:1-10
Hope on the Road to Emaus
Many of us know the pain of placing our hopes and dreams in somebody that we love only to have them let us down… the disciples we meet this morning were feeling this gut-wrenching pain as they wrestled with how the man they hoped would be the Messiah could have let them down by dying and leaving them alone. Well as Jesus encounters these disciples on the road as the travel we will see that their hopes are resurrected and…
Easter Sunday: Hope for the Doubter
Many of us have doubts. Doubts about the legitimacy of our faith, doubts about whether Christianity is worth following or not… The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus Christ does not discourage doubters… in fact Jesus is passionate about revealing Himself to us in the midst of our doubts and giving us certainty we can stand on. Our Pastoral Intern Chris, takes us through Jesus’ encounter with Thomas and his doubts.
Good Friday: The Promise of Paradise
We spend a lot of our lives striving to attain security, success and peace for ourselves but all too often that struggle only pulls us deeper and deeper into turmoil. This Good Friday we meet a man just like us who had spent his life striving to establish a kingdom in his own strength only to fall well short. But as his story intersects with the story God was telling the world though Jesus, he finds something that changes his…
Worship – the chief end of humanity
Worship is the number one task that God has called us to! And worship informs all the other tasks as well. But so often we get it wrong. Pastor Joe finishes off our doctrine series by looking at 2 common mistakes we make when it comes to how we think about worship… and he will show us just how wonderful true worship can be.
Judgment – the justice of God
The thought of Judgment Day is completely at odds with a generation where tolerance is king. Perhaps this has caused many to wonder if there is anything good about the fact that God is revealed to us as judge and so instead try to concentrate on His love and grace. Pastor Joe leads us through the weighty concept of the judgment of God and stretches us to see that Judgment Day can actually be the greatest day.