Preparing for the Lord's Day
Acts
As we come to Acts 4, the early church is in the midst of a kind of honeymoon phase of ministry. You know honeymoon phases - whether it’s a new relationship, or new job or new home - that phase of euphoria that accompanies something new. Everything you experience is enjoyable, exciting and easy…until it’s not. The newness wears off and the mundaneness or the sameness sets in. Or worse, you begin to experience conflict and the honeymoon ends as soon as it began.
That’s where our text picks up this morning. The honeymoon period for the early church seems over. As excited as the church had been over these new conversions, the religious leaders in Jerusalem were not. They felt threatened and sought to shut the apostles down by arresting them. And yet it was their arrest that the Holy Spirit used to continuing flourishing the church. And if we would be a Church that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, if we would be a church that sees flourishing gospel relationships in every life, in every place, in every way, we must be arrested by the gospel and arrested for the gospel. To prepare your heart for the sermon, take time this week to read and meditate on Acts 4:1-22.
As we look to worship our Eternal God in spirit and in truth, we will join our hearts in song, singing the Hymn of Praise “All Hail The Power of Jesus' Name,” the Acclamation of Praise, “To God Be The Glory,” and the Hymn of Response “For The Cause.” Let us come to worship this Sunday prepared to hear God’s Word, to receive it in faith, to love and treasure it in our hearts, and to practice it in our lives that we may continue to glorify and enjoy Him!
Sermon Information
Text: Acts 4:1-22
Title: Arrested
Outline:
- Arrested By The Gospel
- Arrested For The Gospel