Element Christian Church

We are in our series in the book of Acts, this is week 21. Today we get to the beginnings of “what happens next,” how the church starts to go forward after one of their most beloved members, Stephen, dies. There are so many pieces to this that it will take us a few weeks to get through…we will put it together, as they say, “piece by piece.” Today we will look at a guy named Saul of Tarsus, who later becomes the Apostle Paul.

No matter what life circumstance you come from, being a parent should be first centered on Jesus before anything else. Our relationship with our children should flow out of our relationship with our God.

We finish Stephen’s story of his trial in front of the religious leaders this week by seeing the outcome of his confrontation: death. When Stephen defends his position to the Jewish Ruling Council he does it by retracing the Jewish heritage and history to the people who thought they knew it the best. Stephen tells their history in a way that would have been unfamiliar to those who thought they knew the story. He tells the story through a lens that shows God sending prophet after prophet and God’s people rejecting those prophets. Stephen’s critique is a rejection of their power and that they are missing the true prophet right in their midst, Jesus.

Welcome to week 19 of the book of Acts, we are just over halfway through with our series that is covering the first half of the book. We are looking at the early church in order to better identify how to serve and love Jesus as they did. It is important to remember that Acts is both prescriptive and descriptive, meaning some sections teach us what to do while other sections simply describe events that took place. Today we look at Stephen’s first and last sermon recorded in scripture. Stephen was not aware that he would be speaking to the Jewish council, but he knew his Bible and was able to deliver a powerful message.

We are in our series walking through the book of Acts; we have made it through 18 weeks (including this morning’s message). Element is walking through the book of Acts in an effort to look deeper into how the church started and what today’s church should be striving toward. Today, we get to look at a peace that speaks for us. In today’s text the opposition to the message of the Gospel is taken to new levels as a brand new deacon, named Stephen, is directly attacked about his views of hope in the person of Jesus. Eventually, they even drag Stephen before the Jewish Council and bring false witnesses against him in an effort to silence him.

We see in this passage from Acts a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the grandson of one of the greatest Rabbi’s in Jewish culture; Hillel. He does not really know what to do with the Apostle’s message of preaching in Jesus’ name because he says “for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail, if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” Gamaliel did not take a stand, he simply said the words he did in order to not rock the boat and to see how events would play out.

We see in this passage from Acts a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the grandson of one of the greatest Rabbi’s in Jewish culture; Hillel. He does not really know what to do with the Apostle’s message of preaching in Jesus’ name because he says “for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail, if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” Gamaliel did not take a stand, he simply said the words he did in order to not rock the boat and to see how events would play out.

While Mother’s Day should be a time of celebration and appreciation, it can remind others of hurt, frustration, and loss. Each of us faces hardship in certain areas and seasons of our lives, and it is important to know how to frame those experiences in light of the Gospel. Jesus knows us and truly empathizes with our suffering in a way no one else can. While He does not promise us an easy, comfortable life (John 16:33), He does promise us that He has overcome and will be with us always (Matthew 28:20). We may be tempted to believe that God is not good when we face difficult times, but the character of God is steadfast and unchanging--He is good and defines what is good for us. By surrendering our own desires (no matter how good) for His, we can learn to trust Him as we face the uncertainties of life.

This is week 15 of our 37 week journey through the book of Acts. On the side of these notes you will see an overview of each of the weeks we have covered so far. Today will put much of Acts 5 together as we discuss a joy that comes from understanding our identity in Jesus. How would you describe Christianity? This week we look at having a joyful identify in Christ. In Acts 5 we see that people are being loved by God, people are being saved (non-Christians are becoming Christians), people are healed, and people are being delivered. The Apostles, in Acts 5:17-42, get into trouble because their faith has gone public and they are doing miracles while inviting others to learn and hear about Jesus.

Element is in our series that is going verse by verse through the first half of the book of Acts. Today is week 14 of our 37 week journey. This week we look at the encouragement and hope of Christ that leads to our healing in multiple ways. The book of Acts is about what God is doing in His church, when we understand what God not only has done but is doing, we are better able to understand His hope that heals us.

This is our 13th week going through the book of Acts. We are studying the book of Acts in an effort to better understand what Jesus calls the church to be and how He expects it to function. Most churches won’t do everything perfect, or even well, at times, but we can strive to be what Jesus has called us to be.? Today we are talking about the difficult subject of accountability and being exposed in our weakness while trying to hide our sin. In the book of Jeremiah God reminds us “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth Declares the LORD?” (Jeremiah 23:23)

This is Acts week 12 and we have been going through many paces of the early church in an effort to better focus ourselves on what the church should be today. There are identifiable markings of what the church should be that come out of the Bible, this week we will be talking about church membership. Membership of a club usually involves the question, “what do I get out of this?” We often find ourselves seeking to belong to a group that has the highest benefit to us and the smallest commitment. We bring this mindset into all areas of our lives; work, relationships, even the church. Many people use membership as an excuse, “well I don’t have to do this, I am a member, I am a V.I.P. I should be served.”

We are in our series on the book of Acts! This is week 11 and we are looking at the amazing nature of the community that Jesus calls us to be part of. Often times our personality does not arise in isolation, the majority of who we are happens because God uses people to form people. This idea in psychology is called “The Looking Glass Self,” the way other people view us and treat us is one of the largest indicators of who we become. Provers 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens Iron, and one man sharpens another.” This is why what happens between you and another person is never merely human to human interaction, it is spiritual. God’s Spirit longs to be powerfully at work in every encounter. If you have friends that love Jesus, that love for Him should be infectious and eventually you might begin to live that way too.

The word “soul” is something everyone recognizes, we may even have opinions about it, but don’t exactly know what to say. Almost all religious, philosophical, mythological, and even psychological traditions have a certain notion of the “soul” even if they wouldn’t use that exact word. The idea of a soul has confused the best minds for thousands of years. Thomas Aquinas, who is considered one of the greatest theologians in the history of the church (born 1125 AD), believed every living creature had a soul, but only human beings souls were immortal and that made us different. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle didn’t have the word “soul” in their language and essentially called the psyche what we would define as a soul (the essence of a person).

Element is taking the better part of 2016 to walk through the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts in order to focus us on what Jesus calls the church to be like in the world. In Acts 3:11-26, the Apostle Peter preaches the second sermon recorded in the early church…and he speaks primarily about God’s revealed truth. Peter shows us two things about truth. 1) There is such a thing as final truth and it is found in the Scriptures. 2) The Scriptures are not simply a book, they are all about a person, Jesus.

Element is spending the next few months in the first half of the book of Acts in order to help grow us deeper into the type of church Jesus is calling us to be. Read Acts 3:1-10. How do you tend to view stories about healing? One of the things Peter does is look intently at the man who was crippled before healing him. In John 5 Jesus heals a man who didn’t really want to get better, the man used his infirmity to gain a sympathetic ear to his plight. Getter better is not always what we truly want in our lives. Many times we want our circumstances to change, but we don’t want our responsibility to change. When Jesus (in John 5) and Peter (in Acts 3) bring about these healings, the two men have two very different reactions. One doesn’t say thank you and brings trouble upon Jesus, while the other goes directly into the temple and praises God.

Element is going through the first half of the book of Acts over the course of the first nine months of 2016. Part of the reason why we do this is we want to be a “better” church, a body of believers focused on Jesus and what He is doing in the world through us. Today, most people’s criteria for finding a church is, “I don’t want it to be boring,” but that is a horrible way to find a church. We want to see what the bible says about the church so we know what we are supposed to be about. By the end of this series we will hopefully see a little over 30 characteristics of what the church should be about. Today, we are looking at a Generosity That Defines Us.

Element is going through the first half of the book of Acts over the course of the first nine months of 2016. Part of the reason why we do this is that we want to be a “better” church, a body of believers focused on Jesus and what He is doing in the world through us. Today, most people’s criteria for finding a church is, “I don’t want it to be boring,” but that is a horrible way to find a church. We want to see what the bible says about the church so we know what we are supposed to be about. By the end of this series, we will hopefully see a little over 30 characteristics of what the church is called to be.

This is week 5 of our 37-week journey through the book of Acts. Acts will do three main things for us as a church body: 1. Enable us to see the beginnings of the church and Jesus’ call to mission. 2. Enable us to understand what to look for in a church body should we ever move out of the Santa Maria Valley. 3. Enable us to understand that when we live on mission with and for Jesus we won’t understand everything He is doing, but we can trust Him. Today we want to look at how our worship is to remind us of what Jesus sent His Spirit to do in us.

We are taking about two thirds of this year to cover the first half of the book of Acts. We are attempting to bring about a few things by covering this book in detail: 1. To see the beginnings of the church and Jesus’ call to mission. 2. To help you, because many of you are people in transition, we understand that many of you will not spend the rest of your life in Santa Maria so we want you to have a good idea of what to look for in a church wherever you go. 3. Understanding that when we live on mission for Jesus we won’t understand everything He is doing, but we can TRUST Him.