Acts: Dealing With Church Tensions

The church always must deal with the occasional tensions and stresses, misunderstandings and hurts that emerge because, although saved, we have remaining sin. That's a given. What is not a given is whether or not such matters will be handled in a wise and godly fashion that brings even deeper unity and God's blessing, or whether people will fight and divide and bring dishonor to Christ's name. We have a wonderful example and very important teaching in this passage of Acts. This class will be of great importance to all who aspire to be godly church members.

Acts 6

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The Gospel in the Old Testament: Being Related to the God Who Saves

If you are the infinite, holy, great, immense, loving God... how do you reveal this to mere mortals. The answer is progressively, over time, and dramatically at times. In the Old Testament, Mount Sinai is one of those pivotal, powerful revelations of who God is. And it is important for us to grasp His message.

Exodus 19:1-20:21,14:11-12,16:2-3,17:3
1 Thessalonians 4:16
1 Corinthians 15:52
Proverbs 9:10
Job 28:28

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• How does God answer the question: What are You like? In this text?
• Why did God reveal Himself in such scary ways on Mount Sinai?
• What were some of the reasons God gave the Ten Commandments?
• Why is the fear of God the beginning of wisdom?
• What are the advantages to those who understand how great God is?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: Cowards No More

How brave are you? How bold are you when it comes to sharing your faith? How willing are you to suffer for the gospel if it comes to that? These are hard and searching questions. We often feel like cowards. In Acts, we will watch normal ordinary men, who clearly proved that in the past they struggled with being cowards and thinking only about their own skin or reputations, act with amazing boldness. We will be shocked at their response to persecution. But more importantly, we will explore why and how they were able to do these things... and how we can!!

Acts 5

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The Gospel in the Old Testament: Redemption from Egypt

Redemption is a key word in the Gospel of Christ, but the concept was first fixed in the mind's of God's people in the Old Testament by the powerful work of God in freeing the captives from Egypt. Their response was profound worship... as ours should also be!!

Exodus 14:1-15:18
Matthew 20:28
1 Corinthians 10:1-4,10:11
John 8:34,14:30,8:36
Ephesians 2:2
Galatians 3:13

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What would it have been like to flee from Egypt?
• What did they feel when the Red Sea closed back in?
• What was the response to this great redemption?
• What are the three things holding us in captivity?
• How has Jesus redeemed us from all three?
• What should our response be?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

A Confident Hope

Do you have Hope? Do you live in the daily joy and boldness of a confident Hope? Where can one get a sure Hope? How the world today needs the good news of the sure Hope God gives!

Matthew 27:57-28:20,12:38-40
1 Corinthians 15:1-24,15:54-59
Acts 4:10,4:19-25

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What is a hope that is built on evidence and how is that different than a vague hope?
• What are the alternatives today for a hope for the future?
• Why do they offer no hope and no evidence?
• How is Christianity so gloriously different?
• What is, or rather Who is our hope?
• What is the evidence that makes this hope so sure?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: A Healthy Church

When a church is spiritually healthy, lots of things begin to take place. Deep love for one another, unity of hearts and minds, outreach to the lost world, and loving service to others are just some of the results. But Satan does not just silently watch his influence being eroded. He attacks the church in overt and subtle ways. We will see all of this taking place in the early church of Acts. It is exciting and sobering. But we will also seek to apply these lessons to ourselves and explore whether we are a spiritually healthy church.

Acts 4-5

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The Gospel in the Old Testament: Passover

As we continue to look at the gospel through the words of the Old Testament we arrive at Passover. How scary, yet how safe, to be indoors and behind the blood during that first Passover. How wonderfully God points to the true passing over we experience through the blood of Jesus... the Lamb of God... who is also Son of God!

Exodus 11:4-12:30,3:13-15,5:1-2,9:13-17,9:27-35,10:27-29
Genesis 49:8-12
Revelation 5:5
John 1:29,19:35-36
1 Thessalonians 1:10
Galatians 2:20
1 Corinthians 5:6-8

I AM THAT I AM. — It is generally assumed that this is given to Moses as the full name of God. But perhaps it is rather a deep and mysterious statement of His nature. "I am that which I am." My nature, cannot be declared in words, cannot be conceived of by human thought. I exist in such a way that my whole inscrutable nature is implied in my existence. I exist, as nothing else does — necessarily, eternally, really. If I am to give myself a name expressive of my nature, so far as language can be, let me be called "I AM." Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Who hardened Pharaoh's heart and why?
• What would it be like to experience that first Passover night?
• What purpose did the blood have that night?
• How did this prepare the people for the coming of Jesus?
• Why is it important that God sees the blood and also that we know we are behind the blood?
• How can this make us bold for the future?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

A Prayer of God's Peace, God's Work

This simple prayer reveals a lot about God and our relationship with Him.

Hebrews 13,2:3,3:12,4:7,6:1,12:24
Philippians 4:7,3:12
Acts 11:36,4:28
Romans 5:1
John 10:11
Titus 2:13
Jeremiah 13:31
Ephesians 2:10

Yes, blood is always a ghastly and a terrible thing. It is so, I suppose, because we recognize in it the destruction of life. Is it not so, also, - though we may not be able to define the emotion, - because we are compelled, in our consciences, to admit the effect of sin, and we are staggered as we see what our sin has done. All through the great school of the Jewish law, blood was constantly used to instruct the Israelite in the guilt of sin, and in the greatness of the atonement necessary for putting it away. Charles Spurgeon The Blood of the Testament

This is an "everlasting one"; it commenced from everlasting, as appears from the everlasting love of God, which is the rise and foundation of it; from the counsels of God of old, which issued in it; from Christ's being set up from everlasting, as the Mediator of it; from the promises of it which were made before the world began; and from the spiritual blessings of grace in it, which were given to God's elect in Christ before the foundation of it: moreover, it will endure for ever; nor will it be succeeded by any other covenant: and the blood of Christ may be called the blood of it, because the shedding of it is a principal article in it; by it the covenant is ratified and confirmed; and all the blessings of it come through it, as redemption, peace, pardon, justification, and even admission into heaven itself; and Christ, through it, was brought again from the dead, because by it he fulfilled his covenant engagements, satisfied divine justice, and abolished sin, yea, death itself. John Gill John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why does the author offer this prayer?
• How do we obtain God's peace?
• How powerful is God?
• Why was it necessary for the shedding of blood?
• Why is God considered a covenantal God?
• What heart aches have you experienced that drew you closer to God?
• How may God be working in you through your difficulties to fit you perfectly together to do His will?

Matt Courtney
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA