Acts: Entry Denied

In Acts we will see the Holy Spirit deny access to Paul and Company, a vision from the Lord, and the first conversion in Europe. We will also address the questions: What is the takeaway for us today? What should we learn from these passages? And, how should we apply the principles to our lives?

Acts 16

Chris Bowser
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

How Should I Live: As a Son Not a Slave

How should I live? When people were trying to move the Galatians back to legalism... Paul says "Live like sons not slaves".

Galatians 3:1-4:11,4:28,5:1-6,5:13-14,5:16,5:18,5:22-23
Matthew 23:23-28

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What is legalism?
• What is wrong with it?
• What did Paul say to the Galatians when people wanted to put them back under the Law?
• What was the purpose of the Law?
• When were sons and slaves treated the same, and when were they treated differently?
• What did Paul conclude was the status of the Christian and how the Christian should live?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: The Ordinary Doing the Extraordinary

The world has been changed by ordinary people doing extraordinary things through the grace and power of God. In our study of Acts we will be inspired by some normal folks with their various strengths and weaknesses: Paul, Barnabas, Mark, Silas and Timothy. We will look at how God used each of them, and them together, to change the world. This is still His strategy today... this study will be a great encouragement to us ordinary folks and how God can use us!

Acts 15-16

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

How Should I Live: Keeping One Thing Crystal Clear

As we study How Should I Live it is absolutely important that we are clear that salvation is not merited, but a gift! And our response is not a works righteousness but faith working through love and gratitude.

Romans 3:9-31
Matthew 21:28-32,7:22-23
Luke 12:21,18:19
Isaiah 64:6
Proverbs 4:19,11:5,12:26
Psalms 146:9,134:3,143:2
Jonah 2:9
Ephesians 2:8-9
Titus 2:14

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Who goes to heaven?
• Who goes to hell?
• How did Jesus turn the usual answer to these questions upside down?
• What are the realizations a person must come to in order to be saved?
• Salvation is a gift, a great gift, and expensive gift, a gift given by grace, a gift received by faith... explain how these were described in the sermon.
• What is the objective and subjective response to this gift?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: But What About the Old Way?

As Christians today what do we do with the Old Testament laws? Are we supposed to keep the dietary laws and eat kosher? Are we responsible to keep the Passover, Jewish Sabbath, New Moon, Feast of Tabernacles, Circumcision? What does it mean that these were supposed to be perpetual or everlasting... then, how can they be ended? Are Gentiles supposed to become Jewish? These are big questions facing the apostles, especially as the gospel was reaching Gentiles, and they were coming into the churches. In Acts 15 the council in Jerusalem meets and these issues are worked out. These issues challenge many even today.

Acts 15

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

How Should I Live: Love in an Unloving Atmosphere

Today people are angry, short tempered, and hostile to those who disagree with them... As we ponder how we should live as Christians, how can we be loving in this atmosphere and not be just like the world?

1 Corinthians 13
Philippians 2:14-15
Romans 1:21-22,1:24,1:26

Having shown the nature and tendency of charity or Christian love, in respect to our receiving injury, and doing good to others — that it "suffers long and is kind;" and also with respect to the good possessed by others as compared with that possessed by ourselves — that charity "envieth not;" the apostle now proceeds to show, that in reference to what we ourselves may be or have, charity is not proud — that "it vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly." As, on the one hand, it prevents us from envying others what they possess, so, on the other, it keeps us from glorying in what we possess ourselves. Paul had just declared that charity was contrary to a spirit of envy, and now he declares that it is equally contrary to that spirit which specially provokes men to envy others, and which they often make a pretense or apology for envying them, viz. that they are puffed up with their honors and prosperity, and vaunt themselves on their possession of these things. When men have obtained prosperity, or are advanced, and others observe that they are puffed up and vaunt themselves in it, this tends to provoke envy, and make others uneasy at the sight of their prosperity. But if a man has prosperity or advancement, and yet does not vaunt himself or behave in an unseemly manner on account of it, this tends to reconcile others to his high circumstances, and make them satisfied that he should enjoy his elevation. As already observed, when men envy another, they are prone to excuse and justify themselves in so doing, by the pretense that he does not make a good improvement of his prosperity, but is proud of it, and puffed up on account of it. But the apostle shows how Christian love, or charity, tends to make all behave suitably to their condition, whatever it may be: if below others, not to envy them, and if above others, not to be proud or puffed up with the prosperity. Jonathan Edwards The Spirit Of Charity Is An Humble Spirit

But so soon as he had transgressed against God, these noble principles were immediately lost, and all this excellent enlargedness of man's soul was gone; and thenceforward, he himself shrank, as it were, into a little space, circumscribed and closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of all things else. Sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness: and God was forsaken, and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, and the more noble and spiritual principles of his being, took wings and flew away. Jonathan Edwards The Spirit Of Charity Is An Humble Spirit

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What in our culture causes us to be angry, irritated, short fused?
• What are some of the ways love is described in the passage?
• How can we be like this to everyone?
• Why is love so important?
• How does this teaching cause us to seek God more fervently?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: Holy Boldness in a Hostile Environment

As our culture gets more resistant and hostile to the gospel, we are tempted to retreat in silence. We can lose a holy boldness and be intimidated into going under the radar with our faith. It's tempting. How to get that boldness back and keep it? One way is to see it in others. We will be examining in Acts the courageous efforts of Paul (stoned, left for dead, and then walking back into the city... seriously!!!) and Barnabas to bring the gospel to their generation. They will inspire us to boldness and to a stick-to-it-ness that won't easily be intimidated. These things are increasingly the need of the hour.

Acts 14

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Making Sense of a Senseless Act

When a senseless crime takes place as we saw in Los Vegas, we try to make sense out of it. Modern man, tragically, does not have the worldview that can help in times of crisis. But God has not left us without hope, and His word does give us a worldview that can inform our quest for sense.

Luke 8:26-39
Ephesians 2:1-3,6:12
Matthew 8:29,12:28-29
James 2:19
Mark 5:5-6
1 John 3:8,4:4
Colossians 2:14-15
Romans 16:20

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why is modern man particularly unprepared to handle what happened in Las Vegas?
• What about their worldview has made them this way?
• Why is the problem much deeper than they can imagine?
• How does the Bible's worldview address more accurately what is going on?
• How does God offer us hope and real answers in Jesus Christ?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

How Should I Live: Loving Enemies

We are examining how we should live for God yet why does it feel so unnatural and why is it so hard... to love our enemies? How do we do this?

Matthew 5:38-48
Romans 12:10,12:17-21,13:4,5:10
Acts 14:16-17

The Voice of the Martyrs

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA