The Radical Truth

This is part one of a sermon that Glenn preached out of First John on the nature of true love. This is a challenging sermon that will be a great help to your walk with God.

We left Paul preaching in our last lesson to governor Festus, King Agrippa, his sister Bernice and some other people. In this lesson we will see how the conviction of the Holy Spirit became so intense that governor Festus interrupted Paul's message. This is an awesome account, so don't miss it.

The focus of this lesson is on Paul sermon to a crowd of nonbelievers that consisted of a king, a governor, military officers and city officials. There are some powerful truths that come out in this lesson.

We will study roughly two years in the life of Paul in this lesson. He was in jail in Caesarea under governor Felix, who was recalled to Rome to face charges of corruption. Festus became the new governor and Paul was left in prison by the departing Felix. Now that Festus was the new ruler, it doesn't take long for him to have to deal with Paul.

Paul's journey to testify before the Roman governor Felix is the focus of this lesson. We will see truth confronting lies and the power of a godly testimony.

Paul was being beaten by a mob of religious zealots, most of them didn't know what the disturbance was all about. The Romans saw the riot breaking out and the Tribune entered into the chaos to put an end to it. He ended up rescuing Paul. This lesson gets into this account of Paul and there are some wonderful lessons that we can learn from it.

This is a challenging sermon on how the church is to be confronting the culture we live in with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul's persecution that breaks out against him in the Temple in Jerusalem is the focus of this lesson. This begins the long journey of persecution that eventually lead to his execution by Nero in Rome. We see in this account a total contrast between the compassion of Paul, a follower of the true Messiah, and the religious men that were filled with hate and self-righteousness. This is an exciting lesson.

In this lesson we will study the beginning of Paul's long persecution and imprisonment that will ultimately lead to his execution by Emperor Nero. There are some important truths that need to be understood that we will dig into in this lesson, so don't miss it.

This lesson begins by continuing the account of Paul's visit with the elders of Ephesus. Here we will get a look at the profound love they had for each other. From there the pace picks up as we follow Paul's journey from Miletus to Caesarea, which was the port city for Jerusalem. There are some wonderful truths that we will dig into in this lesson, so don't miss it.

Paul is spending some time in a neighboring city to meet with the elders of Ephesus. This would be the last time he would see their faces in this life, so it was an emotional visit. Listen to this man of God's appeal to those church leaders because he was pouring out his heart to give them some final admonishments. This is a good, practical lesson that is also very challenging.

Acts chapter 20 opens with Paul leaving Ephesus after Demetrius, a silversmith that manufactured idols, had started a riot in an effort to silence Paul either by death, imprisonment or expulsion from the city. The silversmiths had taken a major decline in their income from the sale of idols because of the revival that swept the city after Paul began preaching the Gospel. After Paul left Ephesus he made his way to Corinth, Greece for a third visit. After this be began heading to Jerusalem, hoping to arrive by the Feast of Pentecost. As we follow Paul's journey to Jerusalem we see a man who loves Jesus with his entire being and loves people compassionately.

In the portion of Acts 19 that we are studying we will see the results of authentic revival that took place in Ephesus and the persecution that came about because of it. This is a powerful lesson, and the truths found in it, we need to apply to our lives.

The main account in this lesson is extremely interesting. Paul goes to Ephesus and during his time there seven sons of a man named Sceva started a business casting demons out of people. Their business takes an interesting turn that the seven brothers weren't expecting and the Lord used it in a marvelous way.

We will meet in this lesson Apollos, who was a dynamic preacher that effectively ministered to fellow Jews by proving that Jesus is the promised Messiah. We will also see what happens when Paul, on his third missionary journey, ends up in Ephesus. This is a powerful account that we need to understand how it applies to us.