Resurrection Sunday, that is, Easter, is the central and most significant day for Christians in the whole year: our faith stands on the fact of the resurrection, and falls if it didn't happen.  Today, we look at the great prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1:17-23, where he prays the implications of the resurrection will come to bear in his friends' lives.  If the resurrection actually happen, what does it change for us?  Simply, our desires find their true home, and their true goal.  

On Palm Sunday we look at Acts 5:17-42, where the Apostles confront the authorities in Jerusalem, in the Temple.  No, it's not deja vu, but they ARE doing exactly what Jesus did in Jerusalem after he arrived on Palm Sunday.  What this shows us is a picture of following Christ.  Jesus intended for his followers to really follow him - even to the point of carrying a cross!  What does that mean?  Looking at this scene, we consider what life lived in light of the cross is like.  

In five short verses, Luke summarizes life among the Apostles and followers of Jesus in striking fashion: some are scared to join, while at the same more people than ever and being added to the Lord.  Not to mention... things are very supernatural.  Signs, wonders, miracles, even people getting healed by Peter's shadow touching them.  What do we make of the miracles, and what do we take from the reaction to them? 

Is there a more dramatic passage than this?  First, the believers seem to be living communally, so dramatically that there is not a "needy person among them."   Second, a couple gives a generous gift, but lies about how much the gift cost them, and the Spirit of God instantly strikes them dead.  Would it surprise you to hear that all this is a message about... unity? 

You'd be shocked too, if the crippled man you saw every day on the way into Temple was jumping around, hooting and hollering.  You'd want to know what was happening too.  Why is this healed man clinging to that Galilean, Peter?  Peter stands up and explains... and he says this isn't merely about one miracle, it's about everything wrong with the world being made right.  By the end of his speech, the authorities are dragging Peter to prison... what did he say? 

Is the summary of the early church there to show us what we have to do in order to see daily miracles and converts?  If we believe that, we've taken these early days of the Gospel of Jesus and applied them... without the Gospel of Jesus.  But if we start with the recognition that all this is a response to believing Jesus is on the throne, it changes everything!

Peter's sermon in Acts 2 might be the most immediately effective evangelistic sermon in history.  What did he say, and what happened, that so many people were convinced they were wrong about Jesus, and immediately joined this rebel troupe of Nazareans (aka, Christians)? 

What if, after all the debate about tongues and prophesies and miracles, we discovered that we're asking the wrong questions about the Holy Spirit? Either he's a personal or church assistant (who may or may not be giving special "words") OR he's the Third Person of the Trinity, every bit GOD as much as the Father and the Son.  If we start there, his grand entrance in Acts 2 takes a whole different tone.  Meet the Spirit, as if for the first time. 

Acts 1 opens with Jesus Christ giving a clear command to his followers to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, and then floating into the sky.  Floating into the sky?  What is going on here?

The Gospel is absolutely central to the Christian life and to the vision of LCC.  But what IS the gospel? 

1 John tells us that "God is Light."  This is both encouraging and troubling when we consider the overwhelming darkness of life as we know it.  This sermon is an invitation to consider darkness in a totally new way as we prepare for the birth of Christ.