Anthem Church

Concluding our journey through the temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4, we see Jesus encounter the temptation for approval: all of the world’s kingdoms and their glory are offered to him, if he would but fall down and worship the Enemy. Jesus rebukes the tempter, states his firm commitment to worship and serve God alone, and once freed from the presence of the Enemy, is ministered to by angels. This...

The enemy is continually trying to undermine our identity in Christ. During this season of Lent we examine the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4. This week we reflect on how the enemy uses false security to lead us away from putting our confidence and value in who Christ says that we are. Paul, in Philippians 3, makes it clear that our flesh only provides us false security, false confidence, and fa...

After his identity as the beloved Son of God is confirmed, Jesus is led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan. After fasting for forty days, Jesus was very hungry, and it was at this moment that Satan visited him with his first temptation. Satan asked Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread, thus confirming his deity and comforting his starving body. Jesus, however, d...

During the Lenten season, our Sunday gatherings will be spent observing Jesus’ baptism and subsequent temptation by the Enemy. As we begin this journey, we learn from the incredibly important moment at the start of Jesus’ ministry, when he was baptized, received the Holy Spirit, and was told by God, without any question, that we was the Father’s own beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased. Through...

After giving his speech to the Sanhedrin, Stephen is surrounded by angry, frustrated councilmen. After proclaiming that he sees Jesus himself standing at the right hand of God, the council had heard enough; he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. Although gruesome and heartbreaking, these six verses teach us much about our devotion to God and what it takes to likewise remain faithful to...

Stephen has been seized and brought before the Jewish Council for questioning regarding what he was teaching the people. In Stephen’s response to the Jewish Council we can can clearly see that our God is faithful, despite our unfaithfulness. Our God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love despite our persistent rejection of Him. Our God is also worthy of all glory as our Creator and the A...

This week we learn more about Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church, who was doing great wonders and signs among the people, working full of grace and power. His presence and work caused yet another stirring within the council of Jewish elites. When Stephen was brought before this council, they accused him and questioned him primarily concerning one thought: the claim that Jesus of Nazar...

At the start of Acts 6, we see the ministry need of the early church growing too great for just the apostles to handle. To aid them in meeting these needs, the apostles set apart qualified, trustworthy, and godly men to attend to these tasks in a faithful manner; these men are likely the first deacons of the church. As we spend time studying and discussing the office of deacon, we learn not only a...

After the apostles rebuke the Sanhedrin for their unfocused, selfish faith, the council is so enraged that they look to kill these messengers of God. Before they can act, a wise man named Gamaliel steps forth and prevents them. Gamaliel reminds the council that if the efforts of the apostles are indeed manufactured, the movement will cease to exist, but if this movement is from God, there is no wa...

After the apostles perform many signs and wonders by the power of God, they are opposed yet again by the high priest and the rest of the Jewish council. After God himself releases them from prison to continue to preach the name of Jesus, the elites try again to contain them, forbidding them to teach in this way. In their retort, the apostles remind them that they are serving God, not any manmade a...

Acts 5:12-16 tells us of some of the many signs and wonders that regularly occurred in the early church. Residents of Jerusalem and of the surrounding areas brought their sick and afflicted to receive prayer for healing. These signs and wonders are a physical representation of the healing power that God has, incredible acts that bring him glory and pleasure as Lord of all creation. This passage al...

This week, we begin the fifth chapter of Acts. The end of chapter four left us with an image of believers in Christ who, fully surrendered to his love, were living generous lives, giving their all to those in need. Chapter five presents us with two individuals, Ananias and Sapphira, who joined in the generosity, but only in part. Instead of offering wholly what was theirs to give, they kept some o...

In Acts 4:13-37 the apostles and the other believers are living united in heart and soul. This unity is based on one thing, their fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is nothing to be weary of, but it is a gift of God and full of wonderful blessings. Peter and John display their fear of the Lord in speaking the gospel boldly before the Jewish council. When Peter and John join the other believers...

After Peter’s sermon regarding the healing of the lame beggar, the Sadducees respond by imprisoning Peter and John and then questioning them: how did this happen? Peter articulates, yet again, it is through Jesus alone that such things are done, and that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The Sadducees, eventually...

Today’s world tells us that if we have enough information and motivation, we can make changes to our surroundings and to ourselves. Temporary change may indeed come, but what happens when the information needed for change ends up changing itself? What happens when the motivation runs dry? The true, lasting change we desire for ourselves comes not by our own strength or will, but through the power...

Grace, while always welcomed in our lives, sometimes doesn’t come to us in the ways we expect. The lame beggar in the third chapter of Acts asked for grace in the only way he knew, and was met instead with God’s might, a moment that changed his life forever. No matter where we come from, the truth of the gospel of grace comes to us in unexpected places, in unexpected ways, and often with power tha...

In spite of our best efforts to be faithful to the biblical portrayal of the body of Christ, many churches find themselves on one side of a perceived spectrum. Some churches are very inwardly focused, creating followers with depth of knowledge but a devastating lack of awareness of life beyond church walls, while others go all in on service, justice, and love towards the community and the world to...

The Church is made up of individuals. We, as individuals, are responsible for our relationship with Jesus Christ. However, we, as the Church, are a part of a larger, more complex body. We are to rely on one another to serve God more faithfully. The Church was never designed for people to live their lives as individuals, but as a part of a larger community. The early Church knew this well. Acts 2:4...

In our hearts and lives, we are frequently constructing narratives that affect our relationships and alter our perspectives of our world. In contrast to our tainted views of reality, Jesus in the gospel offers us history, theology, prophecy, and testimony, all pointing us to the deep, abiding truth that God loves us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place and reconcile us b...

As the Holy Spirit descends upon the early church, empowering them in their performance and proclamation of “mighty works of God,” opposition arises in the form of mockery and dismissal. Peter, filled with courage and holy power, stands to begin his sermon, defending the work of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit. In his initial words, he reminds us that those who call upon the name of the Lo...

Upon his ascension, Jesus promised his followers that they would receive power in the form of the Holy Spirit, the God that would fuel them to be witnesses to the gospel across all of the earth. The disciples wait expectantly and faithfully, and at last the Spirit comes, filling them and sending them out to Jerusalem to begin their ministry of sharing Jesus with those around them. This Sunday, we...

We the people of the 21st century are a people who do not like to wait… for anything. With so much instantaneous gratification at our fingertips, our ability and desire to wait expectantly and hopefully has diminished. After the ascension of Jesus, the disciples themselves were told to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ himself. While our waiting is often passive as we distr...

When times are hard it is easy to reflect back and desire the good old days. The Apostles were no different. They desired a day when Christ would restore the kingdom of Israel to its previous state of glory. However, returning to the good old days is something Christ never promised. Christ came not to restore us to a better position we once held, but to transform us into something entirely new. In...

This week, our journey through the book of Acts begins. Written by Luke, a “beloved physician” and a detailed scribe, the first leg of our journey will show us how God’s church is started. This church, we discover, is not just a building or a gathering of people, but God’s ordained vehicle for redemption: the hope of the world. As we embark, we are equipped with the knowledge that Acts is an histo...

Everyone’s understanding of God’s grace is, to some degree, deficient. Each and every day we live our lives, God is intervening in countless ways with amazing grace. This grace manifests over and over again through, sometimes, complex and difficult peculiarities. Our understanding and experience of this grace can become arrested in what Scripture describes as “juvenile” form. This juvenile misconc...