East Tenth Street Church

Peter heals a lame man in the Temple in Jerusalem before preaching his next sermon, recorded in Acts 3. There was nothing random about this miracle. It sets the stage for the rest of Peter’s sermon, and it tells us a lot about our future destiny with Jesus in the new creation.

After Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, many were cut to the heart and cried out, “What should we do?” Peter tells them to repent and be baptized. This is the pattern we see in the New Testament. The good news of Jesus is preached and people respond by being immersed in water. This is just as relevant today as it was on that day that Peter preached the first sermon.

In the final part of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 he describes Jesus’s ascension into heaven. Quoting Psalm 110, he shows that the Messiah is not just David’s son but also the Lord who shares God’s throne as God Himself. Jesus is the rightful king of the world! This brings us to the quest we all have to ask: Who is my king?

When Peter quotes Psalm 16 to explain the resurrection of Christ, he’s demonstrating that Jesus is at the center of Israel’s story. All of God’s promises in the Old Testament are fulfilled in him. When we share in Jesus’ resurrected life, we share in all the promises written there.

In the next section of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 he tells the people that they killed Jesus, but God raised him from the dead. He doesn’t say why Jesus died, but simply that he was killed and rose again. This simple story highlights the depth of sin in the human heart. When humans killed Jesus, sin and evil reached its peak. Jesus let human rebellion do its worst. But God’s power was stronger, and...

There’s temptation to think of Jesus as someone we talk about only in church, someone who lives up there, far off in heaven—abstract and distant. But in the next section of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, he highlights the fact that Jesus lived a real human life in the power of God. This has direct application for us right where we are.

When Peter quotes from the Old Testament prophet Joel in the front part of his sermon in Acts 2, he proclaims Jesus is at the center of the story of Israel and the world. That reality is still true today—he’s at the center. In him everything will be made right. Yet we must keep him at the center of our line of sight, although other things may try to get in the way.

We begin with the first sermon in Acts 2, where Peter starts his sermon by explaining that the presence and power of God is being manifested in that moment in Jerusalem. There is wind, fire, and the speaking of different languages. All of this reveals how important the story of Jesus is. His story is the story that brings salvation to the world. This causes us to consider what story is actually sh...

This week we introduce our new sermon series. The First Sermons were those first messages preached by the apostles that motivated people to come to Jesus. They’re recorded in the book of Acts and they tell the saving story of Jesus. We still need that story today to motivate us to move closer to him.

We look back at 2020 by highlighting two themes that emerged repeatedly throughout the year: remembering who we are and remembering our destiny. These two themes help prepare us for a  new year.

In Luke 2 we read about Simeon and Anna who prayed for years that God would rescue his people. When they saw baby Jesus in the Temple, they saw God’s answer to their prayers. God was with them. But God wasn’t just with them on that day. He had been with them during all their years of waiting. This reminds us that God is not a microwave, and he is often writing a different story for us even in our...

When the angel appears to the shepherds at night, he says he brings good news that will cause great joy. That is an odd thing to say to a group of men who are living in a land oppressed by Rome. But that’s the story God is writing. He’s bringing joy into a dark world. Christmas reminds us that no matter how dark things get, God is writing a different story, weaving joy into the world through Jesus...

Christmas is a time when we remember that God is often writing a different story that is more important than anything we read in the headlines. This is definitely true with the birth of Jesus. Caesar’s census wasn’t the biggest story in the Roman empire. The biggest story was happening in a manger as the Son of God was born. God is still in the business of writing a different story inside of us th...

In our world today, we’re tempted to think God cares only about the big stuff, or he only lives in a church building, or it’s only the big news stories that matter. Christmas tells us a different story. It teaches us that God is with us where we are. His Son came into the world as a baby and dwelled among us, right where we live in flesh and bone. God is with us in our ordinary lives, with all the...

This week we look at snapshots of God’s generosity. The Bible begins with a picture of God giving life to the world and sharing his image with human beings. It didn’t take long, however, for humans to reject God’s generosity. They tried to take and hoard his good gifts. But God never gave up on them. His generosity overflowed to the point that he gave his Son to die for the sins of the world.

This week we again open the Bible like a photo album and look at different snapshots of generosity. This time we’re looking in Luke, where we see pictures of unexpected people having unexpected encounters with Jesus, which result in unexpected generosity. We discover that this pattern didn’t just happen back then, but is still happening now.

We begin a three-week series where we open the Bible like a photo album and look at different snapshots of generosity. This week we open to the book of Acts and consider three pictures of the early church. What we see has a lot to teach us about generosity, God’s Spirit, and his grace; it also has application for us today.

In the last section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he writes one of his most famous statements about doing all things through Christ who gives him strength. When we read this verse in context, we find that God doesn’t just strengthen Paul in Christ through some isolated, mystical, other-worldly experience. He uses other Christians, like the Philippians, to supply Paul’s needs in order to str...

Right thinking is essential for living a cross-formed life. Paul repeatedly tells the Philippians to think rightly. In our passage today, he makes this point clearer than anywhere else. The application for us challenges every part of our everyday lives.

After Paul describes his deep hope in Jesus, he urges the Philippians to be like him. This means staying away from enemies of the cross and staying close to those who walk in the way of Jesus. This is a call to them and to us today to remember our identity and destiny.

Paul had the one of best Jewish pedigrees a person could have. He had all the right marks, but none of them made him right with God his creator. There was only one mark that really mattered and that was faith in the crucified Messiah. Paul strained toward his goal of having Jesus and the cross at the center of his life. His example has direct application for us today.

As we celebrate 73 years as a church, we consider the stability and consistency we have experienced in the midst of many cultural, social, and political changes. Two images come to mind: one of a man building on a rock foundation and the other of a tree planted by streams of water. Both have application for us as a church and as individuals.

Paul wants the Philippians to stand firm and united, living unselfish lives, shining like lights in a dark world. But to do this they need to fix their minds on Jesus and the cross. This is hard to do if you don’t have help. Paul uses himself, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, as examples of how to live Cross-Formed lives. This has direct application for us today.

Paul saw each piece of his life stamped with Jesus. Whether it was his current reality of prison or his future uncertainties about death, his life was defined by Christ and his cross. His example gives us a framework for living Cross-Formed lives today.

In Philippians 1:1-11 we see that when a person presses the cross of Christ into the center of their lives, their relationships change. They gain a new family—a family of people who are living cross-formed lives and abounding in love.