Florida Coast Church

In Acts 17:24-34 we get to hear a sermon that Paul preached to philosophers in Athens. He presented to them biblical truths about God, humans, Jesus, and our response. The game-changing declaration that got Paul laughed off stage was the resurrection of Jesus. The news about the resurrection left others curious enough to want to hear more, some of whom ended up believing the gospel message. That g...

Before Jesus left this earth, he entrusted the gospel ministry to the apostles, but to whom did the apostles entrust it before they departed? The answer found in Acts 20:17-35 is that they entrusted ministry to the elders of the church. In fact, elders are not only God’s design for the church but also essential to its well-being.

The expression, “the body of Christ,” has become such a common name for the church that we may not reflect upon what it means for the life of the church. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 , we have the most complete explanation of the similarity between the human body and the church. Both the human body and the church are unities made up of many diverse members. Therefore, the church needs all of its memb...

In some of his last words, in Matthew 28:16-20 , Jesus gave a clear mission to his disciples: to make more disciples of all people groups until the end of the age. As it is easy for the church to get distracted from our mission by many other good activities, Jesus’ words refocus us and send us out. Today’s sermon reviews not only what our mission is but also ways we can accomplish it in our daily...

From the very first preaching of the gospel after Jesus’ ascension, the new believers were “added” to local churches. Once God added them to churches, the believers devoted themselves to simple practices that God used to add even more people both to himself and to the churches. These activities, found in Acts 2:36-47 , are marks of a solid church, so make sure that your church has them, and devote...

Although the word church appears only three times in all of the gospels, in Matthew 16:13-23 and Matthew 18:15-20 . However, the church figured large in the mission of the apostles, who they went out and made disciples by starting churches everywhere. By studying these three instances of the word church, we discover that Christ gave authority to his church to open the kingdom of God to those who r...

When we considered the Covenant of Law given through Moses, we detected a major problem that we have with God’s law: we cannot keep it. In light of this fact, in Jeremiah 31:31-34 , God announced a New Covenant that would transform our relationship to the law by providing what we all need – complete forgiveness for all our sins.

After Abraham’s family became a great nation, it also became a kingdom, and no one ever equalled the greatness of King David. Even so, in 2 Samuel 7:1-17 , God announced to David that he had even greater plans for his offspring. Those plans were so great that even today we are seeing only part of their realization. However, we often miss out on what God is doing, because we are looking for him to...

Because God had fulfilled one of his promises to Abraham by making his descendants a great nation, the next announcement of the Covenant of Grace contained laws that were necessary for the life of the nation of Israel. In God’s sealing of this covenant with Moses and the people in Exodus 24:1-11 , we discover that the law cannot put us in a right relationship with God, but it can guide us into the...

Even though you enjoy many good things in life, is there one big thing that is missing? Abram (later called Abraham) was rich, powerful, and famous, but he longed for one key element to complete his life. In Genesis 15 , God confirmed his promises to Abram by means of a covenant and a ceremony that apparently put God in a dangerous position but secured all that Abram and we need for our lives.

After the Covenant of Works/Life resulted in failure and death for humans, God dealt with them on the basis of his grace, or free favor toward sinners. The first mention of the Covenant of Grace appears in Genesis 6:17-18 and then receives fuller explanation in Genesis 9:8-17 . Every day we are still enjoying the benefits of this covenant that he announced to Noah long ago.

What can help us get a grasp on the whole Bible? There are several good answers to this question, but the idea of covenant is a handy way to understand the whole Bible. More importantly, it is the way for us to relate to God properly. In our new series on the covenants of the Bible, we first looked at Genesis 2:15-25 , where we learn about the first covenant between God and humanity: the Covenant...

In our third look at Matthew 6:1-18 , which contains the Lord’s Prayer, or the Our Father, we examine the prayer itself, which serves not only as a prayer of Christians of all places and times but also as a model for our praying. It consists of an initial address to God, three requests for God’s glory, and three requests for our more pressing needs.

During three weeks, we are looking at  Matthew 6:1-18 , moving from the outside toward the Lord’s Prayer in the middle. First we considered Jesus’ warnings about hypocrisy: doing the right things in order to receive human applause. This week we looked at Jesus’ three instructions about how to pray: in secret, with simplicity, and with forgiveness.

During three weeks, we will look at Matthew 6:1-18 , moving from the outside toward the Lord’s Prayer in the middle. First we considered Jesus’ warnings about hypocrisy: doing the right things in order to receive human applause. Jesus called us rather to focus on the divine audience and receive grace upon grace from God.

Following up on last week’s sermon about the who, where, and what of Jesus’ birth, we turn to Hebrews 2:14-18 to learn more about what the incarnation was and also why it had to happen.

In the first of a two-part Christmas series, we studied the announcement in Luke 1:26-38  that the angel Gabriel made to Mary about the baby she would bear.  We focused on who was involved in this announcement, where it happened, and what it meant.  Next week we will study why it had to be this way.

In the dramatic concluding section,  Galatians 6:11-18 , Paul brought the whole message of the letter together by writing about boasting.  He contrasted worldly religious boasting with Christian boasting.  Christians are to boast only in something that was and is despised by most people: the instrument of execution known as a cross.

In Galatians 6:1-10 , Paul took the general principles of the fruit of the Spirit (which we studied last week) and applied them to three situations in the church in order to provide concrete examples of Christian living.  The three situations are: when a Christian falls into sin, when ministers need support, and when any member needs help.  The way we treat sinners, ministers, and the needy demons...

Continuing the theme of the results of faith in Christ, Galatians 5:16-26 lists specific manifestations of the flesh (sinful nature) and of the Holy Spirit.  The outward evidence of living by the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

After four chapters of telling us what Christ has done for us and urging us to have faith in him alone in order to be right before God, Paul turned in Galatians 5:1-15 to explain the main thing that faith produces in our lives, which is love.  While we are saved by faith alone, faith is itself never alone in the lives of believers but always accompanied by love.

In Galatians 4:21-31 , Paul gave an interpretation of the story from the Old Testament about Abraham and the two sons he had, one to Hagar the slave woman, and the other to Sarah his wife.  The false teachers in Galatia were perhaps using this story to try to force non-Jewish believers to become Jews.  However, Paul showed how the story itself supports his main thesis that both Jews and non-Jews m...

Having described the experience of Jewish Christians as coming into their full inheritance, Paul described the conversion of Gentiles (non-Jews) in  Galatians 4:8-20 .  Simply speaking, they (we) had not known God but then came to know him.  However, the Galatians later turned back to a form of religion that was similar to what they had when they were enslaved to idols.  Therefore, they serve as a...

Although it is impossible to say what is the best thing about being a Christian, the theme of Galatians 4:1-7 is an excellent candidate for “our highest privilege.”  In fact, the privilege is so exalted that it sounds at first like we have gone too far and said too much when we speak of it.  Indeed, we would never dare to suggest it if it were not so clearly taught in God’s word.

With so much insistence in Galatians on our being right before God through faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, we might well wonder what is the purpose of the law.  In Galatians 3:15-29 , Paul raised this question and gave a partial answer to it by laying out what is called the first use of the law.  As it turns out, the law is not against the gospel but in fact prepares us for and dr...