Line Upon Line

Teaching from Acts 14:11-28, where Paul and Barnabas are mistaken for gods in Lystra. Pastor Miles explores the human tendency toward idolatry and unpacks Paul's gospel message—turning from vanities to the living God who is Creator, long-suffering, self-revealing, and loving—as the same message needed in our modern Greek-minded culture.

Teaching through the healing of the lame man at Lystra in Acts 14, Pastor Miles examines the nature of biblical healing, the church's primary commission to preach the gospel, and why we so often fail to see God move miraculously when we have so many other things to trust in besides Him.

Studying Acts 14:1-7, Pastor Miles examines Paul and Barnabas's ministry at Iconium, explaining the deeper meaning of biblical "belief" as trust, the inevitability of opposition to God's work, and the central call of every believer to carry and preach the word of God's grace.

Following Paul and Barnabas as they are sent out on their first missionary journey from Antioch through Cyprus to Antioch of Pisidia, this teaching shows that God is the one who works—first by separating us to Himself, then by saving sinners through the preached word of God rather than through miraculous signs. It centers on Paul's confrontation with Elimas the sorcerer and his great synagogue ser...

Using Independence Day as a starting point, Pastor Miles examines the cost, danger, and proper response to liberty, arguing that true freedom comes from Christ but must lead us to declare our utter dependence upon God. He then connects this to Acts 13:1-3, showing a church in Antioch that ministered to the Lord, fasted, prayed, and depended completely on God to direct its mission.

A verse-by-verse study of Acts 12 examining Herod Agrippa's persecution of the church, the martyrdom of James, and Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison in answer to the church's prayers. Pastor Miles draws from the passage four marks of faithful prayer in times of crisis—corporate, continual, direct, and specific—and points to the peace God gives even in the darkest dungeons.

On Father's Day, Pastor Miles draws from Barnabas's description as "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith" to charge fathers to discipline and instruct their children in the Lord, then examines how Saul and Barnabas's year of teaching at Antioch produced disciples first called "Christians"—a transformation rooted in the faithful teaching of God's Word.

A study of Acts 11:19-24 examining what it means to "preach the word," how God used persecution to drive the gospel beyond Jewish believers to the Gentiles at Antioch, and how Barnabas exhorted new Christians in a pagan culture to cling to the Lord with purpose of heart.

Drawing from Acts 11:1 and the controversy over Peter eating with Gentiles, Pastor Miles argues that America is reverting to a first-century, polytheistic mindset that gives the church a great evangelical opportunity—provided believers stop fighting "friendly fire" battles over non-essentials and remember the word of the Lord.

Through Peter's healing of Aeneas, the raising of Tabitha (Dorcas), and the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius, this teaching shows that God works miracles strategically for His glory and to spread the gospel, and that He is no respecter of persons—pouring out His Spirit on Gentiles as well as Jews.

A verse-by-verse study of Acts 9 tracing the dramatic conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road, emphasizing God's patience, His personal pursuit of individuals, the call to submit to His will, and the radical transformation that makes any sinner a chosen vessel for God's purposes.

A panoramic overview of Revelation that frames the Bible as filled with "prophetic intelligence chatter" to be patiently decoded, insisting that the book's true focus is the revelation of Jesus Christ as victorious. Pastor Miles surveys the major interpretive views, walks through the seven churches, and traces the day of the Lord's wrath through Isaiah, Joel, Matthew, Luke, and Revelation.

Pastor Miles teaches Acts 8:26-39, where Philip obediently goes to the desert road and shares the gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch, drawing out the call to obey God, go to people relationally, open our mouths, and lead others to faith and baptism.

Pastor Miles teaches through the brief but powerful letter of Jude, who, instead of writing about our common salvation, urgently exhorts believers to contend for the faith against false teachers who had crept into the church turning grace into a license to sin. The teaching surveys Jude's warnings, his Old Testament and extra-biblical examples of judgment, and his closing call to build ourselves u...

A verse-by-verse study of 3 John, John's short final letter, contrasting three men—Gaius (strong in soul, faithful, hospitable), Diotrephes (proud, selfish, a slanderer who rejected the brethren), and Demetrius (a man of good report)—and exhorting believers to walk in the truth, exercise themselves toward godliness, and show hospitable love to both brethren and strangers.

Beginning at the stoning of Stephen and the rise of Saul, this teaching traces how persecution scattered the Jerusalem church and drove it to fulfill Christ's commission in Judea and Samaria. It moves through Philip's Spirit-empowered ministry in Samaria and the false conversion of Simon the magician, calling believers to active obedience and genuine repentance.

A verse-by-verse teaching through 2 John, in which Pastor Miles explains John's exhortation to a persecuted church to practice the truth and protect it against false teachers, emphasizing the necessary balance of love and truth in the believer's life.

Continuing through 1 Timothy 1, Pastor Miles teaches that God plants a seed of faith in every person, that this faith grows through hearing the Word and dies through false teaching, and that the proper, lawful use of God's law is to reveal sin and point us to Christ rather than to make us feel righteous.

Drawing on Luke 12:15 and Jesus' parable of the rich fool, Pastor Miles warns that covetousness is a destructive form of idolatry that God will judge, and that a person's life is not measured by possessions. He calls believers to set their affections on heavenly things, trust God for daily provision, and lay aside the material entanglements that bind us so we can simplify, focus, and walk in freed...

A verse-by-verse walk through John's first letter, showing how its central themes—life, love, and the Son of God—answer the Gnostic heresy that denied Jesus' true humanity and how, again and again, John points believers back to 1 John 1:9 to confess sin and be cleansed. The teaching also addresses assurance of salvation, abiding in Christ, and the textual question surrounding the "Trinity" verse i...

Stephen, one of the seven men chosen to serve the widows, is drawn into a larger calling that leads to his trial before the Sanhedrin. As he answers their accusations by retelling Israel's history, he demonstrates that God met His people apart from the temple, that Israel repeatedly rejected God's deliverers, and that the same council had now rejected and murdered the Messiah Himself.

A verse-by-verse walk through 2 Peter, written near the end of Peter's life under Nero's persecution, showing how the knowledge of God builds godly character (ch. 1), exposes and condemns false teachers (ch. 2), and anchors the believer's hope in the certain second coming of Christ (ch. 3). The central exhortation is to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the bes...

As the early church multiplied, a complaint arose that the Hellenist widows were neglected in the daily ministry, and the apostles responded by keeping their own focus on prayer and the Word while appointing seven Spirit-filled men to the task. Pastor Miles applies this to Calvary Chapel of Escondido's growth, urging every believer to recognize their unique gifting and "launch out into the deep" t...

Pastor Miles walks through 1 Peter, a five-chapter letter written by the apostle Peter (likely from Rome around 64 A.D.) to believers in Asia Minor about to face persecution under Nero. The teaching emphasizes the believer's living hope and heavenly inheritance, the call to holiness, our identity as a chosen royal priesthood, and the call to submission and humility in every area of life.

Through the example of King Saul's incomplete obedience in 1 Samuel 15, this teaching shows that God desires obedience over sacrifice, warning that partial obedience and delayed obedience are both disobedience in God's eyes. The believer is called to total surrender to God's sovereignty rather than building his own kingdom or making excuses for sin.