Newmarket Alliance Sermon Podcast

In the whirlwind of accusations, riots, and threats, Paul stands firm—not because the path is easy, but because God is present. Acts 23 reveals a powerful truth: even when opposition surrounds us and justice feels far off, God is still writing the story. In a dark prison cell, the risen Jesus appears and whispers what every weary soul needs: “Take courage.” Join us as we explore how God’s sovereig...

Paul is finally back in Jerusalem after many years, being taken to prison in chains because of an angry Jewish crowd, however, Paul wants to speak to them. He wants to have the opportunity to "testify" and tell His God Story of how Jesus has changed him. Will he be able to speak? How will the crowd respond? What does this mean for us? This week's teaching is by Jennifer Jukema. Jennifer and her hu...

Sometimes, homecomings can be bittersweet. Paul spent about five years travelling on his third missionary journey, and was eager to return to Jerusalem to support its struggling Christian church. But on his way back, he receives repeated warnings from prophets and his most trusted disciples. Should he continue? Should he change course? As we’ve seen repeatedly in Paul’s travels, there are many les...

Will you finish the race? Paul described his life goal as finishing the race and ministry he had been given by Jesus, and wow, he really put in all of his effort to do that. Paul pushed through no matter what obstacles came at him, and forged ahead even when he knew there would be more challenges. When Paul bids farewell to the Ephesian church leaders, he encourages them to continue on in his exam...

The church in Ephesus has been experiencing what it means to live in Holy Spirit power. Lives are being changed, and the word of God is alive and spreading! What could stop this momentum? Enter Demetrius, and his fellow craftsmen. What is good for the Church is not good for them and their livelihood. These makers of idols and shrines stir up dissension, and before long a mob has gathered and two f...

Paul’s incredible journey reminds us that we too can be on an adventure with God. Some of us may think we will never need a passport, but if God asked us to pack up a few things, pull together a team and follow Him, where would we be willing to go? And in the middle of this incredible journey, there is a little story tucked in about a young fellow named Eutychus that learned why it’s not a good id...

At the beginning of his 3rd missionary journey, Paul stumbles upon a group of disciples who have never experienced the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This group is doing the best they can with what they know, but they don’t even realize that God has so much more for them. Do you ever feel like your Christian experience revolves around trying to follow the rules and worki...

In Acts 19 the supernatural starts to really take center stage - both the miraculous healing deeds of God AND the destructive works of Satan and his demons. Some wannabe exorcists try to face evil head-on by invoking the name of Jesus as though it were some sort of "abracadabra" incantation. In one of the more darkly hilarious narratives in the New Testament, they find out the hard way it doesn't...

Pulling in the same direction This second missionary journey of Paul's hasn't sent him to ONE but to MANY different areas. They've both been fruitful and wrought with tensions. Or to put it another way, he's been "run out of town on a rail" Now in Corinth, he has the opportunity to actually stay for a year and a half, and it allows him a couple of opportunities he doesn't often get. One is to pull...

Ever feel like God sets up divine appointments in the most unexpected ways? In Acts 8, Philip follows a nudge from God and ends up in a desert-road conversation with an Ethiopian official who’s hungry for truth. That encounter ends with the man putting his faith in Jesus—and getting baptized right then and there. It’s a powerful reminder that God is always pursuing people, and baptism is a beautif...

The boys are on a missionary "road trip" this week, staying long enough to plant churches and then often getting run out of town. Paul then lands in the world class city of Athens and he takes his message from the synagogues to the streets... the public square. And here is a culture kind of like Canada. Pluralistic. Accepting. Vaguely "spiritual" without any real life transformation. In fact, Paul...

We saw last week how God in His goodness and ways in which He redeems ALL things, used an argument to double His missionary effort ... which is starting to REALLY reach "the ends of the earth". THIS week, we'll see how going to one of their most godless locations, being harassed by a demon-possessed woman and being thrown in jail is actually being used by God to forge new relationships, a new home...

Remember that Bible verse that promises Christians will never disagree with each other? Where is that passage found again? Oh, right. That's not found in the Bible. Disagreeing with your Christian brother or sister - even vehemently so - isn't necessarily sinful. Getting ANGRY isn't necessarily sinful. What you choose to DO in these situations may or may not be sinful. Barnabas and his protégé Pau...

Ah, the Acts Church. Isn't it dreamy? Everyone sharing everything. On mission together. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Looking out for widows and the vulnerable. Loving being together, fellowshipping and breaking bread together. It was all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows everywhere And if you believe THAT, I have a wonderful timeshare opportunity I'd like to tell you about. The Acts Church vehement...

The mission of Jesus is now entering the "to the ends of the earth" phase. This is where the gospel is about to become a worldwide game-changer. In this, the first of Paul's missionary trips, you'll notice some principles or "best practices"w that will be repeated throughout Acts and even to this very day. Not everyone has been called to leave their homeland for the sake of the gospel, but EVERY C...

We live in the "now but not yet". God's Kingdom is here but not fully realized until the day of King Jesus's glorious appearing. So in the meantime we live in the tension that evil seems to go unpunished. Arrogant and corrupt rulers and governments seem to get away with it. We hold to the hope that one day all these injustices will be made right. However... Every now and then, the consequences are...

Just when you think the stories in Acts can’t get any more exciting, we read about a miraculous escape from prison… and it’s an inside job! But not before we hear about a tragic event that ends the life of one of Jesus’ closest disciples. The juxtaposition of these things will certainly leave you scratching your head and challenging your faith. But God, again, shows that He is Lord, and nothing He...

We're at that point in Acts where the Jesus story is about to move from a localized phenomenon to a world-changer! First though, it means some barricades that kept people at arm's length need to be dismantled. That is what Jesus has done. One of the first signs of it happens at His crucifixion as the Temple curtain is supernaturally torn, representing everyone's access to God through Jesus - our o...

Amazing things happen in the Book of Acts. Things Jesus modeled in the Gospels and then actually told His followers to go and do likewise, or in fact go and do even GREATER things. Most Christians are on board with these works of the Apostles being available to us in 2025, UNTIL, that is, we get to passages of raising the dead. That's just a bridge too far. Of course that raises all kinds of quest...

We are now entering a whole new phase of Acts, and for that matter Christianity in general. We are moving out of the Jerusalem epicentre. This may not have been by choice, but God has a way of redeeming the bad stuff for our good and His glory AND to fulfill his mission... to spread the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. But before this mass missionary expansion...

You just knew that "poking the bear" (the religious elite) couldn't last forever. The keepers of the "old way" had too much at stake. I want to tell you about Stephen, who as you may remember from last week, just got appointed as a Deacon. But far from only working behind the scenes with ministry logistics, Stephen is someone "filled with God's grace and power" and "performed great wonders and sig...

What if our Church just... oh, I don't know... quadrupled attendance overnight? No transfer growth... all NEW Christians. Praise God! Now, picture some of the logistics around that. Do we have to move? Go to four services? What kind of volunteer crisis would that create? You think we have parking issues now? Plus these would be new Christians who need discipleship, still living in all kinds of wor...

Back to our series on the Book of Acts: "How to BE the Church" In our last "episode" of our Acts series, we saw that following the miraculous early growth of the first Church, some opposition starts to appear. It appears from the INSIDE (see Ananias and Saphira) and the attack is really starting to amp up from the religious OUTSIDE. Shouldn't the religious types all be on "Team Messiah"? Turns out...

You might already be sick of any talk of "resolutions" or "New Year's goals". You find the January 1 date an arbitrary timeline to make life changes. Why not make life changes in November or December if they're that important? The problem is that most of us don't spend the time in intentional reflection to even assess what changes need to happen... particularly in terms of character and spiritual...

The birth of Jesus prompted some extreme responses. On one hand, there was an outpouring of worship, adoration and celebration... all to a baby boy. On the other hand, there was a narcissistic, genocidal, resentful response. Some may ask "Surely there's a third way? Some sort of measured response?" Maybe that's been part of our issue around Christmas: thinking of it as a nice, safe, innocuous stor...