The Semi-Seminarian

Acts 9 does not end where most people think it does. After Saul’s dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road, after Ananias lays hands on him, after Barnabas vouches for him in Jerusalem, the church sends Saul home to Tarsus — and then Luke turns the camera away from the famous convert. Acts 9:31–43 takes us to Lydda and Joppa, where Peter is not building a platform, launching a movement, or chasing...

In Acts 9:19–31, Saul has been healed, baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit — but now the church has to decide whether it believes Jesus. This episode of The Semi-Seminarian Podcast, “Basket Case! Saul Escapes Damascus in a Basket,” follows Saul after the Damascus Road conversion. The light has flashed. The scales have fallen. Ananias has called him brother. Saul is preaching Jesus as the Son...

In Acts 9:1–19, Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus, carrying letters from the high priest and breathing threats against the followers of Jesus. But Saul is not early. Saul is not in charge. Saul is late. By the time Saul gets to Damascus, the Holy Spirit has already outrun him. The gospel has already crossed into Samaria. Philip has already baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. The circle has alre...

Before Saul ever reaches the Damascus Road, the Spirit is already moving. In Acts 8, Stephen has just been stoned, Saul is ravaging the church, and the believers are scattered from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria. But what looks like persecution becomes proclamation. Saul thinks he is stomping out a fire, but every door he kicks in scatters another ember into dry grass. This episode of The Semi-S...

What were they trying to stop hearing? In Acts 7 , Stephen stands before the Sanhedrin accused of speaking against Moses, the law, the temple, and the customs . But Stephen does not offer a polite defense. He tells Israel’s story back to Israel’s leaders — Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the wilderness, the golden calf, the temple — and by the time he is finished, the defendant has become the witness, and...

The Food Pantry Catches Fire — a verse-by-verse Bible study through Acts 6:1-15, where a complaint about a soup line becomes the moment the early church catches fire. This is The Semi-Seminarian: a digital church bell for the exiles, the backsliders, and anyone listening alone in the dark who thought God forgot their address. In Acts 6, the church is growing — and growth always exposes the distanc...

In Acts 5:17–42, Peter and the apostles are arrested, locked in prison, and ordered to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opens the prison doors and sends them right back to the temple to speak “all the words of this life.” This sermon explores the powerful story of the angel jailbreak in Acts 5, the jealousy of the Sadducees, the courage of the apostle...

What really happened when people laid the sick in the streets so Peter’s shadow might fall on them? In Acts 5:12–16, Luke gives us one of the strangest and most powerful scenes in the New Testament. The early church is gathered in Solomon’s Portico after the terrifying story of Ananias and Sapphira. Great fear has come upon the whole church. The performance has been exposed. The captions have died...

What really happened to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 ? Was this story about money, generosity, church discipline, hypocrisy, or something deeper? In this episode of The Semi-Seminarian Podcast , Pastor Jim Wilhelm walks through Acts 4:32–5:11 and the terrifying story of Ananias and Sapphira — not as a simple “give more money” sermon, but as a hard and holy text about truth, fear, performance, an...

In Acts 12, Peter is chained between two soldiers, guarded by sixteen men, locked behind an iron gate, and scheduled for execution by Herod. James has already been killed. The church is grieving, praying, and bracing for another funeral. Then heaven interrupts. An angel wakes Peter up, his chains fall off, the prison gates open by themselves, and Peter walks free into the Jerusalem night. But when...

Peter didn't say they WON'T stop talking about Jesus. The text says they CAN'T. In Acts 4, hauled before the same court that killed his Lord, Peter answers with two Greek words — ou dynametha — "we are not able." And that one shift, from won't to can't, cracks the whole passage open. Boldness was never grit. It was overflow. In this episode of The Semi-Seminarian, we sit down by two charcoal fires...

A lame man spent his entire life at the door of the temple — close enough to hear worship, close enough to watch everyone else walk through — and never went inside. Then Peter stopped. Most people don't. Acts 3:1-10. What if the thing keeping you outside isn't what you think it is? What if you've been asking for the wrong thing so long you forgot what the right thing sounds like? This Wednesday ni...

What is Pentecost really about? This Pentecost Sunday sermon on Acts 2:1-21 goes deeper than tongues of fire and a rushing wind — all the way down to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot, the meaning of firstfruits, and why the Holy Spirit fell on that specific day in that specific room with those specific people. Pentecost didn't replace Shavuot. Pentecost is Shavuot arriving at its appointed h...

Ruth Explained: No Bread in Bethlehem is a Ruth 1 Bible study about Naomi, Ruth, Moab, Bethlehem, famine, and the surprising way God brings provision through the outsider. Most Bible studies on Ruth begin with the beautiful words, “Where you go, I will go.” And they are beautiful. But Ruth 1 begins somewhere else: with a famine in Bethlehem, the House of Bread. Why does the House of Bread have no...

What if the greatest faith Jesus praised in Matthew 8 did not come from the disciples, the synagogue, or the covenant insiders, but from a Roman centurion standing in occupied Galilee? Welcome to The Semi-Seminarian — Pastor Jim Wilhelm walking slowly through Scripture for those listening alone in the dark. In this Sunday sermon on Matthew 8:5–13, we look closely at Jesus and the Roman centurion,...

What if the spies didn’t bring back military intelligence from Jericho, but a sermon? This Joshua 2 Bible study looks at Rahab and the spies , the scarlet cord , the walls of Jericho , and the confession of faith that changed Israel’s report. Most Bible studies on Rahab in the Bible focus on the red cord in the window. That image matters. But before Rahab ties the scarlet cord, she gives one of th...

What if the Syrophoenician woman did not argue Jesus into mercy? What if she did not outsmart Him, outlast Him, or pass some hidden test? What if she simply recognized something from the floor that everyone at the table had missed? In Mark 7:24–30, Jesus enters the region of Tyre and tries to remain hidden, but Mark tells us, “He couldn’t be hidden.” A Greek, Syrophoenician woman comes to Him begg...

Genesis 38 is one of those Bible stories people tend to skip, soften, or explain away. Tamar disguises herself, Judah fails his obligation, and by the end of the chapter, the patriarch who was ready to condemn her has to speak the truth out loud: “She is more righteous than I.” In this Wednesday night Bible study from First Christian Church in Cushing, Oklahoma , we step carefully into the story o...

What if the story of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11–19 is not mainly a lesson about saying “thank you”? Most of us have heard this passage preached as a simple message about gratitude: ten men were healed, only one came back, so be thankful. And gratitude is certainly there. But Jesus does not ask, “Where are the ungrateful ones?” He asks, “Were there none found who returned to give glory to God, ex...

Who really named God? In this Wednesday night Bible study from First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Cushing, Oklahoma , we walk slowly into Genesis 16:1–16 , the story of Hagar , Sarai, Abram, the wilderness road to Shur, and the well that came to be called Beer Lahai Roi : The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me. Most of us have heard Genesis 16 as a chapter in Abraham’s story. Sarai ca...

What does it mean to bring God the first before you know whether there will be enough? In this Bible study from First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Cushing, Oklahoma , we walk slowly through Deuteronomy 26:1–11 , the passage where Israel is commanded to bring a basket of firstfruits before the Lord. But this basket is not just about crops, offerings, tithes, money, or religious obligat...

What if the story of Uzzah isn’t about irreverence… but about misplaced reverence ? In this midweek Bible study, we take a fresh, deeply honest look at one of the most unsettling passages in Scripture—2 Samuel 6:1–11. A man reaches out to steady the Ark of God… and dies. For generations, this story has been used as a warning about holiness. But what if we’ve been asking the wrong question? This te...

What if Thomas wasn’t the doubter we’ve always been told he was? In this episode, we step into one of the most misunderstood stories in the Gospel of John—John 20:24–29—and discover something deeper, sharper, and far more personal than a lesson about “having more faith.” Because here’s the truth: Thomas didn’t miss Jesus. Jesus came back for Thomas. This is a Bible study for the ones who have ever...

What if the very thing that looked wrong was the thing God meant to use? In this Wednesday night Bible study, we head into one of the strangest and most unforgettable stories in the book of Judges: Ehud, the left-handed Benjaminite, the oppressive King Eglon of Moab, and the God who sends deliverance from the side nobody expected. In Judges 3:12–30, Israel is trapped in a long cycle of sin, oppres...

What if the most important voice in your story… never gets named? In this Eastertide sermon, we step into 2 Kings 5:1–19 (WEB) and uncover the hidden heartbeat behind one of Scripture’s most familiar miracles—the healing of Naaman. But this isn’t just about a general, a prophet, or a river. This is about a nameless girl . A voice from the back room. A sentence that changes everything. A proclamati...