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One of the biggest concerns any organization or company faces is mission drift. When you lose sight of the mission, everything begins to collapse. After the death of Stephen, the church faces a mission drift. Will they scatter and forget, or scatter and live an authentic mission to a watching world? It's in Acts 8:4-25 that we see the four characteristics of our Christian mission and how we can live it authentically.

Stephen's speech and death is a dramatic episode in the early church. It’s a high-stakes courtroom drama, it’s an epic retelling of history, and it ends with the bad guys seemingly victorious. But at the heart of this text is the question of what kind of person we will become. The same gospel that transformed Stephen transforms us into the kinds of men and women we were created to become. The gospel frees us to become like Jesus in life and death.

In Acts 6, the church reaches an inflection point, a growing pain, if you will. We all encounter growing pains in our own lives, whether it's physically, as our bodies change, or in the workplace, as our companies grow in number. Everyone must face the inevitability of growing pains. In Acts 6:1-7, we see three biblical principles for how the church should deal with growing pains.

What does it mean to remain faithful to the gospel? In Acts 5:12-42, we see the disciples not only continue to proclaim the gospel boldly; we see them continue to do so while being physically attacked. This is the mark of a church that has been completely transformed by the good news of Jesus' lordship. It causes men and women to be bold and remain bold even under pressure.

All it takes for a car not to start is a little bit of corrosion on the car battery terminal. In this story of the early church from Acts 4:32-5:11, the corrosion of half-hearted devotion threatens to upend the unity and generosity of the believers. But the good news is that we can be free from these things by the power of the gospel. It is the gospel that frees us to be boldly devoted to God and each other.

In Acts 3, Peter and John performed an undeniable miracle. Yet they are still dragged before the religious courts to answer for it. But what is most surprising is that Peter, the coward, and John, the blowhard, are the ones proclaiming the name of Jesus. From Luke to Acts, we see a transformation take place that turns Peter and John into courageous and bold witnesses. It's a kind of transformation that can only come from being with Jesus (Acts 4:13). That same transformation can be ours too: we can be bold and pray boldly when we have been with Jesus.

The famous 1997 song "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt garnered critical praise, but it's with lyrics like "There can be miracles when you believe." Is this true? According to Acts 3:1-4:4, we see that miracles don't come from people mustering up enough faith to believe in them; they're found by embracing and embodying the wonderful, powerful, and simple gospel of Jesus Christ.

Two thousand years after Pentecost, many wonder what the early church looked like. Have we strayed from the fundamentals, or do we need to rededicate ourselves to what we are already doing as the church? In many ways, Acts 2:42-47 gives us the blueprint for how the church operates and gives us a grid by which we should evaluate ourselves and our own churches. It's here we see the five components of a healthy church and the call to further dedicate our hearts and lives to being a sent people.

A sent people are sent with a message. Christians have been empowered by the Spirit not just to grow to look more like Jesus, but to declare and proclaim a message to the world. But what is this message? A Spirit-empowered church proclaims a Jesus-centered message to all people.

There have been many events that have shaped human history, but Pentecost ranks as one of the most significant. It is also one of more strange and confusing events. But underneath the images and questions lies practical application for the church today. In Acts 2:1-13, we see three marks for a Spirit-filled church.

Many of us face hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions every day. But many are left wondering what God's will for their life is. In the remainder of Acts 1, we see the apostles engage with this question through prayer and the clarity of God's Word as they decide who the next apostle will be. It's here that we see that God tells us his will, and he guides us in doing his will.

Acts is the continuation of God’s Story of Redemption. It is a story about how God’s people are empowered by God’s Spirit for God’s mission to take the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, bringing salvation to all who would believe and forming local churches to display his glory. But the mission continues today as the same Holy Spirit empowers and sends us to take God’s Story from the neighborhood to the nations, seeing people who are enemies of God become citizens of his eternal kingdom (Acts 1:3; 28:31). This is a grand and glorious calling God has chosen for us to take part in: building his church one brick at a time through the power of his Spirit.

The life of everyday faith is a marathon, not a sprint. Hebrews 12:1-2 makes clear that our faithful life looks to a faithful Savior, who went before us as the founder and perfecter of our faith.

All of us are looking for satisfaction. Self-help books abound about how to get a great marriage, budget, and even success. But eventually, all of these things leave us empty. In Philippians 4, Paul tells the Philippian church he has learned the secret of contentment, a contentment that outlasts every circumstance. Like Paul, we must learn that satisfaction in Jesus leads to contentment in every circumstance.

We often find ourselves in situations where we don't know what we're doing. But the problem of evil and suffering in the world makes us wonder if God knows what he's doing. Romans 8:28-30 addresses this with an overwhelming answer: God does know what he's doing. In fact, those things that are painful and sorrowful are how he accomplishes his great purposes for our lives. So we can be confident even in our suffering that God knows what he's doing.