Robert Woodyard
Great Expectations, Major Disappointment
Passage: Luke 19:28-46
Today marks the beginning of Holy Week. If you had to name the greatest week in human history, the most important week in human history, can anyone think of one more important, more world changing week than Holy Week?
This is the hinge of history. Everything hinges on this week, everything changes because of this week. The events of this week transformed the world in ways no other event in human history has. It has impacted everyone alive today in every country whether you believe in Jesus or not.
It is also true that this week unhinged all kinds of expectations and created some major disappointments. Let’s consider three, the way Jesus entered Jerusalem, the way Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and the way Jesus cleansed Jerusalem.
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
The Conversion of Lydia
Passage: Acts 16:11-15
Two weeks ago we saw the sovereignty of God over sin in the heated conflict between Paul and Barnabas that caused them to go separate ways. God multiplied the spread of the Gospel.
Last week we saw the sovereignty of God over the decisions and direction of the apostles as they sought God’s will for where they should go. God’s purposeful providence closed doors and opened doors.
This morning we will see the sovereignty of God over human hearts and the salvation of sinners.
Everything in creation bends to the sovereign will of God. This is a call to rest in the sovereignty of God, to let it be our source of peace, contentment, joy, patience, of thanksgiving and worship.
Series: Acts
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
When God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways
Passage: Acts 16:1-10
II Timothy 3:15-17 … from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that applies to this passage of Scripture from Acts? Do you come to it expecting God to have something specific to say to you? Or do you wonder to yourself how does this have any bearing on my life right now?
I asked those questions of this text and I believe God has some good answers.
The text divides into two parts and each part holds for us practical application.
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
When Christians Have Conflict
Passage: Acts 15:36-41
Two weeks ago on Sunday January 31 Phama and I had the blessing of worshiping at our son Reed’s church Avalon Community Church on Catalina Island. Unknown to any of us when we planned our vacation, in the glorious providence of God that was the Sunday he was elected as elder and I had the privilege of joining their pastors and elders in laying hands on him and praying for him.
That same loving providence of God is on display here today. He cares so much for the needs of our souls that in His good and sovereign providence God has sent another spiritual leader so that we are not lacking in spiritual care, in leading and guiding, in protecting and guarding.
Our confidence this morning is in the providence of God, this is His doing, this His best provision for our church at this time. Our purpose here this morning is to witness and formalize the call and ordination of Mike B.
This service is like the memorial stones in the Old Testament, a celebration of the grace and providence of God. Our vows and the laying on of hands are actions meant to serve as reminders, that whatever lies ahead, we know that God was in this and He wills for us to be faithful to our vows that His grace and goodness may abound to His eternal glory.
Our text is specifically addressed to a young pastor but it has application to every spiritual leader and to every Christian. It applies to husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, bosses and managers. This applies to everyone who cares about their Christian witness, students, co-workers. What must be true for our leaders, ought to be true for all of us. The pastor must be an example to the flock, so the flock might follow his example. So this word applies to us all. With one ear listen to what is being said to Mike and with your other ear listen to what is being said to each of us.
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
Pay Close Attention To These Things
Passage: 1 Timothy 4:11-16
Two weeks ago on Sunday January 31 Phama and I had the blessing of worshiping at our son Reed’s church Avalon Community Church on Catalina Island. Unknown to any of us when we planned our vacation, in the glorious providence of God that was the Sunday he was elected as elder and I had the privilege of joining their pastors and elders in laying hands on him and praying for him.
That same loving providence of God is on display here today. He cares so much for the needs of our souls that in His good and sovereign providence God has sent another spiritual leader so that we are not lacking in spiritual care, in leading and guiding, in protecting and guarding.
Our confidence this morning is in the providence of God, this is His doing, this His best provision for our church at this time. Our purpose here this morning is to witness and formalize the call and ordination of Mike B.
This service is like the memorial stones in the Old Testament, a celebration of the grace and providence of God. Our vows and the laying on of hands are actions meant to serve as reminders, that whatever lies ahead, we know that God was in this and He wills for us to be faithful to our vows that His grace and goodness may abound to His eternal glory.
Our text is specifically addressed to a young pastor but it has application to every spiritual leader and to every Christian. It applies to husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, bosses and managers. This applies to everyone who cares about their Christian witness, students, co-workers. What must be true for our leaders, ought to be true for all of us. The pastor must be an example to the flock, so the flock might follow his example. So this word applies to us all. With one ear listen to what is being said to Mike and with your other ear listen to what is being said to each of us.
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
A Letter from the Council to the Gentile Churches
Passage: Acts 15:19-35
Chapter 15 of the book of Acts is the center point of the book, we have crossed the halfway point in this book of 28 chapters. Chapter 15 is also the center point theologically and spiritually. As I pointed out last week, there is a radical shift in focus, leadership, and mission. We are turning from Jews to Gentiles, from works of the Law to grace, from James and Peter to Paul, from Jerusalem to Antioch and to the ends of the earth. In order to do all of this two important questions had to be answered and settled once for all.
Series: Acts
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
When Controversy Comes to Church
Passage: Acts 15:1-19
Our country is cracking. A house divided cannot stand. Just in the past year we have been confronted with three major, contentious, dividing issues: racial tensions, Covid restrictions, and a presidential election. Three huge battles waged in our country in just the past year. And the battles haven’t stayed out there in the country, they have come into our community, into our church and even our homes. God in His perfect providence has visited these things on our nation, and He wants us to live in these time with faith, wisdom, humility and grace, not faithlessness, doubt, fear, and anxiety. Christians are just as divided as non-Christians. We need the Gospel now more than ever. Our only hope is found in Jesus Christ. Our divisions can’t be healed by politicians or violence. This is nothing new or strange. Controversy, strife, division and tension have followed the church of Jesus all through history. Let’s consider this great moment in church history and see what lessons there are here for us.
Series: Acts
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
Becoming a Berean
Passage: Acts 17:10-13
When I was just a little tike in first and second grade we lived down in Newport, Oregon and my parents attended First Baptist church. And they were good Baptists, they did what all good Baptists did. They carried their Bibles to church every week. They encouraged Scripture memory. In Sunday School and VBS they taught Bible stories. They made a game out of knowing your Bible and all the books of the Bible. I remember playing a game called a Sword Drill. You would hold your sword closed and the teacher would call out a verse and you tried to be the first to find it. I think this was back before they invented Bibles with those thumb tabs on the side. You had to know your Hosea from your Hebrews and your Chronicles from your Corinthians. Baptists like to talk about the Bereans, about being a Berean or becoming a Berean. Since it is my custom to begin each new year with a reminder and call to prayer and Scripture reading, I have decided to skip ahead in our Acts series and preach on the Bereans this morning to encourage us to take up our sword as eagerly and seriously as they did.
Series: Acts
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
They Prayed
Passage: Verses from Acts on Prayer
You will recall we have been working our way through the book of Acts off and on over the past couple of years. This morning I am going to preach through the entire book of Acts. Sounds daunting, sounds overwhelming, sounds crazy, sounds really long. I am going to preach through the entire book of Acts this morning, but I am not going to play all the notes, I am going to play only one note, one note that is played over thirty times in the book of Acts, and that note is prayer. As you have come to expect at the beginning of each year I challenge us to take up the habit of praying and reading Scripture, to renew our efforts, God helping us. And to the extent that all of us have fallen short or failed to do this, I urge us to fail forward, to make an intentional effort no matter how faulty. In the book of Acts Dr. Luke describes in some detail the beginning history of the early Christian Church. There is one thing that stands out about the early church and it is prayer. The early church was a praying church. The early church didn’t talk about prayer, they didn’t expect just the leaders to pray, they didn’t hold conferences on prayer, they didn’t just “say their prayers,” they didn’t just open and close their meetings with prayer, the early church prayed. The early church had a clear sense of desperate dependence on the triune God.
Series: Acts
Preacher: Robert Woodyard
What Child Is This? Joseph and Mary’s Son, Jesus
Passage: Luke 1:26-38
People who study history talk about the year 1809 as a bumper crop year for babies who would influence and change the world. 1809 was the year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, William Gladstone prime minister of England; biologist Charles Darwin; three famous writers, English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and American writers Oliver Wendell Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe; two inventors, Louis Braille who invented the braille writing system and Cyrus McCormick who invented the McCormick reaper; and world famous composer Felix Mendelssohn. What a bumper crop year for babies who would influence and change the world. Baby of all babies. This Advent season we have looked at the Bibles own bumper crop of babies. Four babies God used to influence and change the world and more importantly to prepare the world for Jesus. During this Advent season we have seen how babies point us to God’s plans in redemptive history. Isaac showed us our need for a substitute and a sacrifice. Moses delivered God’s people from physical bondage, but we still need a Savior from spiritual bondage. Samuel was a priest who anointed kings, but Jesus would be both priest and King. John prepared the way for a Savior but he was not the Savior. Jesus’ birth is not only the hinge point of history, it changed the destiny of the universe.
What Child Is This? Zechariah and Elizabeth’s Son, John the Baptist
Passage: Luke 1:5-25
We turn this morning from the OT to the NT, and specifically to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is told by Dr. Luke. Luke sets out to tell us the story of Jesus. But he does it in a unique way among the four Gospels. He doesn’t start with Jesus’ baptism the way Mark does (and for the most part John). He doesn’t start with Jesus’ birth the way Matthew does. He backs up and starts with the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist. Why does Luke back up to get a running start at his subject? To understand that you have to understand something about the times. Up to this point there had been 400 years of silence when the voice of God had not been heard in the land. The oldest person alive at this time could not remember a time even in his earliest childhood when a prophet had spoken the Word of God. There had not been proclaimed, “Thus saith the Lord” in four centuries. For a people who had an old book that recorded a thousand years’ worth of prophetic proclamations and words from the Lord, this famine for the Word of God was exceedingly long and exceedingly painful. When heaven is silent people languish and despair.