Soma Spokane Sermons

The Gospel Story presented at our "All Family Gathering" (kids gathered with us) and a connection to Paul's encouragement to find "kindred spirits" as we seek to live a life worthy of the Gospel.

The character and accomplishments of Christ call us to looking to serve one another in unity and to seek His glory and not our own.

The gospel, the good news of what Christ has accomplished and what Christ has obtained for us and for the greatness of eternity with God, is so great it redefines what is good in life.

A life worthy of the gospel is a life that receives grace to give grace - in Jesus name.

Paul shared the gospel through his own story with great boldness. We’ll talk about who God has sent us to, and what it looks like to be a missionary in the everyday.

Spirit directed people move towards people by learning their stories and pointing them to rescue in Jesus.

Church leaders have to decide what the requirements are for salvation - do Gentiles need to become Jews in addition to faith in Jesus? Or is Jesus enough? It is a great question, and one that needs to be constantly revisited in every generation. Are there things we are adding to the gospel that create barriers to people placing faith in Jesus?

We’re looking at the theme of church planting this week in Acts 13-14. The church at Antioch is a model NT church - a local, multi-ethnic church with a vision to send out church-planting missionary teams to fulfill the Great Commission by preaching the gospel, establishing churches, and equipping local leaders to carry on the work.

Stories of gospel work happening in Central Europe, Russia and East Asia.

This week’s text is Acts 14, Paul preaching the gospel among non-churched pagans. After Acts 13, he is more clear about taking the gospel to the Gentiles. And though Acts 14 starts with him in the synagogue again, the bulk of the text looks at how he preached Jesus to people who don’t know the bible, don’t believe in one God, and don’t have a sense of sin (as breaking God’s rules). Interestingly, Paul starts a few steps back before the gospel - he speaks about idolatry (building your life and hope on something other than God) and contrasts that with the One Living God, Creator of all things. He also emphasizes the mercy of the Creator (giving good gifts to all) and the moment of reckoning (God is now calling everyone everywhere to trust in his Son). It is a very different way of presenting the very same Gospel, calling people to turn to God in repentance and faith, trusting in Jesus.

This week’s text is Acts 13, particularly looking at how Paul articulates the gospel to the religious Jews of his day. We’ll use that to connect to how churched people need to hear and rehear the gospel, even if we think we believe it. My aim is to show us that evangelism happens as much among churched folks as among pagans.

This week’s text is Acts 10-11, the conversion of Cornelius. The focus is again on what conversion is and how it happens, and what results in a truly converted life. We will contrast conversion with “getting religious” this week, as well as highlight the Spirit’s yearning to make a multi-cultural family (Jews and Gentiles, people from every tribe & tongue, all worshipping Jesus).

This week’s text is Acts 9, the conversion of Saul/Paul. While it is a wild story of encounter with the risen Jesus, there are key elements that we see present in every genuine conversion. Conversion happens when we encounter the Risen Jesus, and his resurrection changes everything!

The theme for this message is “New Life in Jesus.” We’ll look at Philip and the Ethiopian, talk about how the Spirit brings about conversion, the necessity of community, and the power of the gospel to transform a life. The Ethiopian is a great story of rescue, and a great opportunity to celebrate Jesus!

So far in the book of acts, the followers of Jesus have dedicated themselves to understanding what Jesus death and resurrection accomplished, to praying to boldly share the gospel, and expecting the Holy Spirit to be a witness and everything is nice and comfortable. What happens when there is persecution to the point of death? And what could bot so important that it was worth dying for? The answers are in Acts 6-7.

This week’s text is basically all about how the Spirit led the church through resistance to the gospel mission. The fragile new church movement experiences opposition from without (religious leaders) and from within (hypocrisy and strife). And in each instance, the Spirit of God continues to move them toward mission fulfillment and a bold witness to Christ.

This week’s text is a fascinating account of healing and gospel proclamation. While there’s much unique about the incident - this is a couple of Apostles uniquely anointed for a miraculous healing and gospel opportunity - there’s also much about the incident that is intended to be normative. In particular, Jesus is always healing and changing lives, and that ought to always create a stir and an opportunity for speaking of Jesus. Peter makes a beeline from the healing to speaking about Jesus, even making sure to minimize his own role in so that Jesus is clearly the hero of the incident. The Spirit of God is always changing lives by faith in Jesus and creating opportunity for gospel to go forward.

This week’s text is the conclusion to Peter’s sermon and the description of the life of the early church. When Peter finishes preaching, the people exclaim, “What shall we do?” It is a great question, and gospel preaching always leads to a decision - you have to do something with the message of Jesus the crucified, resurrected, and ascended King of the World. You can’t simply shrug it off! The hearers are cut to the heart, and begin to repent and put their faith in Jesus, signified by baptism. The result is a unique and beautiful community, built on the gospel word, shaped into rhythms of shared life and worship, and wonderfully attractive to a watching world.

This week’s text is Peter’s first sermon. Its remarkable on a number of fronts, not the least of which is the boldness of Peter in light of the Peter we saw cowardly betraying Jesus! Now he’s in front of the crowd preaching the gospel, telling the people they killed Jesus! But his message is the foundational message of the early church, and it contains the core teaching of Christianity.