Garden City Church Garden City Church Pittsburgh

Jesus instructed His disciples to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. In Acts 22:22-29 (NIV) the apostle Paul is living these words. He was lynched in the Temple and then arrested and at no point did he fight back or physically defend himself. He was gentle. And now, he's about to be tortured by the Roman state when he asks a soldier, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?" It's a shrewd question. Paul knows it's illegal for a Roman to be flogged when they haven't been proven guilty in a court. He's leveraging his privileged status as a citizen to advance the Kingdom. In our current cultural moment, it's a timely lesson for all of us. This week Pastor Shaq Hager walks us through what it means to be gentle and wise, willing to sacrifice our bodies, like Paul, for the sake of the Kingdom.

Paul knows the Gospel crosses every boundary and eradicates racial and ethnic hatred. He's given his life to proclaiming a Gospel that knits Jews and Gentiles into a new "family" rooted in Jesus. And yet, in Acts 21:37-22:22, when Paul tells a crowd of Jews who are zealous for the law that God sent him to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles they shout, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!" These Jews embraced a segregationist theology that told them who was superior and who was inferior based on ethnicity. It's a theology still at work in our country and churches today. Building a multi-ethnic church is an elusive dream. But it's always been God's vision to knit together a multi-ethnic, multi-racial people founded in Jesus. This week Pastor Dennis Allan talks through how the church is meant to be a signpost to the world that, in Jesus, unity and equality are possible.

This week, Pastor Dennis walks through Acts 21:26-36. Paul is in Jerusalem, trying to prove to the Jewish Christians who are "zealous for the law" that he isn't trying to abolish the law. In fact, while Paul is actively observing and upholding the law he's captured and beaten in the temple by a crowd of "law-observing" Jews. We see in this passage what can happen when people believe their political desires align with God's will for a nation. We can embrace the false idea that "the ends justify the means," which is not a way of living or being we ever see Jesus embrace. We are oftentimes "zealous for Jesus" until He becomes an obstacle to our worldly pursuits. So, how then are we to live and act? This story begins helping us figure out what faithfulness to Jesus might look like in this fraught political and cultural moment in America?
*This sermon includes an excerpt of Rage Against the Machine's song, "Killing in the Name," which is available on Apple Music here.

This week Benjamin Chua walked through the story of Paul's return to Jerusalem in Acts 21:17-25. Almost immediately after entering Jerusalem, Paul learns the church there is fiercely enthusiastic for the law, not Jesus. For the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem their belief wasn't rooted in the foundational story of God's covenant family culminating in Jesus and looking ahead to the fullness of His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, but in a rigid, backwards-looking interpretation of the law, in which they used Jesus to rubber-stamp their rule-following theology. The church is to be a community cradled in the love of God, with love for one another. This is what Paul fought for and it's what we should fight for, too.
*The music at the end of the sermon is "3 Hours of Soaking in His Presence" by William Augusto. The full song can be found here.

In Acts 21:1-16 Paul is en route to Jerusalem. He's resolved in his heart after discerning through the Spirit this is where he's supposed to go, even though he knows suffering and imprisonment likely await him there. In these sixteen verses we see people who love Paul try to discourage him from continuing his journey. They encourage him to abandon this trip, to not go to Jerusalem, and even claim they've heard from the Spirit, too. These people, who love Paul, demonstrate a belief many of us fall prey to - that if something involves suffering it can't possibly be God's will for us. And yet, just because our journey might involve suffering, it doesn't mean it isn't God's will.

Pastor Shaq Hager continued our Acts series by discussing Acts 20:28-38, the second half of Paul's speech to the Ephesian Elders. Paul believes this is the last time he'll see these leaders he loves so much. It's heartfelt and emotional. Paul knows these leaders will need to shepherd their congregation within an empire that believed the early church to be anti-imperial and a subversive threat to Rome. It's why he wants these leaders to take their role seriously - care for people and love Jesus. It's an invitation for everyone of us. We are to love our neighbors and God with all that we are.