Theological term
Reformed Theology
3 sermons · All terms
The Continuing Growth of the Church
Acts 5:12–16 presents the continuing growth of the early church through signs and wonders performed by the apostles, the addition of believers to the Lord, and the healing of multitudes from Jerusalem and surrounding cities. The passage raises a sharp question about the nature and purpose of miraculous signs: were they a permanent feature of church life, or did they serve the specific redemptive-historical function of authenticating the apostolic word? This sermon argues that signs and wonders accompanied Moses, the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles precisely to confirm that God was speaking through them, and that the completed canon renders such confirming signs unnecessary — while the power of God continues in the gospel through the Spirit-wrought conversion of sinners. Believers are called to trust the sufficiency of Scripture, gather in unified worship, fear God genuinely, and rest their hope for salvation in faith in Christ alone.
The Persecution of the Church and the Power of God
Acts 12 sets the persecution of the early church against the sovereign power of God: Herod executes James, imprisons Peter with an overwhelming guard, and receives divine worship — yet God delivers Peter through angelic intervention, strikes Herod dead for his idolatry, and the Word of God grows and multiplies. The chapter exposes both the reality of suffering for Christ's people and the futility of every human attempt to extinguish the gospel. Four movements structure the exposition: the persecution of the church, Peter's miraculous escape, the judgment of Herod Agrippa, and Luke's progress report on the unstoppable advance of God's Word. The sermon calls hearers to honest reckoning with suffering, earnest corporate prayer, and worship of the God who shares his glory with no one.
Biblical Womanhood in the Book of Proverbs
Proverbs 31:10–31 presents the portrait of a virtuous wife, and this sermon works through that portrait to define biblical womanhood against the competing claims of secular feminism and mere cultural Christianity. The preacher identifies five characteristics of the godly wife — that she behaves like a gift, is trustworthy, does her husband good, is submissive, and is respectful — grounding each in the broader witness of Proverbs and the New Testament household codes. Submission and respect are shown to be neither degrading nor negotiable, but ordered on the pattern of Christ's own submission to the Father. The sermon closes by anchoring the entire ethical call in justification by imputed righteousness: the believer will stand before God on the basis of what Christ did, not what she performed as a wife.