Eat Your Wheaties
Paul got beaten nearly to death on the steps of the Jerusalem temple for doing everything right. He’d spent a decade on the road, planting churches, discipling believers, and preaching the gospel across two continents. Yet his reward was chains. Most of us would have walked away but Paul called it a privilege. That’s the kind of endurance Acts 18–26 is trying to build in you.
Pastor David Rose walks through Acts 18–26 to show how God matures His people through discipleship, confrontation with culture’s idols, life shared together, and suffering. The gospel doesn’t promise an easy road. It promises a God who walks it with you.
Key Takeaways
- God expects the mature to disciple the immature. (Acts 18:24-19:10)
- God uses the church to confront culture’s idols. (Acts 19:11-41)
- God knits churches together as His family. (Acts 20:1-21:14)
- God allows difficulty for His glory. (Acts 21:15-26:32)
Further Study
- Priscilla and Aquila pulled Apollos aside privately to correct what he was missing (Acts 18:26). He was already zealous and competent, but his understanding of the gospel was incomplete. What does this tell you about grace that God didn’t wait for Apollos to figure it out on his own? Who in your life has done something like that for you?
- The idols Paul confronted in Ephesus were hiding in plain sight: sex, science, stuff, society, school, social media, status. None of them can rescue you or satisfy you permanently. What does the gospel offer that each of those things is trying, and failing, to deliver?
- Eutychus fell from a third-story window during a late-night sermon, died, and was raised. Paul embraced him and kept preaching until dawn. The resurrection of Christ makes that kind of urgency make sense. How does the fact that death has been defeated change how seriously you take the time you spend in Scripture and with other believers?
- Paul spent more than three years in prison for doing nothing wrong. During that time, he shared the gospel with Felix, Festus, and King Agrippa. None of it would have happened without the chains. Where in your life might God be using a difficult situation to put you in front of someone who needs to hear about Jesus?
- James 1:2–4 says trials produce endurance, which produces maturity. Christ Himself learned obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). That’s the pattern God uses. Where is He doing that work in you right now? Are you resisting it or trusting the One who went through it first?
The Gospel
If you have questions about what it means to be a Christian, we would love to talk with you about it.
Reach outThe story of Paul in Acts is not fundamentally a story about a great man. It’s a story of our great God who rescues broken people and sends them back into the world to show what rescue looks like.
Acts 20:24 tells us that His purpose was to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. Every person has turned away from God. In daily, ordinary ways, we choose our own comfort, our own idols, and our own agenda over His. Scripture calls this sin. It separates us from God, both now and ultimately.
But God did not leave us there. He sent His Son, Jesus, who lived the life we couldn’t and died the death we deserved. On the cross, Christ bore the full weight of human sin. Three days later, He rose from the grave, defeating death and proving that His sacrifice was enough.
That’s the gospel. And it’s offered as a gift. It isn’t earned by moral performance, religious ritual, or accumulated good behavior. It’s received by faith. You turn from your sin and trust in Christ, and God transfers you from death into life (Colossians 1:13).
If you’ve never done that, today is a good day to start. Reach out to someone here at Trinity. We’d love to walk you through it.