Tag Archives: acts 2:38

How did the events recorded in Acts 2 fulfill Old Testament promises of the coming kingdom?

This week’s lesson on Acts 2:

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If you missed Kingdom Come part 1, click here.

Feel free to post feedback in the form of a comment.

For more preaching like this, visit the westcoastwitness.com Sermon Archive.

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More from Francis Chan on Repentance, Baptism, & The Holy Spirit

A few weeks ago in this post I shared a short clip from the DVD teaching aid accompanying Francis Chan’s bestselling book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.

In the clip, Francis articulated his struggle to base his  beliefs strictly on the written word, and not on what others fed him outside of it. His conclusion from reading scripture only: if you want to become a Christian, you shouldn’t walk an isle and pray a prayer, you should repent, be baptized, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Honestly, he is the first leader outside of Restoration Movement churches I have ever heard say or teach this, and I was quite shocked to hear him do so (so were many others as revealed in the ensuing discussion). In the Restoration Movement, we’ve been teaching this for many years, and have taken much heat and been accused of many unkind things for doing so. It’s encouraging to me to see at least one ‘mainstream’ evangelical leader in agreement with us, and, at the risk of sounding pretentious, with scripture!

One commenter (Tyler Ellis – a campus minister friend) directed me to further teaching from Francis on this subject, and that teaching is what I would like to share with you today.

I encourage you to watch this lesson, take a few notes, and share your thoughts in a comment. This is the simplest, best lesson on repentance, baptism, and the Holy Spirit I’ve heard in a long time, and would love to hear what you think about it. It’s 39 minutes long, and well worth watching.

Here’s the video (if you’re reading this in a feed reader or via email subscription, you may need to come to the actual website to see it):

Love to hear from you. What do you think about this?

Thank you to Tyler Ellis for the sharing this with me.

For more teaching materials and study aids by Francis Chan for use in your ministry, go here. To access archived sermons by Francis Chan at Cornerstone Church, go here.

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Francis Chan: Are Your Beliefs Biblical?

Most evangelical churches in the United States teach the way to “get saved” is to recite the sinner’s prayer.

If you Google the words “sinners prayer,” the first website that shows up puts it like this:

“The Sinners Prayer”

Heavenly Father:
I come to you in prayer asking for the forgiveness of my Sins. I confess with my mouth and believe with my heart that Jesus is your Son, And that he died on the Cross at Calvary that I might be forgiven and have Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Father, I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you right now to come in to my life and be my personal Lord and Savior. I repent of my Sins and will Worship you all the day’s of my Life! Because your word is truth, I confess with my mouth that I am Born Again and Cleansed by the Blood of Jesus! In Jesus Name, Amen.

If you read the Sinners Prayer and truly believe the words you read, then Praise the Lord as you have been saved and your name will appear in the “Lambs Book of Life!”

According to this website, if you want to “get saved” you have but to read this prayer and believe it. That is a fairly typical teaching and by no means is this a bad prayer. I hope you do read it, recite it, and truly believe it … BUT … I’m not sure reading this and believing it saves a person from their sin through Jesus.

The reason I have my doubts: this “path” to salvation isn’t in the Bible and praying this prayer to be saved was not a practice of the early Christians. Because of this, I refuse to teach it … but most church leaders in America today do and tend to get a bit sideways if you question its biblical validity.

That being said, I was shocked when I ran across the clip I’m going to share with you today.

Francis Chan is the author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (among several others) and one of the most popular evangelical leaders in the country today.

I purchased Crazy Love along with the accompanying DVD several months ago, read the book fairly quickly, but didn’t get around to going through the DVD until yesterday afternoon. What I ran across in chapter 5 of the DVD so startled me that I just had to share it with you … check it out:

“Just read the Bible – don’t accept everything you’ve been fed outside of it.”

Seems simple enough … doesn’t it?

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