Send us a text

If the religious leaders of the church thought they had an issue with Jesus when he was alive, well boy they have a bigger issue now! It’s kind of like one of those sci-fi movies when you chop the little monster in half and it basically multiplies and creates two more little monsters. That is exactly what is happening. All of the sudden, Jesus is no longer here physically, but he has multiplied in the believers.

Now there are 300, 600, 1000, 2000, 10000 and this thing is completely out of control. And that is what the book of Acts explains, it explains how this all happened. It was not by chance or circumstance it was absolutely planned. This is what Jesus referred to when Jesus said to the disciples that it was necessary that I go, but you will not be alone. You are going to have me with you, in a slightly different form.

This is another personal sermon. Jesus was not just talking to the disciples, he was talking to us. The reality of Christ living in us is exactly what Pastor Harris’s teachings are all about. He always teaches relationship, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and how it manifests itself. In this teaching Pastor Harris will teach on the events that happen on the Mount of Olives as Christ left after 40 days. We call it the ascension, because that is exactly what he did, if you recall as soon as he ascended the disciples and believers are standing around and looking up and suddenly there are two more of them. These two guys are all dressed in white and they are obviously angelic beings of some kind and they are saying men of Galilee, why are you looking up into heaven, the same Jesus you just saw go up will come again in the same manner. That is obviously our hope and we know that to be true.

Support the show

Send us a text

At Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, the week preceding that we typically focus on the events leading up to the cross. That was the culmination of the perfect life of Jesus which was sacrificed for all of us. Now in this series we will focus on the other side of the story. If you can imagine, just for a moment, it is AD 31, 32, maybe and we are believers, maybe we are one of the 11 disciples that remain, perhaps we are one of the several hundred believers, or maybe we are one of the several thousand people that actually saw Jesus when he was living and he performed a miracle in front of our face and we believed he was something special, maybe we didn't know quite what it was but we experienced it. We are in Galilee and we hear that he’s dead. There is no instant communication, so maybe it's been a week or two. Maybe it's a rumor, we just aren’t quite sure, we are devastated and we don't know what to think.

The disciples were in disarray, we know they were at least until resurrection day. The several hundred believers were probably despondent at the news. It seemed like to us, to the believers, that the vail that had fallen as Christ was dying was still there. The sun was up but the vale was still there. We didn't know what we were going to do.

Suddenly the Church emerges. In this series, we are going to study how this happened. Our reference will be the first chapter in Acts which many of us are familiar with. However, as Pastor Harris always does, he will give us the details and insights that will make it come alive.

We know that Acts was written by Luke. Luke, as Pastor Harris will point out, Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any other person. We think of Paul as the primary author of the New Testament but Luke was very instrumental in the writing of our gospel. Luke was not one of our 12 disciples, sometimes you will ask people, “who are the 12 disciples?” and they will throw Luke in there, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and you know… but nope, he was not a disciple.

Luke was from the area above what is now known as Greece called Macedonia. He encountered Paul on one of his missionary journeys and became a believer through Paul and apparently Luke and Paul became very close. From there Luke will take on the role of early church historian. By profession Luke was a physician, he was a learned man far more educated than most of the disciples. Maybe not as educated as Paul, but close. So here you have these two deep thinkers together and they begin to share with us the history of the church. We invite you to follow along as Pastor Harris tells us the details of the birth of our faith in this series titled, “The Birth of the Church”. So let’s kick it off with the first teaching in this series titled, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit”.

Support the show

Send us a text

It is truly hard to believe that we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. As many of you are well aware at this point, Pastor Harris, was the pastor of First United Methodist Church, which is situated directly east of the OKC bombing site. Pastor Harris was at the church that day, and we have shared his story both in audio podcast as well as video on our YouTube channel. However, in this episode we will hear from Kris Skinner, a cherished family friend and a former employee of First Church that was there meeting with Pastor Harris at the moment the bomb went off on that day that for many has been frozen in time.

As a reminder, we have published several OKC Bombing related episodes over the life of this podcast. Four that I will mention specifically. There is episode 50 which features the sermon Pastor Harris delivered April 16th 1995, just three days before the bombing, this would be the last sermon that would be delivered in that 100 year old sanctuary. In episode 51 we hear from Pastor Harris as he tells his story of the day of the bombing. In episode 52 we feature an interview we had with OKC Bombing Survivor, Arlene Blanchard who was in the Murrah Building when the bomb went off. Arlene had attended “Loves & Fishes”, a lunch Bible Study that First Church facilitated and Pastor Harris taught for many years. In this discussion with Arlene, she reveals one word that Pastor Harris taught on that gave her the strength to persevere. And finally, in episode #100 we feature the story of a surprise concert that Rich Mullins himself gifted the people of First United Methodist Church.

Support the show