By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 20: 22-35

Since “retirement” I’ve given away many of my books, but I’ve retained some that are especially precious to me. One I’ve kept is Parting Shots, written by the late Landrum Leavell II, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary president, 1975-1994, and the father of current TBC President David Leavell. Parting Shots is a compilation of Dr. Leavell’s messages challenging seminary students at graduation. I love the brief, pointed, practical Bible messages and the title! “Parting shots” could also describe our focal passage, Acts 20:22-35, the final exhortations of the Apostle Paul to leaders of the Ephesian church during his third and last missionary journey. Read verse 28 carefully. Five words from that verse summarize the entire passage: [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 18:24-28; 19:1-7

In 1653, an Englishman named Isaak Walton wrote The Compleat Angler. A contemplative fisherman’s guide, it went on to become the second-most republished book in the English language, next after the Bible. Walton’s old English spelling of ‘compleat’ has spawned many modern book titles. It seems to describe something stronger than complete: if someone is “the compleat (whatever),” he or she is the quintessential, the perfect example for practicing his or her craft. Today’s focal passage, Acts 18:24-28; 19:1-7 describes an individual — and a church group — that eventually became “compleat.”  [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 16:16-19; Psalm 139:13-16

Two mischievous boys hid away in a large department store at closing time. They didn’t steal anything during the night; they just changed the price tags on hundreds of items. When the store opened, customers were surprised to see an item that had been $5.99 now had a price tag of $49.99; something that was $150 now had a sticker price of two dollars! That is exactly what Satan has done in our culture: he has cunningly changed the “price tag” — the value — on just about everything. Things that once were considered valuable are now “sold” cheap, and items of no real lasting value are held in high regard. Human life, for example, was once sacred and precious; today’s world has greatly underestimated it. Purity, modesty, and courtesy are things that once were treasured, but now are often disregarded and even mocked.  [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 17:22-34

Many years ago, shoe shops advertised “Shoes Repaired — While You Wait.” Customers could hang around in their ‘sock feet’ while their shoes were being repaired. Few shops of any kind offer such services today; people in our culture don’t wait for anything. In Acts 17:16-21, prior to today’s study passage, we see how to wait.

The Apostle Paul had arrived in Athens, having left Silas and Timothy in Berea and sending word for them to join him immediately. “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city given over to idols” (Acts 17:16). Paul couldn’t just hang around and wait. Never simply a tourist — even in such a dazzling city as Athens — he “saw … observed … found … proclaimed!” Here among the idol-worshiping, knowledge-seeking philosophers of Athens, Paul used every object in view to share Christ.     [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 16:22-34

I remember hearing a college Bible professor tell of a vision that came to him while very ill in the hospital. Alone in his room at night, he saw a glorious image of Jesus. But there were some shocking features of His appearance. The robed figure was short — because it had no feet. The face was shadowy — no eyes, no mouth. And He had no hands; arms without hands. [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage:  Acts 15:36-41; 16:1-5

One of the most important ‘words’ in the Bible never actually appears in the Bible! The word is relationships. The Bible is all about relationships; yet the word itself has come into our vocabulary since Scripture was written. Terms like ‘one another,’ and ‘households,’ and ‘friends,’ and ‘neighbors’ are found again and again in God’s Word.  [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage:  Luke 2:25-38

During the turbulent 1960’s a silver-haired lady named Iva observed the hippie movement. As young people in faded jeans invaded her church, she didn’t complain; instead she prayed for them — and those noisy teens began making commitments to Christ. Then Iva had a stroke and died suddenly. [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 15:6-11, 24-31

We might add two words to the title of this week’s lesson: “Available to All: Amazing Grace.” This lesson shows how the gospel was spreading more and more beyond the Jews to the ends of the earth. Paul and Barnabas had been sent out as missionaries from the church in Antioch (Acts 13). Being Jews themselves, in whatever towns they went, they preached first in the Jewish synagogues. But because they proclaimed an amazing grace available to all — Jew and Gentile alike — many of the Jews opposed them, stirred up the townspeople against them, and became violent toward them (Acts 14). Now we find the missionaries being summoned by the church leaders in Jerusalem to give an account of the controversy being created by their international message (Acts 15). Our focal passage — Acts 15:6-11, 24-31 — reveals three reactions to the message of “whosoever will may come.” This takes place in what could be called a “church business meeting” in Jerusalem. [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 14:8-20

We call Matthew 28:19-20 “The Great Commission,” as well we should. There Jesus told the church to “go into all the world and make disciples of every nation.” I believe we could call Acts 1:8 “The Great Commissioning,” because there Jesus gave the specific strategy and locations for carrying out His commission: “You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Luke, in the book of Acts chapters 1-12, narrates the ‘Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria’ phase of witnessing. Beginning in chapter 13, Luke tells how the commissioned witnesses went beyond their Jewish neighbors to the Gentiles, and the ends of the earth. Today our focal passage, Acts 14:8-20, shows these ‘foreign missionaries’ facing incredible obstacles.  [Read more…]

By Mike Dawson
Interim Pastor, Santa Fe Baptist Church, Santa Fe

Focal Passage: Acts 13:26-39

Coaches often say that games are won or lost in the opening minutes of the second half. Our new unit focuses on the ‘second half’ of the book of Acts, and this first lesson sets the pace for the rest of the book. Jesus had told His followers to be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). So the ‘first half’ of Acts, chapters 1-12, tells of witnesses going from Jerusalem to all Judea and to Samaria; now the ‘second half,’ Acts 13-28, shows them making disciples everywhere else.  [Read more…]