Last Days & Living Hope | Acts 2:1-21 | 5 Devotions on Boldness, Clarity, and Gospel Fire
Devotions Mark Groen Devotions Mark Groen

Last Days & Living Hope | Acts 2:1-21 | 5 Devotions on Boldness, Clarity, and Gospel Fire

The fire of Pentecost wasn’t just a moment in history—it was the launch of a mission that continues today. In Acts 2:1–21, we see the Holy Spirit come in power to equip ordinary people with extraordinary boldness, clarity, and purpose. This five-day devotional series invites you to reflect on what that means for your life right now. Whether you’re looking to deepen your understanding of the Spirit’s work or simply need renewed courage to live and speak for Christ, these devotions will help fan the flame of gospel fire in your heart.

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Last Days & Living Hope | Acts 2:1–21 | The Fire That Launched the Church
Sermon Mark Groen Sermon Mark Groen

Last Days & Living Hope | Acts 2:1–21 | The Fire That Launched the Church

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out just as Jesus had promised. The wind blew, the fire fell, and the church was launched—not with confusion, but with conviction. In this sermon, Pastor Mark Groen preaches from Acts 2:1–21 to show how the Spirit’s coming brought boldness, clarity, and mission to the early church—and how that fire still burns today.

This message challenges modern assumptions about Pentecost and calls believers to remember that the same Spirit who empowered Peter now empowers us to proclaim Christ in a world that desperately needs to hear.

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Lifted to Reign | Psalm 110 & Acts 1 | 5 Devotions on Christ’s Ascension and Our Calling
Devotions Mark Groen Devotions Mark Groen

Lifted to Reign | Psalm 110 & Acts 1 | 5 Devotions on Christ’s Ascension and Our Calling

The Ascension of Jesus is often treated as a footnote to the resurrection, but Scripture presents it as a powerful turning point in redemptive history. Jesus wasn’t just lifted from the earth—He was enthroned in heaven, reigning at the right hand of the Father. From His exalted position, He sends His Spirit, empowers His people, and advances His kingdom to the ends of the earth.

These five short devotions are designed to help you reflect on the ongoing significance of the Ascension. Each day will draw from a different passage of Scripture to explore what it means to live under the reign of Christ and to step boldly into the mission He has given us.

Let your heart be lifted as you remember: Christ is not absent—He is reigning.

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Lifted to Reign | Psalm 110 & Acts 1 | The Mission of the Risen King
Sermon Mark Groen Sermon Mark Groen

Lifted to Reign | Psalm 110 & Acts 1 | The Mission of the Risen King

Too often, we treat the Ascension of Jesus as a quiet conclusion to His earthly ministry. But Scripture paints a different picture. In this message, Pastor Mark walks through Acts 1:1–11 and Psalm 110 to show that the Ascension is the launch pad of Christ’s reign and the beginning of the church’s Spirit-empowered mission. The risen Christ is not distant—He is reigning now, calling us to worship, witness, and work until He returns.

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From Prophecy to Reality | Acts 2:1–21 | 5 Devotions on the Spirit’s Global Mission
Devotions Mark Groen Devotions Mark Groen

From Prophecy to Reality | Acts 2:1–21 | 5 Devotions on the Spirit’s Global Mission

Pentecost was more than a dramatic moment—it was the launch of a global movement fueled by the Holy Spirit. In our sermon on Acts 2:1–21, we explored how the events of Pentecost fulfilled ancient prophecy, reversed Babel’s curse, and inaugurated the church’s mission to proclaim the gospel to all nations.

These five short devotions will help you reflect more deeply on what Pentecost means for us today—from God’s promise of the Spirit to the global vision of the church.


👉 Watch or listen to the sermon here.

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From Prophecy to Reality | Acts 2:1–21 | The Gospel in Every Language
Sermon Mark Groen Sermon Mark Groen

From Prophecy to Reality | Acts 2:1–21 | The Gospel in Every Language

At Pentecost, the Spirit came with power—but more importantly, with clarity. In this sermon from Acts 2:1–21, Pastor Mark Groen shows how the outpouring of the Holy Spirit fulfilled the promises of both Joel and Jesus, bringing the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation. Far from being chaotic, the miracle of Pentecost revealed God's deliberate plan: a global, unified Church proclaiming one message in many languages.

The signs were real, but the deeper miracle was that God spoke—and people understood. This sermon reminds us that the same gospel that was heard in Jerusalem that day is still being heard today, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

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Wonders & Signs | Acts 2:1–21 | The Spirit for All Nations
Sermon Mark Groen Sermon Mark Groen

Wonders & Signs | Acts 2:1–21 | The Spirit for All Nations

On Pentecost, the church was born—but not through chaos. Acts 2 records the rushing wind, the tongues of fire, and the miracle of languages, but the heart of the event is found in Peter's sermon: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

In this sermon, Pastor Mark Groen takes us through Acts 2:1–21, showing how Pentecost is the fulfillment of Old Testament promises, the reversal of Babel, and the launch of God’s global mission. The signs at Pentecost weren't meant to be repeated—they were meant to validate the gospel. The real wonder is the Spirit-empowered proclamation of salvation by grace, now made available to people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

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Triumph | Acts 1:1–11 | Christ Ascended and Reigning
Sermon Mark Groen Sermon Mark Groen

Triumph | Acts 1:1–11 | Christ Ascended and Reigning

It's good when we arrive at a destination, isn't it? It's good to finally get where we're going. We're glad that we end up safely where we intend to be. Now, we don't dwell on a safe arrival with every arrival that we do because it's not that often that we travel in significant ways. I don't rejoice every time I have a safe journey to the post office or the grocery store. I don't get out of the car and go, I'm safe. I don't call my mom and say, I made it. I don't do that when I walk the some 350 odd steps over here to work every day. It's not a big deal. But when it's a long journey, it's a different story. First, there is that sense that you are done with the trip. That's the part of the arrival that we perhaps like the most. No worrying about whether or not there's a stop to our spot to stop to get food or do other things that you have to do on a trip.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 28:17-30
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 28:17-30

 So, it has been quite a journey through 28 chapters of the Book of Acts, has it not? It's been an interesting book. Now remember back to the beginning, what I said. And I, unfortunately, I haven't brought it up for a while because it just hasn't come to mind. But as we think about where the Book of Acts has gone, let's remember what Jesus said at the beginning.

You will be my witnesses to Jerusalem and Judea. And to the ends of the earth, right?

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 28:1-16
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 28:1-16

So, as we land here towards the end of the book of Acts, we continue to have a whole lot of story without much dialogue, don't we? We know that Paul is out and about teaching, but we're not hearing much. about what he is teaching or Much other than he is headed to Rome So we are seeing that Paul is trusting that God is in control and that God is leading him down this path Even though they have recently been shipwrecked that is where we pick up for today so they end up going through this now remember Paul said that an angel of the Lord had told him that they would all survive and so they all end up on this island.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 27:1-44
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 27:1-44

Well, there are some words in there that are difficult to say. I think I would rather read a genealogy of Old Testament names than read through some of those place names. But what is going on in this story is that Paul is headed to stand before Caesar and there are all kinds of circumstances going against this ship, right?

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 26:12-32
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 26:12-32

And so, here we have, again, in the Book of Acts, The story of Paul's conversion. And so, this is Paul telling Festus and Agrippa how he came to this point. And I want to focus on verses, or verse 26. We've discussed Paul's conversion twice before. We know the story of that. But I want us to take a look at what Paul says about the things of the Christian faith.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 25:1-26:11
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 25:1-26:11

 So, this is pretty straightforward what is happening. Paul is continuing to make his case before the authorities. I didn't want to Comment too much on chapter 25 because it would have been kind of the same thing that you know Paul is being faithful to witness the gospel. That's an important thing What I wanted to draw out here by going through verse 11 of chapter 26 Is what does Paul say the issue is notice in verses 6 through 8?

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 24:1-27
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 24:1-27

Well, this is really a rather interesting story because here we have all these people coming and making charges. Paul is sort of on trial here, right? He has the high priest come, they have Tertullus, they have the Jews testifying against him, and Paul is saying, hey, look, everything was fine. And you'll remember this from a few days back.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 23:12-35
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 23:12-35

Well, we have high drama here in the life of Paul, don't we? He has been put back in the barracks after his having troubles with the people in Jerusalem and now we find out that they are plotting to kill him and this is This is very clearly a pretty serious thing because they've made an oath not to eat or drink until he is killed now we know the story of Paul well enough to know that we're quite a few chapters away from him being taken away and we don't even know when all this happened in relation to the death of Paul, really.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 22:22-23:11
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 22:22-23:11

 And so, the interesting journey of the Apostle Paul continues in what we have read today. Now, we know that he was arrested. We know that Paul came to Jerusalem despite warnings from other people. And we saw that the warnings were not that God had told these people That he shouldn't go, but they had, they had, it had been revealed to them How he was going to be treated and they didn't want him to go, but Paul's saying no, I'm supposed to go I'm just willing to suffer for the sake of Christ And so here we have an interesting story and we don't understand a lot of it And we don't have the time to dig too deep into it But there was this Tribune who was going to be seen overseeing this trial of Paul They were they were going to give him lashes Uh, he was going to be beaten, but Paul is saying, wait a minute.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 21:37-22:21
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 21:37-22:21

So, here we see the continuation of the story of Paul going to Jerusalem. We were introduced to this idea of Paul going to Jerusalem through the prophetic words that people received about Paul going to be persecuted there. And you'll remember that they encouraged Paul not to go, but Paul says, Hey, I'm willing to suffer.

You haven't told me that God has told me not to go. You've just told me that I'm going to have. I'm going to be arrested and bound and all this kind of stuff. But I've been, I've been feeling this need to go to Jerusalem. And so, what did we see last time? We saw on Wednesday that Paul was arrested and now we're seeing his testimony in front of the people here in Jerusalem.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 21:17-36
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 21:17-36

 So, we come to this part of the Book of Acts, remembering where we were before. Remember we had that story that seemed like it was conflicting, like the Holy Spirit was telling one group of people one thing and telling Paul another. But then we saw that Paul was, was not afraid of what was coming before him.

The people told him not to go. Because he was going to be arrested. But Paul knew that he was called to go to Jerusalem anyway, and he was not afraid of the persecution that he knew was coming. And so, we see this persecution happening in this story, right? We see that Paul arrives in Jerusalem and, and they were received gladly.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 21:1-16
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 21:1-16

 I think as we were reading through that, you probably came across what I was driving at as to why this is a little bit of a difficult passage. We seem to be getting conflicting messages, don't we? Well, that's not really the case when we stop and take a look at what is happening. But what it seems like on the surface is that Paul is getting a message to go to Jerusalem from the Holy Spirit, but then other people are getting a message that he shouldn't go.

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Dwell in the Word: Acts 20:17-38
Mark Groen Mark Groen

Dwell in the Word: Acts 20:17-38

 This is both a beautiful story and a sad story at the same time. And also has Paul giving some hard words to the church in Ephesus notice that he brings the people together and He talks about the ministry that he has and he talks about where he is going and he says I’m not sure what's going to happen But I know this everywhere I go.

I am opposed for the sake of the gospel everywhere that he goes We've seen that in acts right everywhere Paul goes there is trouble. The truth of the gospel is being opposed But God continues to have the gospel going forth, right? There is always this progressive movement in the book of Acts. No matter what happens, the gospel is going forward, and people are coming to faith because the Holy Spirit is at work.

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