In Acts 8, the early church faces real persecution. People are dragged from their homes, imprisoned, and scattered. But something unexpected happens: the scattering doesn't silence them. It spreads them. The enemy's strategy to destroy the church ends up planting it in places it had never reached.

In this message, Pastor Derek looks at what it actually means to live as resurrection people not just in theory, but in the moment when someone says something cutting, a decision gets made without you, or a relationship goes sideways. If Jesus was raised from the dead, that changes what's available to you in the next sixty seconds. You don't have to defend. You don't have to win. You don't have to protect anything.

The sign of people who actually believe that? Not anger. Not bitterness. Joy.

Part of the ongoing series What Now? — walking through the book of Acts together at Summer Street Church on Nantucket.

What comes out of you when the pressure is on? When you're backed into a corner, when the crowd turns hostile, when the cost of following Jesus becomes real, what surfaces?

In Acts 7, Stephen stands before the Sanhedrin facing false accusations and a hostile crowd. He could have softened his message, managed his image, bought himself some time. Instead, what comes out of him is a Spirit-filled retelling of Israel's entire story and an unflinching declaration that Jesus is Lord. The pressure didn't corrupt him. It revealed him.

This message from Pastor Cory explores what it looks like to be so formed by the Spirit of the risen Jesus that even opposition becomes an opportunity for witness. Stephen didn't perform courage. He had been shaped by something deeper than fear. And when the moment came, that's what showed up.

The question Acts 7 puts to each of us is simple and searching: when life squeezes you, what comes out?

Part of the ongoing series What Now? — walking through the book of Acts together at Summer Street Church.

What kind of life are you reaching for? Most of us don't decide. We just look around and start moving toward what everyone else has. In this message from Acts 4:32–5:11, Pastor Derek explores what happens when a community is formed not by the world's values, but by the Spirit of the risen Jesus. The early church didn't just believe differently, it behaved differently. No needy persons among them. Resources released freely. People showing up honestly with whatever they had.

But the resurrection community gets tested. The story of Ananias and Sapphira isn't just a warning about lying. It's a diagnosis of something deeper: the belief that what we have isn't enough and the performance we put on to cover that up. The resurrection community doesn't need impressive people. It needs honest ones.

This is part of the ongoing series What Now? — a walk through the book of Acts asking what the risen Jesus is doing now, and what we're called to be in response.