Show Notes
In the final week of The Story of Jesus' Church: From Acts to Today, Brad Sarian covers AD 1700 to today: the Enlightenment's collapse of Christendom, revival and its failures, the missionary century, and the largest geographic shift in the history of the faith. In this class:
- Azusa Street, 1906 — William J. Seymour and the movement nobody planned - How Christianity went from inherited to chosen, and why the question changed from "which church is true?" to "why believe at all?" - The church that was never Western: Ethiopia since the 300s, the Thomas Christians of India, the Church of the East in China by AD 635 - Wesley, Whitefield, and the Awakenings — plus the churches that split over slavery and the ones that defended it - Bonhoeffer, Barmen, Birmingham — courage and complicity in the same century - Why translation changed everything, and how William Wadé Harris baptized more than European missions had in decades - China after 1951: it grew fastest under the heaviest repression - Where Christians actually live in 2025 — and why the mission field became the mission force
Christianity has no permanent center. It fades in its heartland and blooms at the edge — Jerusalem, Antioch, Europe, and now Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Most of the work was done by local believers whose names were never written down. Jesus keeps His promise: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).
More from Restored Church Los Angeles
Technology is changing almost everything about how we live, but some things about people haven’t changed at all. We still love money, and our relationship with sex is still broken. Hebrews 13 speaks directly to both. After twelve chapters on who Jesus is, this message takes up the first practical commands of Hebrews 13 about love, sexual purity, and contentment, and asks why God cares about these parts of our lives at all.
Following Jesus for a season is one thing. Following him for decades, through suffering and stretches when everything feels difficult, is another. Some of us are barely hanging on, and others are just starting out and haven't hit the wall yet.
Many of us find the idea that Jesus had to die as a sacrifice hard to accept, even barbaric. Why would forgiveness require blood? Hebrews 9–10 answers that question directly. This message looks at why the old sacrifices were never enough, what Jesus' death accomplished that they couldn't, and what it means for how we live now.
Nobody has a hard day and thinks, "What I really need right now is a high priest." To modern ears, needing a go-between with God can sound offensive. But Hebrews says Jesus is the great high priest we needed. He stands in the gap and brings us into a better covenant with complete access, renewed desires, and complete forgiveness.