Austin Street Church of Christ

06/03/2026

06/01/2026

The King’s Business
By Jay Kelley

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” – II Samuel 7:12-16

The writer of Hebrews applies the words of our text (specifically verse 14) to Jesus. In Luke 1:32-33, the angel Gabriel explains to Mary that her son, the Messiah, would reign on the throne of David.
Peter makes it clear that Jesus currently sits on David’s throne – see Acts 2:36-38. So, from that, we understand the kingdom was in fact brought into being on that Pentecost Sunday.
This helps us to understand our place. We are not waiting for a kingdom, nor are we waiting for Jesus to “do something.”
Since we are part of the kingdom, we need to be about the king’s business.
The church of the first century was a militant organization – proclaiming the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, even as they were themselves being judicially murdered.
Of course, they did right, but their mission was in the message – Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of Lords.
That should be our mission and message as well.

Jay Kelley is the evangelist for the Austin Street Church of Christ in Levelland, Texas. His e-mail is [email protected]

05/30/2026

Sunday morning we'll continue our study of Revelation (Chapter 20) in the Bible Class. Bible Class at 9:30 a.m.

The lesson in the morning worship will be an overview of God's work in bringing redemption and establishing the Kingdom of Christ on Pentecost. Worship at 10:30 a.m.

The evening lesson will be the great cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 12:1-13. Evening worship at 5 p.m.

As always, we will have communion, singing and prayers.

05/25/2026

God’s Way
By Jay Kelley

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. – Matthew 1:1
Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, - Luke 3:23

It is tempting to see the various genealogies of the Bible as something for a different time – necessary for the people of that day, but not really applicable in any way to our Christianity.
While that may be partially true, I don’t believe God gave us any information for which He did not have an eternal purpose. In the case of Matthew and Luke we see more than just a bunch of names.
Nor should the differences in the two genealogies be glossed over as scribal errors. While we know there are some of those among the various texts, they are minor in comparison to the aforementioned texts.
The solution is usually found in understanding some basic rules of interpretation. In this case, the purpose of writing. Matthew showed Jesus’ human Judahite ancestry through his mother, Luke shows Jesus’ legal ancestry and right of kingship through his (adoptive) father.
The methods used in understanding such texts are simple and used every day in conversation. The identity of the speaker and the listener, the purpose of speaking and the context surrounding the speech are among the simplest methods of determining meaning.
I believe that we too often make the Bible more complicated than it is and I believe one of the culprits is that we don’t read for overall context.
Whenever there is an apparent contradiction in the Scripture, it is imperative that we make a study of all of the surrounding context in order to see if the sections can be reconciled
(Spoiler Alert: They can)

Jay Kelley is the evangelist for the Austin Street Church of Christ in Levelland, Texas. His e-mail is [email protected]