Contrary to growing sentiment, Christianity is not against women. Scriptures are clear that in every respect men and women are equal before their creator, God. Divinely created gender roles do not diminish this equality but rather provide opportunity for both men and women to serve each other as Christ has served the church…selflessly
2017-05-07 Peter and John had every opportunity to emphasize the positive as folks gathered around to celebrate the miraculous healing of the lame beggar in Acts 3. Instead, they used the opportunity to confront the people for their complicity in crucifying the man’s true healer, Jesus Christ. The gospel requires such a confrontation. The good news is that, […]
2017-04-30 Not getting what you expected from your relationship with God? Perhaps He is exceeding your expectations…you just haven’t recognized it yet. A study of Acts 3.
16-Apr-2017 The two disheartened disciples who encountered the risen Lord on the first Easter were not able to recognize him. Why was that? It was only when Jesus broke bread with them that they had their eyes open. Fallen humanity suffers from spiritual myopia, the inability to see reality as God does. The Risen Christ has the power to […]
The “gold standard” church described in Acts 2:42-47, the first church, was contagious because of its passionate commitment to God and man. There are lessons in their example for any church.
Luke’s documentation of the experience of the first church in ACTS indicates that following Pentecost there was an incredible period of growth when “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Is there something the first church was doing that we aren’t?
On the Day of Pentecost, while the disciples were being powerfully filled with the promised Holy Spirit, Peter preached a sermon to a large crowd of onlookers. The result was 3000 people being transformed from skeptics to believers. What was the clincher? The fact of the singularly unique, precedent setting resurrection of Jesus Christ was the fact that turned their lives […]
Peter’s explanation of the extraordinary experiences of Pentecost, found in Acts 2:14-21, centers on the ancient and somewhat puzzling prophecy of Joel. Part of God’s message through Joel is the foretelling of a coming “Day of the Lord”. Joel indicates that in preparation for this final reckoning, God will distribute His Holy Spirit indiscriminately on all believers for the purpose of spreading the gospel. This gifting of the Holy Spirit was a call to activism…a call to spread the good news. This remains the call for each possessor of the Holy Spirit
Given the compelling evidence that God was pouring out His Spirit at Pentecost, it seems remarkable that some witnesses concluded that the disciples were drunk. This denial of the obvious speaks to the nature of the human heart, which Jeremiah described as “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
This week we look into the time between the Christ’s Ascension and the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were told to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Their approach to those ten days of waiting can be instructive for us as we, from time to time, are called by God to wait