The Acts of the Apostles might as well be called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. In what ways do you think the Acts of the Apostles can rightly be called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit? Judas was the guide of the high priest's soldiers when they arrested Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
Luke addresses the Acts of the Apostles to Theophilus, a name meaning "beloved of God." After the resurrection of Christ, his disciples believed that the restoration of the kingdom of Israel was imminent. What a difference it would have made in the development of the church if the disciples had known exactly when the kingdom would be restored.
The Book Of Acts by William R. Cannon
The Birth of the Church
This birth of the church by the Holy Spirit took place on the day of Pentecost. On that day, the first fruits of the wheat and corn harvest were presented to the Lord God in the temple. Under such circumstances, the Holy Spirit came and transformed that small gathering of people into the first congregation of the Christian church.
Peter used the accusation of the scoffers in the crowd that the disciples were drunk as a primer for his sermon. What the multitudes saw in those witnesses was a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit prophesied by Joel in the Jewish scriptures (Joel 2:28-32). The symbols of wind and fire are used to describe the movement of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
The Church in Jerusalem
Indeed, he was present through the activity of the Holy Spirit working through the works of the apostles. He wanted to make an application of what he said to the needs of the people and to evoke a response from them. First, the members of the Sanhedrin did not dispute the miracle of the healing of the lame man.
But Luke says that the Sanhedrin could not afford to expose themselves to the wrath of the people. Handing over one's wealth to the apostles was not a requirement of the Christian community;. This short passage in the Acts of the Apostles is crucial to understanding the development of ministry in the church.
Evangelism in Samaria and Syria
The Samaritans had received baptism for the remission of their sins, but they had not received the power of the Holy Ghost. Peter and John made up for this deficiency, for the apostles laid their hands on them, and they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. The inclusion of Africa in the Christian sphere belongs to the very first decade of the Apostolic Age.
He accepted baptism at the hands of Ananias and became part of the Christian community. Of course, Deacon Philip converted and baptized the first Gentile in the person of an Ethiopian eunuch. But this seems to have been an isolated event in the life of the church.
Those who in the King James Version of Acts are called "those of the circumcision are clearly described by it. The Gentiles received the same gift of the Holy Spirit as the Jewish disciples received on the day of Pentecost. Christianity first reached Antioch because of the persecution in Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen.
First, the Jews of the Scatter were a minority in the cities where they lived outside their homeland. On the second day of the festival, Agrippa appeared in the theater founded by his grandfather. All the events recorded in the first twelve chapters of the Acts of the Apostles took place within the space of just fourteen years, from Pentecost AD.
What do you think about the idea that God used persecution to spread the Christian faith?
The Antiochene Mission
On the advice of these five individuals, the Antiochene church chose Barnabas and Saul as their first missionaries. As we still do today, people from the church laid hands on them and ordained them as missionaries. Since Barnabas was in charge of the mission, they went to Cyprus first, since he was a Cypriot.
The two missionaries won Sergius Paulus to the faith, for Luke tells us that he believed the teachings of the Lord. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the ruler of the synagogue asked if they had anything to say. Anyone who was able could be invited by the person in charge of the service to expound on the scripture readings for the day.
But when the city rulers received a request for permission to stone them, Pavel and Barnabas fled to Lystra and Derba. So they took Barnabas for Jupiter, the highest god, and Paul for Mercury, the messenger and speaker of the gods. However, Paul (according to Luke) plays little role in the decision of the Jerusalem conference.
Paul, concerned only with the success of the venture, did not want to risk a second defection from Mark. To satisfy Jewish prejudices, Paul circumcised him even though he was publishing the Church's edict at the time. How do the missionary efforts of the early church differ from those of the modern church?
In Cyprus, Paul apparently took over the leadership of the missionary enterprise from Barnabas, probably with Barnabas's consent.
The Mission to Greece
Luke says that Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to him and his family. As a result, he and his family were converted and baptized, and Pavel and Sila spent the rest of the night as guests in the jailer's home. Paul and his companions passed by this road through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and came directly to Thessalonica, which was the capital and capital of the province of Macedonia.
Jason was imprisoned in their place and brought before the rulers of the city. While Paul was pleading his case in the agora, or marketplace, he had the attention of the. If he had trouble from the population in Thessalonica and Berea, what would he expect from the people in Corinth, for Corinth was one of the most disorderly and corrupt cities in the Roman Empire.
It was on the main road in Greece that connects the north with the south and itself the focal point of the two. Titius Justus had evidently been one of the proselytes whom Paul had converted and was now a prominent member of the Christian community, as were Aquila and Priscilla. He actually converted Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and all his household with him.
Paul's success in Corinth testifies to the fact that the proper place for the church is in the midst of the wicked and wicked. If the vow of the Nazarite was not for life, as it was not in Paul's case, it could be. The New Testament often tells of the conversion of a person along with the whole household, for example Cornelius, Lydia and the Philippian jailer.
What is your reaction to the statement that the proper place for the church is among the wicked and unrighteous.
The Third Missionary Journey
This certainly means that he was convinced of the heinousness of sin and the need for repentance and reparation. These two gifts, the gift of tongues and the gift of prophesying inspiration, must have been extraordinary gifts, for there is no indication in the New Testament that they were always. However, the gift of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is a normal consequence of baptism that every Christian should expect.
The Roman province of Asia covered the middle part of the western coast of present-day Turkey. Ephesus was the center of the worship of Diana, or Artemis, as her Greek name was, throughout the Roman world. But her cult at Ephesus represented her as far more than the goddess of the hunt.
Ephesus in itself was a beautiful city, one of the most beautiful in the Greco-Roman world. In fact, the Temple of Artemis, or Diana, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Paul met the members of the Christian congregation in Troas on the first day of the week and broke bread with them.
The first day of the week is the day Jesus rose from the dead. In Caesarea, Paul and his companions found hospitality in the house of Philip, one of the seven. He was ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus.
Christians ever reject certain aspects of the gospel when it interferes with material comfort.
Toward the Eternal City
He realized, of course, that he had been freed from the bondage of the law and lived entirely by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. He did not want to hinder the progress of the newly converted Jews in the Christian faith. Trophimus no doubt followed him into the courtyard of the Gentiles in the temple area.
When the Romans saw what was happening in the outer court of the Temple, the army Then the soldiers physically lifted him out of the crowd and carried him up the stairs to the entrance of the Antonia. Paul announced to the Sanhedrin that he was a Pharisee, and he very cleverly turned the tables on his opponents by saying that he was being prosecuted for declaring his hope in the resurrection of the dead.
Felix had been a slave and had achieved not only freedom and Roman citizenship but also this high position in the government of the empire. When he informed Agrippa of the matter, Agrippa asked to see and hear Paul in person. Paul based his warning on the fact that the Jewish Feast of Atonement was already over.
However, the centurion submitted to the wishes of the ship's owner and the captain's advice. It was the middle of the night and they were anxiously awaiting the morning light. The apostle took no notice of the incident, except to throw the reptile away and throw it into the fire.
The centurion fulfilled his mission by handing over his captives to the captain of the guard.
