Posts from May 2020 (Page 2)

Persecution against the church at Jerusalem pushed the disciples out of the city and into fulfilling the Great Commission (cf Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8). There are two specific references to the preaching that was done in the dispersion of Acts 8:4. The first begins with a very simple statement, “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them” (v 5). Later in verse 12 we read the following, “But when they believed Philip as he…

So wrote Tertullian in his Apologeticus (circa AD 197). The phrase means that the Christians’ willingness to die for their faith leads to the conversion of others. Today’s chapter details the events surrounding Stephen, the first martyr of the church. I readily admit this account remains an enigma to me. Following his arrest and the testimony of liars (6:11-14), Stephen begins a beautiful recitation of Israel’s history beginning with Abraham. Acts 7 is a CliffsNotes version of Israel’s history from…

One of the earliest internal difficulties faced by the church was the care of the Hellenist widows by their Hebrew speaking counterparts. Seeking to remedy the situation quickly, the apostles called the multitude of the brethren together, saying, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables” (v 2). The apostles were not in any way implying that they were too good to wait on tables as evidenced by the antecedent reason, namely, leaving…

Ancient Israel had the city of Dan in the far north and Beersheba in the south. In the middle was Jerusalem. These cities may be used figuratively to illustrate overreacting to false teaching. In fleeing from one extreme (Dan), one might run to the opposite extreme (Beersheba), and in so doing would “run past Jerusalem.” For example, the Reformers rightfully ran away from the Catholic doctrines of works-based salvation, but in so doing they ran past the truth into the…

I cannot tell you how tired I am with dealing with the purveyors and promoters of modern miracles. I realize that some biblically (and willfully?) ignorant people might be genuinely deceived (cf 2 Thes 2:10-12), but those who perpetrate such on the ignorant masses are charlatans and frauds. No one will EVER convince me that Benny Hinn and other shysters believe they can perform miracles. After the lame man was healed in Acts 3, the apostles were brought into custody.…

In one of our Sunday night class sessions, we were studying various arguments against the necessity of baptism for salvation. We do these studies by examining the arguments of mainline online sources. Among these are Grace to You (gty.org), a work of John McArthur Jr. On that page we found this argument (summarized): ‘Baptism is not necessary to be saved. Baptism is found in Acts 2:38 but is not found in Acts 3:19.’ (The are a host of fallacious arguments…

One of the most widespread doctrines among evangelicals is that of premillennialism, that is, (among other things) that Jesus is going to return to this earth to establish a physical kingdom and sit on David’s throne. Is this so? Today’s chapter contains a specific reference to Jesus sitting on David’s throne. But more than that, it defines what it means. After quoting David and his statement about not having his soul left in hell or his flesh see corruption, Peter…

The Acts of the Apostles is Luke’s second letter to Theophilus, which means “a friend of God.” The purpose of Acts is similar to that of Luke’s gospel account. Whereas Luke’s gospel recorded “all that Jesus began both to do and teach,” Acts records the works and words of the apostles, primarily Peter and Paul. What lesson do we find in this? Like Jesus and the apostles, we must also be both doers and teachers. The multitude present for the…