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Category: Acts for a 21st c. Church

Acts of the Apostles + a History of Christ’s Church

Acts of the Apostles 1-28

Acts of the Apostles:
+ The first century Church SHARED Christ while suffering severe persecution.
+ Luke records a historic account of the Church which gives 21c Christians a context to SHARE the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

Read more about the Early Church & add your COMMENT on Scripture.

ACT now.

+ SHARE the Gospel history witnessed in the CURRENT chronological SERIES from ACTS of the APOSTLES.

Speaking the Word of God with Boldness
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness
Acts of the Apostles 4:29 NIV

The Believers Pray for Boldness
- DO YOU?
- How do YOU ACT Confidently in Christ Jesus?
παρρησία – parrēsia

Now as they observed the confidence^G3954 of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
Acts of the Apostles 4:13 NASB20 – Reaction of the rulers and elders of the people to Peter preaching at Solomon’s Portico, filled with the Holy Spirit

Luke’s account of events in Jerusalem has already revealed boldness in the Apostles not seen before Pentecost.

(Of course if YOU had seen the RISEN Crucified Christ Jesus in His flesh and received the HOLY SPIRIT in Jerusalem’s upper room, YOU would have had some added confidence as well.)
- Invite the Holy Spirit of God and Christ Jesus into your life; and then boldly ACT for Him.
By what power? Political prowess by the powers that be

After having been arrested, imprisoned overnight and then released, Peter, John and the Apostles will continue to preach with boldness.

ACTS of Confidence and Boldness

ACTS of Jerusalem’s First Century Believers 4:
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The believers continue to lift their voices together with the Apostles to God:
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30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
ACTS of the Believers in Jerusalem 4:31 NIV

Where will 21st. Century Christians find such BOLDNESS?

Christian confidence seems hard to come by in this world opposed to GOD and Jesus Christ, doesn’t it?

The Apostles and many first century saints who became their disciples gained such boldness because they knew Jesus Christ personally.

And like us, first century believers receiving the Holy Spirit came to know Christ through the Holy Spirit. New believers met the Apostles as living witnesses, God’s anointed shepherds of Christ’s living Church.

ALL feared God and basked in the light of Christ’s grace and unfailing eternal love.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

παρρησία – Strong’s G3954 parrēsia
- all out-spokenness, i.e. frankness, bluntness, publicity; by implication, assurance:—bold (X -ly, -ness, -ness of speech), confidence, × freely, × openly, × plainly(-ness).
1. freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech
  1. openly, frankly, i.e. without concealment
  2. without ambiguity or circumlocution
  3. without the use of figures and comparisons
2. free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance
3. the deportment by which one becomes conspicuous or secures publicity
Conspicuous Confidence of Christian Witness

The fear of their Messiah in the flesh and blood always infected the multitudes who surrounded Jesus, along with recognition of God’s love in His Person.

The Apostle John tells us in his Gospel:

And there was a great deal of talk about Him in secret among the crowds: some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He is misleading the people.”
However, no one was speaking openly [G3954] about Him, for fear of the Jews.
So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this man not the one whom they are seeking to kill? And yet look, He is speaking publicly [G3954] , and they are saying nothing to Him.
Gospel of John 7:12-13, 25-26a NASB + talk of JESUS at the Feast of the Booths in Jerusalem

And just two months earlier in Jerusalem, at Jesus’ trial (when Peter cowered secretly beyond the gaze of official witness by the powers that be who cross-examined Jesus):

The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching.
Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly G3954 to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple area, where all the Jews congregate; and I said nothing in secret.
Gospel of John 18:19-20 NASB + True testimony of Jesus before the Jewish High Court prior to the Passover Sacrifice

This is Annas, the same High Priest who now recognizes Peter and John as Jesus’s Disciples.

More Miracles and Boldness
- ACTS 2:2 And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
- 2:3 And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them.
- 3:8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them..
- 4:4 But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
- 4:13b-14 ..they [Annas, the High Priests and ruling Council] were amazed, and began to recognize them [Peter and John] as having been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.
  - 22 for the man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.
- 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken,
- and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
- 4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
  - and abundant grace was upon them all.
  - 34-35 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that any had need.
A Witness of Grace by the saints

Five thousand disciples of the Apostles of Christ SPEAK the word of God with much BOLDNESS!

These confident new Christians share Christ’s love as a community of faith in Jerusalem SHARING all blessings of the Lord God as if their money is not their own, but solely the LORD’S. And the saints, disciples learning of Christ JESUS from the APOSTLES trusted them completely with EVERYTHING.

From his introduction to the church in Jerusalem in second account, next Luke will insert a caution to believers about NOT being ‘ALL IN.’ But for our conclusion noting these ACTS of BOLDNESS we will proceed just a little ahead in Luke’s list of signs and boldness of ALL.

Returning to Solomon’s Portico

Preaching from Herod’s Porch

We’ve been there before; but Peter & John, who had stirred the crowds with a healed lame man at their sides, were NOT supposed to come back.

Acts 5:

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.

ACTS of the Apostles 5:12 NIV

Why does the NIV translate this in the past tense?

5:12 διὰ δὲ τῶν χειρῶν τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐγίνετο σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα πολλὰ ἐν τῷ λαῷ καὶ ἦσαν ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἅπαντες ἐν τῇ Στοᾷ Σολομῶντος

Luke wrote ACTS of the Apostles about three decades after these signs in the Temple.

AD 44 Judaea is annexed as a Roman province after the death of Herod Agrippa.

Luke’s readers may not have seen the temple prior to it’s destruction.

Opposition to our Boldness

Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them.
Acts 5:12-13 CSB

The NASB states:

But none of the rest dared to associate with them
Acts 5:13A NASB20

‘WHY NOT,’ Luke’s readers must have wondered?

Do you ever feel like the crowds do NOT want to associate with you once you boldly claim faith in Jesus Christ?

14 Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers—multitudes of both men and women. As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
ACTS 5:14-15 CSB

Luke tells us that these accompanying signs of miracles from God also occurred in towns surrounding Jerusalem as well. But of course, ALL of this had taken place prior to Rome completely eliminating any threat of these Judean Jews.

Luke then makes the opposition to Christian boldness in Jerusalem apparent to any now persecuted by Rome. Once again, the powers that be in JERUSALEM meet to reign in the boldness of these ‘Galileans.’

Their persecution of these BOLD opponents begins

Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
ACTS of the Apostles 5:17-18 NIV

Arrested AGAIN!
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To be continued...
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November 29, 2021
Why DO the nations rage?
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed
Psalm 2:1b-2

ACTS of the disciples of the Apostles 4:

If you READ this section of Acts 4 carefully, you will discover that unlike the earlier acts focused on Peter, here Luke records that these prayers, praises and actions emanate from followers of the Apostles along with them.

23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people.. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

Thanks for Simeon Peter from the Psalms
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Look closely and hear this praise of the Lord God through the followers (now disciples) of the Apostles (as their teachers).
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Act 4:24 (KJV) — And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:

Psalm 55 – Prayer for the Destruction of the Treacherous
- First, is it godly to pray for the ‘destruction of the treacherous?
Listen to my prayer, God;
And do not hide Yourself from my pleading.
2 Give Your attention to me and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and severely distracted,
3 Because of the voice of the enemy,
Because of the pressure of the wicked;
For they bring down trouble upon me
And in anger they hold a grudge against me.
- Yes, I say; for their treachery is not only against the Apostles but rage against the Sovereign Lord God and His Anointed Messiah, their savior against the sins of their own Nation.
11 Destructive forces are at work in the city;
threats and lies never leave its streets.
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12 If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.
13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.
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- Is this not what the Apostles Peter and John have just endured at the Temple? For they have been imprisoned overnight by Judaism’s highest officials who then dismiss the Truth of the Holy Spirit as leaven in the house of the LORD.
Therefore these Jewish disciples of the Apostles now pray according to the Psalms:

16 As for me, I shall call upon God,
And the Lord will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and moan,
And He will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me,
For they are many who are aggressive toward me.
19 God will hear and humiliate them—
Even the one who sits enthroned from ancient times— Selah
With whom there is no change,
And who do not fear God.

16 ׳יַשִּׁימָוֶת׳ ״יַשִּׁ֤י״ ״מָ֨וֶת׀״ עָלֵ֗ימוֹ יֵרְד֣וּ שְׁא֣וֹל חַיִּ֑ים כִּֽי־רָע֖וֹת בִּמְגוּרָ֣ם בְּקִרְבָּֽם׃

17 אֲ֭נִי אֶל־אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֶקְרָ֑א וַ֝יהוָ֗ה יוֹשִׁיעֵֽנִי׃

18 עֶ֤רֶב וָבֹ֣קֶר וְ֭צָהֳרַיִם אָשִׂ֣יחָה וְאֶהֱמֶ֑ה וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע קוֹלִֽי׃

19 פָּ֘דָ֤ה בְשָׁל֣וֹם נַ֭פְשִׁי מִקֲּרָב־לִ֑י כִּֽי־בְ֝רַבִּ֗ים הָי֥וּ עִמָּדִֽי׃

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said,
Acts 4:25a KJV

Righteous Rage: Answers from Acts 4:25-26

Again recalling the context of Luke’s second account written to the Church, these early events which took place in Jerusalem reflect some cause for evil already evident to all and a destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Rome very shortly.

Questions of Cause:

“‘WHY
1. do the nations rage
2. the peoples plot in vain
3. kings of the earth rise up
4. and the rulers band together
Against the Lord

and against His Christ.’

Yes, their rage is not only against the Apostles but against the Sovereign Lord God and His Anointed Messiah, Jesus Christ.

27 For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and purpose predestined to occur.

We see the RAGE in protests

The crowds turn quickly FOR or AGAINST the proclaimed leaders of the day.

Multitudes of OTHERS against

Nations rage against each other. But it’s not just nation against nation.

Not only religious leader against religious leader. Certainly not just political leader against political leader – party of one agenda opposing God against the other side of the aisle also opposing the rule of a ‘nation’ under God.
- the rulers take counsel together,
  against the Lord and against his Anointed – Psalm 2:2
Rage, ye peoples, and be broken in pieces! And give ear, all ye distant parts of the earth: Gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces! – Isaiah 8:9 DBY
ἔθνος – ethnos

To the Jews, gentiles; to Rome any foreign peoples to be conquered; to Caucasians, people of any other ethnic color.

Outline of Biblical Usage Strong’s G1484 – ethnos
1. a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together
  1. a company, troop, swarm
2. a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus
  1. the human family
3. a tribe, nation, people group
4. in the OT, foreign nations not worshipping the true God, pagans, Gentiles
5. Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians
MEDIA HEADLINES of today provoke one multitude against another. The political/religious officials of first Century Jerusalem were no different. Herod and the Jews joined the Romans in accusing Christ and Christians falsely for many of the same personal motives as today.

RAGE!

φρυάσσω phryassō – to neigh, stamp the ground, prance, snort; to be high-spirited: properly, of horses

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
Acts 4:25 KJV

Although this is the only instance in the New Testament where this word is used from the common Greek of the Roman Empire, the Hebrew use by David and Isaiah also connect the ‘rage’ to other ‘nations.’

2:1 לָמָּה רָגְשׁוּ גוֹיִם וּלְאֻמִּים יֶהְגּוּ־רִֽיק׃
Tehillim (Psalms) 2 :
- Lexicon :: Strong’s H1471 – gôy
  - The KJV translates Strong’s H1471 in the following manner: nation (374x), heathen (143x), Gentiles (30x), people (11x).
- רָגַשׁ – Lexicon :: Strong’s H7283 – rāḡaš
  - † [רָגַשׁ] verb be in tumult or commotion (Arabic bdb092104 make a vehement noise; Biblical Aramaic Aramaic רְגַשׁ, bdb092105 be disturbed, in tumult (Targum Ithp. often for הָמָה, as Psalm 46:6, שָׁאָה Isaiah 17:12f.; bdb092106 for חָמוֺן ibid.); but Syriac usually perceive, so Late Hebrew Hiph., but Hithp. fall stormily upon); —
  - Qal Perfect 3rd person plural Psalm 2:1 רָֽגְשׁוּ why do the nations throng tumultuously ?
A Parallel between Herod’s city of Jerusalem in Roman Syria and Damascus in David’s day
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With some vision toward more recent events of these last days of this 21st century, heed yet another warning to the Nations.
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Yeshaiya (Isaiah) 17 ::
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Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap...
And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean...

Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
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January 6, A.D. 2021 US Capitol under siege by the rage incited by SOH & POTUS

Faithful Jews knew their Scripture.

Isaiah, the son of Amoz, ministered in and around Jerusalem as a prophet to Judah during the reigns of 4 kings of Judah: Uzziah (called “Azariah” in 2 Kings), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1), from ca. 739–686 B.C. – source
- In panic, Ahaz sent to the Assyrian king for help (2 Kin. 16:7) and the Assyrian king gladly responded, sacking Gaza, carrying all of Galilee and Gilead into captivity, and finally capturing Damascus (732 B.C.). Ahaz’s alliance with Assyria led to his introduction of a heathen altar, which he set up in Solomon’s temple (2 Kin. 16:10–16; 2 Chr. 28:3). During his reign (722 B.C.), Assyria captured Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom, and carried many of Israel’s most capable people into captivity (2 Kin. 17:6, 24).- source
Long BEFORE Rome, the LORD banished His chosen nation because of their turning against Him.

The Holy Spirit then spoke through the same Isaiah who prophesied the coming of the Christ, warning Jerusalem’s rulers seven centuries before Christ.

40 Years of King David – 1000 B.C.

(Some after his anointing by Samuel, but before victorious return to Jerusalem)

David’s first two Psalms were written a full millennium before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem just two months before this day in ACTS 4.

Now, Luke records what the Holy Spirit reiterates: Psalm 2, as praise for John and Peter’s safe returns, reminding all of similar themes of these two verses in Psalms to Acts of the Apostles:
1. The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted
2. The Reign of the Lord’s Anointed
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
Psalm 1:1 NASB

Why are the nations restless
And the peoples plotting in vain?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers conspire together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let’s tear their shackles apart
And throw their ropes away from us!”
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4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
5 Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
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- Do YOU know the prophesies of Christ Jesus the Lord from the Psalms, of Isaiah and the true Prophets of Old Testament Scripture?
  - (These 1st century Jewish saints did.)
- The saints who followed the Apostles of the early Church ACTED when the Lord showed such signs of His glory.
The Jews knew their history and its consequence, even as they awaited their expected Messiah, the Son of David.

These outrageous events have already taken place as the Church reads Acts of the Apostles.
- AD 40 Emperor Caligula orders that a statue of himself is to be erected in the temple at Jerusalem. Herod delays implementation long enough to prevent wide-spread revolt in Judaea.
- AD 44 Judaea is annexed as a Roman province after the death of Herod Agrippa.
- AD 49 Claudius passes an edict expelling all Jews from Rome.
  - (Christians considered just a sect of Judaism by Rome.)
- AD 54 Death and deification of Claudius. Nero ascends to the throne.
Consequence

JUST one more reminder of context and consequence for these disciples of the Apostles to whom LUKE wrote ACTS of the APOSTLES in about A.D. Sixty. [~AD 60-62]
- Martyrdom of James, head of the Jerusalem church (A.D. 62 according to the Jewish historian Josephus)
- AD 64 The Great Fire of Rome speculated to have been started by Nero to make room for his palace.
  - Christians Persecuted as scapegoats.
- AD 67-69 The future Emperor Vespasian is sent to Judaea to put down a Jewish revolt.
  - Nero enters the Olympic games and is named the winner of every he event he enters.
  - Death [by execution] of Paul the Apostle.
  - Widespread revolt forces Nero to commit suicide, sparking civil war.
  - Year of the four emperors.
And LESS than a DECADE after Luke completes ACTS:

Persecution under Nero (A.D. 64), and the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) also suggests he [Luke] wrote Acts before those events transpired.

ACTS 4: (In Jerusalem before its destruction)

And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant it to Your bond-servants to speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
ACTS 4:29-31 NASB

31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

From the bold witness of these saints of the first century church, Jerusalem will witness ACTS of power against its worldly powers which will soon plot the first DEATHS of disciples of the Apostles.
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To be continued... 
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November 19, 2021
Constant Faith: They lifted up their voice to God
When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported everything that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
ACTS of the APOSTLES (Peter & John) 4:23 NASB20

Constant companions of the Church

We might easily dismiss the community to which John, Peter and the forty-plus year old healed man return.

ACTS of these men at Solomon’s Portico in the Temple had gotten them arrested by Jerusalem’s highest authorities. Yet because so many had witnessed the healing of this lame man, the three return to the growing ‘community’ of believers who have become the constant companions of the Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem. The authority of Jerusalem’s leaders has been overruled by the mighty acts of God!

Apostles, Disciples & Community

As we reminded ourselves previously when these three men sat in prison overnight: Peter, John and others had also been disciples of John the Baptist. It is a TEACHER/STUDENT relationship in the faith. Rabbi, some called Jesus; while others called Him Master, acknowledging their humble servant-role of the religious student learning Scripture from God’s teacher.

The Twelve APOSTLES now have disciples; that is, followers who become a constant community in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
ACTS of the Apostles 2:42 NASB20

ἴδιος – idios

Luke’s description of these men and women to whom Peter and John return with their witness barely touches the surface of its depth in our English translations, but let’s take a brief look at ACTS 4:23:
- And being let go, they went to their own company.. KJV
- they went to their own companions.. NKJV
- Peter and John returned to the other believers.. NLT
- .. went back to their own people.. NIV
- they went to their friends.. ESV
- Peter and John went to their fellow believers.. NET
- they came to their own company.. ASV
- .. unto their own friends.. YLT
Do you get the idea?

The KJV translates Strong’s G2398 in the following manner: his own (48x), their own (13x), privately (8x), apart (7x), your own (6x), his (5x), own (5x), not translated (1x), miscellaneous (20x).

The Twelve Apostles with hundreds of disciples in Jerusalem now kept in constant community with one another.

In his Gospel Luke records:

Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own^G2398 homes and followed You.”
Luke 18:28

It is personally possessive; a constant reminder that turning to follow Christ Jesus both costs us and comforts us.

John reminds us in his Gospel:

“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own^G2398; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
Gospel of John 15:19 – Jesus’ possessive claim of believers as the Lord assured His Apostles prior to His Sacrifice

Constant communication in the Spirit

And being let go, they went unto their own friends, and declared whatever the chief priests and the elders said unto them, and they having heard, with one accord did lift up the voice unto God..
ACTS of the Apostles 4:23-24a YLT

LET US THANK THE LORD OUR GOD FOR THE SAFE RETURN OF OUR FRIENDS PETER AND JOHN TO OUR COMMUNITY OF FAITH.

Shout praises to the LORD for the Power of the HOLY SPIRIT who secured their release unto us.

Let us give thanks to God for His mercy.

Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said,
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‘Why were the nations insolent,
And the peoples plotting in vain?
The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
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Be saved from this perverse generation!

Appeal of the Apostle Peter on Pentecost just days earlier – Acts of the Apostles 2:20

Psalm 2:
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from the Hebrew Hymn Book (so to speak)
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Why are the nations restless
And the peoples plotting in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers conspire together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed
..
Serve the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, that He not be angry and you perish on the way,
For His wrath may be kindled quickly.

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
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Constant Praise, then Prayerful Petition

The LORD God has saved our friends for this moment, returning their lives safely to the company of believers.

But what next?
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Why DO the nations rage?
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To be continued…
November 17, 2021