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Category: Acts for a 21st c. Church

Acts Apostolos - Acts of the Apostles - the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church including early leaders like Stephen, Philip the Evangelist, Paul, Barnabas and many others
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.

  • Acts of ALL with one accord

    Acts of ALL with one accord

    The Holy Spirit Promised

    While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise.

    Acts 1:4a CSB

    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

    Acts 1:8 CSB

    9 After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.

    Pretty EXCITING AND AWESOME STUFF!

    Luke begins ACTS with Christ Jesus taken up into heaven, then ‘two men in white’ (we know they are angels) ask:

    “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?

    This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

    Acts 1:11 NASB
    https://talkofjesus.com/acts-of-the-holy-spirit/

    AWESOME! JESUS ascending..

    AND angels…

    What could possibly be next?

    Ten days of the Apostles we may have missed

    As Christians, now that we have begun Luke’s prologue in Acts and read his account of the AWEsome ascension of Jesus into the clouds, we can hardly wait for the powerful bestowing of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.

    BUT WAIT! Like you I was ready to read ahead to the anointing of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit and the beginning of their ‘acts,’ Then I thought about those TEN DAYS (more than a week) between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost. (I had always merged these two amazing events together in the historical timeline I conceived in my mind.)

    Of course the eleven Apostles would have rather fled to their homes from the relatively remote Mount of Olives just a stone’s throw from the walls of Jerusalem; but now the Lord Jesus has commanded them to wait.

    So what happened while the eleven Apostles waited?

    Luke tells us (and we may have matter-of-factly dismissed it).

    Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem..

    Luke records those present:

    • 11 Apostles (by name)
    • ‘the women’
    • Mary, the mother of Jesus (the last mention of Mary by Luke)
    • Jesus’ brothers (Jude & James, but not named here)

    12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying, that is, Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

    These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

    Acts 1:14 KJV

    ὁμοθυμαδόν – ‘with one accord’

    We will soon see this again in Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles, so lets take a quick look at his description of this gathering.

    ὁμοθυμαδόν

    • with one mind, with one accord, with one passion

    A unique Greek word, used 10 of its 12 New Testament occurrences in the Book of Acts, helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. Homothumadon is a compound of two words meaning to “rush along” and “in unison”. The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church.

    Outline of Biblical Usage – G3661 – BlueLetterBible.org

    Christ Ascends

    WAIT in Jerusalem

    & then Pentecost

    Our glance at this scene in a first century upper room in Jerusalem will look different from famous paintings of the Italian Renaissance or an illustration from our Children’s’ Bible.

    We observe eleven Jewish men (the Apostles), a large group of women (some wives of the Apostles) plus more followers and witnesses to the risen Christ Jesus, including our Lord’s mother and brothers.

    All these were continually devoting themselves with one mind to prayer.. (Acts 1:14a NASB)

    A Crowded upper room: Christians ALL with one accord

    The Apostle Peter is about to speak to those present.

    But as we have noted of these past ten days, MANY have gathered in this upper room in Jerusalem.

    These men and women from many places throughout the Empire had witnessed the cruel crucifixion of Jesus. Yet now they have obediently returned to the same Jerusalem which had crucified their now-risen and ascended Christ Jesus.

    Jesus’s promise has not yet been fulfilled; so as commanded, they ALL WAIT.

    At this time Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters

    (a group of about 120 people was there together),

    and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David..

    Acts 1:15-16a NASB

    One Hundred Twenty (120) with one accord (all together)

    The Apostle Peter addresses well over a hundred men and women in this room.

    And ALL have been together praying with one accord. (See all the instances Luke uses this to describe these saints of the early Christian Church.)

    And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord G3661 in one place.

    Acts 2:1 KJV – Strong’s G3661 linked

    Is your Christian gathering of 120 like this?

    Here is how the first century Church ‘acted:’

    • And they, continuing daily with one accord G3661 in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart
    • ..they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, G3661 and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
    • And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord G3661 in Solomon’s porch.

    But I’m getting ahead of myself in Luke’s ACTS of the Apostles (and others).

    NEXT: Peter’s speech to the 120

    To be continued...
  • Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT

    Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT

    “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

    Gospel of John 3:8 – Jesus Christ teaching on the Holy Spirit

    Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:

    Acts 1:

    Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.

    We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.

    What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.

    Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).

    4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …

    Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:

    “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,

    but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

    Acts 1:4b NASB
    God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV

    Baptism

    And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.‘

    The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.

    Ascension of the Lord Jesus

    The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.

    Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.

    He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

    Acts 1:7 CSB

    but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses G3144 ..

    Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20

    μάρτυς – Witness – (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)

    • martys [gk.] [Strong’s 3144] Definition:
    • a witness
      1. in a legal sense
      2. an historical sense
        • one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
      3. in an ethical sense
        • those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death

    Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.

    Roger@talkofJESUS.com

    Jesus was taken up as the Apostles watched!

    Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!

    The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!

    How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?

    You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.

    The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV

    The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

    To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

    And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

    Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.

    For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

    Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)

    ἁγίου  πνεύματος – hagios pneuma – the Holy Ghost

    Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.

    So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.

    hagios – HOLY

    • from ἅγος hágos (an awful thing) (compare G53, G2282); sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):—(most) holy (one, thing), saint.

    pneuma  – spirit

    KJV translate this as:

    GHOST

    people receiving the Holy Spirit descending like a dove
    (May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)

READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:

    Outline of Biblical Usage 

    1. the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
      1. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
      2. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
      3. never referred to as a depersonalised force
    2. the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
      1. the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
      2. the soul
    3. a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
      1. a life giving spirit
      2. a human soul that has left the body
      3. a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
        1. used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
        2. the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
    4. the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
      1. the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
    5. a movement of air (a gentle blast)
      1. of the wind, hence the wind itself
      2. breath of nostrils or mouth

    ACTS in the Spirit

    Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.

    • And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
      • Acts 4:31

    And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

    Acts 5:32
    • And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
      • Acts 15:8
    • And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
      • Acts 19:6

    Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWE–filled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:

    • Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38
    Acts Apostolos - Acts of the Apostles - the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church

    to be continued..

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

  • What’s the occasion? Festival of Weeks + Pentecost

    What’s the occasion? Festival of Weeks + Pentecost

    When the day of Pentecost [was being fulfilled] had come, they were all together in one place.

    “Observe the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest..

    Exodus 34:18a

    From a Festival of Weeks to Pentecost

    How is Pentecost the firstfruits of these last days?

    Have you ever thought about it?

    Followers of Jesus Christ often miss the significance of the very festivals our Lord observed.

    people receiving the Holy Spirit descending like a dove

    We sometimes miss Pentecost by idolatry of its imagery.

    (The Holy Spirit is NOT a dove — it descended on men and women receiving it ‘like a dove.’)

    Signs of Pentecost

    John MacArthur - 2 min.

    And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

    John 20:22 NASB20

    Jews debate the times and significance of these festivals to this very day. Christians and Messianic Jews recognize the miraculous moving of the Holy Spirit promised by the Lord.

    From the Law of Moses:

    34:23 שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵרָאֶה כָּל־זְכוּרְךָ אֶת־פְּנֵי הָֽאָדֹן יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

    23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

    1. Passover – pecach
    2. Feast of Weeks – Chag Shavu’os
    3. Festival of Ingathering – Chag HaAsif

    In the year of our Lord 2021

    https://www.messianicspokane.com/sukkot-chaghaasif

    5/17/2021 (Read Festival parshot) {source linked above}

    Shavuot

    NOTE these Scriptures from celebration by Messianic Jews of these last days

    Ex 19:1-20:22; Num 28:26-31; Ezek 1:1-28; 3:12; Acts 2:1-47

    shavuot 2021

    50 Days

    The connection of Pentecost is the counting of fifty days.

    Shavuot connects this counting back to the Passover, recounting the Law of Moses.

    Pentecost counts back to the Resurrection of the Messiah Jesus in Body sacrificed for us and Spirit satisfying sanctity of the Lord’s holiness.

    Fifty days after Jesus resurrection and instruction of the New Covenant with all who believe, the LORD gave the Holy Spirit to those chosen by grace.

    Pentecost – First Fruits of the Church

    IF the Holy Spirit reveals Scripture to the spirit of your heart, then read Luke’s account from his two-part message to the church: his Gospel and the history of the first century church in Acts of the Apostles.

    The Resurrection & Pentecost

    Please read the above secure link to the Scripture of the Good News of Pentecost.

    May those with ears to hear and hearts to receive accept the Word of God through Scripture and the grace of the New Covenant through Christ our Lord who was and IS and will be forever, our Good News of eternal life.

    Between Receiving the Holy Spirit and death of this body

    I have written of these last days previously. Perhaps now the Spirit will move you to talk of Jesus and the certain hope of the resurrection for those Christ has given the Holy Spirit of God.

    While we wait… DEATH and Resurrection
    Acts of the Church – Love like Christ Jesus