Thoughts The book of Acts is about the dawning days of the Christian church. How it began. It’s about the empowerment of the seemingly defeated followers of Jesus after His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus knew that his disciples would need encouragement and courage and ability from God to be able to take the message of…
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Oh my goodness. So much I could say about what we read today. Where to begin? In chapter 4, after Peter and John were arrested for talking about Jesus after the lame beggar was healed, and they were standing before the religious leaders, they were asked, “By what power, or in what name, have you…
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The book of Acts is about the dawning days of the Christian church. How it began. It’s about the empowerment of the seemingly defeated followers of Jesus after His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus knew that his disciples would need encouragement and courage and ability from God to be able to take the message of the…
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I’m sure you remember how much the Jews in Jerusalem hated Paul. How the wanted him killed and how they lied about him. Did you notice something surprising in today’s reading about the leaders here in Malta? In verse 21 we read, “The leaders replied, ‘“No one from Judea has written us a letter about…
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When we last left Paul, he was on trial before Festus and Agrippa, when he appealed to Caesar. So now, he is being shipped off to Rome, the capital of the empire, where Caesar was located. What I want to look at in today’s chapter is how Paul encouraged the men onboard the ship when…
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In his opening statement, Paul establishes his credentials to Agrippa, and everyone else listening. Agrippa was a convert to Judaism, and who therefor knew better than most other Roman authorities the Jewish laws and customs. Paul explains that not only is he a Jew, but that he is a highly educated Jew from a sect…
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Today we’ll read Acts 24 and 25 from the New Living Translation. When we last left Paul, he had been sent to Caesarea to stand trial before Governor Felix. Upon Paul arrival there, Felix held Paul in Herod’s prison until his accusers could arrive.
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Much of this chapter is self explanatory, though there are fine points to be learned by deeper study than we typically do here. But one thing I would like to bring out is at the very beginning of the chapter. After Ananias the high priest, in a fit of rage orders that Paul be struck…
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One of the aspects of God and Christianity that some non believers have a really hard time reconciling is forgiveness, especially that of particularly heinous crimes. And on one level, I understand the difficulty. Today, we read of Paul’s confession to the Lord that he had been responsible for the arrest of believers, and even…
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In today’s reading, we get a bit of a travelogue of part of Paul’s journey, and the part that I would like to bring to your attention is when they arrived in Caesarea. They stayed at the home of Philip the evangelist. He, by the way, is the same one who baptized the the eunuch…
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