When Christ ascended into heaven, it says in Ephesians 4:11, “his gifts were that some should be pastor-teachers.” This is an office distinct from the rest of the people in the church, because it says that the pastor-teachers are to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

I think it is very important for every one of you to think hard about what you would do if cultic terrorists confronted you on a plane etc, and before they blew it up offered to let everyone off who would say, “Jesus Christ is not my Savior and Lord.” The reason I think it is important to think about this is that thinking about your own death for Christ will help you live for Christ as you should.

nbelief is always the same regardless in what time frame it happens; it does not change at all. There was unbelief in the first century, and there is still unbelief today. Of all the modern fallacies, there is none quite so pathetic and so feeble as the fallacy of thinking that there is something new about unbelief.

Here in Acts we see the early Christian devotion to fellow Christians. The early Christian communalism depicted here testifies to the intimate concern Christians had for each other. There was so much love and concern one for another that there was a remarkable independence of any ensnarement to mere things. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”

God is the author of being and of life, and if you are not in connection with Him, then you really have nothing.

Anything done apart from God always ends in nothing.

The ultimate test as to whether there is any value in our profession of the Christian faith is our response, our behavior, when everything is against us, when we seem to be without any human aid, and we ourselves can do nothing.

When people benefit from wrongdoing or wrong-thinking, they will turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the mounting evidence for what is right and what is true. The mind selectively sees what will justify the desires of the heart. In the end that is what must be changed.

Peter draws out the implication of this universal lordship of Jesus in verse 12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

A big motivation to repentance is fear of final judgment. (Acts 17:30–31). The sobering reality of coming judgment should cause any rational person to repent and turn to God for forgiveness. There is no other way of escape.

Have you ever thought that it is possible that God is thrilled and excited when certain Christians get sick?

Because it could be testing them and refining them and equipping them to be what they otherwise could never be.

God didn’t choose to remove Paul’s infirmity did He?