Acts is excellent history. Luke begins his book in Jerusalem, picking up his account with the closing hours of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. It is the period between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven.

Historically, people claim to know God on the basis of one of three platforms:

mysticism, reason, or revelation.

For human beings, hope is something necessary for well-being. What happens when hopes die? For most of us, when specific hopes die, other hopes replace them eventually, but suppose there is no hope. When someone really is giving up, we say, “They have lost all hope,” and they roll over and die.

There is an awful lot in the Western world that doesn’t have a category for evil, that comes from sinners. For many, evil is merely a social construct. Evil is what a particular society defines as evil; maybe some other society defines some other way of looking at things as evil. Evil is either genetically determined, or it’s socially defined, but there is no real evil. As a whole the world sees no objective evil that is caused by Sin.

From the moment of his birth, Jesus lived in the shadow of the cross. but because he would die as a sacrifice, under the wrath of God. Jesus, even in his perfect humanity, shrank back at the utter horror of it and so he cries out to his Father to remove this cup from him. He was using the Jewish image of the cup filled with the wrath of God.

The background of this event is the week before His crucifixion. He’s coming into Jerusalem in what some call a triumphal entry. Some see Him coming as a king, but our Lord Jesus, humble as He was, came on a borrowed donkey, the symbol of humility.

Peace is not appeasement. Appeasement never brings peace. We are not honor-bound to get along with everybody. There is something disconcerting and wrong with the person who can get along with everybody

The heart is the core of the individual. Reference to the heart is talking about the seat of our emotions. It’s talking about our master control center. It is the part of us that dictates our character, directs our will, and dominates the affections.

It’s been stated that when David wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” he was in a place where evil was an ever-present reality. Yet he refused to give in to fear. He wasn’t under any ideology that God would abolish evil, so he could pass through the valley safely, No, he was saying that the presence of God with him, gave him the confidence to pass through difficult places without fear of God deserting or leaving him.

Thank goodness, God does not deal with us on the basis of fairness. God deals with us on the basis of mercy. We don’t deserve anything, yet He offers mercy.