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“And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them."   - Luke 9:5

At the beginning of chapter 11 Peter is taken to task by members of the “Circumcision Party,” a group of believers in Jerusalem who charge that he violated Jewish law by eating with “unclean” Gentiles.  This reveals more fully the decision that Peter had faced on the rooftop in Joppa.  God’s insistence that He has made all things clean not only contradicts everything that Peter had known about being in covenant with the LORD, but it would set him at odds with leaders within his own church.  Already under persecution from the Jews, Peter was now threatened with exclusion from fellow believers. 

He responds only with the obviousness of his experience.  With no knowledge that the servants of Cornelius had already sent for him, he experienced the vision freeing him to go.  With no knowledge of what would happen when he offered Cornelius’ household the gospel, Peter watched as the Spirit came upon them in the same way it had on Pentecost.  Therefore he asks: “If then God gave the same gift to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

In chapter 12 violent persecution again erupts in Judea, this time from the hand of Herod Agrippa, whose uncle had condemned John the Baptist while ruler of Galilee.  James is put to death, and when [Herod] saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.  While he’s jailed, Luke goes to lengths to explain how well-guarded Peter was.  This says as much about Herod as it does about the miracle to come. 

Early on we’re introduced to the strong church in Antioch, where the disciples were first called ‘Christians,’ and in chapter 13 the Holy Spirit tells them to “set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  This is really the beginning of a new chapter in Acts: the story from here on focuses almost exclusively on Paul’s journeys.  Today you’ll read his first great sermon, in the synagogue at Pisidia, which sounds a lot like Peter’s grand entrance in Jerusalem. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Acts 11 through 13.  Now let’s read it!

“And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them."   - Luke 9:5

At the beginning of chapter 11 Peter is taken to task by members of the “Circumcision Party,” a group of believers in Jerusalem who charge that he violated Jewish law by eating with “unclean” Gentiles.  This reveals more fully the decision that Peter had faced on the rooftop in Joppa.  God’s insistence that He has made all things clean not only contradicts everything that Peter had known about being in covenant with the LORD, but it would set him at odds with leaders within his own church.  Already under persecution from the Jews, Peter was now threatened with exclusion from fellow believers. 

He responds only with the obviousness of his experience.  With no knowledge that the servants of Cornelius had already sent for him, he experienced the vision freeing him to go.  With no knowledge of what would happen when he offered Cornelius’ household the gospel, Peter watched as the Spirit came upon them in the same way it had on Pentecost.  Therefore he asks: “If then God gave the same gift to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

In chapter 12 violent persecution again erupts in Judea, this time from the hand of Herod Agrippa, whose uncle had condemned John the Baptist while ruler of Galilee.  James is put to death, and when [Herod] saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.  While he’s jailed, Luke goes to lengths to explain how well-guarded Peter was.  This says as much about Herod as it does about the miracle to come. 

Early on we’re introduced to the strong church in Antioch, where the disciples were first called ‘Christians,’ and in chapter 13 the Holy Spirit tells them to “set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  This is really the beginning of a new chapter in Acts: the story from here on focuses almost exclusively on Paul’s journeys.  Today you’ll read his first great sermon, in the synagogue at Pisidia, which sounds a lot like Peter’s grand entrance in Jerusalem. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Acts 11 through 13.  Now let’s read it!

At the quarter mark of the book of Acts, let’s take stock of the patterns in Luke’s story.  The Holy Spirit has been mentioned 21 times thus far.  A crescendo has been building in the aggression of the Jerusalem authorities against Jesus’ disciples.  Violence has now erupted.  Yet on multiple occasions, a time of explosive growth for the church follows immediately after a moment of challenge or decision.

Two new themes are developed at the beginning of the second act, one of which is the expansion of the gospel.  Upon Stephen’s frightful end the disciples are scattered and we follow Philip from Jerusalem, through Judea, into Samaria.  There he meets Simon the magician, and a court official of the queen of Ethiopia, both of whom believe in Jesus, but with different purposes in mind. 

Later, in chapter 10, we’re reunited with Peter in the seaside town of Joppa.  Up the coast in Caesarea, a devout centurion named Cornelius is visited by an angel, who commissions Cornelius to send for Peter.   Meanwhile Peter receives a vision as well, repeated three times: an image of animals that the law forbade, and the voice of God pressing him to “Rise, kill and eat…” for “What God has made clean, do not call common.”  As Peter awakes, inwardly perplexed about what this could mean, the servants of the Gentile Cornelius arrive. 

The second theme that emerges is really a character: Saul.  Luke makes sure we know straightaway what kind of man he was, observing simply, And Saul approved of [Stephen’s] execution. We watch him ravage the church in Jerusalem and ask the high priest for orders to take his rage to Damascus.  But on the way someone meets him, something happens to him, and soon Saul himself is confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

There is much action here, and it seems Luke wants us to feel it that way.  He has a story to tell and limited time in which to do it.  There is little backstory, characters emerge and are dropped at will, and there are few coincidental observations about the life of the church.  Luke is telling us, sometimes through silence, what he believes is important. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Acts 8 through 10.  Now let’s read it!

At the quarter mark of the book of Acts, let’s take stock of the patterns in Luke’s story.  The Holy Spirit has been mentioned 21 times thus far.  A crescendo has been building in the aggression of the Jerusalem authorities against Jesus’ disciples.  Violence has now erupted.  Yet on multiple occasions, a time of explosive growth for the church follows immediately after a moment of challenge or decision.

Two new themes are developed at the beginning of the second act, one of which is the expansion of the gospel.  Upon Stephen’s frightful end the disciples are scattered and we follow Philip from Jerusalem, through Judea, into Samaria.  There he meets Simon the magician, and a court official of the queen of Ethiopia, both of whom believe in Jesus, but with different purposes in mind. 

Later, in chapter 10, we’re reunited with Peter in the seaside town of Joppa.  Up the coast in Caesarea, a devout centurion named Cornelius is visited by an angel, who commissions Cornelius to send for Peter.   Meanwhile Peter receives a vision as well, repeated three times: an image of animals that the law forbade, and the voice of God pressing him to “Rise, kill and eat…” for “What God has made clean, do not call common.”  As Peter awakes, inwardly perplexed about what this could mean, the servants of the Gentile Cornelius arrive. 

The second theme that emerges is really a character: Saul.  Luke makes sure we know straightaway what kind of man he was, observing simply, And Saul approved of [Stephen’s] execution. We watch him ravage the church in Jerusalem and ask the high priest for orders to take his rage to Damascus.  But on the way someone meets him, something happens to him, and soon Saul himself is confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

There is much action here, and it seems Luke wants us to feel it that way.  He has a story to tell and limited time in which to do it.  There is little backstory, characters emerge and are dropped at will, and there are few coincidental observations about the life of the church.  Luke is telling us, sometimes through silence, what he believes is important. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Acts 8 through 10.  Now let’s read it!

The lead-in for today’s first story is important.  At the end of chapter 4, when owners of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds… to distribute to each as any had need, we learn that Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas… sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

This foreshadows the entrance of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira.  They also sold a piece or property, but with his wife’s knowledge Ananias brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.  Listen to Peter’s three questions and consider what crime was committed.  Listen closely to what happens to Ananias and his wife, and who caused it.  And pay attention especially to what happens next: great fear, signs and wonders, everyone held them in high esteem… You can debate whether there is something consequential between Peter’s confrontation with Ananias and more than ever believers were added to the Lord… 

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him…and filled with jealousy they arrested the Apostles and put them in the public prison.  Consider where we are now: Jesus’ trial was held in secret; so was Peter and John’s earlier encounter with the Sadducees.  Now comes a public stand.  The Apostles’ confidence emerges against a backdrop of rage, confusion, and violence.  Listen to their response to the council.  Listen also to Gamaliel, the Pharisee held in honor by all the people, who makes a most faithful, and reasonable, assessment of the situation.

In chapter 6 we’re allowed to witness a disagreement within the young church.  Luke tells us that a complaint arose because of unfairness in the daily widows’ distribution, which the Apostles delegated to other disciples.  At least two important details emerge: Luke’s observation that following this, the word of God continued to increase, and the introduction of Stephen, whose story will fill the rest of our reading.

Stephen’s arrest and trial are both a climax and a turning point for this first act.  The conclusion to Stephen’s story feels inevitable; and afterwards nothing will be the same. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Acts 5 through 7.  Now let’s read it!

The lead-in for today’s first story is important.  At the end of chapter 4, when owners of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds… to distribute to each as any had need, we learn that Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas… sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

This foreshadows the entrance of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira.  They also sold a piece or property, but with his wife’s knowledge Ananias brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.  Listen to Peter’s three questions and consider what crime was committed.  Listen closely to what happens to Ananias and his wife, and who caused it.  And pay attention especially to what happens next: great fear, signs and wonders, everyone held them in high esteem… You can debate whether there is something consequential between Peter’s confrontation with Ananias and more than ever believers were added to the Lord… 

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him…and filled with jealousy they arrested the Apostles and put them in the public prison.  Consider where we are now: Jesus’ trial was held in secret; so was Peter and John’s earlier encounter with the Sadducees.  Now comes a public stand.  The Apostles’ confidence emerges against a backdrop of rage, confusion, and violence.  Listen to their response to the council.  Listen also to Gamaliel, the Pharisee held in honor by all the people, who makes a most faithful, and reasonable, assessment of the situation.

In chapter 6 we’re allowed to witness a disagreement within the young church.  Luke tells us that a complaint arose because of unfairness in the daily widows’ distribution, which the Apostles delegated to other disciples.  At least two important details emerge: Luke’s observation that following this, the word of God continued to increase, and the introduction of Stephen, whose story will fill the rest of our reading.

Stephen’s arrest and trial are both a climax and a turning point for this first act.  The conclusion to Stephen’s story feels inevitable; and afterwards nothing will be the same. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Acts 5 through 7.  Now let’s read it!