07 Acts - Approved by God

By Richard

In Acts 7: 35 Steven reminds the crowds that Moses was rejected by men but approved and sent by God. He implies that this was also the case with Jesus who was rejected by the opinion polls but sent and approved by God.

I think that we should flee popularity and seek approval by God. Also, it reminded me that I have been called to the task of leading Mountainview and I need to be true to God and not seek to bolster my popularity. This approval and sending by God is what we might call spiritual authority.

07 Acts – Speak the Truth in Love

By Richard

Acts 7 came at a helpful time. I’ve been feeling a little tender. I have had to challenge some people to face some issues in their lives (something I don’t enjoy doing). They didn’t respond well and ended up angry with me. It was good to read Steven’s sermon. A long reminder of the blessings of God and how despite all these blessings people still harden their hearts.

Steven was not afraid to speak the truth in love even when it cost him his life. We know he spoke the truth in love because his dying words were like those of Christ. “Lord do not hold this sin against them.” (Acts 7:59).

I felt God saying I need to speak the truth in love – even it costs me the popularity vote. But also that I need to speak the truth in love. Love for Christ and for other needs to be the thing that motivates my speaking the truth.

06 Acts – Keep Growing:

By Richard

Acts 6 reminds us of how we foster growth in the church.

Pastoral leadership focuses on the core task of prayer and ministry of the word (studying and teaching God’s word).

The practical tasks are delegated to other Godly people – leaders in their own right. But, we must note that these people were not just willing volunteers, they were people who were on fire for Jesus.

The result, “The word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7).

Growth is an expected outcomes from Christ-centred ministry.

05 Acts - Miscellaneous Thoughts

By Richard

Gatherings:

If we ready Acts 5: 12, we see the whole church meeting together in Solomon’s Colonnade. The church does have large central gatherings. But, also we read in verse 42 of the same chapter that they also met together from house to house. Both small and the large gathering are important to the early church. perhaps they should be important to us too.

Jealousy:

Acts 5: 17 says that the Sadducees stirred up trouble because they were jealous. It struck me that the bible often suggests that jealousy is the root of much conflict. No firm opinion on this, just something I noted worth looking into.

05 Acts –Ananias and Sapphira

By Richard

The death of Ananias and Sapphira is Acts 5 is quite a wake up call for the church. I’m not sure that many of us would consider lying to the church about the amount of money you had voluntarily decided to give would be considered a grave sin. Yet Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead and the church gets a holy fear for Christ.

It reminds me that truth is such am important thing before God. Jesus came “full of grace and truth” and he wants his followers to be “full of grace and truth”.

04 Acts – Witness

By Richard

In Acts 4 Peter and John are brought before the religious leaders to explain the healing of the crippled man. We read that, “Peter filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8) spoke back to them. Something profound must have happened because the religious leaders note the wisdom and courage of Peter despite his lack of education. We read that they were “astonished.” (v 13)

Later when Peter and John report to the church about the encounter with the Jewish leaders, who were trying to get the church to stop speaking about Jesus, the church prays that God will give them boldness to speak about Jesus. We read that the building in which they were meeting shook and everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit, “And [they] spoke the word of God boldly.” (v31)

Remember back to Acts 1, Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem and they would receive power from God to be his witnesses. Acts 4 provides us with examples of this power at work, helping the early church speak boldly for Jesus in the varied, and sometimes hostile, situations they encounter.

It leaves me wondering whether we need to ask God for more power to speak for him. In a country where so many don’t believe I certainly feel like I need it.

03 Acts - The Prophets

By Richard

Peter says, “All the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken have foretold [the days of Jesus and the birth of the church].” (Acts 3: 24) Prophecy plays a huge part in the biblical narrative. Fulfilled prophecy is one way that we know for sure that Jesus is God and that the bible is true. I find it interesting that Peter claims that every prophet foretold Jesus. There is a lot of prophecy about Jesus to be discovered in the Old Testament.

03 Acts – Jesus at the Centre

By Richard

After the healing of the crippled man crowds gather to stare. Peter and John declare, “Why do you stare at us we if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk…It is in Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given complete healing to him.” (Acts 3: 12 & 16, NIV)

Peter and John made it clear that they had no hidden talent or special holiness. No, it was Jesus that had healed the man. Their part was to simply trust Jesus. Let’s not wait before we are, “good enough” or feel “special” as a follower of Christ. Let’s start asking Jesus to work through us today.

03 Acts - Team Work

By Richard

The NT seems to make it clear that God tends to work best through teams. There is accountability and a confirming work that goes on when there is a plurality of leadership. Paul says in Corinthians that one task of leadership is to test what appears to be the voice of God to see if it is genuine.

In Acts 3 we have the account of the healing of the man who was crippled sine birth. We read that, “Peter looked straight at the [beggar] – as did John.” It hit me that Peter was not working as the lone Apostle. He’s working with a team. There seems to be some kind of confirmation look from John that Jesus truly was telling them to heal the man.

02 and 03 Acts - Repentance

By Richard

I’d never noticed until today that repentance, in the first few chapters of Acts at least, is tied to the death of Jesus. In Acts 2 and Acts 3 Peter reminds the onlookers that a few weeks beforehand it was they that had condemned Jesus, the Messiah, to death and had called for the release of Barabbas a murderer. When Peter says repent he is calling them to turn from their part in the death of the innocent Christ.

I believe our appreciation of repentance and God’s forgiveness will not be complete until we understand that had we been in the crowd we probably would have shouted crucify too. Had we been a Pilate we probably would have caved into the pressure and knowingly condemned an innocent man. Had we been a religious leader we probably would have been envious to the point of killing Jesus. Had we been a friend of Jesus we probably would have run away.

When the bible calls us to repent it’s not just asking us to say sorry for stealing my brother’s Lego when I was 4 years old, but it is asking us to say sorry to Christ for the very real part that we had in his death (even if we live 2000 years after the fact)

02 Acts – the Early Church

By Richard

If we read Acts 2: 42-47 we find that the early church was basically committed to a small number of important things.

I have tried to list them in a contemporary way.

1. Christ-centred teaching
(devoted the Apostles teaching)

2. Caring community
(devoted to the fellowship)

3. Remembering the death and resurrection of Christ
(breaking of bread)

4. Connecting with God in prayer
(devoted to prayer)

5. Proving the faith
(many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the Apostles)

6. Joyful worship
(praising God with glad and sincere hearts)

7. Bringing others to know Jesus
(the Lord added to their number daily those being saved)


They were the church in large (the temple courts) and small-sized groups (in their homes).

02 Acts - Get the Message Out

By Richard

The timing of Jesus death and resurrection is amazing. Not only does it draw a lot of meaning from the Passover, but historically* the Feast of Weeks, beginning with the firstfruits offering, was set the day after the Passover and ended 50 days later with the feast of Pentecost (50 days). The fact that historically these 2 major events on the Jewish calendar ended up close together (50 days apart) meant that annually pilgrims from around the known world would gather in Jerusalem to celebrate both these feasts. (Why travel for months to Jerusalem if you are not going to stay a while?)

We are told that when the Holy Spirit falls there are Jews, and Jewish converts, gathered in Jerusalem from Arabia, Asia, Africa and Europe. The Spirit falls, Peter preaches and 3000 men accept his message and are baptized. These converted pilgrims become the church in Jerusalem. By Acts 8 persecution scatters these new believers back home and we read that the word of Christ spreads with them.

I don’t want to labour the point too much except to say that when we look at the timing of the Passover and Pentecost it does seem as if God engineered it historically so that Christ’s death, resurrection and church beginning 50 days later would happen at a time when the city of Jerusalem was full and many would hear the message and those pilgrims who responded would be available to get the word out to the world.

The planning that God put into getting the Gospel out reminded me that God is at work to get his word out to the world through me.


* Note: The Jews follow a lunar calendar (360 days/year) and so over time the Passover falls at harvest time and not in the spring as it did in AD 33. The first firstfruits offering ever made (if that makes sense), after the people of Israel entered the promised land, was the day after the Passover and the Jews kept set the date for the firstfruits offering to be the day after the Passover. That’s why Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 says that Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection, because Jesus was raised to life on the day that the Jews would have been presenting the firstfruits offering in the temple and he a firstfruits of a harvest of those who will saved from death.

03 Acts - Team Work

By Richard

The NT seems to make it clear that God tends to work best through teams. There is accountability and a confirming work that goes on when there is a plurality of leadership. Paul says in Corinthians that one task of leadership is to test what appears to be the voice of God to see if it is genuine.

In Acts 3 we have the account of the healing of the man who was crippled sine birth. We read that, “Peter looked straight at the [beggar] – as did John.” It hit me that Peter was not working as the lone Apostle. He’s working with a team. There seems to be some kind of confirming look from John that Jesus truly was telling them to heal the man.

01 Acts – The Holy Spirit’s Task

If you read Acts 1, one of the clear tasks of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers for witness. We read, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NIV)

Many believers seek the Holy Spirit for selfish reasons (what I call feel-good-faith). Above all we need to seek the Holy Spirit to help us speak and live lives that are witnesses for Jesus in the world.