Book: Acts

Acts 13: 1-12 underscores the power of the gospel to free individuals from idolatry and superstition, providing hope, truth, and freedom in Christ. It challenges believers to rely on God’s Word and Spirit and stand firm in their faith.

Chapter 12 is the darkest hour for the church, but all is not without hope. God will strengthen and embolden his people as they are made ready to scatter and spread and bring the gospel with them. Their response is one of hope that the God they have seen work in the past will keep them in the future.

Believers are first called Christians in Antioch and there is no better name for them. To follow Jesus means we are transformed and changed in this life for the life to come. We need to be careful how we use this name and if we profess it, ensure in the strength of Christ we live worthy of it.

We learn in Acts 11: 1-19 that in Christ there is no basis for discrimination of any kind. We need to regularly consider Peter’s vision and I’d mean and implications for us today, so that we won’t call any person impure or unclean for the sake of the gospel.

 In Acts 10 v 23b-48 we come to the third part of this story, where we see Peter understand and embrace the meaning of the vision he received from the Lord.  He goes, without question, to the home of Cornelius and through the work of the Holy Spirit sees household salvation.

On first reading it looks like this passage is all about food and what can and can’t be eaten, but it is about so much more.  This passages challenges our own prejudices in evangelism and opens our hearts to see how God moves and works through his world for the sake of the kingdom. Acts 10 v 1-23a continues the great movement of the gospel into all the world.

Through miracles in Lydda and Joppa Peter is being prepared through personal experience of God’s power for greater ministry. This ministry will force him to go beyond his bigoted mind to proclaim the good news to the gentiles, those people despised by the Jews. But Peter must go, and therefore must be prepared, so that he can be obedient to Christ’s command to go into all the world to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

Saul’s conversion is one of the great stories of the Bible, proving to us that once again salvation is God’s initiative and known of us have the right to say who can or cannot be forgiven.  Nor do we have the right to withhold forgiveness if we have known God’s forgiveness. Acts 9 v 19-31 takes us on this next amazing part of God’s story.

Morning worship at Annalong Presbyterian Church. The service is led… read more