Acts
A Special Sign for the Early Church
There were three great Jewish festivals to which every male Jew living within twenty miles of Jerusalem was legally bound to come—the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost was so called because it fell on the fiftieth day, a week of weeks, after the Passover. At …
Paul – A Roman Citizen
Paul traveled to Arabia after his conversion. When he returned to Damascus, he faced opposition, escaped from his enemies, and made a brief visit to Jerusalem. Paul might have skipped this next part if his own personal safety was his main concern. Instead, he told how he had returned to …
Paul’s Determination To Go To Jerusalem
Notice verse 22 where it says that Paul was going to Jerusalem “bound in the spirit†(small “sâ€). This may indicate that this was not a Holy Spirit compulsion, but he was doing it by his own self-will. Some Bible scholars, such as Donald Grey Barnhouse and Joh …
Peter Preaches to Cornelius’ Household
God makes it clear through Peter’s teaching that the Good News of Christ is for everyone (vv. 34-35). We should never allow culture, prejudice, geography, economic situations, or educational levels to keep us from telling others about Christ. In every nation there are people ready to receive …
Commissioned to Witness Everywhere
Luke starts by connecting Luke and Acts (vv. 1-2). At the close of Luke’s Gospel, the believers were in the temple praising God. Acts is the story of what came next. Luke tells what Jesus did and said in His human body; Acts tells what He did and said through His spiritual body, the church …
Paul’s Roman Citizenship On Trial
This passage is not the first time the fanatical Jews tried to prove Paul was breaking the Roman law (refer to Acts 16:19-24 and 17:6-7). They accused him of propagating an illegal religion. Judaism was a recognized religion of the empire, and was given the protection of th …
A Plot to Kill Paul
More than forty Jews banded together under an oath agreeing that they would not eat anything until they had killed Paul (vv. 12-14). This band of zealots were roughly equivalent to the terrorists who threaten us today. They made this plan known to the Sanhedrin and somehow Paul’s nephew …
Paul’s Conversion
In this passage we have the most famous conversion story in history. We have reached a turning point in the Book of Acts. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who was the leading persecutor of Christians, was perhaps the greatest event in Church history after Pentecost. Here we find a man …
Peter Leads The Prayer Meeting
After the Lord Jesus ascended Peter became the recognized leader of the disciples. He was bothered by the empty space left by the treachery and suicide of Judas, and had decided that someone must replace the missing member of the Apostolic ranks. With this mind a prayer meeting w …
Paul and Barnabas Say Farewell to John Mark
So far the order has always been Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:2). It was Barnabas who had set out as the leader of this expedition. But now it is Paul and Barnabas. Paul has assumed the leadership of the expedition; and the lovely thing about Barnabas is that there is no word of complaint from …