Meditate on the words of this great hymn as you prepare to call it a day . . . My Hope is in the Lord — by Norman J. Clayton My hope is in the Lord Who gave Himself for me, And paid the price of all my sin at Calvary. Chorus For me He [...]
8:4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. We see at the beginning of this passage the sovereignty of God on display. The early church had grown and remained in Jerusalem, but in His own time and by the unusual means of persecution, God moved the church out in fulfillment of Acts [...]
In this chapter, I see only one direct application to the local church. Concerning our preaching we should, like Stephen, seek to show the connections between God’s work in the Old Testament and the gospel. In many cases these connections shed light on God’s purposes and strengthen our faith in God. But I do want [...]
As we continue our survey of the New Testament with special application to the local church today, we come to an important chapter in the book of Acts, chapter 6. Acts 6 shows us an instance of the early church dealing with a dispute. This is, of course, instructive for the local church, because disputes [...]
Here we have the first tragic event in the life of the early church: the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. Let’s see what we can glean from this story for application to the local church. Acts 5:1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his [...]
Acts 4 opens with Peter and John arrested and brought before the religious leaders for continuing to preach the risen Christ. Verse 4 notes for us that now the church has grown to 5000, so the rapid growth continues among this first church. Through verse 22, we really just have the story of Peter and [...]
Acts chapter 3 doesn’t really tell us anything about the early church but it tells us much about the early church’s leaders, particularly Peter. What do we see about the early church’s leaders in Acts 3? 1. They were people of prayer. 3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the [...]
What a rich passage this is! We have to slow down here to observe these first golden days of the church. Soon internal and external pressures will challenge the first church, but for now we observe them in their first days of joy. And as we see this first church, we see so much that [...]
ACTS chapter 1 Note: I will be quoting from the ESV in this study but referring to other translations and the Greek text as well. 15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) . . . This is a true gathering of believers, and [...]
Over the last several months our church leadership has been working its way toward presenting a “Mission and Focus” document to the church for approval next Spring. What I have realized in this process is how many real issues there are in understanding what the Bible says about the church. Really, the New Testament from [...]
