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DEATH TO LIFE Paul and Barnabas continue on their journey without John Mark, and they travelled down to Iconium and preached in the synagogue there, and many of the Jews and the Greeks believed. ACTS 14:1. At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went together to the synagogue and preached with such power that many—both Jews and Gentiles—believed. We will read a little further on (vs 21 below) that when Paul returns to Iconium on a later journey he finds that Timothy was one of the first fruits of that original ministry in Iconium, where Timothy lived with his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. (Acts 16:2, 2Tim 3:10) 4. But the Jews who spurned God’s message stirred up distrust among the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas, saying all sorts of evil things about them, but the Lord proved their message was from him by giving them power to do great miracles. But the people were divided. And when Paul and Barnabas learned of a plot to incite a mob of Gentiles, Jews, and Jewish leaders to attack and stone them, they fled

BELIEVING IN AND BELIEVING ON Arriving at Acts Chapter thirteen we find that from this point on, Paul’s missionary journeys become the key feature of the Book of Acts. He was commissioned to do thos buy the leaders in the church at Antioch. Acts 13:1 The congregation in Antioch was blessed with a number of prophets and teachers, such as Barnabas, Simon, (nicknamed Niger the black one), Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch (syntrophos – a step-brother), and Saul. One day as they were all praying and fasting and waiting for guidance, the Holy Spirit spoke to them: "Take Barnabas and Saul and commission them for the work I have called them to do.  Setting off on their appointed mission they sailed first to Cypress where Barnabas was from, and we read earlier in Acts chapter 4 that he had sold some land in Cyprus and given the proceeds to the church in Jerusalem. There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogue and preached. John Mark who went with them as t

INNER RESURRECTION POWER Continuing in the Book of Acts Chapter eleven we see in verse nineteen the great changes to the church in Jerusalem because of the persecution of the church. Acts 11:19 The believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.  That time of persecution prompted an outreach of the Gospel from Jerusalem into the Roman Empire. When some of the Jewish and Gentile disciples travelled to Antioch and began sharing the message of Jesus with the people there the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas, a Hellenist from Cyprus, to Antioch to investigate and provide support. Antioch was a prominent cosmopolitan city in the Roman Empire and a cultural melting pot with a diverse population - and Barnabas the bridge-builder helped in bringing unity between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile believers in Antioch and providing teaching and discipleship to the new converts

REPENTANCE TO LIFE  Acts 11:1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3saying, “You went to be with uncircumcised men and ate with them!” 4But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, Peter then tells them in the next seventeen verses about his visit to Cornelius and the message of God’s reconciliation of the whole world in Christ. I would like to focus on a significant statement made by the Jerusalem Christians in Acts Chapter eleven when they recognised God’s work of salvation for the household of Cornelius through the message of Peter – ‘18When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.’ (NKJV) The Jewish Christian leaders were initially hesitant about including Gentiles in the Christian community as many believed that Gentiles may need to fully con

GOD’S WORK OF RECONCILITION  The Book of Acts continues in Chapter nine describing the growth of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Apostle Peter. Acts 9: 31. Things then began to go peacefully in the churches throughout all of Judea and Samaria. The churches began to grow and multiply, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So the Apostle Peter began to travel throughout the regions roundabout. He miraculously brings healing to a bedridden paralysed man and he then travels to Joppa and raises a woman named Dorcas from the dead. Peter then stayed on at Joppa for many days in the house of Simon the tanner. The ministry of Peter continues into Chapter ten. ACTS 10:1 A Centurion named Cornelius, had a vision in which he saw an angel of God who said to him, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter.  Meanwhile Peter was praying on a rooftop and rece

SOVEREIGN OVER US The book of Acts is officially called the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, but many say that it could be renamed as ‘The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit’, because it was God acting sovereignly through the Holy Spirit in people who had yielded their will to his will for their lives. In Chapter nine we saw the sovereign work of God in changing the entire purpose of Paul’s life and bringing him into the eternal purpose of God. He heard the words of a messenger called Ananias who was told to tell Paul ‘how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake’ (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted the things that befell him as being ordained of God and he aligned his will accordingly, and he saw the will of God being done on earth as it was in Heaven as God reordered him and his world around him.  We read on in a few verses later in Acts chapter nine how Paul straightaway confronts suffering and adversity in the attempts of people to persecute him and take his life. 22. But Saul became stronger and stronger,

PAUL’S JOB DESCRIPTION  Acts 9 :1. Saul continued to terrorize the disciples of the Lord with murderous threats. One day he went to the high priest, saying he wanted letters of authorization he could give to those in the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any followers of Jesus, men or women, he might arrest them and bring them bound as prisoners, to Jerusalem. 3. He set off on his journey, and when he was almost at Damascus, a great light from Heaven shone all around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 5. Saul said ‘Who are you Lord?’ And the Lord said ‘ I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. And it has been hard for you to fight against the prodding of your own conscience.  6. Astonished and shaken up by what had happened to him he said ‘Lord what do you want me to do?’ The Lord said ‘Get up and go into the city and I will tell you what you have to do.’ 7. The men who had been travelling with him stood by, speechless, because they hea

PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH – ACTS 8:26-40 The story of Acts chapter eight concerning Philip’s ministry in Samaria and the account of all the people there receiving the power of the Holy Spirit continues to unfold in a most powerful way. Acts 8:26. The angel of the Lord then spoke to Philip and told him to travel south on the road that goes from Jerusalem down to the desert region of Gaza. When he got there, he saw an Ethiopian man, a eunuch who was a high official of Candace the queen of Ethiopia, and who managed her treasury. He had been to Jerusalem to worship, and He was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading Isaiah the prophet.  29. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join that man sitting in the chariot. Philip went directly to the man and heard him reading out loud from the book of Isaiah. He asked him if he understood what it was that he was reading. The man said ’The only way I can understand this is if somebody explains it to me.’ He asked Philip to come up and sit next to him. The passa

THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER Acts 8:1. Saul fully approved of Stephen’s execution. And then there arose a great persecution against the Jerusalem church, which caused disciples to flee from Jerusalem and be scattered throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria. But the apostles stayed in Jerusalem 2. Some faithful disciples carried Stephen to be buried, and there was much grieving and lamentation over him. 3. But Saul continued to ravage the church, charging into peoples’ houses and dragging men and women off to prison. 4. And those that fled Jerusalem were scattered and began preaching the word everywhere they went. 5. Philip went to the city of Samaria, preaching Christ to the people there, and  everyone in that place listened intently to what Philip said and saw the miracles that occurred through his ministry. 7. Evil spirits, crying out loudly, came out of many people who were oppressed. And many that had been frail and paralyzed and crippled were healed 8. And great joy broke out in that city. 9. There was

THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT  Reading from the last two verses of Chapter 6  Acts 6:14. and certain hostile Jews set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this temple and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face shone like the face of an angel. Acts 7: 1 Then the high priest asked Stephen ‘Is this true?’   In order for Stephen to defend himself he determined to enter into a detailed account of their history, going back to Abraham, from the commencement of their nation then through to the story of Jacobs son Joseph who was beaten up by his brothers and left abandoned and supposed dead. Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave of Pharoah who later made him the governor of the entire region. Joseph brought Jacob and his brothers into Egypt, saving them from the famine which was over the land, and there the twelve t

INSIDERS and OUTSIDERS We finished reading in Acts chapter five with the account of the apostles rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. They continued preaching daily in the temple and proclaiming to all the people this new way of life, which was not just about doing what they were meant to do but about being who they were meant to be. We follow the account of the growth of the emerging church as we come to Chapter six.   ACTS 6:1. It was not long before the number of disciples had greatly increased, and the Hellenists (Greek speaking Jews), developed a grudge against the Hebrews. The Greek widows were being neglected in the common daily provision of food and necessary supplies. Hellenists were the people influenced by ancient Greece with its culture and language and philosophy which all began in the fourth century BC. when Alexander the Great conquered the then known world including Judea.  Many thousands of Jews were scattered all over the Mediterranean coastal areas

FIGHTING AGAINST GOD  We saw in the preceding verses of Acts chapter five how there was such an outpouring of grace and faith through the power of the Holy Spirit working in the church with healings and signs and wonders and the good will of the people in going without, so that they could care for one another’s needs. We also saw how in the example of the judgement upon Ananias and Saphira that there was also great accountability to the Holy Spirit for all that grace and power.  Crowds were streaming in from the Jerusalem suburbs, bringing their sick folk and those oppressed by evil spirits and every one of them was healed … And all of this finally caused an angry reaction from the Jewish religious leaders. Reading on in Acts chapter 5. Acts 5:17. The high priest and the entire Sadducee group became very indignant. They took hold of the apostles and locked them up in jail. 19. However the angel of The Lord opened up the prison doors and set them free and told them to go and stand in the temple and proclaim to

SIGNS OF THE SACRED The phenomenon of the power of gracious giving that occurred in Acts chapter four where they had ‘all things in common’ was a sign that God had poured out great grace and faith upon the people that displayed itself in a love and care for one another in their differing needs. The last verse in Acts chapter four says ‘Joseph, called by the apostles "Barnabas" (which means "Son of Comfort"), a Levite born in Cyprus, sold a field that he owned, brought the money, and made an offering of it to the apostles. This would indicate that he would have kept his house and any necessities for his upkeep and donated the proceeds of selling a field. That intense outpouring of grace lasted for a limited period of time and appears to have not been seen since. These early chapters of Acts show the contest of the mighty activity of the grace and power of the kingdom of God over and against the power of the world. Reading on in Chapter five… ACTS 5:1. But a man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, who connive

ALL THINGS IN COMMON  In the second half of Acts chapter 4 Peter and John were set free from custody by the council of Jewish leaders for preaching in the power of the name of Jesus and miraculously healing the crippled man at the temple. This had caused thousands of people to join themselves to the Church, and the religious and the secular power base of the Jewish leaders was now even more threatened, but they had no option to letting them go because of the fervour of the crowd’s recognition of the power of God.  Reading on in chapter four. Acts 4:23. When they were released, they went back to their friends and told them everything that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When their fellow disciples heard that, they began to speak out with one voice to God. They prayed ‘Lord you are God, who has made the Heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that exists. This is who David was talking about when he said ‘Why do people get into such an uproar and fill their minds with useless ideas?’ World

IF I BE LIFTED UP  In Acts chapter three we saw that Peter and John had prayed for the healing of a well-known crippled man who used to beg daily at the gate of the temple and was now leaping about and praising God. A crowd of onlookers continued to grow with all of them standing about amazed at the miracle that had occurred, and Peter was preaching to the growing crowd about the resurrection of Jesus. Acts 4: 1. While they were still speaking to the people, the priests and the Temple Captain and the Sadducees stormed in. They were offended and worked up that Peter was preaching to the people, and teaching about the resurrection from the dead through Jesus - so they arrested Peter and John and put them in custody until the next day because it was now time for the evening watch in the temple. However, many of the people had already heard the word being preached, and about five thousand people had now become believers (WOW). Then the next morning, the rulers and elders and scribes and Annas the high priest and

HEALING RAIN REVIVAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT   When Peter said on the Day of Pentecost that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was what the prophet Joel was speaking about, he quoted from Joel - ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh (all people). That is what happened. That was the start of the ‘last days’ outpouring, but Peter did not quote what Joel finally said in his prophecy about the end of the last days outpouring of his Spirit. Joel said that a greater outpouring of his Spirit would precede the event of ‘The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.’ The Holy Spirit did not tell Peter to quote that part about the end-time final outpouring because that was not the time of the Lord’s second coming, so there is a gap of time between the first outpouring and the final greater outpouring and we are still living in that time gap. Joel does explain the gap between the two out

TIMES OF REFRESHING IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD  ACTS 3:1. Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service and as they approached the Temple a man was there, who had been lame from birth, and who was carried every day to one of the temple gates called ‘the gate Beautiful’, where he would beg for money from the people who entered the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple he asked them for some money Peter and John looked intently at the man and told him to look back at them. He gave them his full attention because he thought they were about to give him some money.  Then Peter said to him ‘Look, I don’t have any money, but there is something I do have that I am going to give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and start walking. Peter took the man by his right hand and began to lift him up, and straightaway the man’s feet and ankle bones became firm and strong. He stood up and began to walk around then he started leaping

 HEARING GOD SPEAK  Acts 2: 1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place (One hundred and twenty in the upper room). And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3Then there appeared flickering tongues of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Crowds of people were drawn to the noise and commotion of the sound of the wind and the loud yelling of the one hundred and twenty disciples speaking with great passion the works of God in foreign languages that they had never spoken before. Jerusalem was crowded on that day with thousands of Jewish visitors from many regions and nations, as well as the local Jewish population. Those crowds were hearing this message of God in their many various languages. The Bible says There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from ever

  THE END OF THE BEGINNING  The dead body of Jesus was brought back to life in resurrected form when the Spirit of Jesus re-inhabited his entombed body on the Sunday following the Passover Sabbath. Only moments after this a number of people that accompanied Jesus from Paradise on his Heavenward journey also inhabited their recently entombed bodies and made the briefest of appearances to their loved ones. (Matthew 27.52). On the Sunday morning after the Passover Sabbath (Leviticus 23:9) there was another feast that was part of the Passover Feast being celebrated by Israel. This was the wave offering, the waving of the sheaves or bunches of wheat or barley shoots that were the firstfruits of the harvest season. This festive day of the Passover feast was prophetic of Jesus whom the Bible twice declares to be the firstfruits of the resurrection (1Corinthians 15:20,23)- Jesus is the prime sheaf of the wave offering and the other company of people who also rose and appeared to many made up the rest of the sheaf. 

THE RESURRECTION  When Jesus gave up his Spirit to his Father, before he ascended, the Bible says he first descended - in his Spirit - on a mission of great purpose. Below him was a place called Paradise, and next to Paradise was a place called Hades. Jesus had spoken about these places when he told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar. The rich man who lived sumptuously in arrogant self-indulgence all of his life ended up in Hades and Lazarus who lived the life of a humble beggar at the gate of the rich man’s house ended up in Paradise, with Abraham. (Luke 16:19)  Jesus had now descended to these places. Paradise was where there were millions of souls who had been waiting for him from the beginning of time. These had lived their lives on earth in hope, many of them guided by the Commandments through Moses, but many simply by a good conscience. They were locked away from eternity till Jesus would now come to get them. Jesus would also visit Hades the prison of lost hope. The bible says that Jesus