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Effects of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts
Reflection about the book of Acts
Reflection about the book of Acts
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The Book of Acts was written to provide a history of the early church. Acts emphasis the importance of the day of Pentecost and being empowered to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Acts sheds light on the ministry gift of the Holy Spirit, which empowers, guides, teaches, and serves as our Counselor. When reading the Book of Acts many of the readers will be enlightened and encouraged by the many miracles that were being performed during this time by the disciples Peter, John, and Paul. The Book of Acts emphasizes the importance of obedience to God’s Word and the transformation that occurs as a result of knowing Christ. There are also many references to those that rejected the truth that the disciples preached about in Jesus Christ. Power, greed, and many other vices of the devil or evidenced in the book of Acts. Acts 1:8 serves as a good summary of the Book of Acts. Acts records the apostles being Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the rest of the surrounding world. The Book of Acts begins with Jesus Holy Spirit appearing to the chosen apostles over a period of forty days and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. Jesus commanded the apostles not to leave Jerusalem and wait on the gift promised by His father. The gift to the apostles was to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then told his apostles you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Peter serves as the leader of the apostles. The first thing ordered was to elect Matthias as the twelfth apostle, replacing the traitor Judas. During the year of Jesus death and resurrection, the disciples all gathered for Pentecost, which ... ... middle of paper ... ...ctions. Peter answered with the Spirit. The power by which the crippled man was healed was that of Jesus of Nazareth. Not only that, but Peter accused the Sanhedrin of responsibility for rejecting and killing Christ. He also noted God’s power in raising Jesus from the dead. Peter’s speech to the Sanhedrin summarizes his other two sermons. Although they were unable to deny the apostolic miracle, the Sanhedrin felt compelled to stop the apostolic preaching. Before the power of God that transformed unschooled, ordinary men into powerful proclaim of the gospel, the Sanhedrin was unable to punish the apostles. This chapter ends with a report of the church’s prayer in gratitude for God’s deliverance of the apostles from the Jewish authorities. God can do amazing things through ordinary people. God can and will do the same through us if we fully submit ourselves to Him.
Acts describes the continued spread of the gospel to new peoples and land. God’s love is not for any one race or ethnic subgroup a love, but for all who will respond to the gospel call.
In the Bible’s New Testaments the book of Acts is of Narrative genre and is also called the Acts of the Apostles. It is written by Luke who happens to be the author of Gospel of Luke. This book tells a story of first Christians. After the death of Jesus (as mention in “Matthew”) as he went to heaven the Christians waited in Jerusalem. After Holy Spirits were sent by God, the first Christians were given the power by them. And they end up telling the people about Jesus. It was the Christians who explained t...
The book of Acts is known as 'the birth of the church'. Acts recounts the story of
The Book of Acts, or sometimes known as The Acts of the Apostles was written between 62 and 70 A.D. To better understand the meaning behind Acts, one should look at the history and what lead to the writing of this book. It was written as a second half of a two part series, with Luke being the first half. Without mentioning himself in either of his writing, it is believed that Luke, a traveling companion of Paul, as mentioned in Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:11, and Philemon verse 24 was the author of both Luke and Acts. We are told that Luke wrote or dedicated both works to Theophilus (meaning a friend of God). Back in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1, Theophilus is also referred to as “most excellent”, which in Greek is Kratistos, to show an expression of honor. The Roman Empire social ladder was divided into four groups; 1) Phelps (common people), 2) Knights (people of affluence, dignity, high social standing) and 3) Senators (highest accolades of government). “Kratistos is the epithet used for Felix, The Roman governor of Judea, found later to describe Theophilus.” It is believed that Theophilus was a Christian convert, a master to a slave/Greek servant named Luke, who also happened to be a doctor. Luke was then made free or given manumission, so with gratitude of Theophilus, he wrote his gospel.
He makes the point that Acts develops the themes of the gospel, one reason for this is because Luke is the first to extend the story of Jesus to the apostles. Luke seems to extend on Marks gospel but in a different way then what Mathew does. Luke seems to focus on Jesus’s disciples, his calling of them, and his teachings to them. It seems that the reason Luke did this was to set up for the new church. However the most convincing reason that shows Luke believed his books ought to be read together is his writings in Luke 1:1-4 and in Acts 1:1-3. This is when in both books Luke gives us an intro stating that Acts is his second book to
Jesus claimed to be the divine Son of God and settled His claims by living a sinless life, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. Jesus’ life was recorded in the four Gospels, and has been historically accurately proven and witnessed by first century writers. Since Jesus is God incarnate, anything opposing his teachings if false, because what He taught was true. The authority of both the Old and New Testaments have been declared. Jesus named the prophets and the canon of the Old Testament. Abel was named the first prophet in Genesis, and Zechariah the last prophet in 2 Chronicles. The Old Testament is referred to as the commands of God in Mark 7:8-9. Jesus made it clear throughout His ministry that His teachings corrections and actions were unchanging from the Old Testament. Jesus affirmed historical disputed stories of the Old Testament. He professes as true the accounts of Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4-5), Noah and the Ark (Matthew 24:39), and many more. Jesus proved the Old Testament and promised the Holy Spirit would inspire the apostles in the preservation of His teaching and writing of the New Testament (John 14:25-26). The apostles displayed the authority of God through the wonders they performed as Jesus and the Prophets did before them. The book of Acts, also proven to be historically accurate record written by first century eyewitness, records the miracles of the
There has been much debate regarding who wrote the book of Acts. Professor Riggs of Auburn Theological Seminary said, “In recent years the tide of opinion has been turning, and is now strongly setting toward a first-century authorship” (Riggs, 38). The early view of the church states Luke is the author of Acts. External evidence agrees with tradition that Luke wrote the book of Acts. The early church fathers, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius, provide evidence that Luke is the author (Lea & Black, 282). The Muratorian Canon (A.D. 190) contains a list of books from the New Testament and lists the author of Acts and the Third Gospel as Luke. There is also internal evidence that points to Luke as the author. In both Luke and Acts, the author uses medical phraseology. In Acts 28:8, the father of Publius was sick with a fever and had a bloody flux. Other instances can be found in Acts 10:10 and 16:16 (Riggs, 41-42). Luke was a physician and that would explain why he used medical terms when writing the book of Acts. Considering the external and internal evidence, Carson and Moo...
1. A significant passage we have gone over in class together is Acts 2: 42-47: Communal Living. In this passage the followers became a community and a church and they were spreading the wealth to help other like Jesus would so that none were marginalized and all were taken care of. The followers devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles and communal life. Everyone would meet up and they would break bread with each other. 2. The author of the Acts of the Apostles is Luke the Evangelist. Luke saw the church and everything that was going on it as the work of the Holy Spirit and that he was enlivening the people to do the things they are doing and working through people such as Paul, John, and others of the Early Church. 3. I see the people actually live as church and the church is changing and becoming more of a community. I see the Holy Spirit in this because it is sort of the main cause of this development of the church be cause he made all of the events leading up to this happen. 4. In this passage I see community of disciples because that is exactly what it became it became a community of followers of Jesus and they had values and lifestyles that differed from the social norm of the times. Community of disciples is defined as a group that devote themselves as followers of Jesus thereby having values and lifestyles that may often be in contrast with society. 5. Having studied this passage, I now realize that the Holy Spirit brought all the people together and because of that they became accepting of each other. One way I see this passage related to church life today is that we all break bread with one another and have no second thought about it when we receive communion together we are not thinking about who that ...
10:28a “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” Now that is eternal security. John continues in John 10:28b and says “neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” The sinner already bought and paid for, is secured in the hand of Jesus at the moment he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Though the sinner did not ask, the Spirit moved right in and sealed Himself as an earnest (down payment) for security.
Campbell, William. Sanger. “The ‘We’ Passages in the Acts of the Apostles: The Narrator as Narrative Character.” Journal of Theological Studies 59, no. 2 (2008): 755-757.
Even without God reaching out specifically for us, nature and the world around us can prove to show man God’s ultimate power and authority. God created humans as the superior being on earth, therefore we have the ability to critically
Jesus’ healing ministry constructed a profound theological statement to Israel, similar to his selection of the twelve apostles and his eating with sinners. God’s promise one day to establish his kingdom and renew his people visible and available in preview to any who witnessed his deeds of the teacher from Nazareth.
First major theme of the book of Acts is the work of the Holy Spirit in the apostles and the early church. Jesus appeared to his disciples and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift, the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3b-5) As they gathered together and prayed in one place, the Holy Spirit came to rest on each of them (2:1-3). The disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit boldly proclaimed God’s word and performed miracles (2:14-42, 3:1-10). Throughout the book, the author focuses on how the Holy Spirt ministers the apostles and the believers in their lives and the community.
Peter stood up and preached to the crowd as a representative of the entire group of the Apostles. We should note that speaking in tongues stopped when Peter began to preach. The Holy Spirit now working through the preaching of Peter and not work against yourself for languages at the same time. There was a noticeable change in Peter. He had courage and boldness that was a complete contrast to his denial of Jesus before being filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter proclaimed the truth without fear. This remarkable sermon had not been prepared before was given spontaneously. However, we could say that was prepared by the previous life of Peter with God and a relationship with Jesus. It flowed spontaneously from that life, and of a mind that thought and believed
The biblical book of Acts is an interpretation of the early discoursing regarding Jesus Christ, the development of the ancient Christian people, and sharing the good news of the Christian message. When Jesus was raise from the dead he went to see his disciples to my understanding, respiring on the disciples and stating, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22, NKJV). On the contrary even though the disciples had obtained the Holy Ghost after Jesus respired on them, my studies revealed that Jesus expressed to the disciples to pause for the satisfying or fulfillment of the Holy Ghost that was in Jerusalem.