Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 4:13-22.  Let’s go!

Acts 4:13 (NIV)
13  When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

On verse 13:  Peter and John did not have any formal education, but they had spent three years with the Word, Jesus Christ.  You don’t need to have a formal education or spectacular worldly credentials to be used by God.  In the end, all you need is to have been with the Word, Jesus Christ.  The more you’ve been with the Word, Jesus Christ, who is wisdom personified, the more He gives you wisdom to live, to do relationships, to pursue God-given dreams and to serve His people.

Acts 4:14 (NIV)
14  But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.

On verse 14:  People can try to argue and criticize, but there isn’t much a person can say in response to a life that is changed for the better.  The most important proof you can give to someone that Jesus is alive is a life transformed for the better because of Jesus.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 4:1-12.  Let’s go!

Acts 4:1-4 (NIV)
1  The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.
2  They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
3  They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
4  But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

On verses 1-4:  The Sadducees were a group that did not believe in the idea of resurrection and were big critics of anyone who preached it (see for example Matthew 22:23, Mark 12:18 and Acts 23:8).  According to Acts 5:17, the high priest and all his associates were members of the Sadducees.   This suggests that the whole priesthood and temple leadership at that time were influenced by the belief that there is no such thing as resurrection.  So when word gets around that Peter and John are proclaiming that in Jesus Christ the dead are resurrected, the priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees all come up to Peter and John and use their authority to put Peter and John in jail.  But instead of curtailing the Christian movement, these actions only seemed to give it more momentum.  The men in the church were now numbering about five thousand, meaning that there conceivably could have been more ten thousand men, women and children professing faith in Jesus by this time.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 3:12-26.  Let’s go! 

Acts 3:12-16 (NIV)
12  When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
13  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
14  You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.
15  You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
16  By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.
 
On verses 12-16:  As Peter speaks to a Jewish audience that has just seen this crippled man healed, notice a few things:
 
–        Instead of taking credit for this healing, Peter credits Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him as giving complete healing to this once crippled man. 
 
–        Notice the words Peter uses to describe Jesus.  Peter calls Jesus a servant of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (v13).  He calls Jesus “the Holy and Righteous One” (v14).  He calls Jesus “the author of life” (v15).  In other words, Peter presents Jesus as the Messiah Israel has been waiting for, the one Israel was made to worship.
 

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 3:1-11.  Let’s go!

Acts 3:1 (NIV)
1  One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer–at three in the afternoon.

On verse 1:  At this point the early church was still comprised entirely of Jewish Christians.  Thus these early Christians would continue the habit of going to the Jewish temple to worship God.  Later on, as more and more non-Jewish (Gentile) people became Christians, the early church would need to tackle the question of whether these Gentile Christians had to follow Jewish customs like going to the temple.  In the meantime, here we see Peter and John going to the temple just like other Jews.  The traditional temple prayer times included 9am, 3pm and sunset.

Acts 3:2 (NIV)
2  Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

On verse 2:  I wonder who put the crippled man at the temple gate called Beautiful every day.  Who put him there?  Whoever it was, I bet it was someone who believed that if there was anywhere in the world that a crippled man should be able to find hope, it’s at the gate of the place where people worshiped God.